Political Prog

I've been thinking if "plastic" has a particular reference to being consumed by material possessions? It's something I seem to remember from the '70s Denmark too.

Hi,

There was, no doubt, a lot of political thinking, and it was mostly clear, and in a funny sort of way, when Guru Guru did a song about it, in the Tango Fango album ... no one really "got it" ... and people still seem to not like that album, or particular piece of music, but it was a satire on the East German/Russian music ... and in the end, it was sort of like ... our God in music was the likes of Chuck Berry/rock'n'roll, not schlagger or anything else. It was a neat statement, though a bit on the weird side, but I have a feeling that many of us "progressive" folks don't take to humor very well, but Mani's take on it was special and far out.

Amon Duul, and Can, for me, are not political, even though they satirize it a few times, with a few songs that obviously make fun of the megalomaniac side of things ... and Made in Germany, certainly does not come off as "political" as much as it comes off as "social" and even "philosophical". There is very little, in Yeti, and Dance of the Lemmings that suggests politics, and Wolf City has that one satirical song, but in Vive La Trance, there is one piece, that is huge ... Mozambique ... but I see it as a commentary on the crusade that invaded Africa and Latin America in search of gold and everything else ... with a church as an excuse, and its acts, specially in Latin America (I don't really know African history much!), were vicious and malicious and very much deceitful. And Apocaliptyc Bore was more about people just getting stoned and not giving a damn anymore, and calling the meaningful side of the earlier days boring ... replaced by ... ???

In general, other than the obvious Floh de Cologne, and a couple others, I don't find them "political" ... more "social" and "philosophical" and this is what the film group was really working on ... Werner Herzog is not exactly political at all, and neither is Wim Wenders, despite his suggestive content now and then, I find is less so. R. M. Fassbinder is not political, but his characters are all "victims" of the social environment they are in, which comes off as slightly oppressive and not helpful.

Neubaten and Terho, I can not speak much for or about ... not having a good translation makes it difficult.

Extending this, TD and KS are not political ... they were too tied up to their own work to worry about politics, and bheir music had a special "freedom" that resonated quite far, and was appreciated a lot. On the writing side of things there were some interesting things, although I can not say they are political ... Peter Handke wrote word plays, where words are the dialogue and the bunch of short plays is just words, no sentences, no paragraphs, and this is the "conversations", which is more against the idea that everything has to have meaning, than otherwise. He went on to work with Wim Wenders and others. Earlier, one of the most political of works, is Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss ... and that one is the most political of all stories and it is massively huge, although it really is more in search of how and why something is political ... "I am the revolution" says Marat ... "You are an idiot that thinks he can change the world" says Sade ... and though a lot of their dialogues are political they take on very strong detail, about a lot of things ... specially if you have the knack for listening ... and getting some of the commentary which is incendiary and highly charged ... but is "safely" guarded and done by inmates of an asylum ... thus they can say anything, and nothing matters! This play is amazing and probably one of the best written in the 20th century, but there is a lot of dialogue in there that will get some folks riled up!

There were some folks in the music area that were a part of different political parties, but I think that after the war, a lot of those parties lost their ability to have any strength or value, until the time came when they were just about completely dissolved and there was less Russian influence, for example. At least one member of the electronic groupings, was a member of the Communist party, but I wonder if he just said that to get people to listen to the music and get attention.

The commune side of things appears to have some political content and aims, but not all of them were in that vein and Renate tells the story when the guy that was now an accused man, showed up at their commune and Renate tells him to get out quick, a very strong suggestion, that at least this commune by AD2 was not exactly politically minded.

I wish I had been able to compose something on this subject, but it likely would take me weeks.