In times like this folks tend to ask, where are the new protest songs? I think they are in the streets, clubs, and bars now, hopefully universities too. Like Gil Scott Heron sings, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (hat tip Mommybrain). I found one current clip worth watching of the WGA strike in action: Union Song – Tom Morello at WGA Rally.
So tonight, please continue submitting any favorites or lessor known songs of protest as we Fight Back in song. Tell us which songs you heard last night that remained in your head today. We are working towards a nearly impossible task of listing our firedog favorites soon.
As always, feel free to chime in with snark, news, or whatever else might be on your mind.
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Ding, Ding… Round Two…
ES!!!
ES!
I posted this last Fri. when you first started talking about protest songs: Michael Franti: Bomb the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICL-4Onk0PA
(Sadly, youtube has removed the version with Sly and Robbie)
Eureka. Bring it, dude!
I posted this last night in Late Night instead of Late Late Night.
Here it is again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..ted”
Pearl Jam (from Nijmegen, Holland on june the 28th 2007)
War, HUH, what is it good for? Today 696 Billion dollars.
Please try to write the name of the song with your youtube links. Thanks.
sorry, i screwed up the link.. here is the real one
Could of had alternative energy figured out for that.
Aw. Makes me think of Steve.
Last night, did anyone post For What Its Worth or War Pigs?
I liked a lot of the responses, mostly liked Ian Hunter’s “Soul of America” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVp91YQ3PeU
The Dylan cuts were interesting, as were the Clash songs
Down by the Riverside(I ain’t gonna study war no more) Sister Rosetta Tharp
That must be Spearhead? I never knew his real name.
Here’s my protest piece. This performance on September 2 in Haines, Alaska, was dedicated to SFC Daniel E. Scheibner, 40, of Muskegon, Michigan. At that time, he was the most recent US soldier killed in this fucking war.
It is called Shards II, a fantasy on Taps, for electronic sound, six instruments and bugle solo. I played the bugle solo.
All in his honor, of course..)
To Steve!
Ding
I love that one. Watch it all the time.
Wow ET, I grew up 20 minutes from Muskegon. Listening now…Fantastic!
Get Up Stand Up for your rights!
ES, Spearhead is the band, often they are billed as Michael Franti and Spearhead. He is an amazing human being, way beyond just being a musician. He’s like 6′4” or something and went to Iraq and Palestine with just his guitar, made a movie of the trip. He has “albums” full of modern relevant material.
Illegal Attacks
I was very surprised nobody posted this one last night.
Crosby Stills Nash Young – Almost Cut My Hair
Amazing! Thanks for that.
I gotta go lay down. Went swimming tonight and my body is yelling
at me. See you guys tomorrow.
nite mary
Always loved what music of his I have heard. Will have to find that Iraq and Palestine trip on DVD.
Sly and the Family Stone, at Woodstock…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO3J5B5CvgA
g’nite mary
Resistance
She looks familiar to me, like someone I saw on tv growing up. I sure like the way she sings.
Here is a new original song:
“Columbia University”an”Jena 6″and Protest song (Jim crow)
Hold On-Union Boys 1944
I wasn’t here last late late nite but rushed through the comments, saw several versions of the classic protest song Blowin’in the Wind, but not this version by Bob Dylan, who I believe wrote it…
And here are the lyrics if anyone is interested.
i’m not feeling so well so i’m off to bed. The Lurking Mod will be watching over ya tonight so if you need anything, just ask him
g’nite all
Here is a long list of songs compiled by readers of Left I on the News three years ago.
And here are many of the songs I’ve posted in audio form only on the blog.
And, last but not least, my own YouTube video of John Fogerty’s “I Can’t Take It No More”
Also, I posted this song prematurely–the night the contest was originally scheduled–saw someone else posted it last night, do I still get credit?
Phil Ochs I ain’t marching anymore
I wish ya a speedy recovery, Ma Cheri! Bonne Nuit!
Hope you don’t have what I had, Suzanne. It’s been over a week and I’m just starting to feel human again. Worst. Cold. Evar.
Sleep well.
Suz, I hope you feel better.
Classic as well as Knocking On Heavens Door. Maybe some posted that and I missed it.
King of hard not to list a million CSNY and Dylan songs.
Here’s my contribution for when you need to vent.
If I Had a Rocket Launcher by Bruce Cockburn.
G’ nite Suz.. Feel better soon.
I’ve been coming home and diving into that NyQuil haze. I lurk a little to keep up, but haven’t been commenting at all. I miss everyone at Late Nite.
Not sure how long I’ll be here tonight, but the lake does a body good.
Here is a new original song:
“Columbia University”an”Jena 6″and Protest song (Jim crow)
nice slide guitar – great lyric!
those antiwar songs from the 60’s, so stirring. “Masters of War” by Bob Dylan.
from 1963, right as the Democratic Party began our involvement in the evil and stupid Vietnam War.
Don’t preen as someone with an antiwar belief system if you are going to vote for a pro-war candidate who promises to occupy Iraq through their first term.
The war is criminal, immoral, and stupid, it is more than a wedge issue to use against the (R)’s, and then continue the bloodshed.
I thought so to. Considering he looks like he’s sitting in a spare room it came across really well.
Buffalo Springfield For what it’s worth Live at Monterey 1967
Here’s another favorite: Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You into Heaven Anymore by the one, the only, John Prine.
Linkin Park – Hands Held High
Aretha Franklin “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.”
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YP4VDbmfi8k
A protest song if I ever heard one.
Wow, that’s intense. And very good.
I think Rangel makes a valid point…
Democrats Blaming Each Other For Failures
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..id=topnews
Here is another protest song by Bob Dylan. Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter said in Rolling Stone magazine that this song influenced his views on social justice.
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
Lyrics
Yes, that’s how it was regarded when it came out. I think you can find undercover songs like that among all people, but it’s been a real African- specialty.
A Change Is Going to Come, Sam Cooke (Flash).
That’s it for me. Good night, folks.
Nite, Neuro! I shall join ya! Aloha Oe!!!
Wade in the Water Voices of Unity Youth Choir
Using spirituals as coded communication:
http://ctl.du.edu/spirituals/Freedom/coded.cfm
That’s beautiful.
I get lost in the YouTubes…
Excellent!
Flag Decal is a great tune. Is it an older prine song?
Fitz!
Keep on Pushing, The Impressions/Curtis Mayfield (YT)
linky
Yes, it’s on his first or second album. Can’t remember which.
This is the toughest trekking couple with an environmentalist blog in the history of the world. They arrived yesterday in Cordova Alaska, on their way from Seattle to Unimak Island in the Aleutians – totally by muscle power!
One of the best blog reads evah! Thanks for the update.
ES, it’s on John Prine from 1971. It was his first album.
He looks like a baby, practically, in the photo on the cover.
That’s beautiful. I love their photos. They ask the right question, up there who knew what was left behind? Until they documented it, of course.
Sweet.
I’m hoping to interview them when they cross the road system. Their main thing is to protest the possible building of Pebble Mine. I know some really, really rugged people who say these two make everyone else look like wimps.
About 10 years ago I went to see Leo Kottke play at a club in Palos Verdes. He told this story and played a song he’d written about it. Can’t find the song but the story is worthy.
Kottke had an annual gig in Romania – some European fan sponsored a tour – and each year a young woman musician, quiet and shy, would chauffeur him around while he was there. She never said much, sat in a chair sipping punch at parties, that sort of thing. The third year he went he noticed she had changed, was more alive and happier and not so shy, so he asked her about it.
She told him that about 20 years before, her politically active father had disappeared one day, just never came home, no word from him at all, no news, no rumors. Poof. Just gone. They raged, they mourned, finally they accepted and went on with their lives, without him. His daughters grew up, his wife never remarried, they were grindingly poor without him.
Then last year, she said, he walked through the door one day, bent and gaunt, almost unrecognizable as their husband and father, not at all sure where he was or why and terrified they were going to pick him up again. The story he told broke their hearts all over again.
For his crimes against the government – speaking out against the murderous Ceausescu – he had been imprisoned in the building across the street from his family, in an apartment facing theirs, for twenty years. Every day he was fed. He and his minders grew old together, all resigned to their roles in this travesty. He had nothing to do every day but sit and peer out the tiny hole in the boarded up window. He watched helplessly over the years as his family sold their few possessions to pay the rent, then watched as his wife and daughters took punishing charwoman jobs just to keep the family together.
Then one day they released him. No explanation, no sorry, dude. He wandered home in a daze. No one could make any sense of the absurd cruelty with which they were treated, for so many years.
How do you live in a world where that happens, is for certain periods commonplace? Eastern Europe, Chile, El Salvador. Iraq. I protest.
God, how awful. If anyone had any doubts as to why Ceausescu and his wife were publicly hung, this is a big freakin clue.
Coca-Cola Cowboy Mel Tillis
I protest that we’ve had a Coca-Cola cowboy in the Oval Office.
One has to wonder if the family felt in some strange way, his presence.. they had to sense something.
I hope you do get to interview them! They sound fascinating.
Del Amitri “Nothing Ever Happens”
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FggdVPLDFMQ
A favorite of mine for years, although a tad depressing…
“The needle returns to the start of the song and we all sing along like before.”
Good night, firepups. See everyone tomorrow.
newtnusr sent me this link wanting to share it but thinking it might not qualify as a protest song and someone posted it last night..
I keep going back to it.
Pink- Dear Mr President – Live
Hope you feel better, OtherWA.
That’s a wonderful protest song. And thank you, ES, I’m starting to feel better. A few more days and I should be my usual self again. :)
Since I am in my early forties I grew up with Leo Kottke. My folks and their friends would drop everything when he was coming to town.. just like they would for Emmy Lou and Leon Russell etc. That’s when they all still played the small clubs.
Last time I saw Leo was in Berkeley with Michael Hedges.
I’ve always thought it was why mama never remarried. {{ugh}}
May I suggest “All you Fascists Bound to Lose ” by Woody Guthrie I would love to hear an angry Punk Remake of this song.
With the Mussolini quote “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of State and Corporate power” flashing in the background alternating with pictures of Bush.
I hate to complain, but it’s a bit disheartening to keep seeing this question continue to be posed a couple of years after posting perfectly good modern protest songs in threads here. It kinda reminds me of the old “where are the female bloggers” from a few years back. But just to add to the Pink song above:
Green Day – “Holiday”
Eminem – “Mosh”
Chumbawamba – “Jacob’s Ladder (Not In My Name)”
Leo Kottke came to my college – George Mason – to play when it was four buildings and a mud parking lot. The sound system was terrible and he got up after one song and said “Call me when you have a real sound system” and left. He came back the following weekend and gave a great concert.
So it appears the Dems are going to cave on funding the war. It looks like they have caved on the energy bill. Plus they couldn’t get health care passed either. Now then what has Nancy’s being nice approach has got us?
Nothing but more war.
Only one artist on youtube with that song. The great Billy Bragg.
No Songs here – just the protest:
http://whoarethepeopleinyourne…..hbors.html
I love it when people get it.
the Late Late Nite complaints department is always open to those such as yourself who bring answers. *g*
South Africa during apartheid, anything is protest, even Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes.
Simon got protested for going to Sun City, but what a shame it would have been if this concert had never happened.
Dude! Nice to see you here. How’s the road treating you?
Which is great in the long run because unless Bush can win the war, fix the economy and help the people losing their homes the GOP is walking into an election nightmare.
Hilary is going down in Iowa because we don’t think she’s Left enough, Obama is trying squeak by but since this contest does not look like a shoe in the longer the primaries last the more voters will have time to examine his record.
Heck they will examine everyone’s record and only by going even more left will the candidates be able to win. Because I expect Bush to do nothing about our nation’s problems and that will just make voters angrier and wanting of more change than they do now.
I don’t know if you are projecting or prescient, but I do hope you are right, in a left way.
Its beautiful but sad I want Drums I want the tempo speeded up to convey energy, I want yelling the words out to convey anger! I want a Sex Pistols cover:)
Here’s one of the most appropriate songs of the year. Lot’s of folks thought the song was called “We Don’t Torture”.
It’s actually alled ARMAGH and it’s by one of the most interesting groups of the post punk 1980’s. A band called the Au Pairs featuring the powerful Lesley Woods. “Headache for Michelle” is pretty good too. It’s on video.
I’ll hunt down a few other songs that I used to play on my radio show back in the 1980’s on KDVS-Davis.
I totally forgot about Eminem’s Mosh, Redshift. Thanks!
I’m not his biggest fan, but as a satirist of his own genre he’s ingenius. *grins* Then he went and did this in 2004 and i was pleasantly surprised.
And easily transferable to any genre.
I noticed you were MIA last night. Thought maybe my singing ran you off. Low and behold you were a college DJ?
This is odd. Isn’t 696 Billion enough? Steny has to beg George and all the other neo-goopers to let everyone keep their MIC jobs.
Lawmakers Urge the Pentagon to Delay Furloughs
My whole temporal schedule is different from you guys. I’m on the road in the Far East. I’m in Singapore and almost 12 hours opposite. So when you guys are waking up…I’m off to bed. Actually last night I stayed up WAAAAAY past any reasonable hours.
Here are two more songs by the Au Pairs.
http://www.ifilm.com/video/272…..ID_2729483">Live Video
which gives a sense of the vivacity at which the band attacked their songs. I actually got to see them live once. At the Milkweg in Amsterdam about 1984. Ironic, since many of their songs have that Orwellian quality.
Especially
Headache for Michelle which ties in their sexual politics with Winston Smith betrayal.
Is that what it sounds like when Steny starts to fold???
Nothin’ like gettin’ pushed around by Mr. 25%
Now then if Bush does not fix the countries problems a lot of our Blue America candidates will win by running on being Left. Right now we don’t have the numbers but our numbers will get better with the next election.
Imagine how fast the war in Iraq will end (or else),what kind of Health Care bill we will put together then, what the new mpg will be on cars and how much green energy the Power Companies will need to produce by 2020.
The GOP can read the polls they suck, they know that they are doing nothing to win the war, lower gas prices, give kids health care, produce alternative energy.
So they should be rational and make a nice deal with Nancy now before we crazy Lefties come in and demand better terms.
The GOP should be locking us in to Nancy’s half measure compromises now
but apparently they are not being rational.
Funny her daughter’s book on politics suggest being nice is the way to go
but what happens if your opposite is not rational?
A show of force to show that we will fight is needed. Unfortunately by appeasing Hitler/Bush Nancy/Neville has convinced the GOP that we will never fight.
The more she compromises now the bigger show of force we will have to do to convince them to take us serious. Handling this show of force without losing control will be a big problem, which the GOP will make worst by invading Poland/doing something stupid.
Here’s the Eurythmics from the soundtrack of 1984 Sex Crime…though I actually prefer another track called “Double Plus Good”.
I call him Stenchy now. Everything he does, stinks.
Yeah, I think some folks on Rahms staff helped her write that dribble.
I’m out of here, Eureka. Nice party, some very nice gems found and added to favorites.
nite
g’ nite newtonusr.
Kucinich, Top-Rated Democrat, Excluded From Des Moines Register Debate | PRNewswire.com
This Nancy knew about the water boarding was an attempt at blackmailing her to keep quiet but if Nancy knew then its hard to believe Bush didn’t.
Now if the GOP continues to hint at blackmail, well I’m sure any investigation will be stalled until after the election.
Thats Karl’s Modus Operandi make an accusation and let it sit there wether true or not until after the election. The thing is suppose it is true?
That would tarnish the Center Dems as war criminals. The House Dems can’t have a leader who might be indicted on war crimes.
So the Dems have to elect a new leader in an atmosphere where the Center Dem position is connected to possible war crimes and the Left is angry motivated and has more members in the House and Senate.
Yep we will then elect someone more left than Nancy though maybe not as Left as we would like.
Karl will have discredited the moderate Dem punching bags he and the GOP need to enable them.
Quick drive by for me but can’t believe no one posted one of my favorite optimistic fight song…
The Call – Let The Day Begin
Talk to y’all soon.
Nate
Would be hard to believe anything other than Bush ordered all of it.
Well it’s 3 am in my zone… Think I will pack it in..
I leave you all with this Bob song. Reckon it’s a song protesting protest songs? *g*
g’ nite firedogs
Poetry, even when not set to melody… Can still be an anthem.
Battle for America!
Karl has been drinking the cool aid destroying the economy only works if you do half measures like raising interest rates sky high like President Carter did.
But if we get a true Lefty we get a Keynesian economic stimulus to put people back to work hopefully fixing roads and bridges. Plus by giving the people health care and reducing our demand for oil by increasing MPG we can decrease the price, plus ending the war would end the fear premium of 10? a barrel of oil. All of these measures would help the economy.
In other words when FDR gave us the New Deal we coasted for years and living standards went up.
Imagine Karl’s surprise when all the ideas that he has been fighting against get proven true and even worst in his mind Popular.
Bush then goes down in history as the worst president for the GOP in terms of the future he creates for them since Hoover!
The Dems folding on everything is bad news. I’m just trying to make some lemonade I think we need it we can’t become demoralized because thats what Karl is counting on the “do nothing Congress” talking point will be pushed heavy by the GOP when Congress is out of session.
I’m trying to come up with talking points by playing on our hopes and the GOP’s fears.
They can’t rally their troops with four more years of war as a battle cry. Although the fact they are trying to proves that they are not being rational.
We need to offer a vision for the future, and that future will be LEFT!
It Doesn’t matter Dennis looks like a genius if we have a serious defeat. Bush is playing the game so that we don’t lose too big with the casualties, but he is not playing to win either.
Outlasting an enemy is not possible if they can replace and increase their men, and continue to have access to money and weapons.
How long can Bush get lucky, Dennis’s best chance of winning means Bush has to lose big before the Primaries are over.
The debate doesn’t matter everyone knows Dennis is our biggest and best antiwar candidate but the American People need a big defeat to push them to want to end the war now at any cost.
I don’t want things to get that bad. I keep hoping that some Dem will get some stones and Filibuster the war funding. If we get one Dem to do that we need to support him or her with everything we have!
Shipbuilding by Elvis Costello (a great version is also done by Robert Wyatt).
what a great thread!
Chumbawamba has a long history of very political concept albums
“Never Mind The Ballots, Here’s The Rest of Your Life” was about how elections were a distraction from the necessary day to day never ending political struggle against corporate interests.
Then there was Pictures of Starving Children…Sell Albums”- their scathing assault on after-the-fact “feel good” Disaster Relief Efforts…which never dealt with the actual causes of these disasters.
But their most famous commercial “sell-out” (according to their fans) was Tubthumping- widely viewed as a rollicking pub song anthem…but which may have been a bit of snark at the football-hooligan cycle of violence-drinking.
my entry for protest songs: Tom Waits “Waltzing Matilda”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrkThaBWa5c
Late to the party, I’m afraid. I saw Eric Bogle’s Waltzing Matilda mentioned, but I didn’t see this one.
No Man’s Land (also covered as The Green Fields of France)
Background and lyrics
When it comes to war, this one about the tragedy of WWI and private William McBride is always in the back of my thoughts.
Saw the video link off of someone else’s post above — can’t believe I didn’t think of this
Cake’s version of War Pigs by Sabbath
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyJMufGx7fo
it’s a great cover, and a great protest video
and while I’m riding off of other’s suggestions . . .
Curtis Mayfield — Don’t Worry (If There’s Hell Below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJoSsrqPm10
An American Tune
been replaying it since 2004
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wNXy0sExEs
“………facing a dying nation……Let the sunshine in….” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhNrqc6yvTU
It’s been way too long since I’ve had a chance to post here (and I miss all you Firepups) and this must be a drive-by, but –
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention an emotional gut-punch of a song out of the past — a past I fear we may come to relive — the GREAT DEPRESSION and the sorry treatment of veterans (in that case, the vets of WWI, who protested under the name “Bonus Marchers”).
It’s called “Remember My Forgotten Man” (the name is also an allusion to FDR’s stirring speech in favor of the economically screwed-over little guy, “The Forgotten Man”), and our own Teddy SanFran featured it in one of his own posts here:
Joan Blondell sings it at the end of the film “Golddiggers of 1933,” a film with a surprising amount of powerful political content for a Hollywood musical. The format is very modern, much like a powerful music video, with images of war and the ravages of poverty — if you’ve not seen it yet, you can find it on You Tube directly here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfQhowaMATw
I was surprised the first time I saw it at the power it had, not just to bring tears to my eyes, but to also powerfully focus outrage at the misuse of “patriotism” for the purposes of obtaining cannon fodder — and then discarding the poor emotional wrecks after they “survive” the war. Take a look!
Hello Mrs K8 so nice to see you! Hope you are feeling well.
I enter this, if it hasn’t been entered before
Wooden Ships Crosby Stills & Nash
I don’t know why the link feature didn’t work on my linkage to Teddy’s post, so I’ll try doing it “straight” like I did with the YouTube link:
http://firedoglake.com/2007/11…..otten-man/
Thanks, egregious, it’s good to see you too! I’ve not been feeling too well lately, times are rough right now. I’m hanging in, though, and try to at least read here when I can. Hope you are well!
And I hate to just say that much and run, but in 20 minutes I have to get on a “web conference” for work, and I gotta get ready with a powerful cup of java at hand.
So, I’ll look back here later.
Smooches and hugs to you, and to all Firepupsters ’round the Lake!
Has anyone mentioned “When the President Talks to God” ( http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/…..togod.html )by Bright Eyes? Also, Arcade Fire’s “Antichrist Television Blues,” ( http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics…..blues.html ) while not a protest song, is reminicent of Dylan in how it explores the darker side of our culture and it gives me the creeps.
I think this one is right to the point and hasn’t been listed yet (in either thread as far as I could see from searching):
Credence Clearwater Revival – Fortunate Son!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X90T5sY5c2o
Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Ooh, they’re red, white and blue.
And when the band plays “Hail to the chief”,
they point the cannon right at you.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me. I ain’t no senator’s son.
It ain’t me,it ain’t me.I ain’t no fortunate one.
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord don’t they help themselves.
But when the tax man comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me. I ain’t no millionaire’s son.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me. I ain’t no fortunate one.
Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war.
And when you ask them,
“How much should we give?”
They only answer “More! More! More!”
It ain’t me, it ain’t me. I ain’t no military son.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me. I ain’t no fortunate one.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me. I ain’t no Fortunate Son.
“What’s Goin’ On” by either Marvin Gaye or Richie Havens
More Michael Franti and Spearhead (apologies if a repeat):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSeuLsNV4CA
Get Up Stand Up Sly & Robbie
one of my favorites has always been “Universal Soldier”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohXsdbF-7jc
My favorite protest song is “Conversation with the Devil” by Ray Wylie Hubbard.
All time favorite
“For What It’s Worth” Buffalo Springfield
Okay, here’s another great one:
Sinead O’Connor, with the Chieftains, singing “The Foggy Dew.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..re=related
The raw emotion in her keening style speaks volumes, let alone the poetry of the song.