This has been a fun project and a first for "Make me a Commentator!!!" We have set up a selection of classic protest tracks for you to listen to and enjoy. Below is a link to Rhapsody which is a music service set up by Real and other people apparently. They now have quite a bit of music (as opposed to when these counter Napsters started when you basically had the $.99 bin of music to pick from). Anyway if you have Rhapsody you can click on the link below and listen to the set.
Protest Songs on Rhapsody
And here's the track listing.
Pulp - Common People “I said pretend you've got no money, / she just laughed and said, / "Oh you're so funny." / I said "yeah? / Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here.” – This is a song that I discovered fairly recently, though it came out back in 1995, I guess. But this is probably the best song on social class that I can think of (with the possible exception of John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero.”) Plus it’s damn fine tune and funny as hell. From Hits.
Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers “Look what's happening out in the streets!” I still don’t know if we are meant to take this seriously or not. It is, however, the classic acid rock revolution song. From Volunteers
U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday “How long Must We Sing this Song?” This was one of the first political songs that really sunk in when I was back in high school. I didn’t pick up on the references to Ireland, but I did pick up on the angry despair in the line quoted above. From Under a Blood Red Sky.
Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. “Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville / Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and / women will not care if Dick finally gets down with / Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people / will be in the street looking for a brighter day.” This is a classic revolution song that everybody sort of knows (at least the title, anyway). I first heard Gil Scott Heron on the Underworld “Back to Mine” album (the track was B-Movie) and was impressed; and then put one and one together and went looking for his other stuff. From Pieces of a Man.
The Clash - The Guns of Brixton, “His game is called surviving.” Continuing in the paranoid revolutionary vibe, here’s the Guns of Brixton by the angry Clash. It beat out “London Calling” (which I love, but decided was not direct enough) and “Know Your Rights” (which was the song that I loved as angry teenager, but hasn’t aged as well as “The Guns of Brixton.)" From London Calling.
A3 - Mao Tse Tung Said, “I will fight. Let them hear it in the night” The quotation that opens this song is, as you probably know, from the Reverend Jim Jones. Revolution doesn’t always work out the way you expect it to. The other one I might have used here was the Beatles “Revolution” but decided I liked this one better (and because I’m using Rhapsody “Revolution” wasn’t available). From Exiles on Coldharbour Lane.
Public Enemy - Night of the living Basheads. “And brothers try to get swift an' / Sell to their own, rob a home / While some shrivel to bone / Like comatose walkin' around” Really didn’t consider any other Public Enemy Song; this one still sounds as urgent as it did when it was penned. Largely, I suppose, because the issues haven’t really changed. From 20th Century Masters - Public Enemy
Rage Against the Machine - Guerilla Radio. “It has to start somewhere / It has to start sometime / What better place than here / What better time than now.” This was originally The Ghost of Tom Joad, which I really like as well. But decided that Guerilla Radio was more concise and direct. Rage Against the Machine is the most important political band of the 1990s. From the Guerilla Radio single.
Wyclef Jean (with Prodigy of Mobb Deep) - Rebel Music. “You get yours and I get mine and we’ll help each other through the bad times” – This song had a lot of competition. Obviously in doing this I wanted to hit certain artists and certain genres and certain time frames, and one of them was modern hip-hop. So I put a lot of songs in the hopper and this one and “Rock the Nation” by Spearhead kept popping out on top. I finally went with Rebel Music, but Rock the Nation is a very cool song as well. From The Preachers Son.
Joan Baez - We Shall Overcome. “Deep in my heart, I do believe” This is almost more of a prayer than it is a song. I find Joan Baez’s voice alternately annoying and beautiful, but on this one she comes down on the beautiful side. From Joan Baez in Concert.
Bob Dylan - The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll. “Got killed by a blow, lay slain by a cane / That sailed through the air and came down through the room, / Doomed and determined to destroy all the gentle. / And she never done nothing to William Zanzinger.” If this song doesn’t get you angry, you may not be human. It beats out it’s album mates “Masters of War” and “The Times They are A-Changin’” by virtue of it’s specificity and it’s implications. From Live 1975.
Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit. “Pastoral scene of the gallant south, / The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,” The earliest song on the list, and one that Lady Day was always passionate about. Not surprisingly it wasn’t as popular as her less political numbers. I particularly like the powerful trumpet on this version. From the Complete Billie Holiday . . . (Box Set).
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - 49 Bye Byes/ America’s Children. “And I don’t know if I want white America to remember or forget / that Jesus was the first non-violent revolutionary.” This song was selected more for America’s Children than 49 Bye Bye’s, of course. It contains some great piano playing by Steven Stills and powerful lyrics about where the revolution is going. Or where it should have gone. From 4 Way Street.
Pearl Jam - Fortunate Son. “Some folks are born made to wave the flag, / yeah the red, white and blue.” Creedence Clearwater Revival is another band who doesn’t appear on Rhapsody, but this is a pretty credible version of Fortunate Son. From May 28 03 #38 Missoula.
Pete Seeger - Waist Deep in the Big Muddy. “I’m Not Going to point any moral, I’ll leave that to yourself.” My first exposure to this tune came from watching “Smothered” a movie about the censorship troubles of the Smothers Brothers TV shows. Among the many things censored on that show was a performance of this song by Pete Seeger. So when it came time to look at Seeger, an artist I am not as familiar with, but one who clearly is important in the history of protest music, I found this one, loved it and stuck with it. From Waist Deep in the Big Muddy and Other Love Songs.
Marvin Gaye - What’s Going on?. “You see, war is not the answer / For only love can conquer hate.” This one beat out “Exhuming McCarthy” by REM which was a song I have had more of a history with (R.E.M. remains on my top four or five bands ever). But at the end I had to give the nod to Marvin Gaye. From What's Going On?
The Byrds - Draft Morning. “Take my time this morning, no hurry to learn to kill” A deceptively beautiful song; the subject of some strong arguments between David Crosby and his former band mates. Still once you realize what’s going on, well, the song has some teeth. From The Notorious Byrd Brothers.
The Police - Driven to Tears. “Seems that when some innocent die all we can offer them is a page on some magazine.” – It’s hard to do an album of political songs without Sting, and he’s never cut harder or deeper than on this track. Truthfully most of his songs are so tightly and deeply produced, you usually miss the forest for the trees (the other exception being “Fragile”) From Zenyetta Mondetta.
Sinead O’Conner - The Lamb’s Book of Life. “Out of hopelessness we can come / If people just believe it can be done.” This is undoubtedly on of the tracks that will have most of you scratching your heads. I don’t know if you can sum up what rebellion, revolution or protest means with one song or with one sentence. The truth is that revolutions often don’t work or bring around a set of conditions a lot like the ones that just left. If there is going to be a revolution (of any sort), what will make this one any different than the ones before? Perhaps the only real revolutions are the ones we make as individuals. From Faith and Courage.
Bob Marley - Redemption Songs “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery / None but ourselves can free our minds” – I considered both No Woman No Cry and Get up Stand up but ended up with this track as the ideal closer. There’s a line from an old Love and Rockets song (actually the title of the song as well) called“Be the Revolution There it is. From Legend.
Other songs that almost made the cut include "Working Class Hero" by John Lennon, "Talking About a Revolution" by Tracy Chapman (both unavilable on Rhapsody, unfortnately), "War" by Edwin Starr (which is ultimately a bit annoying, which is why they usually use 30 seconds of it), "Exhuming McCarthy" by REM, "Rock the Nation" by Spearhead (both mentioned above), and "One by One" by Chumbawumba (a nice pro labor song but a bit obscure I decided. Anyway enjoy the list; be back later with some commentating.
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