The Snowman's Waltz
Lyrics:
Look at you dance,
With that snowman.
You don't know that his hat's second hand.
You don't notice that he's bald and fat,
That his skin's white,
His eyes are pitch black.
Don't you go listen to those lies,
About getting old,
And getting wise,
Right now you're close as you're gonna be,
On this side of life,
To Eternity.
So dance before you care if people gather round.
Dance as jagged little shards of water flutter down.
Jesus told an old man he,
Had to grow back to his own infancy,
Before he could see,
What this is all worth,
Before he could recognize,
Heaven and earth.
Chorus.
You don't care if he's straight or a flaming coquette,
With your off tempo waltz,
Botched pirouette.
He won't get promoted to vice president,
With no social connections,
And no documents.
Chorus.
In each era of American history, groups of people have been treated as though they were not "created equal" to the mainstream; Jefferson's proclamation has thus far proved more poetic than prophetic. Four and a half decades ago Martin Luther King Jr. used the phrase to remind America during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom that the country was not living up to its own supposed ideals. In doing so, he echoed Frederick Douglass, who used the same quote in "The meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" to attack slavery [Trodd 97]. The Snowman's Waltz is intended (in the Christmas carol tradition) to protest the alienation of the current incarnations of the American Othered (those currently left out of Jefferson's famous proclamation: the physically "unattractive," homosexuals, paperless immigrants, and the economically impoverished) and to do so in ways that are in the formal and historical traditions of American protest literature.
The song pivots on the Gospel According to Mathew (chapter eighteen line three ), applying the line to modern American culture in the sermonic tradition of Douglass, Malcom X, and King. Since I (as a citizen writer), unlike the three men previously mentioned, do not have accreditation in any organized religion, the application of the line to American prejudice and materialism is also an implicit protest on an antinomian level.
Abolitionists Gerrit Smith, Frederick Douglass, and James McCune Smith were sympathetic to the working poor but focused on slavery since it was the greater evil [Satuffer 137]. I hope this song functions under the same ethical hierarchy. Since chattel slavery and racial discrimination are legally abolished in the United States, the song tackles the less reprehensible societal ill of extralegal discrimination. Unlike Gerrit Smith's protest, however, this is anti-perfectionist and anti-millennialist: rather than becoming perfect, the song's protagonist will grow into imperfection; rather than build or attain an ideal society, the protagonist will be exiled from the ideal elements of childhood via an indoctrination of mainstream socioeconomic values.
The song's played on a steel string acoustic guitar—a staple of American protest folk music (most famously in the hands of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie). Imbued with more historical nuance is the song's percussion, jingling bells, subtly evoking the Christmas carol "Jingle Bells." This not only conjures convoluted holiday spirit for the carol but also alludes to James L. Pierpont (the culturally convoluted composer of "Jingle Bells," who went on to write Confederate war songs [Sheurer 73]). The percussion is intended to (albeit very implicitly) sarcastically challenge both the classism in the verses of Pierpont's carol and the identical socioeconomic ideologies that his later compositions supported. The percussion also includes tolling church bells at the close of each chorus, evoking a small town's call to Christmas mass and also a death knell (as the extolled qualities of the unnamed child dancer will die with age).
Title: The Snowman's Waltz
Medium/genre: American folk music Christmas Carol
Subject of Protest: Mainstream American culture's failure to live up to the Christian ideals of its original settlers and founders, specifically in the culture's judgments based on superficial qualities.
Sources:
Bible. New International Version.
Scheurer, T. (1991). Born in the U.S.A. The Myth of America in Popular Music from Colonial Times. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Stauffer, J.(2001). The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Trodd, Z. (2006). American Protest Literature. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press.
Afterthoughts: Something that I didn't consider while writing and recording this was the meaning of "Children's Song". Does it mean "songs for children" or "songs about children"? If the former, this is an adult song but, say, Justin Bieber is a children's artist, becoming Raffi's less ethical heir.
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amazing vid , music creation and educational (true) writings to back it up......I feel a wee kinship in the "other" you mention impoverished, and an American protester via strings "folk" .....straight to my favs, and thankyou for sub,...very much.
cinderellalifestyle 3 weeks ago
This is really cool man. I find it to be really Pink Floydish from the wall era. I could do freaking wonders with this tune kinda go pink floyd on it and break into an interlude and hit it slow heavy and hard for a powerful song. It's awsome the way it is, but damn this has potential screaming to have so many different things done with it. When a song makes me see so many options it usually means you have done sommething right with your writing and themed it well. Cheers, ,IC.
IcechickenSr 10 months ago
It's hard to say what I love better - the music, your vocals, the lyrics or the video... this is wonderful!
ShortInt 11 months ago
Wonderful song Caru, congratulations
Wikingo
wik1978 11 months ago
Excellent song and video
belisariusorb 11 months ago
good stuff, and I like the video
jethrotjohnson 1 year ago
nice song....!!! beautiful song....!!!
jjucuss 1 year ago
Incredible!
dave8594 1 year ago
to "like" this would not be enough. it was beautiful. you did much more than write a song. as this server gets ready to go sling food to the masses in corporate foodservice america, i can walk with a smile. everytime i look down to write an order, i will remember this song and chuckle to myself, realizing the true importance of life... so thank you.
FreemanMusic1 1 year ago 2
Very cool...Why am I reminded of late beatles ?? :P
QuietValleyRanch 1 year ago