Los Angeles singer-songwriter Mike Stocksdale has a song that evokes that “Dylan goes Electric” word tripping over word with its folk rock fluidity. It’s safe to say that Mike Stocksdale is not a fan of Trump. Oh god, is he so not a fan – he lists some reasons here. Funny thing – it was originally written for Mike’s hip-hop side-project. Yeah – true story.
As Mike explains “This song was a highlight of a hip hop side project I released under the pseudonym $IDEQUEST. I found myself wanting to write protest lyrics, but I couldn’t find a voice for them in my folk/rock/singer-songwriter style. Somehow hip hop became the perfect genre for my response to our nation and administration. I started playing this folksy bluesy version of “Build a Wall” live in 2019 and it quickly became a crowd favourite, so I decided to put it on this record. The lyrics speak for themselves. They’re blunt and political and urge people to view everyone as equals with different stories, not as lesser humans because they were born on a different part of a map with dissimilar upbringings. The song calls out Trump for his crimes and inadequacies while turning his catch phrase, build a wall, back on himself. “
Well – the lyrics may speak for themselves, but let’s just cull a few from the “thank you Donald” part of the song: “yes you might be an illiterate tax-avoiding money laundering crass ass-clown evangelist racist homophobic wind-bag squandering progress and hope with every step that you take but, sir, you exposed half the country for being fake.” Mike Stocksdale – not a Trump fan, but finding some good in the unremitting stream of disasters.
