"The main theme I keep coming back to is terrorism." -- David Rovics
Need mood music to go with pepper spray? David Rovics is likely one of the most stridently political folk performers in America today; certainly he is the most visible political songwriter that I know of. Hang A Flag is his sixth album; a review of his last album, Living In these Times (2001) is posted on my Web site. Accompanied only by his guitar and the lovely backing vocals of Allie Rosenblatt, Rovics sings a barrage of melodic songs from the Left for the multi-terrorism of Post-Amerika.
The first song, "The Next Attack Is Coming," sets the pace for Hang A Flag "The next attack is coming, says Cheney to his men, And if it doesn't come, we can make one happen again." Rovics writes darkly witty songs about the Earth Liberation Front, with lyrics like "There's nothing so lovely as a Wal-Mart on fire!" and about Coca-Cola in Colombia, which inspires: "Coke Is the Drink of the Death Squads". In another song, "One Night In Greece," a Greek national rips the huge American flag off a huge yacht with his teeth. A pirate radio song suggests we "take back the airways" and instruct us to "fucc the FCC," that magic word making it tragically unplayable on American radio!
On a more simply shadowed note, "Ballad Of A Cluster Bomb," tells of a cluster bomb that lands in a farmer's field and explodes years later when two children find it. But to my mind, the best track is "In One World," two parallel tales about the Arab-Israeli conflict. An Iraqi flees Baghdad for Israel, an Arab family is forced to flee Haifa for a refugee camp. So many years later they meet, one now living in the house the other was forced to flee:
"So much resentment, so much at stake
And I really don't remember who was the first to say
In one world
In one village
In one home
Let us live together"
David Rovics, however, gives his vote to "We Are Everywhere" as the most important song. Just people, compassionate people, not too much to ask, but we have made ourselves so much more separate than Rovics song suggests.
Find David Rovics behind the barricades. In some countries you can't write music like this without being shot! So hang a flag in your window.
