Recently Foolish Owl posted the lyrics to Love Me I’m a Liberal. It’s a great song. If you haven’t read the lyrics you should go do that now.
Reading the lyrics to ‘Love Me I’m a Liberal’ made me sad. There was a time in my life I loved Phil Ochs. When I’m Gone was on the short-list of songs I wanted played at my funeral. I still have his live album and it’s wonderful.
But I don’t listen to his music any more, not since I read a biography of his life. Phil Ochs was a great lyricist, but he was also violent and abusive.
Like most music genres political folk is male dominated, and there’s a lot of sexism in it. When the lock-out ended it took me a while to clean out the sexism of Talking Union Blues so I felt comfortable posting it on my blog. The original third verse of Union Maid, is so offensive that it makes me giggle. That doesn’t bother me that much. I either listen to the music in its original form, or (more likely) a recent re-recording that has lyrics I like better. The nice things about folk music is that everyone changes the lyrics up sometimes.
It is regrettable, but understandable, that such sexism was acceptable in political movements in the past. But I can overlook that in a way I can’t overlook men like Phil Ochs sang for freedom and abused the women around them.
It’s particularly political folk music that I have this reaction to. Other forms of art I’m generally less fussy about. I’m not going to stop loving In My Life, because 50% is a conservative estimate of the number of men in the Beatles who were violent and abusive.
But political folk music, at least the stuff I listen to, is music about liberation. Abusing the power society gives you is fundamental incompatible with anyone’s liberation. Just like I wouldn’t be interested in a brilliant interpretation of When I’m Gone, from someone who didn’t mean it. I lost interest in Phil Och’s interpretation of ‘When I’m Gone’ to the extent that he didn’t mean it.
I want to emphasise that my reaction is not one of political purity, but my emotional reaction to the disconnect between the song and what I know of the person who wrote it. I’d be interested in how other people feel.
I haven’t read lots of details about Ochs’ life, but my understanding is that he was at least somewhat mentally unbalanced. This eventually led to his own suicide. I hadn’t heard that he was vicious towards women so much as he had difficulty with people and life in general. I have met his sister and if he was abusive towards women, it is my understanding that she was one of the women who were closest to him. She is still an ardent supporter of Ochs and his music. I guess if she can support him then I don’t feel too bad about doing the same.
As for male domination of political folk, I’m not so sure that’s as true now as it used to be, but the same can be true of other areas of society as well. Women are a major force in folk music including political folk these days. Ani Defranco is one of the most outspoken voices in the folk community, and other women are also singing strongly for political change.
If I have to let go of every male artist who was mean, violent, abusive, or unfaithful, I’ll clear up a lot of space.
I have never come to any definite resolution on this issue. In fact, my lack of resolve on the issue is so bad that I got somehow branded as an eminem fan on another board, which is pretty far from the case. Honest. :/
I even know some feminists who resent the hell out of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, because the artists who worked for her on the project weren’t paid for their work. It’s definitely true that artists set up certain expectations when they take a political stand in their work, and fans feel resentful and let down when they find out how little of that stand the artists took in their day-to-day life. Unfortunately, it’s also true that in our current system, fortune most favors those who exploit others. An artist who wants to be at the top of the heap will learn to exploit if he/she wants fortune, fame, and the very fans who later put the artist under a microscope.
I want to emphasise that my reaction is not one of political purity, but my emotional reaction to the disconnect between the song and what I know of the person who wrote it.
One good reason to ignore People, E!, and the overall celebrity celebration our culture is infected with. I appreciate a work of art quite independently of the artist who made it, whether it’s fine or performing art. I make no effort to know much of anything abut the artist or entertainer. I take the same approach towards athletics.
That’s not to say I approve of criminal or immoral acts by artists and athletes. If they commit them they should be held accountable and pay the penalty. But I otherwise just don’t care about who they are or what otherwise their acts and opinions are. The art is influenced and formed by what the artist is, but once created it stands independent of them, IMO.
I tend not to blame people for not being ahead of their time.
Had Ochs not committed suicide (and I must believe much of his abusive nature had to come from his depression) I’d like to think he’d have learned from the women’s movement and from eloquent women around him, much like Lennon went from penning fairly sexist stuff with the Beatles to doing “Woman is the Nigger of the World” with Yoko.
Eh, I don’t think that depression makes a handy excuse for beating on your loved ones. Reminds me of when Kurt Cobain claimed that he shot narcotics because he had ulcers. Millions of folks with ulcers were probably blinking and saying “WTF ?”