UNSONGS

Kate Bush was only 22 years old when she released Army Dreamers in 1980. In the song, she takes the perspective of a grieving mother who laments the loss of her son. He has been sent to war at young age, and returns home in a coffin. The mother sings about all the things he could have done with his life:

Was Army Dreamers indeed blacklisted? BBC never commented on the issue.

Izhar Ashdot mentions real names, real places, and in a language that is familiar to all Israelis. The opening words of the song leaves no doubt:

The sharp words in A Matter of Habit were met with praise, but also with criticism. It was argued that the song was an attempt to delegitimise the state of Israel and its defense forces. Israeli government member Naftali Bennett claimed that “this song is going to go straight to the Hezbollah (...) because this is exactly the kind of ammunition our enemies need.”

A few weeks after the release, Ashdot was invited to perform at the Army Radio station Galatz, considered to be one of the most liberal radio stations in the country. But even as the musicians were tuning their instruments, the station commander called off the performance. He would not have A Matter of Habit played on his wavelength.

For the liberal station Galatz to censor a song was already unthinkable, but to censor a song by the respected and loved Izhar Ashdot was outright shocking. In the wake of the incident, the radio station issued a statement announcing that “Army Radio, as a station of soldiers, where many soldiers perform their military service, should avoid celebrating a song that demonises those soldiers”.

Ashdot himself disagreed that the song was primarily political. To an Israeli TV station, he stated that “I have a problem with calling something a protest song or a political song. This song talks about what happens to our kids when they enter the army.”

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Sources
Emily Hauser “A Matter of Habit”
World PRI “Song Banned from Israeli Army Radio Galatz”
A Matter of Habit quote from the official translation by Uni Henis.

Oh my father, I am Joseph is characteristic of Darwish’s poetry. The poem is Darwish’s rendition of the Quranic verse about Joseph, son of Jacob, the youngest of 12 brothers. He dreams that he will one day become a great king. Upon hearing this, his brothers get furious, and scorns Joseph for his ridiculous vision.

In Darwish’s poem, the story of Joseph is an allegory of the rejection of the Palestinian people. Joseph asks why his brothers hate him so much, and what he has done to deserve their wrath. In the last lines of the poem, he recalls his own dream, with words quoted vaguely from the Quranic verse:

In 1995, the Lebanese composer and oud player Marcel Khalife set music to the poem about Joseph and released it as part of his album, The Arabic Coffeepot. Khalife had grown up in Amchit, a Christian village outside Beirut, where the psalms from the local church would often blend with the sound of the Muslim call to prayer. Khalife’s song incorporated both these musical styles, making Joseph’s story into a hymn for both religions.

Shortly after however, Khalife found himself faced with criminal charges, accused of blasphemy and of insulting Islam. It was the quote from the Quran which had upset Muslim clerics, who argued that singing verses from the Quran was “absolutely banned and not accepted”. Khalife was eventually found innocent in a Lebanese court.

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Source
Freemuse and Deeyah Khan “Listen to the Banned”

Later that evening, a video appeared on Youtube under the header “Punk Prayer: Holy Mother, Chase Putin Away!”. The video contained footage from the spectacle in the church, accompanied by a noisy punk song. The lyrics were aimed directly at Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox church, and called attention to his increasingly close ties to president Vladimir Putin. Kirill had openly supported Vladimir Putin’s re-election, calling his reign “a miracle from God”. Pussy Riot’s description of the patriarch was merciless:

Within a few days, the video went viral. Pussy Riot made the headlines in newspapers and media outlets across the whole world, who reported enthusiastically about their performance and their outspokenness against the Russian government.

A few days later, three members of Pussy Riot were arrested and charged with hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. Throughout the following trial, they maintained that they were sorry if they had offended anyone with their song: “‘The Lord’s Shit’ is our evaluation of the situation in the country. This opinion is not blasphemy”, they insisted.

Three of Pussy Riot’s members were sentenced to 2 years in penal colony for their performance of Punk Prayer.

Even today, the message of the Punk Prayer remains disputed. According to a survey conducted shortly after the trial, 42 percent of Russians regarded the song as an attack on the Russian Orthodox church and its religious values. Only 19 percent thought of it as a protest against Putin and his influence within the Russian church.

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Source
Jeffrey Tayler “What Pussy Riot’s Punk Prayer Really Said”

Víctor Jara was one of them. The famous singer and theatre director was one of socialist president Salvador Allende’s strongest supporters. He had dedicated his entire career to political activism through a life on stage, as well as behind it.

In Plegaria a un Labrador, Jara displayed both his political dedication and his artistic talent. As in many of his songs, he addresses the Chilean working class. Borrowing the form and style of the Lord’s Prayer, he encourages the people to rise up and realise their own power: “You can steer the course of the river. You, with the seed, sow the flight of your soul.”

Víctor Jara’s commitment to the political left cost him his life. In Estadio Chile, he wrote his last poem on scraps of paper. A few days after the coup, his wife Joan found his dead body on the street. She gave him a swift burial in the poorest part of Santiago’s enormous graveyard, and fled the country along with their four children and Víctor’s original recordings in her suitcase. For nearly twenty years to come, Jara’s music would remain forbidden in Chile.

Today, more than 40 years after his death, Víctor Jara’s songs are again sung in the streets, in factories, in family gatherings, and in concerts by young Chilean artists. Although Víctor Jara was murdered for his music, his songs live on.

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Source
Joan Jara “An Unfinished Song”
Åsta Sirnes - En studie av Victor Jaras musikk i en chilensk kontekst.

Quote from Plegaria a un Labrador from the official translation by Adrian Mitchell.

It could almost be the lyrics of a children’s song, but Quintero wrote Mis tres animales with a double meaning to it. In the song, the parrot represents cocaine, the rooster symbolises marijuana and the goat stands for heroine - three of the most traded drugs across the Mexican-American border. Towards the end of the song, the stable boy warns that his methods are not for everyone:

The narcocorrido genre has been associated with smuggling, money laundering, drug trafficking and corruption. The entire genre is denied airplay on most radio stations, and narcocorridos are banned by law in a number of Mexican states.

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Source
Freemuse “Two more states ban narcocorridos”

Grimstad provided Burgess with newspaper cuttings and reports from the ongoing war in Lebanon, where a young colonel in the Israeli army had stirred controversy by refusing to lead his forces into battle.

The colonel was Eli Geva, commander of the 211th Armor Brigade and a well-respected figure within the Israeli army. Geva had warned against invading the Lebanese capital Beirut, arguing that ground warfare would cost both many Israeli and Arab lives, and would not succeed in destroying the enemy. Geva was eventually discharged from the army.

From his home in Norway, Richard Burgess penned a ballad about Eli Geva – a tribute to the colonel and his courage to say no.

Later, Burgess learned that Birgitte Grimstad had been convinced to remove the song from her concerts. For more than thirty years, the song about Eli Geva would remain unsung.

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Sources
NRK P2 Radiodokumentaren “Jakten på Eli Geva” (Norwegian)
The New York Times “Israelis Dismiss Officer Opposed to Beirut Drive”

Viet Khang was 34 years old and living in My Tho, a small city in southern Vietnam, far away from the most serious turmoil. Through internet forums and amateur footage on Youtube, he received news about the demonstrations.

Enraged, he wrote two songs where he criticised the government, and urged the people to continue protesting, both against China’s aggression and against the lack of action from the Vietnamese leaders:

A few weeks after, Viet Khang was arrested and charged with “propaganda against the socialist republic of Vietnam”. He was eventually sentenced to 4 years in prison and 3 years of house arrest in My Tho.

While in prison, his wife filed for divorce and left together with their 5-year-old son. When he was released, Khang had no family, no job and no home, and had to serve the period of house arrest in his mother’s place. Still, he did not regret having written the songs. “I spoke the truth. That is why the party is so afraid of me, because deep down they know that I was speaking the truth.”

The border dispute between China and Vietnam remains unresolved.

In between his writings, Fellman noted the words of a Sami song, Suola ja noaidi - “The Thief and the Shaman”. The text describes the meeting between two cultures, represented by a Sami shaman - a noaidi - and a Christian priest. The noaidi complains about the scarcity of food in the area following the Norwegian colonisation. The priest arrogantly replies that no one owns the ground on which they stand.

After a while, their conversation develops into a verbal battle where the shaman scorns the intruder for his lack of knowledge and respect for local customs. In the end he gives the priest a final warning: “I still have power over you. I will drive you away!”

The conflict is never resolved in the song, and in many respects, the battle between the two has continued ever since. Today, the Sami are a stateless people, scattered and divided across Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. After centuries of cultural assimilation, the Sami languages are considered endangered, and much of the Sami culture has been lost, destroyed and forgotten. In later years however, many young Samis have showed a renewed interest in their cultural heritage.

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Sources
Henry Väre “Jacob Fellman, the botanising priest” (2011)
Harald Gaski “Med ord skal tyvene fordrives”
Suola ja noaidi quote from English translation by Thomas DuBois