The Guardian continues its excellent series, 1000 Songs Everyone Must Hear, with protest songs and political songs. Unsurprisingly, the most common themes represented are songs about opposition to war and about race relations. I had not heard over forty of the songs on the list. I managed to track down half of those and here are five that I particularly enjoyed.
(What Did I Too to Be So) Black and Blue is Louis Armstrong’s version of a song by Fats Waller, whose best known songs were Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Honeysuckle Rose. Waller’s songs were mostly humorous in tone, but this is darker and this is particularly true of Satchmo’s version from 1929
(What Did I Do To Be So) Black & Blue? – Louis Armstrong
Burning Spear is the name of a reggae band fronted by Winston Rodney, who was born in Saint Anne’s Bay, Jamaica, also Bob Marley’s birthplace. It was also the birthplace of Marcus Garvey, a very important figure in Jamaican culture and history. Garvey is considered a prophet in the Rastafarian religion and the band titled their 1975 album after him. Slavery Days is the second track on that album
Trouble Every Day is a critique of TV news in late 1960s America. It appears on Freak Out, the debut album from Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. Zappa never lost his political edge and twenty years later he would be involved in a protracted with the PMRC, concerning music censorship
Trouble Every Day – Mothers of Invention
Sam Stone appears on John Prine’s first album from 1971. It’s about a Vietnam veteran who becomes addicted to morphine after being prescribed the drug to help alleviate the pain of his war injuries. The song’s criticism of America’s involvement in the Vietnam war is not overtly political and is far more effective as a result
I got into The Decemberists around the time of their album The Crane Wife. I liked their story-songs, folky feel and Colin Meloy’s voice. 16 Military Wives is from their preceding album, Picaresque, and it is also a subtle protest about a war, this time the Iraq War. It also makes digs at the news media and celebrity culture in relation to the war
16 Military Wives – The Decemberists
1000 songs everyone must hear
Politics and protest: part five of 1000 songs everyone must hear
The 20 that I haven’t heard from the Guardian.co.uk list of 141
- Stand Up for Judas (Roy Bailey, 1979)
- A Day in the Life of a Tree (The Beach Boys, 1971)
- Melting Point (Blue Mink, 1969)
- The Sun Is Burning (Ian Campbell Folk Group, 1964)
- Company Policy (Martin Carthy, 1988)
- Thou Shalt Always Kill (Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, 2007)
- Víctor Jara of Chile (Dick Gaughan, 1985)
- Just Say No (Cast of Grange Hill, 1986)
- On the Blanket (Mick Hanly with Christy Moore, 1980)
- The Proud (Talib Kweli, 2002)
- The Ballad of Sharpeville (Ewan MacColl, 1960)
- Now That The Buffalo’s Gone (Buffy Sainte-Marie, 1964)
- Days of Fire (Nitin Sawhney, 2008)
- I’m Gonna Be an Engineer (Peggy Seeger, 1973)
- The Internationale (Sheffield Socialist Choir, 1992)
- Monster (Steppenwolf, 1969)
- BYOB (System Of A Down, 2005)
- Keep Ya Head Up (Tupac, 1993)
- The Cottager’s Reply (Chris Wood, 2008)
- Asbestos Lead Asbestos (World Domination Enterprises, 1985)
