LYRICS:
The mayor hides the crime rate
council woman hesitates
Public gets irate but forget the vote date
Weatherman complaining, predicted sun, it's raining
Everyone's protesting, boyfriend keeps suggesting
you're not like all of the rest.
Garbage ain't collected, women ain't protected
Politicians using people, they've been abusing
The mafia's getting bigger, like pollution in the river
And you tell me that this is where it's at.
Woke up this moming with an ache in my head
Splashed on my clothes as I spilled out of bed
Opened the window to listen to the news
But all I heard was the Establishment's Blues.
Gun sales are soaring, housewives find life boring
Divorce the only answer smoking causes cancer
This system's gonna fall soon, to an angry young tune
And that's a concrete cold fact.
The pope digs population, freedom from taxation
Teeny Bops are up tight, drinking at a stoplight
Miniskirt is flirting I can't stop so I'm hurting
Spinster sells her hopeless chest.
Adultery plays the kitchen, bigot cops non-fiction
The little man gets shafted, sons and monies drafted
Living by a time piece, new war in the far east.
Can you pass the Rorschach test?
Today I chose to present the song "Establishment blues" by Sixto Rodriguez,
because I feel like the lyrics denounce very clearly the corruption and social inequalities that our society is facing.
First of all, Sixto Rodriguez is an american folk musician from Detroit, Michigan. Even though his origins are mexican he has the american nationality. His music was completely unknown in America for years he published two albums during his life. the first one named cold fact was releaved in 1970 but was a complete slop. Indeed the disk was only sold less than a hundred copies. However the album managed t to arrived in south africa which was at the time an isoleted suffering from a severe dictatorship, the apartheid. 5 years later his album knows a great success in Africa and was solded to more than 50.000 copies.
As a matter of fact South Africans who were victims of the apartheid which
was a racist or ethnic separation discovered the right of freedom of expression.
Indeed, Thanks to this album that deals with several topics such as
freedom and human rights, A conflict started. People started to believe that it was normal to have a free opinion and be against their own society. A documentary about the life of the author
is even create: Searching for Sugar Man. This man sold more album than Elvis Presley in Africa. Sixto
Rodriguez were obviously censored by the regime for his words very liberator,
revolutionary, committed and caused a movement of mass to the African who finds
the courage to revolt in the music itself.Nevertheless pirate radios find the way to continue to broadcast
its songs. The one that I have chosen : blues established. can be
considered as the hymn for the opposition to this apartheid. Nevertheless, the
life of the artist remains unknown for the African which realize after a while
that they have none information about him.. This is when the rumors begin some people say that he died
however several people start making some research about him and try to contact
him. The most touching for me is the fact that the author was not aware of his
success and that it is several years later that he learns that his songs are
contributed to liberate South africa. He will then travel several times to Africa, where he will know a hit, at this moment he started to be famous all around the world.So i chose Establishement blues because the lyrics denonces a corrupted society, social inequalities and that this song is sort a way for the africans to revolt against injustice all around us even nowadays. As the first sentence said : « the mayor hides the crime rate »which proves that no one says anything, and everything is hidden. « Public gets irate goal forget the voting day » Saying that people complain but do not react, they doesn’t do anything to change things. Everyone protests, made suggestion but do not act. women are not protected, thus showing thepart of social inequalities between women and men. "Politicians using people, They've been Abusing, The mafia's getting bigger, like pollution in the river "The politicians lies, and use week people while others enrich, the pollution also is not a preocupation for these politicians who think only in money. In the following verse, Rodriguez uses this verse to talk a little about his case since emploit the pronoun "I", nevertheless it is not his battle is also one of a billion other people. The fight for freedom. Then the next ennonce more social problems such as the fact that the only solution is to get a divorce, or that smoking causes cancer, so that weapons are sold. The man has become selfish, he lost the sense of values, the weapons are more important than the love he
no longer tries to build there to fight. He quickly abandoned. Nevertheless the sentence: "This system's gonna fall soon, to an angry young tune" which is an afirmation, invite the young to rebel,to fight in other to destrocked the regime, to transform this anger in an action. the second who deals with the prostitution, the abuse of alcoohol which are unfortunately recurring themes in our society, these themes will be the consequence of all these inequalities, the lack of hope from the people, who no longer believes in anything. And the last deals with the war (far east) or the Rorschach test Who is a Psychological test. Some Psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality and emotional fonctionnement Characteristics. It is always a recurrent subject of several critical that we see.
So I really liked
this song apart from the fact that the musicality immediately pleased but also
for the message it sends. This is a song that succeeded to reunite several
themes, which is very general and not only fixed on a subject and to me it gives
a lot of hope. The
evidence is that the South Africans were inspired to protest. On the other hand
it is not only the words that give strength to the people but also the message
that anyone can interpret that is that we all have the right to be free, are equal
and change in this world begins with the youth that must fight to change things
as did those before This song can be related with the notion locations and form
of power because it proves the power of music in the world, which can really
help people, give them hope and somehow contribute to change. Music is a very
powerful form of power.
