Zengerle: "And then there's the problem of Oberst's voice: It is fey and timorous"

And Dylan's voice was....???

I read the central thesis as: Oberst is not Dylan. Then again, who is?

Zengerle thinks that that protest music needs to be literary, evoking "seventeenth-century ballads," but I think Oberst's "clichés and juvenile put-downs" are spot-on perfect for the subject matter:

When the president talks to God

Are the consonants all hard or soft?

Is he resolute all down the line?

Is every issue black or white?

Does what God say ever change his mind

When the president talks to God?

PS, the full lyrics are here.

If anyone wants to check out some of Matt's crappy indie-yuppie music, we have a link to a free (and legal) mp3 of sleater-kinney's song, "Entertain" at MusicCherry.com.

Matt shoulda, coulda, woulda been a great pretentious music blogger :-p

I wish political music were more "wonky."

You have to be careful about letting Bobby explain himself - you're unlikely to get the whole story.  If you give him a napkin and ask him to draw you, he'll just make a few lines and show it for you to see.

I'm sure he says, now, that he wasn't a true protest singer, but he was, for a brief time.  The Times They Are A-Changin' is an album of protest songs, and a great one.  It's just that Dylan, pretty quickly, felt boxed in and decided he wanted to drop that label and explore different types of songwriting.  For which he got lots of grief, which made him even more determined to reject the idea that he'd ever had anything to do with protest singing. 

Antibalas.

Forget not DC's own Dischord Records! The Evens albums is full of charming protest songs from the local "Mt. Pleasant Isn't Anymore" to the almost libertarian "All These Governors".

When things should work but don't work
That's the work of all these governors

p.s. Picasso was a communist sympathizer for a short time. That's not what most people remember him for.

"Protesting" has never proven itself as a great genre for the arts and vice-versa.

I caught Scorcese's movie on Dylan, artappraiser.  It was outstanding and I would reccomend it.  

You make a very good point.  Dylan didn't view himself as a political protest singer (much to the chagrin of Jaon Baez).  But he did write songs that dealt with social issues, fundamental truths and injustice.  And many of his songs dealt with ramifications of political issues even if the songs weren't meant to address politics directly.  But I don't know if there ever will be another Dylan nor do I think there will be any new "anthems" for this or future generations.  The 60's were unique...

I don't it is possible to wirte "good" political protest anthems...they just happen.  Some of the discussion has been about Bob Dylan.  As was pointed out he didn't write songs to be protest songs.  He wrote about what he saw as fundamental truths and societal injustices.  But the 60's were a different time.  Hoping there will be another generation of Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Jim Morrison isn't realistic.  I am a devotee of music from the 60's up to today and currently songs don't deal with weighty enough topics to represent "protest anthems".

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant...

there was a similar sub-thread over on ObWi a week ago about how rare it is for a song written about (very) current events to be good - things need to age for a bit before people can write good songs about them.

there are a few exeptions (CSNY's "Ohio" being my favorite), but for the most part, it seems people don't even try, and when they do, the results lack ("We'll put a boot in your ass")

of course a lot of hip-hop is protest music.

I think to a large extent what makes a great protest song is being ignored. Music shouldn't be a wonky examination of the minute aspects of policy, or really about policies at all. The greatest protest songs do not argue against anything. They combine the personal and political in a way that breaks down the callousness of political positions and allows the listener to develop true empathy with a side of a debate. So far as present protest music goes, I'm somewhat shocked that no has mentioned DC's own indie rock troubadour, Ted Leo.

I didn't mean that a protest song HAS to have humor.  I was contrasting Dylan's allusive "Tombstone Blues" with the Clash's direct-in-your-face "Know Your Rights" and observing that the latter song works in part because of its humor:  "This is a public-service announcement ... WITH GUITARS!" etc.

Corin's incredibly awful lyrics (on this song), which you've quoted in part, prove my point better than anything I could say.  "Since when is skepticism un-American?"  Jesus.  If they wrote like this in general, we'd never have heard of them.

As for their feminist politics, same point applies:  the savage irony of a song like "Little Babies" works a lot better than the godawful earnestness of "Number One Must-Have."

Indeed, "where is the protest song?"  We're still waiting.

     -quality political tunes becoming anthems for a generation is     impossible today-

We need some kind of definition for such an abstract phrase as an "anthem for a generation" before you uppity types start smacking the music of today down as not fulfilling said definition.

I did have a long post to angrily confront those who would denigrate Bright Eyes, but in writing it I've come to the conclusion that I would rather just fire a return volley over your bow.

Whether or not you as an individual believe "When the President Talks to God"is a good protest song or a good song at all, it was largely on the strength of that song that Oberst won many of his fans who proceeded to buy his albums frantically enough to put his latest double release on The Billboard 200 in spots 10 and 15. Even more impressive is that this was done on an indy label, Saddle Creek. Meanwhile the Dylan fans (whom I also consider myself one of) can't stop arguing with each other trying to find a way to reconcile their image of their demigogue with the gospel singing, sold out, Columbia (major, a la Wal-Mart) label Super-Product.

So go on worshipping the glory days of 40 years ago, but you're missing a Bright-eyed new world, my friends. 

"Does he ever smell his own bullshit, when the President talks to God?" - Bright Eyes

Steve Earle has been putting out powerful protest music for years.  Give his latest album "The Revolution Starts Now" a listen.

This was actually a good cultural/artistic by TNR standards. TNR only produces such specimens every 10 years or so.

Though I disagree with the conclusion that 'protest music' is dead or fail to see how a Zengerle article taking the piss out of Oberst belongs in TNR, I do agree with Zengerle's assessment of Mr. Oberst's song wholeheartedly.

I'm not a fan of Mr. Oberst; his arrangements are uninteresting, his guitar playing weak, his voice whiny and reeking too much of the dire seriousness he must take his work with and his lyrics more fitting for a hopelessly indulgent 16 year old adolescent than a now 25 year old man. Like the article said, Mr. Oberst isn't an angry young man, he's a whiny boy.

But my dislike of "When the President talks to god" is not because of Obert's voice, his melodies, pretnetiousness or any of that. It's because the song is, for lack of a better word, dumb.

According to The Washington Post, Oberst introduced one song with the explanation that the tune was "about a protest that happened in New York right before we went to war for no ... reason. No, that's not true: We're at war so rich people can be richer. And poor people can be poorer. Or dead."

Yeah, man. Totally.

This reminds be exactly of what Oberst spewed when he played in Texas a year ago.

"I don't know if you know this, but I hate your [expletive] state," he blurted. "I'd put a [expletive] gun to my head before I'd live in your state."

"If you came to this show tonight, you're not a normal Texan," he said after another long chug of beer. "If you were a normal Texan, you'd probably be roping steers and raping Indians."

Ignorant comment, but it's one thing if it's in the context of coming from someone from say, California or New York or even Oregon, Washingto or some other non reactionary state. But coming from someone who's home is in that fervent bastion of culture, tolerance and liberalism known as Nebraska it rings doubly ignorant.
 
If Oberst is this generation's Bob Dylan, that's more damning to our generation than it is to Obert's sophmoric songwriting ability.

There are two issues:  is it good music, and is it good politics?  Zengerle merely quotes the lyrics as if their misguidedness were self-evident.  His complaint is that they sound like something "you might read in a magazine or a newspaper" and that Oberst is therefore "an editorialist."  He wants his protest singers to be cryptic rather than topical.  For a more in-depth criticism of Oberst's actual views, check out my piece, Death To Bright Eyes.

Actually I'm reading your review now and really dig it. Agree 99%