4/28/2023 0 Comments Color war songs![]() But it took the two of them to take a song about violence and storm the charts. ![]() While Marvin Gaye added his own lyrical embellishments to the tune, the anti-Vietnam War protest song “What’s Going On” was actually written by Four Tops singer Obie Benson. “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye didn’t understand what was happening anywhere While the soldiers were free men by 1866 (barely) and were said to be “willing” to carry out their orders, Marley reminds listeners that ultimately, they had little choice. Around 20 percent of the troops who fought the Indian Wars were buffalo soldiers, who notched up 177 conflicts. Native Americans were, understandably, pissed off at the US government for all their broken promises. The mid to late-1800s in the West was a period known as the Indian Wars. Wherever it came from, the name stuck around. It’s not clear why, but the Native Americans dubbed these black regiments “buffalo soldiers.” All we have are theories, like the one that says they thought the men’s hair looked like buffalo fur, or that the soldiers fought so hard that they were revered as much as the buffalo. While all-black troop units served as early as the Revolutionary War, it wasn’t until 1866 that Congress created six African American cavalry units whose main job was to “ control ” or “ subdue ” the Native Americans out West, particularly the Apache and Cree. While Marley doesn’t go much deeper into history than saying these men were told to “win the war for America,” the story of the Buffalo Soldiers is fascinating. Listeners wouldn’t have learned in school about the men “Stolen from Africa/Brought to America/Fighting on arrival/Fighting for survival.” If this isn’t something people are that familiar with today, it was almost completely unknown when Marley sang about it. “ Buffalo Soldier ” told the story of African American cavalry in the 1800s forced to fight Native Americans. While Marley was proudly Jamaican, one of his most famous songs, released after his death, was about a decidedly American incident. “Buffalo Soldier ” by Bob Marley and the Wailers highlighted white America making minorities fight each otherīob Marley only had 36 years on this earth, but in that time he released over a dozen albums, made reggae music mainstream, and brought hope to oppressed people all over the world. Maybe he was worried about a lot more than a few nukes. While Prince was clearly influenced by the fact the “fear of nuclear war was in the air,” the lyrics also give a nod to his Seventh Day Adventist belief in Armageddon. Prince was singing about something very current and very real. But 11 months after Prince released his album, a malfunction in the Soviet Union’s missile attack early warning system brought the world thisclose to ending. Hindsight is 20/20 and it’s easy to think that since no one got nuclear bombed to death then it must not have been that bad. ![]() Pitchfork reminds us that while the 1980s is remembered now as a quirky decade full of terrible hair, terrible fashion, and the terrible New Coke, it was also a time that was “full of dread-bad guys lurked around corners, and the threat of nuclear war hovered over the world’s geopolitic.” The album 1999 was a middle finger in “the face of near-assured annihilation,” and its title track was the biggest F-U of all. As for addressing nuclear war more directly, Prince opines that, “Everybody’s got a bomb/we could all die any day.” From an opening that says it looked like “judgment day” and people were “tryin’ to run from the destruction,” to the realization that “war is all around” and everyone must prepare to fight and die. But when he wrote it in 1982, the artist still known as Prince at that point had something even scarier in mind: nuclear war.īehind the groovy beats are some seriously disturbing lyrics. ![]() If you were old enough to be dancing around to Prince’s megahit “1999” as the Millennium dawned, you probably relate it to New Year’s Eve, partying, and possibly a slight fear of planes falling out of the sky due to Y2K. “1999” by Prince was about dancing in the face of nuclear annihilation Join the JA team and grab a cool t-shirt!Ĭheck out our Jam Addict attire and become a part of the team that has been training drummers and musicians for years!ġ.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |