The Hate Revival

mieyeed
Jul 13
3 min read

Tenth in a series of posts about Protest Music for the Current Crisis.

Always, razor sharp lyrics from Eliza Gilkyson.

Somewhere in social media land someone asked if there were any worthwhile new protest songs that address exactly where we are now.

With new horrors released every day, even the most prolific topical songwriter might find it difficult to keep up

But there are new protest songs and this is one of the best, from one of the best, Eliza Gilkyson.

If you haven't listened to much folk and Americana music in the past twenty years you might say, Eliza who? With more than twenty-five notable albums to her name, she deserves more attention for her superb songwriting, and her crystalline vocals and her charismatic performances.

Gilkyson was born into a musical family in Hollywood. Her father Terry had a folk group called The Easy Riders who had hits like Marianne. He later went on to work for Disney where he wrote The Bear Necessities for the animated film, The Jungle Book. Eliza's brother Tony Gilkyson was a major force in Los Angeles cowpunk, performing with Lone Justice and X.

While Eliza began releasing albums in 1969, with critical praise and moderate

sales, it wasn't until her Gold Castle release, Pilgrims, in 1987 that she began to get some well-deserved national attention.

But it was when she signed to the folkie label Red House, in 2000,

releasing Hard Times In Babylon, that she had a burst of late-career acclaim that helped her find a devoted audience.

Gilkyson always had a way with a sharp lyric in a topical song. On Land of Milk and Honey she poked George Bush and his Iraq incursion with Highway 9, and with Tender Mercies found the humanity in the desperation of a suicide bomber. Those kind of songs have peppered her albums for two decades.

This year, Gilkyson released Dark Ages, an album filled with reflections on a nation gone sour. It's an album balanced by her love of people, the environment and the idea that hope is an option we can't reject.

Dark Ages

While Gilkyson has always aimed her lyrical barbs rather directly at her intended targets, it's rare for her to use the most common Anglo-Saxon curse. Gilkyson risks the universality of her message here when she spends a stanza aiming invective directly at names from the headlines, but when she curses out "the Alpha white boys," it's so fun to sing along.

It's a song so specifically about a wannabe tyrant, that we can only hope that in 40 years, when this is all just a bad dream, our grandchildren won't have to haul it out and sing it about some Trump scion.

Dirty old man with the dead snake eyes

Fork-tongued devil telling lie, lie, lies

Holding up his bible like a wannabe martyr

Never gonna buy back the soul he bartered

Ruler of the mob where cruelty rages

Trapped like a rat in the soul cages

Sending us back, all the way back to the dark ages

Dark ages

All the sycophants rally 'round their golden idol

Jonesin' for a fix at the hate revival

Vancе, Thiel, Bannon and the X boy clown

Step onto thе stage to burn the whole thing down