When music legends dabble in immigration
The legendary Mick Jagger protested Britain’s unceremonious exit from the EU (‘Brexit’) through his 2017 soundtrack ‘England Lost.’
It is often said that music is the language of the soul.
For this reason, immigration, like any other controversial subject, is a popular theme among musicians, especially those who consider music as a gospel for change.
Among the first immigration-themed songs in the modern era was Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song,” a 1970 heavy-metal tune about Nordic warriors and their seabased journeys of conquest across the continent.
The song was penned by lead vocalist Robert Plant after the band’s concert in Reykjavik, Iceland was almost canceled due to a civil servants’ strike, forcing them to perform at a university venue instead, where the impromptu gig generated an unexpected phenomenal reception from the youthful audience.
(As a side note, the band’s classic masterpiece, “Stairway to Heaven,” was never about immigration despite its title’s oracular allusion to
heavenly migration.) After the Led Zep track came Crosby and Nash’s 1972 “Immigration Man,” a satirical folk-rock piece about Graham Nash’s bitter encounter with an overly officious US border officer. He was flying from Vancouver under a working visa when he was subjected to an embarrassingly lengthy inspection at a US port of entry.
He summed up his disgust by dubbing the culprit “Irritation Man” in the final verses of the song.
Paul Simon followed a year later with “American Tune,” in which the Statue of Liberty and the Mayflower were made part of the song’s poignant lyrics about the travels and dreams of “people far away from home” and the uncertainties pervading America at the time.
The diminutive singer composed the song without Art Garfunkel’s customary collaboration, due to their controversial split a few years earlier.
Almost a decade later, the airwaves were inundated with Neil Diamond’s 1980 hit single “America,” which described the immigrants’ unique experiences in the country, a special tribute to the crooner’s grandparents who immigrated from Russia and Poland in the early 1900s.
The song reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 one year after its release.
When the new wave genre invaded the eighties, the Irish band U2 and Bono released an activist album (‘War’) in 1983, including a song called “The Refugee.” It tracked the story of a pretty young Irish girl who was waiting for someone to take her to the “promised land” — America.
On the heels of the U2 release was “Illegal Alien,” a 1984 single from Genesis (with Phil Collins) about an undocumented Mexican trying to enter America.
The British band wrote the song after being given a runaround during a re-entry trip to the US. However, critics pounced on the song’s lyrics for their racist undertones despite the song’s original intent as a well-meaning, satirical piece.
Another immigration-themed track, Bruce Springsteen’s “American Land,” debuted in 2006 and conveyed some of the most limpid songwriting images about the plight of immigrants in the US: dream, hard work, and death.
Delivery of the song’s lyrics was deftly made through the trademark macho-style, rock, and rolling dance rhythm of The Boss.
Another rock icon, Sting (formerly of The Police), joined the immigration bandwagon quite belatedly when he penned a song called “Inshallah” in 2016 about the migrant crisis in Europe.
Translated from Arabic, the song’s title exquisitely means: “If it’s God’s will and then it shall be.”
Lastly, the legendary British rocker Mick Jagger protested Britain’s unceremonious exit from the EU (‘Brexit’) through his 2017 soundtrack “England Lost.”
He encapsulated his thoughts by singing: “I’m tired of talking about immigration / You can’t get in and you can’t get out / I guess that’s what we’re all about.”
In a way, that’s what immigration is all about.