A bronze medal and 9 points goes to Gil Scott Heron - B Movie (Intro, Poem, Song) (1981)
First impression: 12 minutes? Ok, let’s give this a shot. Intro poem is a little rough if we are in the mood for music. The final 6 minutes are by far the most musical and the most successful.
Later: I’m not usually a fan of spoken word, but this is pretty damn good. It’s a little jarring to realize that this was released in 1981 but still feels highly relevant today. Once the genuine groove gets going it really does get going. The build is great. The repetitiveness could play well to a large crowd. The first half of the track grew on me on multiple listens, so that’s cool too.
“This ain’t really your life, it really ain’t nothing but a movie” is not a great thing for the crowd to chant at a march, I don’t think. But it’s a great song and maybe that would work in the right context. It’s certainly something different and I’ll give the full album a listen.
The silver medal and 10 points goes to Billy Bragg - Which Side Are You On (1984)
First impression: Oh yeah.
Later: A great, widely applicable message. A nice kind of simplicity that makes me think of Bragg standing in the back of a pickup truck belting this one out with his guitar and a single amp. “Which side are you on” does speak nicely to the mood of 2020
Not an original pick by any means, and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else picks it too. But it’s effective because it’s direct and to the point, and I can’t shake the sound of Neil Young laying out the call to action:
What if you knew her
And you found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
The GOLD medal goes to… Hurray for the Riff Raff - Pa’lante (2017)
First impression: Chills. A contender.
Later: Beautiful cinematography. A nice arc that begins with adversity and ends inspiring, so a great category fit. It does suffer a little bit as a song in a playlist. The band and director clearly have something else in mind. More of a short film, so that works well to sit down and watch but it’s less effective on repeat. Still. A great message, and nice tune, and a really good refrain in the final section. Completely new to me, so thanks! I really enjoyed this.
Here’s just the song, which works better for a playlist. The rest of the album is great too.
I might have played myself. I didn’t pick this because I thought 5 other people probably would too. How would this have done? Sort of obvious, but very timely for 2020 and also kicks ass.
