The power of music to express ambiguity, complexity and downright contradictory confusion is so great that when the direct expression of simple right and wrong is attempted the results can end up sounding trite and unconvincing. It's not surprising that protest songs get a mixed press.
That said, this typically wonderful Viper release manages to entertain, inform and inflame with a fine range of topics, viewpoints and musical genius.
Personally I found the calls to march (if not to arms) in this collection most compelling where a strong personal experience and real pain were at the heart of things. The MISSISSIPPI SHEIKS "Sales Tax" from 1934, while fascinating as a document of its New Deal times, doesn't have the ring of urgency or deep insight carried by the best examples in the set. Equally, HARRY MCLINTOCK's semi-comic complaint about long-term finance getting precedence while the poor still suffered lacks bite or clear purpose.
No. The very best of the songs here both merit and transcend the "protest" tag. BILLIE HOLIDAY's "Strange Fruit" (written by Lewis Allen) is probably the most chilling indictment of summary justice you'll ever hear. Much recorded, this track is the first and probably rawest attempt. Even if there weren't plenty of other treats, this track would make the CD worth buying all on its own.
If anyone should think that gangsters and hos were some kind of recent phenomenon in powerful black music, they should take a listen to MEMPHIS MINNIE's "Hustlin' Woman Blues" and have good long think. Scary stuff: very strong and very contemporary.
FURRY LEWIS's "Judge Harsh Blues" and BIG BILL BROONZY's "Black, Brown and White" catalogue the mundane and bitter experience of black people in all aspects of a racialist and unreformed US society. Both were very polished entertainers, but both come through with integrity that matches the performance.
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WOODY GUTHRIE's "1913 Massacre" is chronicle of capitalisms brutal subjugation of working class activism - recruiting working men as thugs and victimising children in the process.
Honourable mentions too, for BESSIE SMITH's "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out" – more a despairing observation than a protest, but well worth a place for its recognition that poverty and injustice only really hit home a the personal level, however much they are part of a system that needs changing.
The album also contains a set of very lively songs about the atom bomb and the dangerous potential of amoral science taking on divine power. Opening track "Old Man Atom" by The Sons of the Pioneers starts with a siren that still had me scrabbling around to find what was going wrong after the third play through. Nervous or what? The Golden Gates Quartet song "Atom and Evil" is a much more suave affair. "Atomic Sermon" by BILLY HUGHES AND THE RHYTHM BUCKAROOS has a 1953 Pontiac of a tune, with King of The Hill authenticity. Great stuff.
There is a generous booklet of track details and background commentary that complements the music very well indeed. The Excellent Viper Label at its very best.
www.the-viper-label.co.uk
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