Music As A Reflection Of Mindset
A Geezer’s Notebook, By Jim Foster
I may have to go into hiding after this one!
This is far from a scholarly study of American values and why their people are as military minded as they appear to be. Part of it comes from their music.
I’m not sure what triggered this foray into what I think is their national mindset, Jimmy Carter’s funeral perhaps and the inspirational Hail to the Chief as the hearse was leaving the church. So much of their music, and movies too, glorify the military. Their war movies are a bit too Hollywood for us. I believe there were other countries involved in WW2. I’m not sure I will have to check on that.
This love of country is drilled into them almost from birth. The Pledge of Allegiance starts every day at school. I wasn’t sure about that so I looked it up and it does. According to a 2019 survey National Center of Education Statistic 98% of all American schools start the day with the pledge, no doubt with their right hands over their hearts. I guess there is nothing wrong with that, but they go too far. They can’t even go to the bathroom without someone singing the National Anthem.
Canadians not so much. When we old geezers went to school, the day started with God Save the King (or Queen depending how old you are now) and we sang it. In the mid 40s we lined up outside and marched in to the school to stirring military music. Don’t forget that was not too many years after the Second World War. In Orillia we had compulsory cadets well into the 50s.
We have a few patriotic songs, not many really, but we don’t hear them much anymore, if we ever did. The Maple Leaf Forever is one, Can-a-da written for the Centennial by Bobby Gimby is another (it is perhaps, the worst song ever written).
Even our National Anthem doesn’t put the fear of the Lord into anybody. We stand on guard for thee is all very nice but it won’t scare anyone. I think there should be a line in there saying, we stand on guard for thee, BUT cross us, you son of a b—h, and we will march over and beat the crap out of you. (I’m not sure where that will fit into the actual anthem, maybe after true patriot love and before in all of us command which was changed from sons’ command and no one I know ever sings the new version.) There is also a line in there about glowing hearts; perhaps a threat to rip an enemy’s glowing heart out of his chest would fit in there somewhere. I may have to rethink that. There is no sense getting into a brawl at the start of a Leaf game – especially if the game is in Madison Square Garden.
Every country has its war songs, Britain has a ton of them. Vera Lynn sang the wonderful, White Cliffs of Dover a song that quite frankly ruined my life. When she sang, and Jimmy will go to sleep in his own little room again, all the kids in Grade One at Duke of Connaught Public School turned and smirked at me. When you are smirked at six years old, you never recover.To this day whenever I hear that song I blush and look around to see who is giggling at me.
But back to the Americans – for the First World War, George M. Cohan wrote Over There, and Yank my Doodle, it’s a Dandy, Irving Berlin wrote God Bless America and many others. But it isn’t just war songs, there are hundreds of others written about America. Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your land extolling the nation’s wonders is one, with its gulf stream waters, the majestic mountains, the redwood forests, from California to the New York Island glorifies the United States. It is a tribute to a great country, that’s true, but it was also a protest song and no one seems to remember that. In 1944 Woody wrote two more verses.
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
The sign was painted, said Private Property
But on the backside, it didn’t say nothing
This land was made for you and me
One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the relief office I saw my people.
As they stood hungry
I stood there wondering if God blessed America for me.
The enmity between the two U. S. political parties is absolute insanity and is one of the major causes of the nation’s unrest. Of course, being Americans, the evangelical churches have to have their holy noses in there.
One of their greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln said, ‘A nation divided against itself cannot stand,’ and by God, they sure are divided.
The U.S. is our ally and our best friend (although that is questionable at the moment). What was once touted to be the greatest country in the world is, at best, a troubled nation. Some American composer is sitting at the piano right now writing another song about the United States, not an uplifting praise of a great nation, but I fear, a funeral dirge.
(Image Supplied)
