rrsj

I registered so I could respond to Buddy’s post about Lucinda “getting political on us” and his contention that she needed to prove her patriotism by spouting platitudes about supporting the troops. I was at the show last night in Greensboro. Lucinda made it clear that she considers her position against the war to be a patriotic position. There was nothing she said all night that could be construed as being disrespectful of the men and women fighting this war.

Anyone coming to a Lucinda show should know that she has taken public positions on war and economics and other “political” topics. The lyrics for which Buddy professes admiration are often “political” – she did “American Dream” last night, a song that exposes the hypocrisy of our country’s most important economic myth – which is one of the things I most admire about Lucinda. I am sure she regularly hears different versions of Buddy’s criticism – the kind of criticism that chills “political” messages from too many artists – and she keeps on keeping on.

Lucinda said at the beginning of the show that she had received a letter from someone who was there last night. The writer told her that one of her songs – I believe it was “Are You Alright” – had made him think of a friend who was killed in Vietnam. She said that the letter had a real impact on her and she had changed up the set list to respond. Among other changes, they played Stephen Stills’ “For What its Worth,” with Lucinda saying the band had never tried playing it before – those guys are so good we would have never known – and they ended with Thievery Corporation’s “Marching The Hate Machines” and then Dylan’s “Masters of War.”

I think those of us in Greensboro saw something special last night. Lucinda said at one point that she thinks she is in the prime of her career. She then demonstrated what that means. In the middle of a grueling travel schedule, at one of the smallest venues, she did a lot more than go through the motions – she took to heart a letter from a local fan and gave him and us a heartfelt performance – with a largely political message.

Thank God Lucinda didn’t reassure us that she really does support the troops – she understands that she doesn’t need to give credence to the falsely manipulative argument that if you oppose the war you oppose the people on the ground fighting it – instead, as her songs made clear, you oppose the policies and the politicians who send them there.