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Ayesha's Thought Question of the Weekend
A question of ethics, politics, and music.
So, while shopping this weekend, I found a Clam Chowder CD, and I was just about to purchase it, when I noticed it had the "Ballad of the C.S.S. Hunley" on it. I went 'Feh' and bought something else.
To explain, the "Ballad of the C.S.S. Hunley" is a song praising the crew of the Hunley, a pioneering submarine---and also the Confederacy, whose ship it was, and so on. It's full of lines about defeating the "Yankees", etc. When I heard them in concert, the song slammed me out of my enjoyment of the music because it irritated me so. So, I didn't want to buy the CD, to have that annoyance happen every time I listened to it.
When Tigerlily, Wolf, and I were discussing our purchases and she said she'd bought the CD, I commented as to the above. Then, lying in bed, I was jolted awake by worry that I'd maybe made her feel bad and/or annoyed her. It seemed excessive to get up in the wee small hours (and the pitch darkness) to wake her up to apologize, so I lay abed and thought till I fell asleep again.
After all, why did that song bug me, when a comparable song ("Secord's Warning", which praises a Canadian woman who warned the Canadian forces of an American 'surprise' attack during the Revolutionary War-War of 1812 period, and has a last verse about Canadians standing stalwart against 'Yankee domination') by a comparable group (Tanglefoot, a nifty Canadian band which we were introduced to by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
enegim) has me amusedly singing along? Likely part of it is that those conflicts are won and over in a way that the Civil War is not. I rather doubt the UK is going to attempt a takeover of the US anytime soon, but the issues of economics, culture and ethnicity that underlay the Civil War (not just Black-White relations, but North-South relations) are ones we still struggle with today, in changed but still recognizeable forms. Maybe it's just because I've never heard anyone seriously argue that the US shouldn't've left the UK, but I *have* heard serious arguments that the South was the morally correct side in the Civil War, even to the issue of slavery, that the slaves were better off slaves than Free (and that Blacks in the US today would be better off under White people's control than running our own lives).
(An aside: what do the British and Canadians call what we call our Revolutionary War?)
I should say, probably before this point, that these are *my* reasons for not buying the song. I'm not calling for a boycott or thinking that anyone who bought that particular CD is awful (after all, my favorite redhead bought one). I *like* Clam Chowder, and was all fangirly at Bob Esty at OVFF last year, and intend to find another CD of theirs. This is just my reaction to that particular song, because of who I am. I find myself wondering, though, if my reaction should be as strong as it is, if I missed an opportunity for growth.
Well, Tigerlily bought the CD; I guess I'll borrow it, and see how I feel.
So, while shopping this weekend, I found a Clam Chowder CD, and I was just about to purchase it, when I noticed it had the "Ballad of the C.S.S. Hunley" on it. I went 'Feh' and bought something else.
To explain, the "Ballad of the C.S.S. Hunley" is a song praising the crew of the Hunley, a pioneering submarine---and also the Confederacy, whose ship it was, and so on. It's full of lines about defeating the "Yankees", etc. When I heard them in concert, the song slammed me out of my enjoyment of the music because it irritated me so. So, I didn't want to buy the CD, to have that annoyance happen every time I listened to it.
When Tigerlily, Wolf, and I were discussing our purchases and she said she'd bought the CD, I commented as to the above. Then, lying in bed, I was jolted awake by worry that I'd maybe made her feel bad and/or annoyed her. It seemed excessive to get up in the wee small hours (and the pitch darkness) to wake her up to apologize, so I lay abed and thought till I fell asleep again.
After all, why did that song bug me, when a comparable song ("Secord's Warning", which praises a Canadian woman who warned the Canadian forces of an American 'surprise' attack during the Revolutionary War-War of 1812 period, and has a last verse about Canadians standing stalwart against 'Yankee domination') by a comparable group (Tanglefoot, a nifty Canadian band which we were introduced to by
enegim) has me amusedly singing along? Likely part of it is that those conflicts are won and over in a way that the Civil War is not. I rather doubt the UK is going to attempt a takeover of the US anytime soon, but the issues of economics, culture and ethnicity that underlay the Civil War (not just Black-White relations, but North-South relations) are ones we still struggle with today, in changed but still recognizeable forms. Maybe it's just because I've never heard anyone seriously argue that the US shouldn't've left the UK, but I *have* heard serious arguments that the South was the morally correct side in the Civil War, even to the issue of slavery, that the slaves were better off slaves than Free (and that Blacks in the US today would be better off under White people's control than running our own lives).(An aside: what do the British and Canadians call what we call our Revolutionary War?)
I should say, probably before this point, that these are *my* reasons for not buying the song. I'm not calling for a boycott or thinking that anyone who bought that particular CD is awful (after all, my favorite redhead bought one). I *like* Clam Chowder, and was all fangirly at Bob Esty at OVFF last year, and intend to find another CD of theirs. This is just my reaction to that particular song, because of who I am. I find myself wondering, though, if my reaction should be as strong as it is, if I missed an opportunity for growth.
Well, Tigerlily bought the CD; I guess I'll borrow it, and see how I feel.