It seems DJ Shadow and Zach De La Rocha have jumped onto the download-our-new-anti-war-song bandwagon. "March of Death" is a hilarious title, but much can be redeemed by the pairing of Shadow's outstanding ear and Zach's nearly hysterical, nearly self-parodic passion.
Still, I have yet to hear an anti-war song from the past year that moves me in the least way. Actually, forget moving me - nothing's made an impression at all. The activist music seems to be trapped between two poles. It's either vague or specific: the former (as seen in "March of Death"'s lyrics) feels like a cheesy (if enraged) Hallmark card; the latter (see: The Beastie Boys or John Mellencamp) feels like a bad SNL satire.
This has always been a problem for me; while many hail Bert Jansch's "Needle of Death" as his best work, I've always been put off by the fact that it's obviously, ostentatiously about heroin. I know, I know -- that's the point! -- but I still find the 'needle of death' schtick to be a vulgar intrusion on the resonance of the song. I suppose it's the same principle that makes K unable to listen to Gillian Welch's beautiful "Everything is Free" since I told her it was about Napster.
The consequence of all this is that the music that has best answered my feelings about tragedy and war in the past two years has been classical music - Glenn Gould's early Goldberg Variations in particular. It speaks to fear, anger and hope, without making some eye-rolling metaphor linking Bush with Faust. There's more power, for me, in the subtlety. It's odd, though, that the music most affecting when it comes to the here-and-now's current events isn't the music of the here-and-now, but that of the distant past...
The folk tradition compels artists to sing about what's going on, I guess. And the legacy of the 70s anti-war songs is felt (and appreciated) to this day. But there's a reason, I think, that people remember the simple chorus of "Give Peace a Chance" and not its convoluted verses. Maybe Zach, John, Bruce and the Beasties have something to learn... (maybe so do I).