songs for hard times
Posted by rflacks on:
Thursdays at 6 pacific time is when I have my weekly radio show on the campus station, KCSB (91.9fm). It's called CULTURE OF PROTEST. I've been doing this for 27 years. It's very much a music show, based on my collection of political, socially conscious recordings (in fact, doing this program has been a great excuse for buying stuff!) Each week we organize the hour around a theme. In the past few weeks for example, we've done programs on Hiroshima, the Woodstock anniversary, Labor day and Paul Robeson and the 60th anniversary of the Peekskill riots. For the last few months I've been trying to collect as many songs as I can that speak about 'hard times': songs from the 1930s (and before) and songs being released now in our current hard times--and there are quite a few artists of many genres consciously making such songs, many deliberately connecting with the great depression and the current situation. So this Thursday, we'll do one of a series of shows with this kind of material. There's something deeply evocative about hearing songs from decades ago that ring true in our time--songs that describe the experiences of those who are jobless or scared about that, songs about Wall Street, greedy bankers, songs about getting together to cope and to fight back. And I'll bet you'll find the new songs by artists known and unknown to be surprising and maybe inspiring.
I hope you'll tune in. We stream on line at www.kcsb.org, at 6-7 pm PST. And I've just started to post the play list (a day or so after the show airs) at http://kcsb.radioactivity.fm (click on the date of the program your interested in getting a play list for).
If you've any suggestions for 'hard times' songs use the comment space below!
0 Comments