the self-protest song
With political turmoil (real or imagined) rampant in the news, and the Baby Boomers reaching the age of retirement, there is a vestigial organ of change that has been on my mind lately: the protest song. There are many classic examples that were all written and released within ten years of each other during the 1960’s. You can listen to “The Times They Are A-Changin’” by Dylan, “Volunteers” by Jefferson Airplane, or “For What It’s Worth” by The Buffalo Springfield (which I’m not completely convinced is actually a protest song). All are excellent songs, but it is hard to truly calculate their actual influence on United States policy changes during that time period. The actual impact of the songs isn’t so important. What I want to examine is the effect those songs have on the people who remember those songs as having had a profound effect. A common sentiment that often accompanies the remembrance of the classic protest song is one of anger at authority, often paired with a disillusion that the government has its citizens best interest at heart. For those of us who are the children of Baby Boomers, we never had the luxury of faith in institutions so the nostalgia for protest songs and the act of protesting in general seems quaint to me. Because of that I find it hard to empathize or sympathize with people my age who want to harness (i.e. steal) the momentum of our parents’ generation with their own protests. It seems that nobody told them that in order to actually become a movement you have to have genuine concerns and an attainable goal in mind.
I don’t like the term protest song so much as I don’t find writing a song about how pissed off you are really does much to change peoples’ minds. If you look back at the songs of the 60’s, there are examples of that message, although when I went back and listened, I didn’t find as many that fit that profile as I thought I would. Still, it is clear that culturally, the protest song has come to mean a song where a singer is upset, so they lash out at some outside cause of their anger and pretty much are left with the solution that if that problem didn’t exist than they would be happy. That sounds more like the ingredients of a tantrum than a protest to me. Of course, in my digging, I did manage to stumble upon a wonderful song that actually did kind of encapsulate the way I feel about political figures and why you would have to be insane to want to be one.
“I Don’t Want to be President”, written, I believe in 1980, is a little late to the Vietnam War era party. The song is from the perspective of a man who was put on the path to politics at an early age. Instead of enjoying childhood, the singer was forced to learn the ropes of playing the Washington game. Through the song we hear about how the singer’s career progresses from Congress (House of Reps, it seems) to the Senate and eventually to being elected the President. What’s truly amazing about this song is the chorus:
I don’t want to be President / but I want to help the poor and the helpless people / I don’t want to be President / but if I’m elected I promise to be faithful
The chorus is first introduced as a scripted read, which is intended to be used to show his promise as a candidate and get the trust of voters. This gets repeated and it becomes unclear whether or not the singer is starting to believe in the line he spits out to people or not. Eventually it is revealed that the chorus is really only a half truth, perhaps. In the final version of the chorus, however, the line gets changed a little to “I don’t want to be President / I really don’t want to be President”. Chapin’s voice is suddenly quiet during this moment of the song and the child who got pushed into political life comes out again. While he was dedicated to helping the American people, you can sense that it was never really of his own volition and that the election feels more like a punishment than a reward.
I consider this to be a real protest song. Instead of protesting for social change, Chapin’s character is protesting against becoming a symbol for that change. Having been forced into his position by family/society pressure, the elected President was never able to figure out his own interests. Maybe the most interesting point made is that protesting isn’t really about making a loud noise in order to force other people to change, it’s about being listened to so that people don’t force their weight on you. Unfortunately for Chapin, I’m not sure that that’s a lesson the Baby Boomers or their offspring ever learned.
I don’t like the term protest song so much as I don’t find writing a song about how pissed off you are really does much to change peoples’ minds. If you look back at the songs of the 60’s, there are examples of that message, although when I went back and listened, I didn’t find as many that fit that profile as I thought I would. Still, it is clear that culturally, the protest song has come to mean a song where a singer is upset, so they lash out at some outside cause of their anger and pretty much are left with the solution that if that problem didn’t exist than they would be happy. That sounds more like the ingredients of a tantrum than a protest to me. Of course, in my digging, I did manage to stumble upon a wonderful song that actually did kind of encapsulate the way I feel about political figures and why you would have to be insane to want to be one.
“I Don’t Want to be President”, written, I believe in 1980, is a little late to the Vietnam War era party. The song is from the perspective of a man who was put on the path to politics at an early age. Instead of enjoying childhood, the singer was forced to learn the ropes of playing the Washington game. Through the song we hear about how the singer’s career progresses from Congress (House of Reps, it seems) to the Senate and eventually to being elected the President. What’s truly amazing about this song is the chorus:
I don’t want to be President / but I want to help the poor and the helpless people / I don’t want to be President / but if I’m elected I promise to be faithful
The chorus is first introduced as a scripted read, which is intended to be used to show his promise as a candidate and get the trust of voters. This gets repeated and it becomes unclear whether or not the singer is starting to believe in the line he spits out to people or not. Eventually it is revealed that the chorus is really only a half truth, perhaps. In the final version of the chorus, however, the line gets changed a little to “I don’t want to be President / I really don’t want to be President”. Chapin’s voice is suddenly quiet during this moment of the song and the child who got pushed into political life comes out again. While he was dedicated to helping the American people, you can sense that it was never really of his own volition and that the election feels more like a punishment than a reward.
I consider this to be a real protest song. Instead of protesting for social change, Chapin’s character is protesting against becoming a symbol for that change. Having been forced into his position by family/society pressure, the elected President was never able to figure out his own interests. Maybe the most interesting point made is that protesting isn’t really about making a loud noise in order to force other people to change, it’s about being listened to so that people don’t force their weight on you. Unfortunately for Chapin, I’m not sure that that’s a lesson the Baby Boomers or their offspring ever learned.
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