Waiting for Lefty

Play written by Clifford Odets

Essentially, politics is socializing with the goal of organizing. That certainly runs the gamut from the building the pyramids through waging war and on into bureaucracy. In some ways, it could not be more anathema to art, especially those forms created by individuals. Surely, politics is no less worthy a subject than any other, but art always starts with a point of view. For this reason, art always arrives after the boundaries of the discussion (the socializing, if you will) have already been defined. Art can certainly help organize (consider political posters), but they are evoking an emotional response in support of a political goal. Basically, here is what we believe and we should feel good about it. Yep- politics is about manipulation and art is another available tool.

Few dramatists have been as intertwined with politics as Odets. Generally, politics are of the moment and creating art that comments on current events leads to lost relevance as time passes. Universality is the solution. Shakespeare pointed the way, finding emotions and situations in historical events and well-known tales that could speak to common experience. We don’t “get” his political commentary any more than we get it from the Bible or Charles Dickens. We might hand wave at their place on the spectrum of social justice, but it doesn’t speak to us with anything near the original feeling of the creating artist.

So, it is strange to read Odets more than eight decades down the road and sense an unfortunate prescience. Truly, the first thing that struck me was his quality as a writer. For some reason, that always seems to fall by the wayside, but I have now revisited a number of artists that brought me youthful pleasure and been a bit disappointed. Odets could weave a dramatic story that I once again wanted to see through to the end.

Any look at history

demonstrates the weave of political strains as conservative and liberal ideas ebb and flow. The pattern includes long and short waves, localized and widespread. It does seem you can count on whatever appears popular now will lose favor soon enough before returning under a slightly different guise.

Odets was associated with communism and socialism, though the labels quickly became pejorative within his lifetime. He testified before HUAC during the witch hunts, naming names that he believed the committee already had. His earliest and best known plays raise numerous ideas about the plight of families struggling to make it within the bounds of American capitalism. Inevitably, he portrays tragedy met with stoicism.

Frankly, he comes across as sympathetic to those struggling to make ends meet or get ahead. He respects their intelligence enough to grant his characters the ability to wonder where their own best interests may lie as well as the best way forward for their community.

As I said, what goes around, comes around and we find ourselves living in a world where Odets feels relevant again. The blessing of his writing may be that he succeeds without pointing at specific solutions. I don’t recall Shakespeare having a lot of answers that didn’t involve death or a laugh, so I’m not going to start holding that against an artist.

What’s it all about?

You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 100 more to go.

New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out release regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry post irregularly. Receive notifications on Facebook by friending or following Craig.

Images may be subject to copyright.

Gulf War Song

Song written and performed by Moxy Früvous

Canada was Neil Young and William Shatner. What else could it be?

So, I got in a car with two friends and we drove from Boston to Montreal because that was what you could do when you had a car available and some time on your hands. Among other things, we wandered around the old city at night. I was looking for some true North music, which I assumed meant the Guess Who or Rush. Instead, we found a large club with a solo artist sitting on a stool on a raised platform and singing in French. “Ah, so this is authentic Canadian music,” I thought to myself.

A few years later, I spent some months in southern Ontario going to school. Desperate for any entertainment, I went with friends to the local county/state/province fair. I was told that we would be staying for the concert. So, we explored a little and then joined other young people packing the racetrack stands.

Soon enough, four guys came out dressed outlandishly- kind of like pirates with a foreshadowing of 80’s dance wear. Their instruments included an accordion, a guitar, and a drum kit that would have made the Stray Cats wonder what happened to the rest of it. They also sang tremendously well. Their songs were witty and… “Ah, so this is authentic Canadian music,” I thought to myself.

I wanted

to bring home some memories, so I bought their cassette tape. After all, that’s what you could play in the car. I had expectations- they had done a cover of the Spider-man cartoon theme from the Sixties. What I did not expect was how fantastic all of it was. The humor included some social commentary, so you knew they were absorbing the world around them.

Then, the final song arrived. I don’t remember if they performed it at the fairgrounds, but I did see them perform it on television once.

I was six years old on May 4, 1970, and 40 miles from Kent, Ohio. My questions had to wait until I knew enough to form them. Though, I heard that song long before that- another song that came from a Canadian.

Realistically, a protest song wrapped in a package from Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young is not much of a surprise. The brilliance of it feels like a given. But listening to Video Bargainville, you know these guys are good, perhaps even great. I still have King of Spain on rotation for wake-up songs, but… the Gulf War Song is another level entirely.

Moxy signed with a bigger label and toured the United States- even played a big concert near my home. They dissolved soon thereafter. I’m not at all sure what this says about being an artist in the shadow of the biggest market on the planet- not even sure it comments on anything more than artistic ambition.

By the way, I am older and wiser now. I know that real authentic Canadian music is by Dolores Claman.

What’s it all about?

You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 101 more to go.

New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out release regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry post irregularly. Receive notifications on Facebook by friending or following Craig.

Images may be subject to copyright.