Mmm Whatcha Say?; or, This Blog Kills Fascists

Speaking of pet peeves, another of mine is when people (knowingly or unknowingly) misinterpret song meanings, especially when they then try to use the song for a cause which stands in conflict with the artist's intent.

The best known example of this phenomenon is probably Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." Written as a criticism of the Vietnam War, it has been re-purposed as a generic patriotic anthem, as anyone who has ever seen a fireworks display on the Fourth of July can attest.

I got in a little hometown jam
And so they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says, "Son, if it was up to me."
I go down to see the V.A. man
He said, "Son, don't you understand?"

I had a buddy at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a little girl in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years down the road
Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go

Born in the U.S.A., indeed! A similar situation exists with "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, where a song with a pretty clear anti-military message has been adopted by the flag-waving crowd.

Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Oh, they're red, white, and blue
And when the band plays "Hail to the Chief"
Oh, they point the cannon at you, Lord

It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no Senator's son
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no fortunate one, no

Yeah, some folks inherit star-spangled eyes
Oh, they send you down to war, Lord
And when you ask them, how much should we give?
Oh, they only answer, more, more, more

"Every Breath You Take" by The Police is a favorite at unimaginative wedding receptions, where it is taken as a romantic love song, and not the stalker anthem that it actually is. REM's "Losing My Religion" has nothing to do with religion at all. "Killing an Arab" by The Cure is based on the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, but that hasn't stopped poorly-read people decrying it as in some way racist.

My all-time favorite misinterpreted song is probably "This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie. A lot of you are probably thinking to yourselves, "What, that song we had to learn in kindergarten? Surely you jest!" Others of you, particularly those of you who did not spend your formative years in the United States, might never have heard the song in question. It is one of the quintessential American songs, and if you attended an American public school (and many Sunday Schools) in the past fifty years, you at least know the first verse.

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.

This warm-and-fuzzy ode to Americana continues for several verses. So where is the misinterpretation, you ask? Well, if you know anything about Woody Guthrie, it is probably one of these three things: 1.) he was the father of the American folk revival of the mid-twentieth century, 2.) he was a communist, and 3.) he played a guitar on which he wrote the phrase, "THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS."



Wait, what was that second one? That's right, the man who penned the song that all of us American children had to memorize before we could tie our shoes was a commie. Oddly enough, we were never taught the last few verses.

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
Sign was painted, it said "Private Property"
But on the back side it didn't say nothing
This land was made for you and me

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing"
But on the other side it didn't say nothing
That side was made for you and me

Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking that freedom highway
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me

In the squares of the city, in the shadow of a steeple
By the relief office, I'd seen my people
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

What are your thoughts, especially on the repackaging of left-wing protest songs by right-wing nationalists? (Geez, I've been getting awfully political lately, huh?) Have I missed obvious choices?