PCC Protest Songs and War the Military Soldiers & the General Public Discussion

This week we’re thinking about protest songs. More specifically, we’re thinking about how songs of different types serve as forms of protest, even when they weren’t originally created toward that purpose. To get into this idea, we’re going to spend time exploring how the context (physical or discursive framing) of a song influences its political meaning, as well as who is hearing a given piece. Finally, we’re going to consider the unique utility of music as protest by also considering how a different medium–theater–was used to similar ends.

1. Choose “Universal Soldier” or “Ohio” and consider it in relation to audience. In 1-2 sentences each, answer:

a. What were two possible audiences for the song when it first circulated?
b. What political work might this song have done specifically for each audience? Specifically, how the song might have impacted their view of the Vietnam War or related issues?

We are going to work on developing skills for reading, analyzing, and evaluating scholarly articles. In one sentence, answer the following in relation to the Lee article:

2.What is the main issue Lee is concerned with?
3. What is Lee’s main question about this issue?
4.What is Lee’s proposed answer?
5.Identify an exact quote from the text in which Lee states this proposed answer.

This proposed answer is Lee’s argumentor thesisfor the article. It is also a hypothesis, that is, he is making an educated guess that this is the case and examining the various song texts to prove or disprove this idea.

Now let’s dig into Lee’s analysis of historical accounts and song texts. Choose one anti-war song (“Talking Vietnam Blues,” “Talking Vietnam Potluck Blues,” “The Big Muddy,” or “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag”) and answer the following questions about it in 1-2 sentences each:

6. How does the song portray the Vietnam War or elements of it
7. How might the song present a counter-dominant view of the war
8. Do you agree or disagree with Lee’s assessment of the song’s political function?

While Lee used his argument to spur his analyses and frame the article, completing his study revealed new information. Answer in 1-2 sentences:

9. At the end of the article, how does Lee return to and adjust his proposed answer into a final statement?

10. What questions or places of ambiguity remain for Lee?

Now let’s turn to the Farmworker’s and Chicano Movements…

11. Drawing on Huerta’s account of the roots of Chicano theater, how does this relate to the impetus or politics of the Black Arts Movement?

a. What strategies are similar?

b. What is distinct?
12. Analyze the lyrics of “Yo Soy Chicano” as a reflection of Chicano identity and political concerns.
a. Who is the speaker of the lyrics and what is their point of view?
b. What are a few key lyrical passages that indicate the speaker’s politics?
c. Why might “La Rielera” been selected as the source material on which this song is based?

13. Compare “We Shall Not Be Moved” by the SNCC Freedom Singers and “No Nos Movera?n” by La Rondalla Amerindia de Atzla?n.
a. What musical similarities and differences are there?
b.What differences do you note in the lyrics (or English translation of the lyrics)?
c.How do these distinctions speak to the cultural milieu of each movement?
14. Think about Vietnam Veterano” in relation to all of the materials in this module.
a. How does this song speak specifically to a Chicano experience of the war?

b. What might be the political value of capturing this narrative? For whom?