Being bombarded with rhythms and lyrics that entail a shrieking white electronic noise – has never been to my taste. So perhaps I am especially attuned to the words and music of Rovics. He is of the genre of Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, and even of some of the crusading days of Joan Baez. Perhaps, if he were living in an older time he would have been an heir to  Walt Whitman.

    Why is it worth listening to him? Because he is indeed a voice of “Our Times”. As an American, he has the pulse of America and he can put it to music.

    There are no ‘artiste’ pretension with Rovics. This for example is what he says about copyright:
 “ Second, my statement on copying music: FEEL FREE. NO GUILT! I certainly appreciate your CD purchases and all that, but the main thing is to get the music out there. You are hereby encouraged not only to buy CDs, but to COPY THEM in part or whole, download and distribute MP3's, sing the songs, photocopy part or all of the songbooks, etc. If you know a radio programmer or other such person who you'd like to give a CD to, just ask and I'll send you one, or feel free to copy one you have and give it to them. Have I made my point
clear...? http://www.davidrovics.com/

    Regrettably, I did not see his words at his web-site, until after I had tried madly to scribble down the words of some of his songs!

    For me one of the most haunting on a new CD of his – called Hang A Flag In The Window [with Allie Rosenblatt, price $14.00] - is Jenin.
    Jenin it will be readily recalled was that horror where the world – and the UN – sat and watched the Israeli army systematically destroy a city and murder its inhabitants. What did that create other than even firmer hatred of Israeli fascism?

    As Rovics puts it:

 “Oh, child, what will you remember
When you recall your sixteenth year
The horrid sound of helicopter gunships
The rumble of the tanks as they drew near
As the world went about it's business
And I burned another tank of gasoline
The Dow Jones lost a couple points that day
While you were crying in the City of Jenin

Did they even give your parents warning
Before they blew the windows out with shells
While you hid inside the high school basement
Amidst the ringing of church bells
As you watched your teacher crumble by the doorway
And in England they were toasting to the Queen
You were so far from the thoughts of so many
Huddled in the City of Jenin

Were you thinking of the taunting of the soldiers
Or of the shit they smeared upon the walls
Were you thinking of your cousin after torture
Or Tel Aviv and it's glittering shopping malls
When the fat men in their mansions say that you don't want peace
Did you wonder what they mean
As you sat amidst the stench inside the darkness
In the shattered City of Jenin

What went through your mind on that day
At the site of your mother's vacant eyes
As she lay still among the rubble
Beneath the blue Middle Eastern skies
As you stood upon this bulldozed building
Beside the settlements and their hills so green
As your tears gave way to grim determination
Among the ruins of the City of Jenin

And why should anybody wonder
As you stepped on board
The crowded bus across the Green Line
And you reached inside your jacket for the cord
Were you thinking of your neighbors buried bodies
As you made the stage for this scene
As you set off the explosives that were strapped around your waist
Were you thinking of the City of Jenin”

song to him. Rovics couples this penetrating analysis of the underlying causes of individual terrorism, with a haunting solo guitar tune that I found impossible to get out of my mind. This song fits right into the general themes that are associated with singer-songwriters of the left. But it is done so movingly that it immediately places Rovics into a class of his own.

    But he isn’t all “Left-PC.” Listen to his scathing attack on parties of ‘One’ and sectarianism entitled “Vanguard”. It is gratifying that Alliance ML is not mentioned there – but hell – that may be because we are so small he has not heard of us! However, his sarcastic lines cuts through the insulation of the years and reminds me of some of my earlier rr-rr-r-rr-rr-revolutionary years! He has certainly got the measure of all Left Sectarians who posture – and he has clearly met and studied many of the “in” groups - & in my opinion characterizes their politics pretty spot on in this first stanza below:
 

“Worker's World says that they have all the answers
And Milosevic is a guy that they admire
The ISO says Trotsky is the man
And they'll debate it until they all expire
The industrial workers will lead the revolution
So claims the SWP
No, the truth lies among the lumpen
That's the RCP
The Sparts say the rest can go to hell
And everyone else is a Stalinist
The CP will just do their thing
And pretend the others don't exist
Well I had a realization this morning
When I looked into the red and dawning sun
I've figured out the truth
And I'm forming a party of one

(Chorus)
I am the leader of the workers
And I'll tell you why the Left is suspect
Because there's something you don't understand
Only my line is correct
'Cause I am the vanguard of the masses
And all of you should just follow me
If you doubt my analysis
You must be in the petty bourgeoisie!

But I am not sectarian
It's all the rest who are
I work fine in coalitions
As long as I'm the shining star
So bow down to your master
The lastest V.I. Lenin
And off to the camps to all of you
Who'd say, "not this again"
(Chorus)

And I'll have no music at my protests
And none of that goddamn puppetry
I'll just have some somber slogans
No decadent frivolity
My chants will be the right ones
Just the ones that should be said
And my banners we'll wave proudly
Just the proper shade of red”