Leading in the Heavy Weather of Troubling Times: A Soundtrack
Leaders toiling through heavy weather such as that pelting them today face multiple tests, one being working from a grounded, stable place. Denial, like hope, is not a strategy. Yet, calm surveillance and personal perspective mean more information absorbed and processed. Multiple practices help leaders be in but not of the fray. I’ve been considering one, namely metabolizing music, as I anticipate the upcoming Cape May Jazz Festival (fall edition, 11/7-11/9/25).
Neurological studies accumulate about the varied beneficial effects of music. One such benefit I describe as ‘acoustic acupuncture’— identification of pressure points, lancing, discharge, and reboot. Below appears my idiosyncratic song list for the times. Perhaps one or more of these pieces can help you collect yourself and, thereby, others as well.
Woody Guthrie, This Land Is Your Land. A classic song from a classic figure. A musical and societal leader who melded country, folk, blues and Native American influences. He shaped the music of today, directly and indirectly. A song written in response to what Guthrie took as elitist selfishness and bombast, it celebrates an expansive, wondrous land for all.
Joan Baez, We Shall Overcome… More than 4 decades after she sang during the March on Washington she sings this rendition at the 20th anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution… look at the crowd… to revel in the peak beauty of her voice listen to her recordings from the 20th century… to marvel at the intensity of her flame listen/watch her perform “With God on Our Side” in front of mainstream audiences.
Jimi Hendrix cover of Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower… Dylan’s song conveys an unsettling combination of disconnection, ignorance, and uneasiness about even more on the way. With respect to so many others who have also performed the song, Hendrix sets the standard.
(Flawed film quality and sound in this version, but it’s good to see him again—a mild mannered soul alight in his medium.)
Gotta Serve Somebody… Dylan all cleaned up at the Grammys… we ALL have to choose, ain’t no choice about that. By inference, not to choose is to choose.
Barry McGuire, Eve of Destruction… Worry unto exasperation unto desperation and rage with what we have created and collectively face, then and still.
Jesse Welles, The Poor… Conscious contemporary musical (and protest) descendant of Woody—with satire & comedy … This song captures the blaming, simplistic, non-systemic thinking so prevalent today.
Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit… We can’t forget. Every person’s, every peoples’ story matters …closure? No. Consolation? Yes. Learning? Hopefully. Politics as personal and the personal as politics… This version of the song allows you to see (painfully evident in her face) her investment in the song and will lead you to a musical archive of note (if you wish).
Johnny Cash’s cover of Tom Waits… Forgiveness, deserved or not, awaits us all-- Down There by the Train… Forgiveness, deserved or not, awaits—with only a little effort (to get to where the train slows down). Song in the sparseness of Cash’s later days.
Waits’ version of his song, a few more lyrics
Lord of the Dance—a mid 19th century song, reborn in the protests of the 1950s & 1960s and popularized in Michael Flatley’s show of the same name… This link takes you to the music and the lyrics (displayed atop a picture of Jesus dancing with and amidst youthful joy).
Sinead O’Connor, Danny Boy. Transcendent painful beauty in an isolated (unaccompanied) voice mourning anticipated separation but also exhibiting confidence that transcendent faithful love will yield reunion, even beyond grave… Context: traditional Irish song with words written by an English lawyer.
Bruce Springsteen, The Rising. Barcelona, 2002… probably one of his best of countless memorable concerts… An invitation to join shared hope amidst travail.
The Dream. Woodstock by Joni Mitchell. Across generations. Reclaimed. Restated. Reborn… over and over.
“We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden”
Mashup Summary:
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse
“The River”, Springsteen
We’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden
“Woodstock”, Joni Mitchell