“I think there are shades of political songs; some are more subtle and can be more effective for being subtle, for being more metaphorical. I’ve written a lot of songs like that, where it’s not really clear if it’s a war song or a relationship song. The metaphor can be the most powerful thing of all, but sometimes you have to speak more clearly to more people, and I think this is one of those times.”       –Richard Thompson, Interview with the AV Club, 2007

Dad’s in a bad mood, Dad’s got the blues

In the previous post, we listened to Richard Thompson‘s artfully crafted and powerful “Guns are the Tongues,” a song in which seduction intertwines itself with political radicalization. We heard in that post how Thompson arranges the music to reinforce the themes of the lyrics, and how he deftly managed to make song about political violence a deeply personal and not very political song. When I was writing that post, I felt that understanding that dynamic–how to paint the boundaries between the personal and political–would be helped by listening to a few songs where Thompson takes different approaches.

In the quote above, Thompson is responding to a question of why two songs on Sweet Warrior, “Guns are the Tongues” and “Dad’s Gonna Kill Me,” are so political, and how they relate to his larger body of work. Of the two, “Dad’s Gonna Kill Me” represents Thompson speaking “more clearly to more people”–or at least more politically. It’s the first song we’ll focus on today.

The Telegraph recently issued a list of “15 Great Songs” by Richard Thompson. Although it assigned the songs numbers, it rather tepidly did not go so far as to allege that they were the 15 GREATEST songs. “Dad’s Gonna Kill Me” was #9 on the list, and the most recent song of the bunch. Incidentally, “Crazy Man Michael” was #13 and “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” was #2. I wondered when I read the article if “Dad” would still be on such a list 25 years from now.

I think it will have a good chance. I’ll tell you why in a minute.

“Dad’s Gonna Kill Me” is a soldier’s eye view of the war in Iraq. “Dad” is Baghdad.

Dad’s Gonna Kill Me from Richard Thompson on Myspace.

A live performance here:

Lyrics

Who’s that stranger cast a shadow ‘cross my heart?

Although not political in the liberal vs. conservative sense, this particular “conversation with death” song does have a keener political edge than “Guns are the Tongues” and much of Thompson’s other material. His political commentary emerges from the contrast between this soldier’s individual inner consciousness of the brutality and danger of his situation with the “doublespeak” involved in projecting the war as a cause someone is winning.

The official press release for Sweet Warrior included some of Thompson’s thoughts on this topic:

Of “Dad’s Gonna Kill Me,” Thompson tells the San Diego Union Tribune that “sometimes you just have to name names. There’s a time and place for political music, a time to stand up and name the despots, and say: ‘People take to the streets, it’s time for the revolution.’ There’s a time for Neil Young to say ‘Impeach the President.’ And, God, this is the time.” 

The song has a contemporary political force that shouldn’t be dismissed. It’s reasonably clear in this interview that Thompson sees the song in the context of a very particular political criticism and call to action.

The song also has legs, though, when it comes to the enduring aspects of serving as a soldier in a hostile land, and of confronting death when it feels like death is actively seeking confrontation. Thompson focuses on particulars that unfold much broader themes–the existential isolation of the soldier; the tendency, or the need perhaps, to dehumanize the enemy; the availability of death around every corner. The pun in the title may fade in relevance and the deserts of the Mideast may become what the jungles of the Far East now are for many, but those core experiences of the individual soldier have a quality that extends beyond the particulars of the war in which the song is set.

U.S Army photo by Spc. Jose Ferrufin (edited)

And who’s that stranger walking in my dreams
And who’s that stranger cast a shadow ‘cross my heart
And who’s that stranger, I dare speak his name
Must be old Death a-walking
Must be old Death a-walking

“Outside of the Inside”

As one other way to chart the dimensions of politics and personification in Thompson’s work, we should also listen to “Outside of the Inside,” from Thompson’s excellent 2003 album The Old Kit Bag. “Outside of the Inside,” coming out within just a couple years of the September 11 attacks, contrasts with “Dad’s Gonna Kill Me” in the way it engages political content, and contrasts with “Guns are the Tongues” in how it portrays the process of radicalization.

Here’s the song with a little bit of explanation from Thompson at the beginning of where it’s coming from.

Here’s a live version from the Richard Thompson Band album Ducknapped!.

Lyrics

In the end, the point of the contrast is not to elevate one of these three songs over the others in terms of quality or their import, but to explore how Thompson as an artist can inflect his rich characterization and storytelling to particular and nuanced ends.

263 posts later, it’s still fun and we have more we want to do, but we’ve come to see that for the time being at least the “every Monday” commitment is standing in the way of us doing the kind of work we want to do–in order to meet that Monday deadline. We’re a murder ballad blog that takes deadlines seriously…