The Clash's "Straight to Hell," is a political song about the Vietnamese women and children who were not allowed Visa to the US after American soldiers were told they could bring their family back home. Please pick out a line from the song and describe how it is meaningful to you. Then, I would like you to discuss whether or not this progressive method- looking at rock/rap music as a form of poetic verse- is too controversial in the classroom.
The Clash Straight To Hell lyrics
How's about a British jig and reel?
Speaking King's English in quotation
As railhead towns feel the steel mills rust water froze
In the generation
Clear as winter ice
This is your paradise
There ain't no need for ya
Go straight to hell boys
Y'wanna join in a chorus
Of the Amerasian blues?
When it's Christmas out in Ho Chi Minh City
Kiddie say papa papa papa papa-san take me home
See me got photo photo
Photograph of you
Mamma Mamma Mamma-san
Of you and Mamma Mamma Mamma-san
Lemme tell ya 'bout your blood bamboo kid.
It ain't Coca-Cola it's rice.
Straight to hell
Oh Papa-san
Please take me home
Oh Papa-san
Everybody they wanna go home
So Mamma-san says
You wanna play mind-crazed banjo
On the druggy-drag ragtime U.S.A.?
In Parkland International
Hah! Junkiedom U.S.A.
Where procaine proves the purest rock man groove
and rat poison
The volatile Molatov says-
PSSST...
HEY CHICO WE GOT A MESSAGE FOR YA...
VAMOS VAMOS MUCHACHO
FROM ALPHABET CITY ALL THE WAY A TO Z, DEAD, HEAD
Go straight to hell
Can you really cough it up loud and strong
The immigrants
They wanna sing all night long
It could be anywhere
Most likely could be any frontier
Any hemisphere
No man's land and there ain't no asylum here
King Solomon he never lived round here
Go straight to hell boys
The immigrants
ReplyDeleteThey wanna sing all night long
It could be anywhere
Most likely could be any frontier
Any hemisphere
To me, this seems to be saying that it doesn't matter where they are, they just want to be with their family. That the whole American Dream is really just a facade, but they want to come here to be with the ones they love.
I do think that using song lyrics in the classroom for interpreting purposes is controversial, especially in the genres of rock and rap. The language and topics could pose problems, so the songs would have to be very carefully selected. I do think it could be useful if it goes along with a theme in class. It could also be a great way to get students to want to interpret material, in that it seems more appealing than poetry.
ASHLEY
In the generation
ReplyDeleteClear as winter ice
This is your paradise
There ain't no need for ya
Go straight to hell boys
I chose these lyrics because I feel that they symbolize sentiments that could be felt by those who are against people coming to America from other countries for whatever reasons they may have. I have talked with many people from older generations who are more conservative in nature, and they have made comments about immigrants that are too rude to re-state. Bottom line is that they feel that immigrants who come to America are stealing jobs, wasting taxes, and taking advantage of the liberties that Americans have earned. I think that line "there ain't no need for ya" would be one of they ways these people feel about immigrants coming to America.
As far as using rap/rock lyrics in the classroom, I feel that it would be inappropriate because of the language that is used. I mean how many rap songs can you find out there where they aren't using the "N" word or calling women bitches or sluts? I feel uncomfortable listening to music like this, so I don't think it would be appropriate to listen to it in a classroom full of impressionable teenagers. I think that there are more constructive ways to talk about prejudice in a class, in a modern way that will set the point straight.
"Kiddie say papa...take me home
ReplyDeleteSee me got...photograph of you."
This part really hit me because it looks at the tragedy from the point of view of the children involved. We rarely think about how these things affected the children who grew up not knowing thier father, or being told that they didn't have a father.
I think that we have to be careful how we approach really touchy subjects like wartime casualties or causes for wars in the classroom, especially ones as recent as Viet Nam. There may be students whose parents were involved in this war so we don't want to act like we know what it was acutally like to be there, experiencing those horrors. It's important to expose students to the complete picture of things like this, but we have to be very conscientious about how we go about doing it.