Music
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So as mentioned already, none of these songs really packs a socialist message but at least most of them are anti-capitalist in some form.
For me it begs the question (and I know all you can do is speculate) – what would people write about in a socialist society? Would there be anything serious to protest against or would it be all party music and songs about broken hearts?Lyrics to our one-time party song (there is sheet music for it in archives, I think)
“The World for the Workers”.
Words & Music by H. J. Neumann
You toilers of the world, arise!
To bravely speed the day,
When all your forces organise
King Capital to slay,
And from the master class you’ll wrest
The Powers of the State,
Which, wielded in your interest,
Your class emancipate.There sounds above the class war din
The battle-cry we use:
Unite! you have a world to win,
Your chains alone to lose.”Your lot in life is darkest gloom;
You sow and others reap.
And want and mis’ry are your doom,
While idlers treasures heap.
Why have they riches, you distress,
Though you all wealth have wrought?
It is because the few possess
The earth, while you have nought.There sounds above the class war din
The battle-cry we use:
Unite! you have a world to win,
Your chains alone to lose.”While you an idle class maintain
For pittances you’ll toil.
To own your products you must gain
Possession of the soil
And of all means the workers need
To found the Commonwealth,
And thus enable all to lead
Full lives of peace and health.There sounds above the class war din
The battle-cry we use:
Unite! you have a world to win,
Your chains alone to lose.”Arise! the message to proclaim,
The message full of cheer:
That Labour’s freedom is your aim,
That brighter days are near.
To men exhausted by the fray,
To women in despair,
To children wanting food and play,
To all the message bearThere sounds above the class war din
The battle-cry we use:
Unite! you have a world to win,
Your chains alone to lose.”Moses Baritz
“[Moses Baritz’s] hatred of Russian Communist trickery and double dealing made him keep valuable information about Engels and his life in Manchester from them, and I hope his material which he was collecting at that time and up to his death can yet be edited and published.”
— Obituary, Western Socialist of May 1938Did anything come of this?
Moses Baritz was a music critic for the Manchester Guardian (as was the brilliant Ernest Newman) and he is recognised as Britain’s first radio “disk jockey” (1924).
Question — Do Party archives contain examples of Moses Baritz’s music criticism?
* * *
Yet another Moses Baritz anecdote, this time supplied by WJC, who was with him on the occasion.
“Moses Baritz wandered off Sydney’s George Street into its snootiest music store (Palings) and was about to be thrown out for touching their grand piano, when he started playing it.
He finished up performing in the front window to a bemused crowd that gathered outside in the street.”
A world socialist society will eliminated border, frontiers and nations-state, but it will not eliminate the particular cultures of the earth, therefore, music will continue being developed in the same way. We are going to continue playing and listening classical music, operas, rocks, jazz, latin jazz, boleros, operas, etc etc. I am a music collector and I have an enormous collection ( crate digger ) of classical, operas, jazz, latin jazz, afrocuban music, and boleros, and I will continue listening the same type of music. Like this one:
Dissecting the Body Politic
Marx, Capital 1, Ch 25, footnote 6 .. .
“Originally, political economy was studied by philosophers such as Hobbes, Locke and Hume; by businessmen and statesmen, like Thomas More, Temple, Sully, De Witt, North, Law, Vanderlint, Cantillon and Franklin; and the theoretical aspects especially were studied, and with the greatest success, by medical men like Petty, Barbon, Mandeville and Quesnay.
Musician Hector Berlioz and, Weimar-playwright before-its-time in 1835, Georg Büchner owe some of their artistic bent to hours spent practicing the fine art of anatomy and human dissection.
(Near-contemporary John Keats operated with the surgeon’s knife at Guy’s Hospital in London, while squeamish medical student Charles Darwin escaped to the tropics on board “The Beagle”.)
Tim Minchin was raised in an extended medical family, like French novelist Gustave Flaubert, whose 1857 “Madame Bovary” was translated into English by Marx’s daughter Eleanor.
As young men, they learnt to stick the knife into a sick body.
‘Lyrics to our one-time party song (there is sheet music for it in archives, I think)
“The World for the Workers”.
Words & Music by H. J. Neumann’Somebody could have a go at doing a modern version of this. Same lyrics to rap, maybe?
(Don’t tell me, somebody already has…)
“I’ve sometimes wondered what music I would select, if I had to go on BBC’s Desert Island Discs. I wonder no longer! My comrades on this forum have given me the complete playlist. Thank you one and all!”
If Desert Island Discs survives into the socialist era, maybe Paula should be its first guest.
Rather than link the song, I’ve put the lyrics down.
Most will have heard the song, the general public, including those who love to sing along with it, probably don’t realise what the song I saying.Going Underground The Jam
Some people might say my life is in a rut
I’m quite happy with what I got
People might say that I should strive for more, but
I’m so happy I can’t see the point
Something’s happening here today
A show of strength with your boy’s brigade
And I’m so happy and you’re so kind
You want more money, of course I don’t mind
To buy nuclear textbooks for atomic crimes
And the public gets what the public wants
But I want nothing this society’s got
I’m going underground (going underground)
Well, if the brass bands play and feet start to pound
Going underground (going underground)
Well, let the boys all sing and let the boys all shout for tomorrow
Some people might get some pleasure out of hate
Me, I’ve enough already on my plate
People might need some tension to relax
Me? I’m too busy dodging between the flak
What you see is what you get
You’ve made your bed, you better lie in it
You choose your leaders and place your trust
As their lies wash you down and their promises rust
You’ll see kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns
And the public wants what the public gets
But I don’t get what this society wants
I’m going underground (going underground)
Well, if the brass bands play and feet start to pound
Going underground (going underground)
So let the boys all sing and let the boys all shout for tomorrow
la-la-la-la
(Oh) la-la-la-la
We talk and we talk until my head explodes
I turn on the news and my body froze
This braying sheep on my TV screen
Make this boy shout, make this boy scream
Going underground
I’m going underground
I’m going underground
I’m going underground
la-la-la-la
(Oh) la-la-la-la
(Oh) la-la-la-la
(Oh) la-la-la-la
Braying sheep on my TV screen
Make this boy shout, make this boy scream
Going underground (going underground)
Well, if the brass bands play and feet start to pound
Going underground (going underground)
Well, let the boys all sing and let the boys all shout
Going underground (going underground)
Well, if the brass bands play and feet go pound-pound-pound
Going underground (going underground)
So let the boys all sing and let the boys all shout for tomorrowI had the strangest dream,I can’t stop dreaming it https://youtu.be/AZU-9TBP2NY
I haven’t completely caught up with this thread, so I apologise if these songs have already been posted.
Peace Train by Yusuf Islam
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