Take a look at this example of using music to stir a people to once again take pride in their own unique culture.
At the end of the video, notice the crowd of young fans clapping in unison and singing along. Imagine something similar with Southerners celebrating genuine Southern culture (not the Hollywood redneck version). That’s a powerful image that we need to harness for our own.
Lyrics to Roots, by the English band, Show of Hands:
Now it’s been 25 years or more
I’ve roamed this land from shore to shore
From Tyne to Teign, or Severn to Thames
From moor to vale, from peak to fen
Played in cafes, pubs and bars
I’ve stood in the street with my own guitar
But I’d be richer than all the rest
If I had a pound for each request
For ‘Duelling Banjos’, ‘American Pie’
It’s enough to make you cry
‘Rule Britannia’, or ‘Swing low…’
Are they the only songs we English know?
Seed, bark, flower, fruit
They’re never gonna grow without their roots
Branch, stem, shoot
They need roots
After the speeches, when the cake’s been cut
The disco’s over and the bar is shut
At christening, birthday, wedding or wake
What can we sing ’til the morning breaks
When the Indians, Asians, Afro-Celts
It’s in their blood, below their belt
They’re playing and dancing all night long
So what have they got right that we’ve got wrong?
Seed, bark, flower, fruit
They’re never gonna grow without their roots
Branch, stem, shoot
They need roots and
Haul away boys, let them go
Out in the wind and the rain and snow
We’ve lost more than we’ll ever know
‘Round the rocky shores of England
We need roots
And a minister said his vision of hell
Is three folk singers in a pub near Wales
Well, I’ve got a vision of urban sprawl
There’s pubs where no-one ever sings at all
And everyone stares at a great big screen
Overpaid soccer stars, prancing teens
Australian soap, American rap
Estuary English, baseball caps
And we learn to be ashamed before we walk
Of the way we look, and the way we talk
Without our stories or our songs
How will we know where we come from?
I’ve lost St. George and the Union Jack
That’s my flag too and I want it back
Seed, bark, flower, fruit
Never gonna grow without their roots
Branch, stem, shoot
We need roots
Haul away boys, let them go
Out in the wind and the rain and snow
We’ve lost more than we’ll ever know
‘Round the rocky shores of England
We need roots…
This brought tears to my eyes. By all I’ve read about current events in Britain, these people HAVE lost more than they’ll ever know and will likely never recover. Thanks for posting this. It’s very, very powerful.
I wish I had the musical talent to do something like this for Southern culture. The music and lyrics have been going through my mind since I first listened to this quite a while ago. I started writing down ideas for Southern lyrics – perhaps someday I will have enough to actually do something with it.
It is a real privilege to have you join us here. The Survival Mom is on my daily reading list (I use Google Reader for my Blog reading), and I would encourage anyone interested in building a more self-sufficient lifestyle (something strongly advocated by the Southern Agrarian movement of the 1930’s) to make The Survival Mom a regular stop on your reading list.
This song is definitely a tear-jerker. But you are right about Southerners celebrating our culture, Hollywood or Nashville would probably get involved and find a way to mess it up. The Hollywood version would show a bunch of dumb, drunk rednecks. and Nashville would show a bunch of anorexic male models with anorexic female models in Abercrombie and Fitch “rugged” clothing in a barn (or bar) around a campfire dancing and drinking together. I’m scared if our movement for Southern culture independence gets too big it would be co-opted by fake southerners (i.e. Taylor Swift) who have a messed up view of the South because of what they’ve seen on CMT or GAC.
I from NC born and raised (still live here) and I guard my Culture with fierce jealously in the face of yankee invasion. This is the only way it will survive. Southerners have to get serious if we want to exist 50 or even 20 years from now