Pictured above: David Rovics playing his heart and soul to create a more just and equitable world for the 99% of humanity. In this photo, he was in Nablus, Palestine.
By Jeff J. Brown
Downloadable podcast (also at the bottom of this page), YouTube video, as well as being syndicated on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, RUvid and Ivoox (links below),
David Rovics is the Woody Guthrie of our times, interviews on China Rising Radio Sinoland 181030
When I say that David Rovics is the Woody Guthrie of our times, I don’t mean it frivolously. I grew up in the American State of Oklahoma, which was Woody’s birthplace, so for me, a lot of regional, cultural pride in on the line. When we were living there 2001-2010, my family and I went to several of the annual Wood Guthrie Music Festivals, always around his birth date, July 14th, in his home town of Okemah. His son, Arlo would come, along with other folk notables, to honor a true anti-capitalist genius.
I was raised and educated in uber-conservative Oklahoma to get a very sanitized impression of Guthrie. The fact that Woody was a communist-socialist (he said he joined the Communist Party, but there is no record of it) was very suppressed, and we were left singing his iconic This Land Is Your Land at school assemblies. In reality, this song was a stinging socialist retort to Irving Berlin’s God Bless America, which was also never mentioned.
That fact that Woody Guthrie was an out and out communist-socialist is usually extirpated, when mainstream people write and talk about him. He was known for putting stickers on his guitar that said, “This Machine Kills Fascists”. That’s what communists do.
Like Woody, David Rovics is a writer, having published a book and maintaining a blog. Woody wrote 174 articles for the Communist Party newspaper, The Daily Worker, under the nom de plume, Woody Sez (http://www.oklahomaconstitution.com/ns.php?nid=382).
Finally, like Woody, Rovics has not sold out for money and mainstream acceptance. We can all agree that artists like Bob Dylan wrote some great antiwar, anti-establishment songs. But, as his career progressed, Dylan mostly abandoned the good fight and went for big bucks and headline fame. Like Woody, I don’t ever see David doing that. If anything, his anti-imperial, communist-socialist message is getting more on-target and Promethean.
David was on the show in June, 2016 and as I’ve continued to follow his work, I thought it would be fun for us and our fans to catch up on his career and talk about his incessant fight against the ongoing machinations of the global capitalist killing machine. Here is our first talk, which is an excellent discussion for all:
David Rovics, singer-songwriter extraordinaire on China Rising Radio Sinoland 20160608
To learn more about David, here are his websites:
His main website: www.davidrovics.com
His SoundCloud channel: https://soundcloud.com/davidrovics
To buy David’s music: https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/
His Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rovics
The Al-Jazeera documentary Al-Nakba, about the ongoing Palestinian genocide is here:
The real truth about Palestine and Israel. China Rising Radio Sinoland 181116
David also recommends taking a look at the following artists:
Eric Drooker (http://www.drooker.com/)
Grace Petrie (http://gracepetrie.com/)
Robb Johnson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robb_Johnson)
Jim Page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Page_(singer))
As well as reading the following books:
1491, Owning the Earth, Evicted, White Trash; Death of the Liberal Class, by Chris Hedges; and An Indigenous People’s History of the United States, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
If you find China Rising Radio Sinoland‘s work useful and appreciate its quality, please consider making a donation. Money is spent to pay for Internet costs, maintenance, the upgrade of our computer network, and development of the site.
Why and How China works: With a Mirror to Our Own History
JEFF J. BROWN, Editor, China Rising, and Senior Editor & China Correspondent, Dispatch from Beijing, The Greanville Post
Jeff J. Brown is a geopolitical analyst, journalist, lecturer and the author of The China Trilogy. It consists of 44 Days Backpacking in China – The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass (2013); Punto Press released China Rising – Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations (2016); and for Badak Merah, Jeff authored China Is Communist, Dammit! – Dawn of the Red Dynasty (2017). As well, he published a textbook, Doctor WriteRead’s Treasure Trove to Great English (2015). Jeff is a Senior Editor & China Correspondent for The Greanville Post, where he keeps a column, Dispatch from Beijing and is a Global Opinion Leader at 21st Century. He also writes a column for The Saker, called the Moscow-Beijing Express. Jeff writes, interviews and podcasts on his own program, China Rising Radio Sinoland, which is also available on YouTube, Stitcher Radio, iTunes, Ivoox and RUvid. Guests have included Ramsey Clark, James Bradley, Moti Nissani, Godfree Roberts, Hiroyuki Hamada, The Saker and many others. [/su_spoiler]
Jeff can be reached at China Rising, je**@br***********.com, Facebook, Twitter, Wechat (Jeff_Brown-44_Days) and Whatsapp: +86-13823544196.
Wechat group: search the phone number +8618618144837 or my ID, Jeff_Brown-44_Days, friend request and ask Jeff to join the China Rising Radio Sinoland Wechat group. He will add you as a member, so you can join in the ongoing discussion.
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