What's new

Best PROTEST SONGS...? (1 Viewer)

MikeH1

Screenwriter
Joined
Oct 25, 2000
Messages
1,492
Real Name
Billy
Oh wow lots of great suggestions here but I can't believe nobody (especially Canadians) haven't mentioned Bruce Cockburn.
With a career spanning back to the late 60s and songs like If I had a Rocket Launcher, Call it Democracy, If a Tree Falls(1989's unofficial Save-the-Amazon anthem) and 1999's Last Night Of The World, I think Bruce is one of Canada's premier folk singers.
A great 80s protest song is Beds are Burning by Midnight Oil. I'm not keen on too many of their more recent releases but in the 1980s they ruled the rock and roll political landscape.
Check out this album cover(man would I like to have this on vinyl) from the album "Red sails in the Sunset"
Link Removed
Cheers
 

Ryan Spaight

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
676
Big second to "Fortunate Son" -- great protest song. It's both infuriating and hilarious that they plucked one line totally out of context and are using it in a TV commercial to sell blue jeans. In the commercial, we hear "Some folks are born made to wear the flag -- ooh, the red and white and blue." What we don't hear is the next line: "But when the band plays Hail to the Chief -- well, they point the cannon at you." :)
Another of my favorites: "Full Metal Jackoff" by Jello Biafra with D.O.A.. Brilliant, brilliant stuff, and I'm semi-convinced Metallica ripped the music for "Enter Sandman" off from this.
Ryan
 

John Watson

Screenwriter
Joined
Jul 14, 2002
Messages
1,936
Dick this thread has legs. Rhino has several compilations that are on the spot.

To go back in time, check out to STRANGE FRUIT (Nina Simone); Also there's a thread from a day or two ago about Woody Guthrie - his life's work. (Arlo's Dad, I believe). If you look it up, try spelling it as Gutherie (was spelled as such in that thread). I used to have Bourgeois Blues by Leadbelly on an album
And there's nothing like Paul Robeson's JOE HILL.

60's : SOCIETY'S CHILD as has been already mentioned; BROTHER LOUIE by The Stories should be listened to right after that

Someone mentioned UKNOWN SOLDIER by the Doors. One of my faves. But you can check out half the Doors 1960's catalog. Latter day new-wave era type - the Clash. LONDON CALLING!!

Angle - Protests by entertainers against entertainment

Bruce Springsteen 57 CHANNELS & NOTHING ON & Tom Petty's new THE LAST DJ

Re some other suggestions : The Day the Music Died (Blaine, in my opinion, this is also about the pretentiousness of latter day Beatles-inspired era music, in so far as it was going to change the world. The Beatles themselves took a whack at that in REVOLUTION)

For anti-protest songs, I love the hit Lynyrd Skynird took at Neil Young!
 

Jack Briggs

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 3, 1999
Messages
16,805
And yet another entry from Jefferson Airplane, this one from 1971's Bark: "Mexico," a lament from a time when most of the cannabis smoked in the States came from south of the border.

In a way, "Plastic Fantastic Lover," off the Airplane's most successful album, Surrealistic Pillow, could be construed as a "protest" song.
 

Jim_F

Screenwriter
Joined
May 15, 2000
Messages
1,077
When I saw the title of this thread, the song Sunshine, by Johnathon Edwards started playing in my head, as well as the Cream version of Politician (not simultaneously)
 

Dick

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 22, 1999
Messages
9,913
Real Name
Rick
Jim, what is the subject matter of Jonathan Edwards' SUNSHINE?
 

andrew markworthy

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 30, 1999
Messages
4,762
Going Underground by The Jam, which froze me to the spot the first time I heard these lines:

'It's the kidney machines
That pay for rockets and guns'

This probably makes more sense in a country with a national health service, but just stop and think about it.

Otherwise, my 'favourite' is Fighting for Strangers, a 19th century protest song about the lot of a foot soldier. It starts relatively innocently with a recruiting fair:

A recruiting sergeant came our way
To an inn nearby at the close of day.
He said - young Johnny you're a fine young man,
Would you like to march along behind a military band?'

It then goes through the descent into the horrors of war,
until it ends with the cheerful lines:

You haven't an arm, you haven't a leg
The enemy nearly slew you.
You'll have to go onto the street to beg,
Oh poor Johnny, what have they done to you?

[There's a v. good version of this by Steeleye Span]. After an early exposure to songs like that, I've got to confess to finding Bob Dylan's coffee shop poetry rather pathetic in comparison.
 

Tom McDonald

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Feb 24, 2002
Messages
90
I'm glad someone finally mentioned U2 and Sunday Bloody Sunday, also how about Biko by Peter Gabriel, Sam Stone by John Prine, one of the newest My City In Ruins by the Boss. I also still think the For What Its Worth is one of the best song ever 30 some years later.
 

John Kilduff

Screenwriter
Joined
Oct 27, 2001
Messages
1,680
I enjoy 1985's "Ain't Gonna Play Sun City" by Artists United Against Apartheid. Any track that features the talents of Pete Townsehnd, Pat Benatar AND Run-DMC is brill in my eyes, and it was all for a good cause...to stop apartheid in South Africa. Sadly, Sun City is still promoting apartheid. Oh, well...

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

23 Million can't vote 'cause they're black/We're stabbing our brothers and sisters in the back.
 

Seth Paxton

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 5, 1998
Messages
7,585
Bob Marley's Redemption Song is a great one, but the one that tops my list by a long shot...
Trenchtown Rock by Marley, specifically the version from the "Live!" album, one of the greatest live albums of all time. :)
Burnin' and Lootin' said:
Bob was the closest thing to god on Earth, IMO. :)
Also, every single thing by Rage Against the Machine basically.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,813
Messages
5,123,611
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top