Topical/political songs
I think it was the very early 1970s when I first wrote a song about current events. It was an upbeat “you show ‘em” number I wrote about Muhammad Ali’s return to the ring after being barred from the sport for three years. I have written a few more in the last dozen years or so… Either in protest, or support of different political issues, or just to comment on the world we were living in. Here are some examples.
This one was written just a few months into the pandemic in 2020 when folks were panicking, hoarding, and believing all sorts of Internet nonsense. It was meant to be a lighthearted, rockabilly instruction manual about applying common sense to our common dilemma.
Following the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the ensuing spate of unarmed black men being killed at the hands of the police either by gun or asphyxiation or being thrown around in the back of a van while handcuffed and shackled… I wrote this one just to shout out some condemnation and some hope.
About halfway into the COVID-19 pandemic, we lost the great songwriter John Prine to the virus. At that time, when we were all basically sheltering in place, and waiting for time to pass or a vaccine to arrive, I wrote this song in tribute and memory of Mr. Prine, I attempted to adopt his style and his humor in this “slice of life” song about those days when time stood still.
After the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, I was contacted by an old high school friend, Craig Yoe, and asked if I could write a song speaking out against Congress’s reticence to pass common sense gun control laws. Craig is well known in the field of animation, and offered to make a hand drawn, animated video to accompany the song. Some of Nashville‘s finest studio musicians and singers all came together and donated their services to produce this. It can be found online with the video which was done by a number of well-known artists in the field of animation. Too many performers here to mention.