Text by Bruce Gallanther (DMG Newsletter for December 2nd, 2022)
“The Weight” by The Band, from Music from Big Pink, released in 1968
I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ about half past dead
I just need some place where I can lay my head
“Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?”
He just grinned and shook my hand, “No” was all he said
By Dawoud Kringle
Before I get to the meat & potatoes about the subject of this article, I must offer a few caveats.
First, I am a Muslim, and this is an article about Iran. So from time to time, I will speak with a Muslim voice – but perhaps not the voice you expected to hear. Second, I have some very specific ideas about geopolitics that some may find at best, interesting and at worst, disturbing or incomprehensible. Finally, I am going to present some very personal thoughts on a few things related to the subject matter and the editorial context in which this is being presented.
You are doubtless aware of the troubles happening in Iran.
Text by Bruce Gallanther (Downtown Music Gallery, November 4th, 2022)
Up until the time I was 13, when I bought the first album by the Mothers of Invention, titled Freak-Out!, I never really questioned the fact that the U.S. was called “the land of the free & the home of the brave”. The concept of “Freedom” always appealed to me but I never considered how much we were being manipulated into believing that things that are not really the truth of what is actually going on around us. Protest music/songs by Bob Dylan, PF Sloan’s “The Eve of Destruction” and “Trouble Every Day” by the Mothers often made me reconsider my view of what is just and what is unfair or just not right. I’ve shed many skins and worn many hats over time: being a hippie in the sixties, being a proghead in the seventies, being a hard-core punk in the eighties and then discarding all of those pigeonholes as I got older to become a Wise Old Man (sometimes) in my post millenium Golden Years.
Text by Bruce Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery, October 14th, 2022)
“Babylon” written by Dr. John, the Night Tripper, title track from Dr. John’s 2nd album Babylon released in 1969
Babylon
Is represented in the Bible by a stone
Babylon
Is thrown in a river and lost in a storm
Babylon
And never, never, ever again
Will anybody ever wanna call you they home
Text by Bruce Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery, June 9th, 2022) – Photo by Al Aumuller (New York World-Telegram and the Sun)
“Pastures of Plenty” written by Woody Guthrie
