Revisiting The Protest Song: Part 1
The idea for this post has been brewing for a while - well, since the irrepressible Neil Young unleashed an entire album of protest songs i.e Living With War. The protest song is definitely a musical genre of its own, and while many musicians dabble in it, others such as afrojuju king, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and brit-folkie Billy Bragg built their entire careers (or most of it at least) around it. Of course, protest is as natural to humans as ugliness is to aliens, and musical expressions of protest cut accross various themes, depending on what is sucking the musician's ass at the time of writing and performing the piece. Some protest songs have become staples of pop culture (e.g. "Give Peace A Chance", "Blowin' In The Wind") and are marshalled to support all sorts of protest movements.Given that there is a million of these songs in circulation, it is not possible (obviously!) for a lowly blogger like me to do any justice to a retrospective on the subject. However, when I started thinking about it, I turned to the fantabulous Wikipedia for some guidance on the subject. Of course, true to its brilliance, wiki had a fantastic list of protest songs arranged by themes out there for geeks and charlatans to explore. This post began to take shape from there and I felt the best way to do this was to adopt the wiki method and post songs in several parts drawn from the various themes as were available im my music catalogue. For the first part, I have chosen themes that are relevant in our world today. More to come. Enjoy.
Politics, War, Right & Government
This Land Is Your Land Bob Dylan
When The President Talks To God Bright Eyes
With God On Our Side Bob Dylan
We Shall Overcome Bruce Springsteen
Sorrow, Tears and Blood Fela Anikulapo Kuti
Margaret On The Guillotine Morrissey
Let's Impeach The President Neil Young
Irish Blood, English Heart Morrissey
Fight The Power Public Enemy
God Save the Queen Sex Pistols
Talkin' Bout A Revolution Tracy Chapman
Abortion
Mandy Goes To Med School The Dresden Dolls
Bodies Sex Pistols
America
America Tracy Chapman
I'm So Bored With The U.S.A. The Clash
Sixteen Military Wives The Decemberists
America Is Not The World Morrissey
Animal Rights & Meat Consumption
Shock The Monkey Peter Gabriel
Nailing Descartes To The Wall/(Liquid) Meat Is Still Murder Propagandhi
Meat Is Murder The Smiths
Disgustipated Tool
Drugs, Drug Abuse & Drug Culture
Doctor Robert The Beatles
Captain Jack Billy Joel
Koka Kola The Clash
Cocaine Eric Clapton
Feminism
Respect Aretha Franklin
Dress PJ Harvey
Censorship
Rock The Casbah The Clash
Radio, Radio Elvis Costello
Gay Rights
Poison Oak Bright Eyes
Shoplifters Of The World Unite The Smiths
posted by Esquirrel, yo! at 22.6.06
10 Comments:
Not having a crack, but a lot of people get the wrong end of the stick with that sex pistols track:
http://www.johnlydon.com/q05.html
Thanks Alex for the link-illuminating. I guess the song is really just about a miscarriage gone wrong. I have reposted it here to provide context:
Q Magazine: When I hear the Sex Pistols' Bodies ["Bodies! ...Screaming fucking bloody mess! It's not an animal! It's an abortion!"] it sounds like you have a horror, a fear of female bodies.
John Lydon: No. Quite the opposite. No, no. Early on I had an acceptance of what life really is. We lived in two rooms and we had an outdoor toilet. My mum had a miscarriage. And this isn't against my mum, but - this could have been a brother or a sister for me to play with and I had to flush it down the toilet. I mean, that strikes you. And that's like an abortion. I'm not anti- or pro-abortion. Every woman should have the choice when they face it. But that was a grim Steptoe & Son world. My mum was heartbroken. And if you construe that as being anti-abortion, then you're a silly cu... sausage.
I was also thinking of Bob's "Masters of War". Almost better is Mudhoney's update on the theme: "Hard On for War" from their new album. Mark Arm is the #1 under-rated poet in rock.
a good one for feminism is Hot Topic by Le Tigre.
"Loyal To My Sorrowful Country" by Ted Leo is good too.
Also, the decemberists song is incomplete...it only goes a minute and a half
Thanks Matt...an upload error. Will fix it after I finish watching Italy demolish Ukraine in the World Cup quarter finals (against my prayers!).
What about "Dear Mr. President" or "American Idiot"?
Mainstream and overplayed, I know, but still isn't it impressive that top 40 artists are releasing this stuff too?
Another for drug use/abuse:
Lynyrd Skynyrd (the correct spelling, btw) - "The Needle And The Spoon"
good choice of songs, many apt at this time of oppresion by america and israel.
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