Musical Agitation (featuring Redgum)

A bit of musical agitation is what I need to face life’s everyday challenges. It’s like taking a cue from the armies of long ago who had war drums, battle cries (or chants) and trumpets to boost their morale. As of now, I’m featuring now-defunct Australian prog-folk rock band, Redgum.

1. A.S.I.O.

Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) is the Land Down Under’s equivalent for our NBI and America’s CIA. There are indeed possible risks in asserting rights to exercise privacy and free political choice amidst state surveillance. Even the premises of one's home doesn't offer a feeling of certain security when one knows somebody's watching him/her. Just a classic case of having Big Brother gone awry.

“Don’t use your phone and don’t use mine
Don’t speak treason, they’re tapping the line…

Break-in, stake out, tell it in code
Everything is legal, anything goes
The nights gettin’ darker and the ill wind blows
Your life’s in a databank at ASIO”

2. Running with the Hurricane

I believe this song came out during a very socially and politically turbulent time for the people of the world: the late 80′s to early 90′s. Cold War was coming to an end as perestroika and glasnost were on the rise while Soviet communism was waning. Freedom movements of every political creed from the left to the right upheave the Third World: Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, and even Southeast Asia (especially the Philippines).

“Mass march, rally in the twilight, heart and soul, a call for peace
If power is blocked through the ballot box
Then we’ll vote in the open streets.

Thunder in the distance, running with the hurricane
Feel the cold winds turning, keep the faith burning
Fire in the Ukraine, dust on the high plains
Thunder in the distance, running with the hurricane”

3. The Long Run

Poverty, unemployment, uncertain job security, war, economic bondage, unequal distribution of wealth… All these are realities in the modern world that we must face as a generation. There will be tough times, but as long as there is always action to innovate, to forge meaningful solidarity within society’s sectors, to create hope for a better future “…it will be alright in the long run.”

“From the shadow of history a convict screams
The shearers curse, the people dream
We’ve taken some right turns
They’ve been the wrong ones…

Troop ships leave and the headlines blaze
Australia remembers happier days
And the faith lives on within the haze
It’ll be all right in the long run

…And the sun streams in with power and might
And you look at your kids in a different light
And you know in your heart as you kiss them goodnight
It’ll be all right in the long run.”

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As this is the first “Musical Agitation” post, there will be more in the future (hopefully). In the meantime, good luck, godspeed, God bless!