We're deep in it now. The Civil Disobedience Hour is in full effect, finishing up the third show this season.
For the second week in a row we put Chuck D on the air, playing a remix of the classic Public Enemy track 'By The Time I Get to Arizona' -- in 1991, a volatile message to the government of Arizona regarding their decision to deny recognition of a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The state finally passed an initiative in 1992 (but hopefully not just to get a Super Bowl). We followed that 1991 track with a new assault he made on Arizona earlier this year: as Mistachuck, he paraphrases Ronald Reagan in demanding "Mister Somebody, tear down that wall." Check out Chuck D's WBAI show ...ANDYOUDON'TSTOP, live or archived.
Xan started off the set with 'War Is A Crime' by Brooklyn's Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra. Antibalas is currently featured in the Broadway production Fela! which chronicles the life of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti. They're performing a free Fela! concert in Brooklyn this Monday Oct. 4 and you definitely do not want to miss hearing them live.
Speaking of Broadway, the next track we played was a 'Your Revolution' by playwright, poet, performer Sarah Jones. It's a great message to the dark macho and misogynistic corners of hip-hop culture, and was declared 'indecent' by the FCC in 2001 (rescinded in 2003). The piece is an homage to Gil Scott-Heron's seminal 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'.
So we played Gil Scott-Heron's 'H2O Gate Blues', an inspired critique of the Watergate scandal which still seems relevant 36 years after the initial recording. The man is truly the conscience of America, and he has the scars to prove it. He had a new album out earlier this year, the first in 16 years. The title track, which is a cover of a 1985 Smog song, is haunting and reminiscent of the unexpectedly powerful cover of 'Hurt' by Johnny Cash:
No matter how far wrong you've gone
You can always turn around
...
Turn around, turn around, turn around
You may come full circle -- and be new here again
We're all new here. This is why we must be eternally vigilant.
I should also note that we played the version of 'H2O Blues' from 'The Mind of Gil-Scott Heron' (1978). I like it more than the original 'Winter in America' (1974) version. The '78 album also includes the follow-up piece 'We Beg Your Pardon', which starts with the line "We beg your pardon, America... because the pardon you gave wasn't yours to give."
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