the brief

a Billy Bragg-ish protest song wondering whatever happened to that ephemeral ideal? best for large crowds. verses in no particular order & new ones always welcome

Apart from the 1.0 stubs, only two karosongs have ever started but not completed. Both were in the very early third phase. Both came as acapella only.

City on the hill, the 21st karosong, was the first of these two, and the first pure poli-flavour karosong, although in some ways it became the most 'gordon' of all, reflecting the evolution of my own political awareness as much as it reflected the song energies.

I remember watching the progressive impact of the civil rights, feminist and anti-war movements on the US and Canada back in the late 1960s and early '70s. It seemed to me that Martin Luther King Jr's observation about the long arc of history bending towards justice was right, and there was truth to that hagiographic American image of a city on the hill shining out it's example for all to see and follow.

I was young and naive of course, and knew nothing of MLK's hard realism and his biting critiques of America's economic and miltary realities.

Whatever happened to that city on the hill?
Whatever happened to those lofty ideals?
Whatever happened to that city on the hill?
How did they steal our futures?

I started my career in the mid '70s as a television newscameraman in Toronto, then graduated to shooting for Canada's CTV National News. I started that job in Edmonton, and then was posted to Beijing in early 1980.

Even though I worked in news, I was uninformed enough to think Ronald Reagan's election the November before was maybe a good thing. I knew nothing of the coordinated counter-attack by autocratic corporate and right wing political forces in the US. And didn't grasp how Canada's similar elites shared what we now call the neoliberal agenda of rolling back the power of unions, and undermining the economic security and political influence of millions of working- and middle-class North Americans.

And do you remember how Reagan's tax cuts
would lift all the boats, not just the yachts?
well the millionaires became billionaires, billionaires trillionaires
but all we got was tinkled on!

My awakening started with the economic devastation caused by free trade agreements like NAFTA. They were sold as benefitting workers and all society. Those were lies. Knowing. Deliberate. Cruel. Their impact on the working- and middle-classes was exactly as predicted by free trade critics — manufacturing offshored, unions weakened, entire communities abandoned to the tender mercies of the 'free' market.

do you remember how they sold us NAFTA?
said it would be gravy and Christmas all in one?
now Walmart's stuffed with cheap junk we just can't afford
because all our jobs got the SHAFTA!

But the really driving force in my awakening was my work writing and directing educational television programs on the environment in the late 1980s/early '90s. It was an optimistic period. Recycling was getting going. People were more and more aware of the issues I was writing about. It seemed society itself had awoken.

Yes, I was still young, still naive enough not to see that, sure society may have awakened, but so had the monster.

and do you remember when they said deregulate
to trust the corporations, trust their ceos
well the corps rigged their markets, the ceos their options
and all we got was foreclosed on!

Capitalism generally and neoliberal capitalism specifically is sociopathic. Textbook. Without empathy. Without conscience. Without humanity. Society does not exist. No greater good exists. Nothing matters except the goal. You can lie, you can cheat, you can bribe . . . and there'll be no accountability because you've bought out the politicians.

do you remember when they bailed out the banks?
said they had to do it else the whole thing would tank
well the bankers got their bailouts, their bonuses and bud
but all we got was bupkis!

I once saw Billy Bragg perform at a protest rally at the Ontario legislature. I don't recall what the protest was about, some free trade deal most likely, but I remember the energy of the crowd as Bragg sang one protest song after another. Bragg was especially good at getting the crowd involved with call and response pieces.

whatever happened to that city on the hill?
whatever happened to that kinder, gentler land?
whatever happened to all that hope and change?
how did they steal our dreams?

Post-script

This was a difficult song to classify. Up until the development of this archive, I had tended to classify it as a 3.0 song because it had come in the early third phase. But (to this point anyway) it's an all-original acapella karosong and not an asynchronous collaboration.

So I decided to follow the pattern established by It was a gift 1.1, the first acapella karosong. So this song is classified as a 1.3 because it's an all-original that came in the third phase.