After nearly 40 years, John Schumann, lamentably in his view, is best-known for his role in the Adelaide socio-political folk-rock band Redgum. The members of his band, the Vagabond Crew, persuaded him a couple of years ago to put together a set of Redgum songs to add to their concert offerings.
Michael Atkinson and I wrote most of Redgum’s repertoire and occasionally we would write together. One of our earliest co-writes was “Servin’ USA”, a parody of the Beach Boys’ “Surfing USA”. An undergraduate critique of the role the United States had arrogantly assumed for itself in post-World War II international affairs, this song was a certifiable crowd favourite.
When we were putting together “The Redgum Years” set in mid-2020, “Servin’ USA” was a strong contender. Donald Trump was in the White House, and my first instinct was to update the song, poke fun and make some caustic political observations. However, I found it more than a little challenging. It should have been easy, but it wasn’t.
There is an old saying that if you were not radical in your youth then you have no heart, and if you are not a little more conservative in your later years, then you have no brains.
In recent years I’m starting to wonder whether, in my autumn years, I’m drifting in from the centre-left.
Back in the late ‘70s and early 1980s, Redgum were staunch advocates for an independent Australia. Most politically-attuned people were alive to America’s undue influence on Australia’s affairs and, the economy aside, a tsunami of American culture was crashing on to Australia’s wide-open shoreline.
“We all sing like Americans, playing rock ‘n’ roll….”
Where necessary, updating most of the Redgum songs was pretty easy. Other songs, like “Peter the Cabby”, were simply historical pieces, but they earned their place, nonetheless.
The effectiveness of a parody like “Servin’ USA” relies on knowledge and beliefs held in common. On reflection, I suspect a lot of us neither know nor care that American investors have significant shareholdings in our four big banks. Woolworths, Rio Tinto and BHP similarly.
Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, American multinational companies were easy targets. Their very names were pejorative. US ownership of Australia’s company and resources is still an issue, but lurks behind an opaque curtain of convoluted company and private equity structures.
Back when we were putting together the Redgum Years set, Putin, shirt on and shirt off, was flexing his muscles. China was very much less a trading partner and more of a neighbourhood bully. Kim Jong Un was still mouthing off and firing rockets into other people’s backyards.
This was before Ukraine and Gaza. Even then, and despite an abhorrence of foreign ownership, I found myself wishing for an actual “leader of the free world”. Instead, there was a patently dishonest, massively incompetent, narcissistic imbecile occupying the White House.
In 2024, when I look north to China under Xi Ping and then I watch my grandchildren playing on the lawn, I find myself drawn to the idea of a leading world power with a commitment to freedom and democracy, however self-interested that commitment might be.
As I write this, Trump is neck and neck in the polls for the November election. Despite any number of civil and criminal prosecutions and imprisonment as a very real possibility, it’s possible that Trump could be elected for a second term.
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The “New York Times” is a centrist journal of record demonstrably, and to its eternal credit, committed to Trump’s defeat in November. Last year, the NYT did a survey that revealed a vast number of Americans think that their democracy is under threat from Trump and MAGA but are unable or unwilling to resist.
There is an argument to suggest that if democracy is to survive, there needs to be a critical mass of it around the world – one of the most dominant global cultures. But if democracy is allowed to wither on the vine in the so-called “Land of the Free”, what hope is there for democracy in smaller, less influential countries when the fascists come?
It’s also a little worrying when friends return home from the States reporting that the once indisputable world power is in evident decline. They describe thousands of people living on the streets, infrastructure sliding into Third World decay, deep social divisions and way too many ignorant people carrying guns.
The internet is replete with videos of ordinary Americans swearing blind allegiance to a bloke who, when President, shut down the government, separated Mexican kids from their parents at the border, argued for the ingestion of bleach as a cure for Covid, and urged thousands of his supporters to storm the Capitol Building because he lost the election. Five people died. Just imagine if that happened on the forecourt of Parliament House in Canberra.
Climate change, Gaza and an explosive Middle East, Ukraine, the mindless exploitation of the planet, a distinctly uncertain global economy, and Trump. It’s hard not to be the least bit apprehensive.
As a committed progressive, I cringed plenty of times over the years when our national leaders toadied up to the US. Time after time, Australia has followed America into pointless conflicts that were none of our business. The final rationale for expending blood and treasure is always that the ANZUS Treaty commits America to our aid if we are attacked.
We Australians piddle around down here in the back corner of the world, arguing about our defence strategy and which state will get to build our new submarines and frigates. But if an unnamed country in our region has a crack at us, the first thing we’ll pull up on the screen will be the ANZUS Treaty, not the AUKUS Agreement.
I’m no geopolitical expert, but if Trump gets up again, I can see him batting away the ANZUS Treaty as easily as he bats away the phalanx of criminal and civil charges he’s facing currently.
In the international scheme of things, Australian democracy is but a smudge on an agar plate at the back of the incubator. America is hardly going to rush to preserve our democracy if it is unable or unwilling to preserve its own.
However much we want it to be otherwise, Australia can’t defend itself unaided in what is now an unstable region. I don’t like foreign ownership much, but I do like the idea of strategic alliances to defend freedom and democracy, as compromised as they might be.
I tried to make “Servin’ USA” work for times like these – but I couldn’t.
John Schumann & The Vagabond Crew playing: May 2 – Pig and Whistle Main Ridge (Back Tracks), May 3 – Live at the Bundy Bundalaguah (The Redgum Years), May 4 Memo Music Hall St Kilda (Back Tracks), May 5 Memo Music Hall St Kilda (The Redgum Years). All ticket links at https://www.schumann.com.au/
