A Song from Hadestown

Anais Mitchell is a folk singer from Vermont.  In 2010, she released a concept album called Hadestown.  The album told the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in the context of a Depression-era U.S. town.  Over time, Hadestown's audience grew and grew, to the point where it became a full-fledged Broadway show.  Last year, it won the Tony Award for Best Musical, making Mitchell the only woman to single-handedly write a show that won that award.

I'm not here to review the whole show, which is remarkably clever and tuneful.  Instead, I want to focus on one particular song.  Discouraged with her poor economic prospects in a depressed economy, Eurydice goes to the Underworld in the hope of finding prosperity.  When she gets there, she finds that Hades has everyone working all the time on a giant wall.  To explain this phenomenon, Mitchell has written a folk song that does a remarkable job of capturing the logic of modern capitalism -- which puts enormous pressure on everyone to work so that they can get more work.  I've long been surprised that we don't see more protest art about modern capitalism, but Mitchell has given a strong entry here with a number that echoes "Where Have All the Flowers Gone."  She has also shown that when you are writing English, do not underestimate the power of words with only one syllable.

"Why We Build the Wall" takes the form of a call-and-response between Hades and the Dead.  The next time you are called into a meeting on business development, you might want to think about this song:

Why do we build the wall
My children, my children?
Why do we build the wall?

Why do we build the wall?
We build the wall to keep us free
That's why we build the wall
We build the wall to keep us free.

How does the wall keep us free
My children, my children?
How does the wall keep us free?

How does the wall keep us free?
The wall keeps out the enemy
And we build the wall to keep us free
That's why we build the wall
We build the wall to keep us free.

Who do we call the enemy
My children, my children?
Who do we call the enemy?

Who do we call the enemy?
The enemy is poverty
And the wall keeps out the enemy
And we build the wall to keep us free
That's why we build the wall
We build the wall to keep us free.

Because we have and they have not
My children, my children
Because they want what we have got.

Because we have and they have not
Because they want what we have got
The enemy is poverty
And the wall keeps out the enemy
And we build the wall to keep us free
That's why we build the wall
We build the wall to keep us free.

What do we have that they should want
My children, my children?
What do we have that they should want?

What do we have that they should want?
We have a wall to work upon
We have work and they have none

And our work is never done
My children, my children!
And the war is never won!

The enemy is poverty
And the wall keeps out the enemy
And we build the wall to keep us free
That's why we build the wall
We build the wall to keep us free
We build the wall to keep us free.


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