"Smokey’s voice is a pork chop with a little bit of road dirt"
- Art Farquharson
May 5, 2011
Quote by Art Farquharson
Nov 8, 2010
Political Song History
Labels:
labour songs,
political songs,
protest songs,
radical songs
The history of the world is one of revolutions, riots & rebellions. It’s a story of perpetual class war waged by the state, church, landlords & factory owners against the poor. Unlike the history we were force-fed in school, the history of our opposition to being exploited is something we need to work at to remember.
And it’s a hell of a lot more interesting than the school textbooks ever were.
Those books were filled with half-truths strung together by boring academics. Most of what we were made to learn about kings, queens, laws, wars & dates of their battles against each other was forgotten the moment your tests were over. It was ineffably boring because it was not our history.
Meanwhile, the stories of the lives of millions of working people, their struggles & their victories, were buried under the glorified history of the ruling classes. Throughout time, while peasants, workers or indigenous folk were fighting, marching or otherwise kicking over the traces, they were making up songs. Usually, using folk melodies of the day, and altering the words to suit their causes, these were the short and pithy versions of an uprising that may have succeeded, but often did not. They were rarely recorded for posterity, as the symphonies or pop songs of the commercial industry are.
And because they were mostly in the oral tradition, or worse, the singers were rebels who were killed, those songs, which have miraculously survived, are all the more precious.
They have been passed down from generation to generation, or dug out of obscure texts by enthusiasts who recreated the tunes and began singing them again.
However these songs reached our ears, we should cherish them. The reason they were not on the hit parades and are not taught in your university literature or folklore classes is that they are still dangerous. They plant a seed that if nurtured, may just someday accomplish what their progenitors hoped for.
And it’s a hell of a lot more interesting than the school textbooks ever were.
Those books were filled with half-truths strung together by boring academics. Most of what we were made to learn about kings, queens, laws, wars & dates of their battles against each other was forgotten the moment your tests were over. It was ineffably boring because it was not our history.
Meanwhile, the stories of the lives of millions of working people, their struggles & their victories, were buried under the glorified history of the ruling classes. Throughout time, while peasants, workers or indigenous folk were fighting, marching or otherwise kicking over the traces, they were making up songs. Usually, using folk melodies of the day, and altering the words to suit their causes, these were the short and pithy versions of an uprising that may have succeeded, but often did not. They were rarely recorded for posterity, as the symphonies or pop songs of the commercial industry are.
And because they were mostly in the oral tradition, or worse, the singers were rebels who were killed, those songs, which have miraculously survived, are all the more precious.
They have been passed down from generation to generation, or dug out of obscure texts by enthusiasts who recreated the tunes and began singing them again.
However these songs reached our ears, we should cherish them. The reason they were not on the hit parades and are not taught in your university literature or folklore classes is that they are still dangerous. They plant a seed that if nurtured, may just someday accomplish what their progenitors hoped for.
Caveat auditores
Smokey Dymny
All Hallows Eve, 2005 A.D.
May 7, 2010
Oil on the Bayou
Labels:
environment,
lyrics,
music,
protest songs
I'm trying to get a couple of friends to help me record a song about the oil spill.
Then I'll try and make a youtube video for it.
Oil on the Bayou
Goodbye Gulf, we got oil, me oh, my oh
We gotta clean a great big mess on the bayou
My Obam’ he’s the one, me oh, my oh
Said you drill, now they spill on the bayou
Jambalay’, no more fish or filet gumbo
Cause tonight there’s gonna be an oil slick there-o
Pick up birds clean their backs all the day-o
Son of a gun, we gotta big mess on the bayou
B.P. oil, drill too deep in the bay-o,
Said they never have a problem with a drill-o
Big explode, rig is sink to the bottom,
Son of a gun, we gotta big mess, on the bayou.
Jambalay’, no more fish or filet gumbo
Cause tonight there’s gonna be an oil slick there-o
Pick up birds clean their backs all the day-o
Son of a gun, we gotta big mess on the bayou
Son of a gun, we gotta big mess on the bayou
Son of a gun, we gotta big mess on the bayou
Words ©, Smokey, May 1, 2010
Jambalaya by Hank Williams, 1952.
Then I'll try and make a youtube video for it.
Oil on the Bayou
Goodbye Gulf, we got oil, me oh, my oh
We gotta clean a great big mess on the bayou
My Obam’ he’s the one, me oh, my oh
Said you drill, now they spill on the bayou
Jambalay’, no more fish or filet gumbo
Cause tonight there’s gonna be an oil slick there-o
Pick up birds clean their backs all the day-o
Son of a gun, we gotta big mess on the bayou
B.P. oil, drill too deep in the bay-o,
Said they never have a problem with a drill-o
Big explode, rig is sink to the bottom,
Son of a gun, we gotta big mess, on the bayou.
Jambalay’, no more fish or filet gumbo
Cause tonight there’s gonna be an oil slick there-o
Pick up birds clean their backs all the day-o
Son of a gun, we gotta big mess on the bayou
Son of a gun, we gotta big mess on the bayou
Son of a gun, we gotta big mess on the bayou
Words ©, Smokey, May 1, 2010
Jambalaya by Hank Williams, 1952.
Apr 4, 2010
MAY DAY 2010
Labels:
music
Celebrate May Day!
Since 1990 when the IWW celebrated May Day at the Sears Strike on Jarvis St. by spreading the last of Joe Hill's ashes in the breeze and later in the day at Trinity-Bellwoods Parks with anarchists, socialists and other ne'er-do-wells in attendance, we have refused to work on May first except to sing, speechify and quaff ale.
Join us this year at the Free Times Café, 320 College St, 2 west of Spadina, 7 pm.
Musicians appearing this year will be (in alphabetical order) Jon Brooks, Smokey Dymny, Marianne Girard, Bill Heffernan, Glen Hornblast and Linda Saslove.
Excellent food & drink, as always, is provided by Judy Perly's staff. Phone 416-967-1078 for a reservation. CDs prizes, literature, etc. Tickets $5-10 or PWYC.
Mar 6, 2010
Smokey performing May Day ( May 1st)
Labels:
music
Smokey Dymny will be performing at the Free Times Cafe on May 1st 2010.Free Times Cafe
320 College Street
Toronto, ON M5T 1S3
(416) 967-1078
CDs will be sold at the rate of $15 each.
Feb 6, 2010
Smokey Dymny's New Website
This is the new website of Smokey Dymny, Canadian folk musician, union activist and bicycle mechanic. This blog's layout has been designed by Toronto Website Designer Charles Moffat.
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