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For anyone who might be interested, Billy Bragg has a good dissenter's
version (albeit more nostalgic than pomo) of Blake's "Jerusalem" on a 1990
Elektra EP. Also included: The Internationale (the title track);
I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night; The Marching Song of the Covert Battalions;
Nicaragua, Nicaraguita; The Red Flag; My Youngest Son Came Home Today.
<P>In the liner notes, Bragg writes: "My belief that 'Jerusalem' is a left-wing
anthem has got me into arguments with public schoolboys at Eton and Trotskyist
newspaper sellers in Trafalgar Square. Nevertheless, I remain convinced
that this song does not belong alongside 'Rule Britannia' and 'Land of
Hope and Glory' at the last night of the Proms.
<P>"William Blake was a radical and a visionary. A friend of Thomas
Paine, he was harassed by the Establishment of the day, eventually being
arrested for sedition. Written at the time of the Industrial Revolution,
I believe this song is an attack on the new breed of capitalists that Blake
saw in his midst. It asks how can the morals of Christ be compatible
with the morality of exploitation, both of people and the environment."
<P>Good stuff! According to Amazon, the EP is still in print, for
about $10.
<P>Michael Hoover wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>> On Fri, 4 Jun 1999 01:51:13 -0400 curtiss_leung@ibi.com
writes:
<BR>> > "Dark satanic mills" was Blake...I don't
have a clue as to
<BR>> >Blake's
<BR>> > politics.
<BR>> >
<BR>> Politically, Blake was a radical. He was part of a circle of
friends
<BR>> that included Thomas Paine. During the 1790s they were noted
<BR>> for their sympathy to the French Revolution and were subject
<BR>> to persecution from Pitt's government because of it (Paine had
<BR>> to eventually flee from Britain to avoid imprisonment).
<BR>>
<BR>>
Jim Farmelant
<P>Blake was also influenced by William Godwin's _Political Justice_ and
<BR>was one of English Romantics who could accept neither Christianity
<BR>nor British utilitarianism...finding industrialism and its values of
<BR>acquisitiveness and competition repugnant, he looked to fantasy and
<BR>transcendence for clues to protect self from alienation & exploitation.
<BR>..a pastoral utopian, he lived a pretty solitary life with the exception
<BR>of the period that Jim F refers to above when his circle of friends
-
<BR>including Godwin, Paine, Richard Price, Joseph Priestly, Mary
<BR>Wollstonecraft - had a relationship with the London Corresponding
<BR>Society that promulgated radical ideas influenced by the Jacobins...
<P>Michael Hoover (who is, admittedly, a bit out his range on this matter
<BR>and welcomes comments/corrections/criticism)</BLOCKQUOTE>
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