MUSIC AND SOCIAL CONSCIENCE.

My father worked with a woman whose son had a Bruce Springsteen cassette that he played one night when we were at their place and as they were right-wingers, I’m amazed that his parents let him have the cassette. As someone said, if you claim to like Bruce Springsteen but support Trump, you don’t really support Bruce Springsteen, because he sings about the working class.

This same woman had an Elvis Presley album that she wanted my father to record onto a cassette for her, and the first song on it was “In The Ghetto.” If you listen to the lyrics of the song, it’s a baby boy born into poverty in Chicago (there’s no information about how he was conceived) and his education for want of a better word is on the streets when he learns that you have to fight for what you need. He tries to escape, but he is shot dead, presumably by the police.

Bruce Springsteen and for some time, Elvis Presley, are not the only artists to have a social conscience, if you listen to Bon Jovi’s music, you’ll find a lot of it deals with themes of cruelty, inequality and the battles of the working class. His song, Living On a Prayer, is about a blue-collar worker who lost his job during a strike and his wife is standing by him even though it’s hard. Also, his song, I’m Alive is about street kids who’ve had abusive home lives who are trying to survive on the streets.

All three of these artists are American, and with the attacks on them and Taylor Swift by the incumbent arsehole, he is demonstrating not just a lack of social conscience but an arrogance that is despicable. He doesn’t like them because they’re singing about the people who he is attacking. Trump’s tariffs have affected the dock workers.

They say that when you’re happy, you listen to the tune, but when you’re sad you listen to the lyrics. Even if you’re happy, try listening to the lyrics, you might develop your own social conscience.