The Poet of PBS

The following folk protest song was recently written to protest the commodification of music by U.S. professional musicians and the global corporate music industry.

The Poet of PBS
Was just in it for himself
He took tunes from the Folk
Made money and then sold out.

His manager's got some footage for a commercial promo film
To justify him selling out and his silence while his government killed
So they hired a director and controlled how he did the edits
And the Corporate Rock house artist is now The Poet of PBS.

He moved to his cousin's frat house near a campus in the Midwest
Then impersonated Woody Guthrie and added hip black lyrics
He hung out in the Village and Broadsides taught him to write protest
And the Times man composed the album notes for The Poet of PBS.

With his corporate media backing and his crafty manager
He turned his back on the Folk community to become a millionaire
Then he hid in his country mansion, while Vietnam was wrecked
And cash or drugs destroyed the soul of The Poet of PBS.

Forty years of artistic failure followed his creative moral youth
Forty years of defensiveness, forty years of obscuring truth
And when his tour has ended and they write his epitaph
They'll say: "The rebel poet became The Poet of PBS".