Friday 30 October 2009

Brecht Meets Brotzmann Uptown

Towards a dicussion of why things so weird these days and why we have to understand Cardew in the context of the times he lived and worked in.














Here is the Peter Brötzmann Quartet on Polish TV in 1974 performing the music of Hans Eisler which accompanied Bertolt Brecht's poem 'Song Of The United Front'. As you can hear it's not some straight hacked out popular communist standard but an assault on it which in no way diminishes the history of the song and thus the reason for playing it nor the belief that out there music should be conceived of as the preserve of the elite too be enjoyed only by the culturati.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xa75w-vEXk&feature=player_embedded

SONG OF THE UNITED FRONT - Bertolt Brecht
And because a man is human
He'll want to eat, and thanks a lot
But talk can't take the place of meat
or fill an empty pot.

So left, two, three!
So left, two, three!
Comrade, there's a place for you.
Take your stand in the workers united front
For you are a worker too.

And because a man is human
he won't care for a kick in the face.
He doesn't want slaves under him
Or above him a ruling class.

So left, two, three!
So left, two, three!
Comrade, there's a place for you.
Take your stand in the workers united front
For you are a worker too.

And because a worker's a worker
No one else will bring him liberty.
It's nobody's work but the worker' own
To set the worker free.

So left, two, three!
So left, two, three!
Comrade, there's a place for you.
Take your stand in the workers united front
For you are a worker too.


I would counterpose this with this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2bGUeDnqPY

Jimi Hendrix playing / destroying 'The Star Spangled Banner' at Woodstock 1969 and playing the noises of the sound of the Vietnam war as experienced by the Vietnamese.

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