[For this year’s
Valentine’s
Day series, I wanted to share and briefly discuss a handful of my favorite
songs, leading up to a special weekend post on a legendary singer/songwriter on
whom my perspective has significantly and happily evolved. I’d love to hear
about your favorite songs or artists in comments!]
On a favorite song
that gets inside one of our darkest histories.
I’ve written
about the lynching
epidemic many times in this space, including in this
tribute to the epidemic’s most inspiring opponent, Ida
B. Wells. Despite the efforts of Wells and many others, I believe that we
still have precious few collective memories or representations of this
century-long, hugely pervasive and destructive national history. Hopefully that
will change somewhat with the April 2018 opening of the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Lynching Memorial,
which promises to become immediately one of our most important public spaces. But
as I’ve consistently argued in this space, cultural texts and artists have just
as central in role as museums/memorials (or any other influence) in helping
shape our collective memories and conversations.
Billie Holiday’s
“Strange Fruit” (1939)
seems unlikely ever to be topped as the single best song about lynching. But I’m
also a very big fan of Steve
Earle’s “Taneytown” (1997), which tells a profoundly personal story of one
young African American man and how his quiet, private life intersects with
communal histories of place, race, and lynching. I won’t say any more than that
about the song’s content here, and will just add that Earle weds those stories
and themes to a driving, potent melody and sound which propel his narrator/protagonist
and his audience alike towards the song’s stunning conclusion.
Next favorite
song tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Favorite songs or artists you’d share?
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