Sunday, November 25, 2007

"Fishing"- Richard Shindell

So, as a brief background for this series of posts, I saw my brother and his wife along with the rest of my family for Thanksgiving and we had a small gift exchange. She gave me a mix CD she had made with protest songs on it. I have decided that since I whined here about the lack of protest music I will post the video (assuming I can find it) for every song that is on this mix CD and then keep going as long as I can with more protest music as I can find it. This is my own version of protest music and also political commentary. The title of the post will always be the name of the song and the artist.



Since I know that my sister-in-law and my brother both read this blog at least occasionally, hopefully you both see this post, as I loved that mix and am inspired by both of you do these posts. Thank you.

5 comments:

Fran said...

Protest songs - GREAT!

Tengrain just posted one too, which is worth a watch over at his blog. The band is Le Tigre.

GourmetGoddess said...

Richard Shindell does one of my favorite songs of all time - There Goes Mavis.... he gives a damn good concert!

joshhill1021 said...

Fran- I actually added Le Tigre to my list of songs that I will post.

GG- I like what I have heard of Richard Shindell as well.

Anonymous said...

A Dios, me amigo. Good fishing to you.

And we treat these people as though they're terrorists.

Great theme for a group of posts, BR.

Unknown said...

came across this while looking for discussion about the lyrics to the song "fishing." I was a little surprised to see it considered a 'protest song.' Another site has described it as such:

"The topic of immigration interviews might sound unbearably charged, but the specificity and storytelling flair of the treatment elevate it, and Shindell seems more interested in the character than the subject matter."

I find this much more accurate than referring to it as an emotionally charged protest for imigrant rights.

To call it a protest song ignores the internal conflict of the interogator and the parallels drawn between the current situation and his own childhood memories. In fact, there is no indication the interogation wasn't warranted to begin with.

Regardless, I am glad to see this song being discussed online. This guy is a great songwriter. And I love the giant "fuck you" the immigrant gives with the last verse...very nice.