PROTEST MUSIC
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Woody and his Machine
A few days ago PopMatters put up a two part piece on the greatest protest songs between 1824 and 1965-- before most of us were into songs or protests. They've now updated it so it runs through 1988. It starts with Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, 4th Movement which premiered in Vienna in 1824. It was based on Schiller's "Ode to Freedom," renamed-- out of fear of pushy Prusssians-- "Ode to Joy." In fact, Leonard Bernstein changed "joy" (freude) back to "freedom" (freiheit) when he conducted it at the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Other artists included in the survey were Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Woody Guthrie, John Coltrane, Pete Seeger, Sam Cooke, Dylan, the Mothers of Invention, Aretha, MC5, Creedence Clearwater Revival, CSNY, Hendrix, the Pistols, Peter Tosh, Minor Threat, the Dead Kennedys, The Ramones (although for the wrong reason)... and it ends with "Fuck tha Police" by N.W.A.Take a look through the whole list and let us know what you think they left off-- I mean aside from the entire Clash catalogue. Here's one I always loved. It's a classic Joni Mitchell song, but done here by Pinhead Gunpowder, a side project of Billie Joe Armstrong. By the way, I once brought a CD over to Joni's house and played it for her and she was pogo-ing around the room.
Labels: Protest Music
posted by DownWithTyranny @ 4:02 PM
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4 Comments:
Simon & Garfunkel's quiet Silent Night sung to a voiceover of the 7:00 Evening News was both compelling and powerful. I say we do a 2007 version for this holiday season. After all, isn't this Viet Nam all over again, but with crazier loons running the country? If anyone has the talent, let's do it -- really. I'll even supply the recording studio, if you are in NYC.
It is hard to come up with a perfect list of the best protest songs, so I cut them some slack, but I agree with you that there should be something from the Clash. If the Ramones make the list, come on! (Nothing against the Ramones, a group I like a lot.)
Also if you are limited to only one song per artist some of their selections were weak. At least they have "I Aint Marching Anymore" as their Phil Ochs song. I would go with "Big Yellow Taxi" as the Joni Mitchell song (Thanks for the clip) and "Equal Rights" from Peter Tosh.
It is good that people are still listening to protest songs, as music is a way to communicate political ideas often more effectively than through long-winded speeches. Hey, why didn't "Have You Had Enough?" make the list? It was my favorite protest song for a while last year...
My 16-year-old son has found (because I bought it at a thrift store and he's appropriated it) "Zombie" by the Cranberries. He plays it over and over, in that incessant teenaged focus that has always driven parents nutz... although, as a musician, it's easier for me than it was for my folks back in the day; "Yellow Submarine on the twentieth turn usually brought someone yelling at the foot of the stairs.
The Irish have a rich history of protest music, and it isn't only about U2, either. Check out the Irish Literary Renaissance of the eighteenth century, culminating in the Irish Harp Festival, 1792 in Dublin. Through the medium of the Oral Tradition, many original bardic melodies had been maintained for hundreds of years, intact. The lyrics were lost, though, so at that time people like Thomas Moore wrote new lyrics to the old tunes that reflected the rise of Irish nationalism. These were published in newspapers that were invariably suppressed by the British, but some of the songs still remain such as "Minstrel Boy" by Moore, and "Garryowen" which became Custer's regimental theme song, and other classic numbers now considered Celtic music. Few folks look at the anti-war and protest aspect of these, but I'm preparing my master's thesis on this subject. Any suggestions are welcome. Contact me through my music site, www.soundclick.com/maryk and while you're there, listen to "We've Decided to Have a War" and "Grass Stopped Growing." --MaryK
Kinda hard to accept that they missed John Prine and Dylan both. I know Prine has resurrected both Sam Stone and Flag Decal in his current day concerts.
"Well your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore
Already overcrowded by your dirty little war
No Jesus don't like killing no matter what the reason for
And your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore"
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