Apropos of nothing, here’s a list of 20+ protest songs

UNPLAYED

The Saints – (I’m) Stranded (Punk rock in Brisbane: Sounds reviewer declared it, “Single of this and every week”, and three weeks later the band signed to EMI)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LA2DbwXJoo

Bikini Kill – Rebel Girl (tracing the line back from Pussy Riot)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAxD46E58S4

Huggy Bear – Her Jazz (tracing the line back from Pussy Riot, also would’ve afforded great opportunity to talk about microcosms of protest)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfP5HNvsWAo

Pussy Riot – Putin Lights Up The Fires (enough Pussy Riot already)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5yjmnE1VwoA

PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (art as protest)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tFBo1QunlA

Jimi Hendrix – The Star Spangled Banner (who needs words?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMhq1L0cJf0

Country Joe And The Fish – Anti Vietnam War Song (this one was played, a rousing singalong)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Y0ekr-3So

Eric Bogle – The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (bringing it home)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG48Ftsr3OI

Pussy Riot Brisbane – Free Pussy Riot (played – this is the song we recorded a few weeks back in the very same room I was giving the lecture in)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0x1LgZuaJAY

Periscope – Free Pussy Riot (played – protest inspired by protest and taking the stems of the Pussy Riot Brisbane song as its base)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ4UyRHq4Gw&feature=player_embedded

And, to round it all off…

Miley Cyrus – Smells Like Teen Spirit (required reading: Advice for Everett True on How to Write About Nevermind - and you really should read this if you haven’t already, it’s a hoot)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8r45usSKXg&feature=player_embedded

PS22 – Price Tag (Jessie J cover) (required reading: Advice for Everett True on How to Write About Nevermind)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CgmIJmeEW8&feature=player_embedded

And, of course, the one and only…

Tom Lehrer – We Will All Go Together When We Go (my earliest encounter with the art of protest)

Of the man himself, my family knew little. No photos, no accolades, just 12 (and later 11) songs that struck right to the heart of the American dream – or what we knew of it from my parents’ collection of Mad books, also bought during the 50s. We knew he was a Harvard graduate and had financed the release of his first two mini-albums himself, selling the initial 350 pressing to friends and family. We were even aware that a couple of live albums had appeared, 1960′s Tom Lehrer Revisited and 1959′s An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer. My parents, however, doubtless heedless of the pointlessness of paying good money for a couple of albums which merely duplicated the originals, only with “coughs, snores, sneezes, impacts” added, hadn’t bought them.

Sorry, some Lehrer humour there.

(Song of the day – 108: Tom Lehrer | COLLAPSE BOARD)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs

Related posts: A list of 20+ performances that have shocked

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3 Responses to “Apropos of nothing, here’s a list of 20+ protest songs”

  1. Erika says:
    September 6, 2012 at 4:42 am

    Buffy Sainte Marie “My Country Tis Of Thy People You’re Dying” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTqV1pnQoos (see also “Universal Soldier” ) Phil Ochs “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” http://youtu.be/7Kn0W4C0quk Hazel Dickens “Fire In The Hole” http://youtu.be/CiGPbHnpQks

  2. Everett True says:
    September 6, 2012 at 1:57 pm

    That Hazel Dickens song is quite something.

  3. Erika says:
    September 22, 2012 at 3:08 am

    I forgot one of my favorite protest songs; first heard “I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Solider” as a teenager and it really moved me. It was a hit almost 100 years ago. A World War I era protest song, it was supposed to come from the perspective of a mother faced with sending her beloved son to war.

    “There’d be no war today if mothers all would say, ‘I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier!” Personal responsibility and making your voice heard – the key to grassroots level social change.

    US Library of Congress archive recording from 1915
    http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/1324/
    it’s on YouTube too of course….

    In all honesty, even though my early songwriting was kind of confessional and personal, I probably would never have become a musician at all if it weren’t for the influence of protest songs and the feeling that music could motivate positive change – or at least express righteous anger at injustice.

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