Ideas become a material force when taken up by masses of people. So, too, can music play a part in inspiring large numbers in the fight for democracy against tyranny. This is true everywhere, no exceptions. Including Iran.
The Pink Floyd classic, “Another brick in the wall” was first released in the UK in 1979, the same year as the Iranian Revolution. It became an anthem for those of us who don’t like constantly being told what to do by our supposed betters, be they teachers, politicians, priests, the ‘Moral Majority’, food fascists or Nature Worshippers.
Befitting a rebellious song, a version released in South Africa during the anti-apartheid struggle was quickly banned there. In 1990, the song was the leitmotif for the bringing down of the Berlin Wall.
And now, thanks to Roger Waters, of Pink Floyd, a band called ‘Blurred Vision’, fronted by two Iranian brothers living in exile in Canada, have released a version of the song as part of Iran’s struggle for freedom. Waters gave them the rights to cover the song.
The title is the same except for the bit in parenthesis, which now says “Hey Ayatollah, leave those kids alone”! It’s on youtube and has proven very popular.
No doubt there will be those who see the song as a pernicious device in the Great Satan’s ‘plan to conquer Iran’. To those Iranians on the ground fighting repression, it will be encouraging and very uplifting, a source of hope. As it is for me, in solidarity with them.
Rock on!
Found this fabulous Pink Floyd original with teacher humiliating a child for his interest in poetry, physical abuse, rote chanting of maths formulae with kids end up burning the school down in a celebratory frenzy.
Interesting how in some respects, although not all, the Pink Floyd message has become the flip side of the current educational problem in the liberal west with teachers trying so hard to be socially relevant and in touch that they have forgotten the purpose of education. Frank Furedi, who is current in Australia, has some good articles about this side of things.
“We don’t need no education”
“We don’t need no thought control”
The thought control takes different forms depending on the where society is at, sometimes taking the form of “liberation” from knowledge as well as authority figures.