Lyrically Speaking...

Glenn Beck finally gets it. Well, sort of.

Yes, Glenn Beck just figured out what Born In The USA is about. Word has it he also just figured out that Trampled Under Foot isn’t really about a car.

In a recent tirade, that I still don’t fully get, Glenn Beck apparently believes Bruce Springsteen is portraying himself as an "unAmerican" critic. He may be partly correct. His song is certainly a criticism. But, does that make him "unAmerican"?

Bruce Springsteen does indeed criticize America as he describes the hardships of a man who fights for his country and continues to deal with adversity when he returns back home to the USA, in a nutshell.

However, once again, Beck gets it wrong. “The Boss” is quite the opposite of an unpatriotic fire bomber. Isn’t addressing such issues and expressing the pain of the downtrodden and questioning your government the highest form of patriotism? Springsteen is given a voice to the many veterans who came home a different person to a much different country.

It doesn’t take a lyrical savant to discern the Boss’ message. Even I knew it wasn’t a “hurrah” song per se when the song was popular and I was a wee lad. But, that is what makes it such a poignant song. It is viewed, by some, as being unpatriotic. But, is it really? Springsteen was bringing attention to the plight of the veterans who returned to the states only to face adversity within their own country.

Twenty six years after it was released, Glenn Beck finally gets it (sort of). He always struck me a slow learner. Of course, this is all just a ploy, as almost all political and radio shows are, to paint Springsteen as part of the “wacko left”. Don’t think for a second he didn’t know better already. Even, I, as a clueless 12 year old knew what this song was about when it was originally released. It’s all a work. Even Beck isn’t that out of touch.

Of course, this is nothing new. If people really listened to lyrics and paid attention to the lyrics of the songs they listened to they may have a very different opinion of the song. On second thought, they probably wouldn’t care. I think the success of Lady Gaga is proof positive that people really don’t care about lyrics. A danceable beat, preferably with lyrics that rhyme (even if they don’t make sense) are all most people need. Yet, I digress.

Another artist that has invoked the wrath of Beck and other right wing pundits is yet another misunderstood artist.

In February of 1940, Woody Guthrie wrote This Land is our Land as a response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”.

Just like everything else, people are quick to jump on Guthrie and others like him without knowing what his perspective was. As he hitchhiked across the states, Guthrie, ruffled by Kate Smith’s peppy rendition of “God Bless America”, saw a drastically different American than the oceans white with foam that she crooned about.

Guthrie’s take was more bittersweet than Irving Berlin‘s song. The picturesque redwood forest, golden valley and gulf stream waters give way to ribbons of highway and dust clouds with a hopeful lifting fog. Instead of counting his blessings, Guthrie saw impoverished families living on the sides of the same roads he traveled. He saw ranchers and farmers eking out a living. He witnessed the lingering suspicion of the original Red Scare. He witnessed a country bringing itself out of an economic disaster. Sound familiar?

The uber-patriotic missive of “God Bless America” to a receptive nation sugar coated what Guthrie and many other Americans saw as a much harsher life. Yet, once again, some people miss the point of Guthrie‘s ditty.

“This Land is Your Land” is not only suggesting how our land is for all of us. It takes on something of a cautionary tone as well. Guthrie was also saying this land is yours but it’s also mine. So don’t muck it up. He was saying it is ours not Procter And Gamble’s or the government’s. It’s for you and me. In fact, in 1944, a verse was found that was originally not included in the song which truly seems to encapsulate what Guthrie was saying:

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
This land was made for you and me.

Guthrie also kept out a few less subtle verses from his original song:

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

Guthrie’s songs are still relevant today as more and more of “our land“ is depleted for corporate interests and Mcmansions. Just insert migrant workers, union busters, corrupt bankers and lobbyists. And pundits and critics still don't get it. Some things never change.