Terrific Protest Songs
Submitted by lbangs on Wed, 04/24/2002 - 05:16
Tags:
- Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ("We're finally on our own... / What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground? / How can you run when you know?")
- Shipbuilding - Elvis Costello ("With all the will in the word diving for dear life / When we could be diving for pearls")
- Masters of War - Bob Dylan ("Even Jesus would never forgive what you do... / I'll stand o'er your grave / Til I'm sure that you're dead")
- Love and Happiness - John Mellencamp ("But the rest of us die on your battle fields / With wounds that fester and bleed / But they never heal")
- If I Had a Rocket Launcher - Bruce Cockburn ("Every time I think about...echoes of the victims' cry / If I had a rocket launcher / Some son of a bitch would die")
- Sign O' The Times - Prince ("Some say a man ain't happy / Unless a man truly dies")
- I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag -Country Joe & the Fish ("Be the first one on your block / To have your boy come home in a box")
- A Change Is Gonna Come - Otis Redding ("It's been a long time coming...)
- I Ain't Marching Anymore - Phil Ochs ("It's always the old to lead us to the war / It's always the young to fall")
- What's Going On - Marvin Gaye ("Mother, mother / There's too many of you crying")
- Mining for Gold - The Cowboy Junkies ("Two years and the silicosis takes hold / And I feel like I'm dying from mining for gold")
- Complain (Part I) - Bob Roberts ("I wanna be rich, I don't have a brain / Give me a handout while I complain")
- I Can Explain Everything - T Bone Burnett ("The genius of France can be seen at a glance... / The French knew how to lynch" - careful, this one is tricky and probably means more than you think upon first hearing!)
- Dear God - XTC ("Your name is on a lot of quotes in this book / Us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look / And all the people you made in your image / Still believing that junk is true...")
- King Heroin - James Brown ("Cause the white horse of heroin will ride you to hell / To hell / Will ride you to hell / Until you are dead / Dead, brother / Dead..." You just gotta hear James Brown sing it.)
Author Comments:
Remember when there was such a thing as the protest song?
Only one per artist, or else Dylan would have several pages to himself.
More as I think of them...
How about Marvin Gaye - What's Going On? and Billy Bragg - Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
Good suggestions! I'll add the Gaye, but I'm pausing a bit on the Bragg to ponder if that is indeed the song I want him represented by - He has several to choose from.
Thanks!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
You are correct Sir! Bragg has several whole albums to choose from. I just love "Start your own revolution and cut out the middle-man".
Uncle Tupelo has some pretty good songs to choose from too, but most of their protest songs are not songs they've written. Coalminers and others from their 3rd album are great.
:) I'm having a very hard time narrowing Bragg down to one song.
I've heard quite a bit Uncle, but not enough unfortunately that any one particular protest song jumps out at me. Any specific suggestions?
Your comment about coalminers, however, has reminded me of The Cowboy Junkies' Mining for Gold, which I shall add to the above list soon.
Thanks!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
I found a page titled, believe it or not, "Greatest 80s Protest Songs." There's a ton (not that most of them are truly great). Do you want the link, or would that spoil the fun? One interesting thing I never knew: "99 Luftballons" is a protest song.
Thanks, Jim. I'm aware of the page, but I have yet found much time to scan it.
I was aware of the protest in Luft, but only since seeing a VH-1 special with the song a few years ago. Who'd af thunk it?
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Is protest against war (worthy as that is) the only topic for protest songs? I don't know what the first two on the list are agin', but the rest seem to be agin' war. How about some with other axes to grind. Popular songs aren't my strong point or I'd suggest some myself.
Another question occurs to me: does a good protest song, in order to be good, have to be agin' something you are agin'?
War protest is certainly not the litmus test for this list. Many of these songs protest a specific war, not war itself, which may sound like hair-splitting but is an important distinction. Additionally, several of these songs only mention war among many other elements being protested - Sign O' the Times, Love and Happiness, What's Going On. Off the top of my head, I don't recall a war reference in A Change Is Gonna Come, and even Sign O' the Times doesn't have an anti-war statment as much as perhaps an anti-nuclear weapons message.
However, since the protest song in rock music was largely born out of the anti-Vietnam war movement, it is to be somewhat expected that many protest songs will be war-related to some degree.
And no, protest songs do not have to agree with my views to qualify here. They must, however, be good enough that even somebody with opposing views can still be somewhat stirred by the song, even if it is to anger against the song. I think the above songs do just that. I almost included a Christian protest song whose sentiments I can relate to but cannot ultimately agree with, but the last verse was simply a bit too corny to place it among the above tunes.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
How about Stevie Wonder's Don't drive drunk, Lennon's Power to the people or the Who's Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere?
By the way, I've replied to your posts on my lists - please read!
Best wishes,
Ed.
I sheepishly admit that I'm not real acquainted with that particular Wonder tune. For Lennon, I've been considering Give Me Some Truth; I'll have to consider Power to the People as well. As for the Who, let me think about it and listen to it again. I confess that I don't usually think of the song as a protest song, so let me spin it a few more times!
Thanks!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Your right, Gimme Some Truth would probably be better as a protest song. As for The Who song, I guess it depends what you mean as a 'protest song', but it would qualify for me.
Thanks for your replies, but I actually meant the I have replied to your replies on my lists! (If that makes any sense at all)!
Best wishes,
Ed.
You were perfectly clear, but I am horribly slow. Forgive me. I'm working on it. :)
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Will Midnight Oil and/or U2 find homes here?
I was already pondering upon U2, but sadly enough, had yet to remember Midnight Oil. Thanks! Both will surely find a home here.
Now, I only have to decide which song...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
great list... my mind is churnin.
off the top of my head, i think ani difranco has some applicable tunes. for war protest, there's "roll with it" which is from the perspective of the soldier's loved ones, and along other political lines, "crime for crime" packs quite a punch against the death penalty. i'm sure there are more--and other artists that will come to mind. i'll be back!
Thanks!
I've only heard around 3 albums by Ani; I'll try to do some research via Audiogalaxy and decide on a song by her to join the ones listed above.
Great suggestion!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
"They Dance Alone", by Sting, off his "...Nothing Like the Sun" album, back in the days when he wasn't peddling his songs to the highest bidder or some lame-talent rap mogul. It protests the brutality of General Pinochet's dictatorship in 1970's-80's Chile. It worked; apparently, the General's government banned the song and the album, so it does show that protest songs do get under some people's skin.