Mississippi Goddam by NINA SIMONE

Mississippi Goddam was written in 1964 by Nina Simone. It was a response to the upheaval brought about by the assassinations and threats carried out by white supremacists against Civil Rights activists in US Southern states.

Alabama's gotten me so upset

Tennessee made me lose my rest

The civil rights movement’s main aim was to ensure legal rights for African-Americans in the USA. During the 60s, the movement gained force by organizing protests based o non-violent campaigns and civil disobedience.

These activities were seen as a menace by the white supremacists and other racist groups, which took terrorist actions. The most outrageous ones took place in the Southern states. In the song, Simone mentions three examples:

Alabama: The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham. An act of terrorism which killed four girls and injured 22 others on 15th September 1963.

Tennessee: Civil Rights lawyer Zephaniah Alexander Looby died at the bomb attack of his house in Nashville on April 19th, 1960.

And everybody knows about Mississippi goddam

The most conspicuous of these acts was the assassination of Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963 by a member of the Ku Klus Klan.

Medgar Evers was a World War II veteran and a Civil Rights activist whose aim was to end segregation. He lived in Jackson, Mississippi, immersed in a white supremacist population and enduring constant threats of death.

For this very reason, both FBI and local police officers regularly escorted him home. However, on the day of his assassination, the police forces were inexplicably not present.

According to the sources, he was shot from his back, and when taken to the hospital, he was refused entry, as people of colour were not allowed to enter.

In the trial, an all-white jury could not agree on a verdict and, as a consequence, the accused was acquitted.

Not until 1994 was he convicted following a new trial based on new evidence and after Evers’s body had been exhumed for an autopsy.

In 1964, Bob Dylan released a more explicit version of this song, giving his personal interpretation of Medgar Evers’ assassination. The song is called "Only a Pawn in Their Game" and assumes how poor whites are manipulated by the rich whites to avoid responsibility.

Here you can listen to Dylan singing the song during a march in Washinton in  August 1963.

 but this whole country is full of lies
I don't trust you any more

Mississippi Goddam was Simone’s first civil rights song. According to her words, it was written “In a rush of fury, hatred and determination” and it was supposed to be “like throwing ten bullets back at them”. The single was boycotted in some Southern radio stations and in some cases they even destroyed the copies and sent them back to the record company.

From that moment on the American music industry was reluctant to publish her music. She became so disappointed and frustrated that she left the country in1970, first she flew to Barbados and then she lived in different countries for the rest of her life.

Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

These lines referred to the relations between races in the USA during decades. The roots of the term Sister Sadie can be found in Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Sadie was Slave Jim’s wife and Widow Douglas’ cook.

Sadie became the female counterpart of Jim Crow, a character used to portray African-Americans in an offensive way. What Simone is trying to say here is that the message they received was that if you looked like a lady and behaved like a lady, the whites wouldn’t call you Sister Sadie, but call you by your real name. In other words, what was the use of doing things according to the rules if you were not treated as equal?

This is a show tune
But the show hasn't been written for it, yet

This is an ironic remark aimed at an audience that was partially white. It’s supposedly meant to contrast the dramatic facts described but later on she says:

I made you thought I was kiddin'

What makes us realize that she’s really enraged and she’s talking in earnest.

Picket lines
School boycotts
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
For my sister my brother my people and me

With these lines, Simone is addressing The COINTELPRO (Portmanteau word from COunter INTELligence PROgram), a programme launched by the FBI to discredit the civil rights movement by describing their members as communists.

Americans have never held communists under a high esteem, but you can imagine the public opinion  just in the middle of the Cold War era ad having into consideration the URSS-USA relationships (see 1960 Bay Of Pigs Invasion and  1962 Cuban Missile Crisis,  and maybe you will begin to understand why Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 was also considered a plot).

Desegregation ad reunification

The civil rights movement and the fight for equal rights was a long-term battle that lasted decades. The trouble and strife of the African-American population are reflected in music, cinema and literature.

The screen version of Medgar Ever’s assassination was released in 1966 and titled Ghosts of Mississippi, however, the plot is based on the story of the 1994 trial. Here you can see the trailer.

A much more successful depiction of the racist scenario is accomplished in 1988 Mississippi Burning. Set in a fictional Mississippi county and loosely based on the disappearance and assassination of three civil rights workers in 1964.

Here you can see the trailer of Alan Parker’s film starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FBI agents investigating the case and meeting the hostility of both residents and local authorities.

As for literature, we can find an excellent example in Clock Without Hands, a novel published on September 18, 1961, offering a plausible plot which describes with mastery contemporary characters and situations from the point of view of a reliable eye-witness, the Southern novelist Carson McCullers.

Here you can read one of the few reviews of this book:

A Clock Without Hands Review

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960, is another example of a novel inviting to the  discussion of the right of a human being to kill or spare the life of another, apart from that, the author also tells us the story of the family of a lawyer defending a black man falsely accused of raping the daughter of a white family

Here you can read the original review published in the New York Times:

To Kill A Mockingbird Review.

Cities in Dust by SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES

SONG FACTS

Cities in Dust is a song written by British band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released in 1986 as part of their album Tinderbox.

The song refers to the volcanic eruption of the Vesuvius on 24^th August, AD 79 with the subsequent disappearance of the nearby cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii under the lava as well as the suffering and death of the victims whose remains were discovered some centuries later.

Lyrics Video

YOUR FORMER GLORIES AND ALL THE STORIES

Historians have learned about the Vesuvius eruption from the account of Pliny the Younger, a Roman lawyer and magistrate, nephew of Pliny the Elder, the natural philosopher and navy commander who died near Pompeii on the day of the eruption while he was observing the natural disaster. This event is described in the two letters that he sent to the historian Tacitus who was interested in the details of the death of Pliny the Elder.

Eyewitness reports are great help to visualise what really happened but animation technology provides a more striking impression. Such is the case with the following.

A Day in Pompeii - Full-length animation

YOUR CITY LIES IN DUST

Vulcanologists found some relevant information in Pliny’s description and that’s the reason why this kind of eruption is known as Plinian.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius was the most catastrophic in the European continent. The thermal energy released was 100,000 times bigger than the energy released by the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings.

In this video you have a brief guide of volcanoes and their different types.

WERE YOU PRAYING AT THE LARES SHRINE?

Roman religion was pantheistic. This means both that Romans adored a great number of deities and that their doctrine regarded the universe as a manifestation of God. God was thought to be everywhere, even in objects. This is exemplified by the cult of the Dii Familiaris or Lares. These protector spirits were assigned to different parts of the house such as the door, the threshold, even the hinge.

Some deities were related to nature like Ceres, goddess of agriculture or Neptune, god of freshwater and the sea. Vulcan was the god of the fire, including the fire of the volcanoes. An annual festival, the Vulcanalia, was held in his honour– by a strange coincidence on August 23, just a day before the eruption of the Vesuvius.

CAUGHT IN THE THROES

A death throe is an intense and violent pain accompanying death, in other words, the agony of death. Hundreds of years after the eruption archaeologists found cavities in the hardened ash were the decomposed bodies had lain for centuries. These cavities were filled with plaster to form figures of victims at the very moment of their deaths, that is to say, caught in the throes.

In the following video you can see how this work was made and what brought to light.

Reconstructing the Faces of Pompeii Victims

The cause of the death of most of the victims was presumably suffocation but in recent years a new theory has arisen.

Investigating How Mt. Vesuvius's Victims Died

ROBERT HARRIS’ POMPEII

The author Robert Harris published the book Pompeii in 2003. It tells the story of the aquarius Attillius trying to find the place where the Aqua Augusta, the aqueduct supplying water to the region, has broken and the reasons for his predecessor’s disappearance. On the way he discovers a corrupted Pompeii and the threat of an imminent disaster. 

The story shows historical credibility and is inspired by actual events, such as the previous earthquake that the city had endured seventeen years before; and people, describing the last hours of Pliny the Elder up to the time of his death.

Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2

FACTS

"Sunday Bloody Sunday" appeared in U2’s 1983 album War. It’s an overtly political song describing the events that happened in the Northern Ireland city of Derry on the 30^th of January, 1972 when British troops shot and killed unarmed people taking part in a civil rights march. This day was called the Bloody Sunday.

Video with lyrics:

1972 BLOODY SUNDAY

In this well-known picture we can see Father Edward Daly waving a blood-stained handkerchief while trying to escort a mortally wounded marcher.

The incident was the most significant episode of the Troubles, the name the British government used to refer to the armed confrontation taking place between Catholics and Unionists in Northern Ireland.

The march was a way to protest against interment, which was a mass arrest without trial of people suspected of being involved with the IRA.

On that day 13 people were killed, one more person died 4 months later on account of the injuries received during the attack of the army.

The Saville Inquiry was established in 1998 to reinvestigate the incident. After a 12-year investigation, a report was made public in 2010 concluding that all those shot were unarmed and that none were posing a serious threat. British Prime Minister David Cameron made a formal apology on behalf of the United Kingdom.

The episode served to increase Catholic and Unionist violent confrontations and IRA’s terrorist attacks.

“TONIGHT WE CAN BE AS ONE”

From 1^st January 1801 until 6^th December 1922 Ireland was part of the UK.

Towards the end of the XIX century the Irish tried to achieve Home Rule, a kind of Irish autonomy without leaving the UK. This initiative was strongly opposed by the Unionists who were particularly influential in The Ulster region.

In 1916 the Easter Rising took place. This was an attempt to win independence. The organizers seized key locations in Dublin but the rising lasted only seven days being its leaders court-martialled and executed.

After the General Election of 1919, the parliament members belonging to Sinn Féin set up an Irish Parliament and declared an Irish Republic. A War of Independence followed, whose result was the creation of the Irish Free State and the partition of Ireland, as the six counties of The Ulster remained part of the UK.

As a consequence of the strong opposition between anti-treaty and pro-treaty forces, a Civil War broke out. The British supplies led to the defeat of the anti-treaty supporters led by Eamon de Valera.

Years later, de Valera won the elections and drew up a new constitution. In 1949, the Republic of Ireland was created, a “really” free state at last.

In this video you can listen to Irish Conor Cunneen summarising the history of Ireland using poetry and narration in a unique Irish way.

A Short History Of Ireland - Vikings, English, Famine, Emigration, Irish Civil War.

And Northern Ireland? In the region there have been “troubles” since the partition but these seemed to get worse in the 1970’s.

Not until 1998’s Good Friday Agreement did both parts agree to a truce and the progressive disarmament.

Among other things they agreed on the creation of the Northern Ireland Assembly, a kind of autonomous government for the region.

The following video summarises the conflict.

The Northern Ireland conflict:

And here you have an illustrative example of the effects of the conflict on the daily lives of Northern Irish.

Northern Ireland divided by walls.

Whatever next?

Nowadays, the conflict goes on but from a different perspective. Maybe it is not a question of religion or politics anymore. It is just a question of economy.

You can get some up-to-date information from this video:

Brexit and the Irish border problem.

“WHEN FACT IS FICTION AND TV REALITY”

In the song Bono sings this line. What do you think he is referring to?

Maybe the way in which the media  omitted some information at that time?

The Army’s version of the event was published on 1 February 1972 in The Guardian:

Some versions of the front page of the Daily Mirror show this subhead:

The coverage of the news in the Republic could have been different, anyway, he starts the song with the line “ I can’t believe the news today”; he could also refer to his own feeling of outrage.

“I WON’T HEED THE BATTLE CALL”

At the peak of the conflict, young people were subject to fall into the trap of active involvement in the fight.

Have a look at this anti-terrorist advert trying to persuade the Irish people to report on the activities of their fellow citizens.

Would you do that yourself? What could be the consequences?

Anti-terrorism advert:

HISTORY ON THE WALLS

If you visit the cities of Belfast and Derry and look at the walls of the buildings, you will find a visual encyclopaedia depicting the political and religious divisions of Northern Ireland. Depending on the area, Irish republican or Unionist, the varied themes reflect the most relevant events and dearest values to each community. In this video you can have a look at the history on The Ulster walls.

The Murals of Northern Ireland

MORE BLOODY SUNDAYS

The term “bloody” can be defined as: “covered with blood or characterised by cruelty”. But in informal British English, the word “bloody” is used to express anger or emphasis as in: “Bloody shit!” For instance, if you don’t like Sundays, you will say “Oh no, another bloody Sunday!” However, this is not the case.

All along history there have been more bloody Sundays, Sundays characterised by violent events derived from a confrontation between protesters and armed government forces. The most relevant being the one happening on 22^nd January 1905 in St Petersburg, Russia, which is also referred to as Red Sunday.

A crowd of demonstrators asking for the improvement of working conditions were shot by soldiers causing an unknown number of deaths and injuries. The massacre provoked a series of massive strikes and was considered a key event leading to the Revolution of 1917.

22nd January 1905: Bloody Sunday massacre in Saint Petersburg.

DEBATE

·       Why do marches and demonstrations usually take place on Sundays?

·       Taking part in a demonstration is a way to make a petition against state plans. How effective could it be?

·       Is there a more effective way to prevent a government from taking the “wrong” decisions?

·       The message of the song is summarised in the following line. Is it true that there is nothing left but losers once the war is over?

And the battle's just begun.

There's many lost, but tell me who has won?

Sign O' the Times by PRINCE

FACTS

Sign O’ The Times was the lead single of Prince’s 1987 album of the same name. The times described in the song are certainly bad times including references to issues such as AIDS, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and drug abuse.

The video for the song was an early example of a lyric video where the words to the song are the main element of the video.

In 1989 the band Simple Minds released an interesting version of this song.

THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS PRINCE

The author or masterpiece Purple Rain, a whizz kid, a charismatic performer; Prince was a prolific songwriter with a studio full of unreleased songs which the company (Warner Bros) refused to publish.

As a result, a legal battle began in 1993 when Prince appeared in public with the word SLAVE written on his cheek, and subsequently he decided to change his artistic name -which was trademarked by the company- to an unpronounceable symbol, combination of the gender symbols for man and woman, thus forcing the media to refer to him as “The Artist Formerly known as Prince”.

He was not able to use his own name until 2000 when the contract with Warner expired.

THE TIMES OF RONALD REAGAN

Ronald Reagan was president of the USA from 1981 to 1989. This meant a conservative era for the politics of the USA. He cut social program funds and increase defence spending. In 1982 the country falls into the biggest economic recession since the Great Depression with a consequent increase of unemployment.

The decade was also characterised by other aspects and events. Some lines of the song show references to these.

A BIG DISEASE WITH A LITTLE NAME

Yes indeed, AIDS is a big disease with a little name, which is an acronym of “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome”.

A syndrome caused by a virus, HIV, the initials of “Human Immunodeficiency Virus”.

AIDS alters the immune system making it vulnerable to infections and diseases. There is no vaccine and it doesn’t have a cure but can be treated with antiretroviral therapy.

The discovery of the existence of the disease was in 1981 when a medical publication issued a report on a number of infections with a high Case Fatality Rate. At the beginning it was considered a gay-related immune deficiency.

In 1985 American actor Rock Hudson announced that he was suffering from the virus. Another notable casualty of AIDS was Freddie Mercury in 1991.

1985 - Rock Hudson "Mystery Illness" 

In 1990 Red Hot + Blue was released, a benefit album to raise money for AIDS research. This was a compilation of Cole Porter’s songs performed by some contemporary artists such as Talking Heads, Erasure, U2 or Neneh Cherry.

WHEN A ROCKET SHIP EXPLODES

On 28 January, 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean 73 seconds after launching. All seven crew members of the spacecraft were killed and 17% of USA’s population were witness to the accident as it was being broadcast on TV.

Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion LIVE TV

FROM TRYING A REEFER TO DOING HORSE

In the song Prince tells us that his cousin tried a reefer in September. A reefer is a cannabis cigarette, but this word is sort of obsolete, nowadays joint would be a more common word.

Nine months later his cousin is doing horse, horse is the slang word for heroin.

With these lines Prince is implying that trying any type of drugs increases the chances to become addicted to highly addictive substances.

In the following video you can learn some more slang related to drugs.

SOME SAY MAN AIN'T HAPPY TRULY UNTIL A MAN TRULY DIES

The following quote is attributed to Solon, one of the Seven Sages of Greece:

“Call no man happy until he is dead”.

What should not be misunderstood as it would be the same as saying that death is the end for all human suffering, thus it is at this point that we can ascertain that someone has been happy as from now on they can suffer no more.

In the song Prince paraphrases this aphorism:

“Some say man ain't happy truly until a man truly dies”.