Song of the Day 6/3: Gladstone, “A Piece of Paper”
June 1 marked the 25th anniversary of the launch of Napster, the file-sharing network that destroyed the music industry as everyone knew it. Stories marking the date mostly focus on the its negative effects on artists and record labels, but a few acknowledge why it spread so fast and so far – it was the ultimate jukebox.
I had a music-conscious teenage son at home in 1999, so I knew about Napster soon after it launched. This was the first song I looked for.
Gladstone was a country-rock band from Tyler, Texas – it said so right on the cover of their debut LP, released in 1972. This anti-war song, released as a single, only made it to No. 45 on the Hot 100, but it got a bit of airplay on AM radio. I only heard it a few times, but it stuck in my memory for 27 years, especially the a cappella final verse. Sure enough, somebody – just one somebody, but somebody – had downloaded it to Napster.
One interesting historical note regarding the third verse: This song was written before Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, when the states had a patchwork of varying laws, which was one reason the Supreme Court took on the case. The verse instead questions the motivation for choosing one.
Scoffing at a piece of paper is Trumps stock and trade. In fact It is interesting to think that the right wing really started flourishing when it co-opted the hippie argument that there is a law above and beyond what it captured in the legal codes.
The hippies and civil rights activists were naturally pushing against a legal code that served the status quo, so their argument that the what appeared to be objective fact was merely subjective perspective. That won the day but at a high cost given the right wings willingness to use it with such reckless disregard.
Good point, Jason. It leads me to say more about the idea. It’s kind of long and wonky, so maybe nobody will read it. That might be the wisest course.
Anyway, not trusting the source when it tells you something is true has been a pervasive idea in intellectual and artistic thinking for a number of decades. It’s the essence of what we call postmodernism, and by now it has permeated the general culture. When it leads to, for instance, novels where you can’t rely on the author or narrator, it can be interesting. When it leads us to question handed-down values that have come to feel unfair and discriminating it can be politically useful.
But when it leads MAGA types to question the very basis of the general, common sense consensus that has kept America more or less together for 200 years it can get dangerous. What we call crazy they consider truth (except for politicians who just use it to draw voters). After all, truth is whatever you want it to be in the postmodern era, even if they have no clue about the concept. So where do we go from here? Damned if I know.
Of course, I might be spouting pure bullshit. These days you can’t trust anything you read.