It Can Happen Here

Five songs to soundtrack these times we're living in

© Chicago Sun-Times

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re only nineteen days into the new year and already the Nobel prize-grabbing, stubby finger-waving, wannabe dictator has been ruling with a greasy orange fist, kidnapping the president of Venezuela, attempting to boss his way into owning Greenland and sending ICE into Minnesota to torment and harass and murder citizens. On the last one, I’m overjoyed to see the people of Minnesota and St. Paul standing up to the viciousness and wickedness of ICE’s thug tactics. To paraphrase from one of my favorite films, as Kevin says in Home Alone, “This is their city - they have to defend it”. Tiring as it is, the people of the Minneapolis region have been on the forefront, serving as a beacon of light against the evilness of this administration. And if that means throwing water balloons and beating down Nazi so-called influence ‘bros’, then load up the water balloons, extra-frozen and perhaps take a few tips from Home Alone in how to handle thugs. (Again, I really, really like those films. The first two, at least. Though I will defend Home Alone 3. It’s not as bad as some might say. After that one, the others are all garbage.)

Anyway, I’m veering off course here. As someone who’s attended and continues to attend No Kings protests against this administration of goons, sycophants and asswipes, there’s regularly music being played at these protests, from someone’s speakers. And it’s usually the typical choices - the Youngbloods ‘Get Together’, the Rascals ‘People Wanna Be Free’, etc. You get the idea. Good songs, but the music selection could be a bit more diverse. That’s where I come in.

So I’ve decided to put together a playlist of five songs that speak to the current times, even if none of them were written with this day and age in mind. And no, the songwriters or musicians weren’t clairvoyant that we’d have an orange foolius running amok. Just really great artists. And like all great art, it stands the test of time. Unlike whatever crud is being put on stage at the Drumph-Kennedy center. And unlike that crap-fest, you can and should broadcast these songs at your No Kings and anti-fascist rallies, wherever they are in the world.

The Commodores - Rise Up! (early 1970s; available on streaming/numerous albums)

Before they were burning up the charts with their Motown-string of party jams and smooth romantic ballads, The Commodores were a college party band from Tuskegee, Alabama, albeit ones who could get down and get funky; students of the Institute who won the university’s talent contest, and one imagines, put on a great show. The closest we can get to those early days is a group of studio recordings, their first, produced by the legendary Jerry ‘Swamp Dogg’ Williams for Atlantic Records. Wikipedia, that bastion of intelligence, somehow whitewashes their entire pre-Motown career - but Atlantic most definitely released a single of two of the tracks in May of 1969 and they are most definitely awesome - “Keep on Dancing” backed by this flip-side, a righteous anthem to liberate whatever cause is keeping you down. With its grooving beat and simple non-threatening lyrics (‘Rise Up!’) this could, no, SHOULD be an anthem for the No Kings rallies and the movement.

The Stranglers - Something Better Change (United Artists, July 1977)

The Stranglers aren’t exactly the poster boys for left-wing righteous action; when they broke out of the gates in the UK punk explosion of ‘76, they presented a dangerous, veering public persona, full of misogyny and violent imagery. But Hugh Cornwell, JJ Burnel, Jet Black and Dave Greenfield were also incredibly literate, had a nasty sense of humour and weren’t afraid to shock and disturb. A lot of that was just their image, and they did enjoy picking fights with the press. They were also incredibly creative, as a listen of their catalogue from the seventies and eighties proves - the Stranglers didn’t fit into any one musical genre. But if you’re looking for an anthemic song to raise your first to with a very relevant chorus, I’ve got one for you.

Jan and Dean - Love and Hate (Carnival of Sound, Rhino Records)

Now, I’m sure that when you thought of political music, Calfornia’s surf pop duo Jan and Dean aren’t the first images to come to mind. As a longtime J&D fan, they’ve been incredibly underrated for far too long - heck, you draw a direct line from their sixties attitude around to seventies punk bruddas the Ramones, who I’m sure had some of those old Liberty albums in their rekkid collections. Of course, musically they couldn’t have been further apart; Jan Berry was a studio obsessive and a brilliant songwriter and arranger, overseeing the J&D sessions while also performing with partner Dean Torrance, AND studying in medical school. After Jan Berry’s tragic car crash in 1966, he entered a period of convalescent, and through that, began mapping out his next steps. Music was changing by 1967, psychedelia was in, and surf music was out. So, Jan got back into the studio, enlisted the help of his friends and musicians, and put together a group of recordings that are brilliantly out there at times, accessible at other times, introspective and deep while also fun and freewheeling. One of those songs was Love and Hate; in the song, you hear the Love side counter the Hate side. And you can guess which one wins. Hint: it isn’t hate.

The Mothers of Invention - It Can’t Happen Here (from Freak Out!, Verve, 1966)

As anyone who’s flipped through a Frank Zappa biography or listened to one of his many interviews knows, the man didn’t suffer fools. Instead, he debated them on Crossfire and CNN, when the eighties PRC shit started happening. And he always won, because the people on the other side went in probably thinking he was some drugged-out hippie who couldn’t string two words together, which couldn’t be further from the truth (the same thought process largely applied when Dee Snider of Twisted Sister shocked the PRC council when he testified before Congress by not only being able to string words together, but do a damn good job of it.)

When it comes to Zappa records, there’s plenty to choose from. Hundreds, actually. For me, the trifecta is the first three Mothers of Invention albums - Freak Out!, Absolutely Free and We’re Only In It For the Money. Those are the ones that should be mandatory listening in every high school. They’re as sharp, as pointed, as funny and as brilliant as the times they were released in the sixties. In particular, Freak Out! really brings home the relevancy of our current times….so much so you’d have sworn it wasn’t released sixty years ago. I can (and will) pull multiple tracks off the album to point to examples, but let’s stick for this post with this one. Because as we’ve seen, it most certainly CAN happen here. It’s happening right now, and it’s ugly.

Thunderclap Newman - Something In The Air (Track Records, 1969)

Perhaps it’s the uplifting Aquarian Age message that brought the odd trio of Thunderclap Newman success at the tail end of the sixties. But more than a feel good song, it’s one with a strident message, where vocalist Speedy Keen practically pleads - “we have got to get it together now”. I call Thunderclap Newman an odd group because they really were a motley crew of musicians; guitarist Jimmy McCulloch was a whiz-kid teenage sensation, with teen-idol good looks but who could really play. Round-shaped pianist Andy ‘Thunderclap’ Newman brought a sense of fun and quirkiness, seemingly more at home musically with the members of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band than a heavy rock trio. And vocalist Speedy Keen was a former driver to Pete Townshend who could pen a tune (the Who thought so, recording his ‘Armenia City In the Sky’). This trio of misfits, brought together by Townshend, managed to stay as a group long enough to record the brilliant Hollywood Dream album and manage the surprise success of their debut single before disbanding a year later. Fifty plus years later, and it’s a song and a message that’s every bit as relevant as ever. And from what I’m seeing in Minneapolis and the No Kings protests around the globe, there is indeed something in the air.