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"My 3 Songs" for Wednesday

Posted at 1:35 PM on September 17, 2008 by Steve Seel

"I call this a '70s rock gods' tribute of sorts," writes Ben Allen for today's set. "It shows how pioneers in music still exist at the forefront after 30 years of ups and downs, their gigantic sphere of influence and the importance of their older works without taking anything away from their new material."

1) Brother Ali, "Uncle Sam Damn"
2) TV On the Radio, "Province"
3) Teddy Bears, "Punkrocker"

As I remarked when playing the set, Ben's meaning was clear to me for the second and third songs -- David Bowie's background-vocal contribution to "Provcince" and Iggy Pop taking the lead vocal for the Teddy Bears' tune -- but the theme wasn't immediately apparent to me on the Brother Ali track. So, I put it to the audience. Jim from St. Paul offered, via e-mail:

"Not sure of the Uncle Sam bit in Ali's song, but his set-up lifts directly from Nina Simone's 'Mississippi G**dam,' where she says 'This is a show tune but the show has been written for it.... yet.' The Simone song goes back to the early sixties when Uncle Sam was still segregated. MLK focused on Voter Registration in Mississippi, the summer of 64, after the killing of those three civil rights workers (and many others, less famous). So the show she refers to would be what would follow, and 'Mississippi G**damn' would be its tune."

Thanks Jim. Regardless of whether or not that's the connection Ben intended (I'm certinly hoping it was), that's some seriously great insight.

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