Protest songs...

[LG]

So many beautiful songs have been sung against war and injustice. From Lennon's "Power to the People", "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance", Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom" and "Blowin' in the Wind" and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son"to Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth", "We Gotta Have Peace" by Curtis Mayfield and "Vietnam" by Jimmy Cliff, as well as recent efforts like P!nk's "Dear Mr President".

What is your favourite? Here are two of mine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuTkmVYyyyE

http://www.johnlennonbedin.com/images/002_2.JPG

[White_Male_Canada]

Bob Dylan-Neighborhood Bully

[tsafficianado]

Phil Ochs - Here's to the State of Mississippi

Marvin Gaye - What's Goin On

[trish]

OK I'll admit my ignorance and ask, who did

WAR...UUHH...WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

AB-SO-LUT-LY NUTHIN'

WAR...

?

[LG]

tsafficianado, I'll definitely agree on Gaye's "What's going on" and also on Ochs' song.

But "Neighbourhood Bully"? I'm not sure. Granted, it's a Dylan song (though not up with his best), but I always saw it as a pro-Israel song. Protest songs, in my mind, are supposed to speak out against what is wrong with the world and not just defend a specific state that tends to do most of its defending using weapons rather than words.

Dylan has wavered between Judaism and Christianity and back again. The lyrics are a little simplistic too, forgetting how the state of Israel was created, and, int the light of last year's events in Lebanon, no longer ring true.

Still, an interesting choice. Not one I would pick, but worth considering perhaps .

[tsafficianado]

War.....Edwin Starr

[Rogers]

Nice thread, LG. I think _Canada's suggestion is her lame attempt at a joke. She is the "Neigborhood Bully". Edwinn Starr made "War" famous, but I don't know if he actually wrote it, trish. James Brown also covered it, and so did Homer J. Simpson (whilst naked in the Church) in one of the "Treehouse of Horror" epsiodes of, "The Simpsons" (LMAO!!!).

My suggestions:
"This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie (and Bruce Springsteen's take on it, you could say, "Born in the U.S.A.");
"Harvest for the World" and "What's goin' on", by Marvin Gaye;
"Universal Soldier" by Glenn Campbell, although I think Buffy Sainte-Marie wrote it;
"Where Have All the Flowers Gone" by Pete Seeger.

Anti-Nuclear protest songs:
"Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire;
"Going Underground" by The Jam.

Personal favorites of mine:
"Games People Play" by Joe South;
"Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)" and "The Beat(en) Generation" by The The, both on their "Mind Bomb" (198?) album (love it!);
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lel0PzhU6Pk
"Orange Crush", "Stand", and "World Leader Pretend" by R.E.M., all on their Green album (love it!);
"Beds Are Burning", "Truganini", and "My Country" by Midnight Oil;
"If You Tolerate This" and their cover of "Suicide is Painless (Theme from M.A.S.H.)", by the Manic Street Preachers.

[Oli]

LG, I skipped the war theme and went for anything.

Fight the Power - Public Enemy
Talkin' bout a Revolution - Tracy Chapman
Get Up Stand Up - Bob Marley
Slave to the Wage - Placebo
God Save the Queen - Sex Pistols
It's Alright - Pet Shop Boys
Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2
Poison in the Well - 10,000 Maniacs
American Skin - Bruce Springsteen
How Much is Enough? - The Fixx
Soviet Snow - Shona Laing
Blue Sky Mine - Midnight Oil

[White_Male_Canada]

99 Luftballons 8)

[guyone]

Ever - Flipper

[Cuchulain]

You guys already named a lot of them. Don't forget CSNY "Four Dead in Ohio" and of course "Fixin to Die Rag" by Country Joe and the Fish:

And it's 1 2 3 what are we fightin for?
Don't ask me I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.

And it's 5 6 7 open up them pearly gates
There ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee we're all gonna die.

[Cuchulain]

oops...and the "Flag Decal" song by John Prine.....

[LG]

LG, I skipped the war theme and went for anything.

Good ones. I didn't say they have to have a war theme, anyway. Dylan's 'Hurricane' was a protest song, too, about the imprisonment of Rubin Carter. The song helped Carter become more famous than he had ever been before his imprisonment and also helped to raise funds for his retrial.

Dylan hasn't performed 'Hurricane' in perhaps 2 decades, as far as I know, so I'm not sure if he changed his mind on that issue as well.

Some good choices by Rogers, too. 'Games People Play' is a great song and Cuchulain's choice of 'Fixin' to die rag'

[TJT]

After Ruben got out and committed a few more crimes Bob decided it was better to keep his mouth shut about the Hurricane.

Burn Down The Malls-Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper

Mojo and Skid do the best version of "This Land is Your Land" I've ever heard. It peaks in the middle when Mojo goes off on a rant about "The Amusement Park of my mind,MOJO WORLD!!!" The man is a lunatic Genius.

[insert_namehere]

"Plane Crash at Los Gatos" - Woody Guthrie
"Undefeated", "Vote That Sucker Out", "Freedom", Bitter Fruit", "I Am a Patriot" - Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul
"Way Down Now" - World Party
"Lawless Avenues" - Jackson Browne
"Good Morning Aztlan", "One Time One Night in America" - Los Lobos
"In My Town" - Ry Cooder
"Barbed Wire Fence" - Brian Setzer

Aside from Woody - all these songs prove that you can shake your ass and protest at the same time.

[Rogers]

Some more I jotted down today:

Anti-Bush/Neocon:
"American Idiot" by Green Day

Anti-War:
"Brothers in Arms" by Dire Straits
"Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood
"19" by Paul Hardcastle

Anti-Apartheid:
"Biko" by Peter Gabriel
"Gimme Hope Jo'anna" by Eddy Grant
"Sun City" by Artists United Against Apartheid

Anti-Poverty:
"Feed The World" by Band Aid
"Harvest for the World" by The Isley Brothers NOT Marvin Gaye (my mistake!)

Environmental:
"Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" by Marvin Gaye
"Is It Like Today?" by World Party

And here's a protest song for the neocons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2af69xt0VKE
:lol: :lol: :lol: 8)

[LG]

Some more I jotted down today:

Good ones, Rogers and insert_namehere. I'm not sure if they are all protest songs. They certainly are good songs about important issues, but I'm not sure if they actually protest something. The Band Aid song was actually called "Do the know it's Christmas?"

Another one on the issue of poverty, though not quite a protest song, again, is Elvis Presley's "In the ghetto".

BTW, "Bob Roberts" is a great film. The clip is based on a a scene in "Don't Look Back" with Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues". There was also a scene in "Love, Actually" that paid homage to Dylan.

You could say that with this song and the musical segment, Dylan and director Pennebaker invented both the music video and what was an early form of rap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-xIulyVsG8

And the homage from "Love, Actually":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is9xHR11E3A

[Cuchulain]

Good stuff LG. I definately need to increase my Dylan collection.
Some more I remembered:

Joe Hill - Joan Baez (everyone should read up on the history of the Labor Movement)
Alice's Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie (the acorn didn't fall far from the tree, hehe)
One Tin Soldier - Billy Jack theme, although it was originally recorded a few years earlier
Impeach the President - Neil Young

Link to One Tin Soldier with Iraq vid
http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=qCCR2huE2m8&eurl=http%3A//www.google.com/search%3Fq%3Done%2Btin%2Bsoldier%26sourceid%3Die7% 26rls%3Dcom.microsoft%3Aen-US%26ie%3Dutf8%26oe%3Dutf8&iurl=http%3A//img.youtube.com/vi/qCCR2huE2m8/default.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskLI38Gm-PxUPCkFudXUheFT

[Tomfurbs]

Paths of Victory, Walls of Red Wing, and When the Ship comes in - all by Dylan

what about the whole of 'Berlin' by the man Lou Reed, kind of a protest album against domestic violence, ( maybe!)

[lewdguppy]

Lots and lots of great songs in here!

great post, LG. anti-war songs; Hell yeah!

some of favourites are already mentioned; Buffalo Springfield's For What it's Worth, CSN&Y's Ohio, good old Country Joe Macdonald's 'rag' etc.

but for me there's one song to "rule em all" :twisted:

Black Sabbath - War Pigs!

Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of deaths construction
In the fields the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds, oh lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor

Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait till their judgement day comes, yeah!

Now in darkness, world stops turning
As the war machine keeps burning
No more war pigs of the power
Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees, the war pigs crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings
All right now!


Another great song about the mind of a soldier returned from the war is this one: Shinedown - 45 (http://www.anysonglyrics.com/lyrics/s/Shinedown-Lyrics/45-lyrics.htm)

[qeuqheeg222]

yeah sabbath ddeed...........