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"A protest song is a song that's so specific that you cannot mistake it for bullshit." - Phil Ochs
Please add your favorite's below!
In no particular order my top 10 favorite protest songs
1) For What Its Worth - Buffalo Springfield
2) Ohio - CSNY
3) Killing In The Name - Rage Against the Machine
4) Get up Stand up - Bob Marley and The Wailers
5) Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2
6) All You Fascists Bound to Lose - Woodie Guthrie
7) American Idiot - Green Day
8) Blowing in the Wind - Bob Dylan
9) Fuck tha Police - NWA
10) We shall overcome - Pete Seeger
11) Beds are Burning - Midnight Oil
12) Deportee - The Byrds
13) Eve of Destruction - Barry McGuire
14) “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” - Tracy Chaprman
15) ‘Sun City’ - Artists United Against Apartheid
16) They Killed Him - Kris Kristofferson
17) Electric Avenue - Eddie Grant
18) Nazi Punks Fuck Off - Dead Dead Kennedys
19) This Land Is Your Land - Woody Guthrie
20) Imagine - John Lennon
@cvvhrn War Pigs - Black Sabbath
@ildiavolorosso Another great!
@cvvhrn Also: I Wanna Kill Sam - Ice Cube
Mississippi Goddamn - Nina Simone
Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday
A Change is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke
Freedom Highway - Staple Singers
Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud - James Brown
Revolution - Arrested Development
Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) - Marvin Gaye
To Be Young Gifted and Black - Nina Simone
Black Rage - Lauryn Hill
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - Gil Scott-Heron
@DeliaChristina Awesome list! esp. The Gil Scott-Heron
@DeliaChristina @cvvhrn Play them LOUD and Often!
19 is my number 1.
Add to your list.
B.Y.O.D - SoaD
The Pretender - Foo Fighters
This Machine Kills Fascists - Ant-Flag
Seatle was a Riot - Anti-Flag (actually several songs by anti-flag).
@rattis Oooh forgot about the Foo's. Great additions
@rattis The irony of This land is how many DON"T get its a protest song.
Really underrated artist IMHO and that is why he is listed twice!
@karlauerbach @cvvhrn rocking in the free world and born in the u.s.a are two other ones people don't listen to and understand either.
@rattis @karlauerbach @cvvhrn Came here to say this. "Born in the USA" absolutely is a protest song to anyone who actually listens to the lyrics, but that hasn't stopped it from being the go-to for yahoos everywhere.
@cvvhrn I loved his work enough that all my computers have this machine kills fascists stickers on them
@msbellows @cvvhrn put it on any Tesla at this point.
@cvvhrn You've Been To Our Shows, You've Sung Our Songs, Now Go to A ****ing Protest - Anti-Flag
The Truth - Clawfinger
(In fact, a good chunk of Clawfinger's first 2 albums would count as protest songs, even the one with the totally tone-deaf title.)
Pretty much anything by Atari Teenage Riot.
Trading Blood For Oil - Sonic Boom Six
Piggy In The Middle - Sonic Boom Six
Pretty much anything by Public Enemy
@mancavgeek All awesome choices!
you might want to cross off ATR and burn everything you loved about them. Alec Empire and Hanin Elias are part of the pro-Israel "antideutsch" movement. it's extremely disappointing.
@cvvhrn Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen
@mjausson Nice! For that matter Pink Houses as well. As the story goes he refused Bush or Regan to use that in their campaign
@svente WOAH that is an awesome soulful version. Love it!!!!! Added that to my Itunes
@svente I realize the irony of d/l protest music from a huge corporation lol
@cvvhrn Uprising - Muse
@cvvhrn Not exactly what you are looking for, Freddy, but this song is painfully on point. Ouch.
(cc'ing @czarbucks)
Hail Hail Freedonia, from Duck Soup:
@czarbucks It's almost like Groucho Marx was satirizing Donald Trump, but 92 years ago.
@cvvhrn
It's mind-bending. I think this kind of thing comes in waves as each of the generations who lived through it die off...
That was so great.
@czarbucks @BobHorowitz @cvvhrn They Dance Alone - Sting; Biko - Peter Gabriel.
@cvvhrn
I have a playlist on Tidal named "Blue Tsunami", an election playlist through good and bad times. Some are from civil rights and Vietnam War era, through "no blood for oil", the first tea party, BLM, presidential elections, 77 tracks and counting...
I really love Kasey Anderson's "The Dangerous Ones", Jason Isbell's "The Devil is My Running Mate", Credence "Fortunate Son", Lauryn Hill "Freedom Time".
https://tidal.com/playlist/0c68956c-a278-46ad-9a2e-f0f2bd8d6960
1. Bella Ciao (I like the Mitski cover in English - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYyI4vmds5o) This song is nearly as international as the most famous of all protest songs, The Internationale.
2. Which Side Are You On (I like the Weavers version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJH1Uolu7io )
3. Wasn't That A Time (I like the Peter, Paul, Mary version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnuJgq_UWiQ )
4. King of Names - Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul, and Mary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0_d21qzTvQ - It's not really a protest song but it seems apropos given current events.)
What a great idea.
Roy Zimmerman (my fav):
Sing-along 2nd Amendment (long but worth it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuNEq7gHqF8
"Vote Republican"
https://sandiegofreepress.org/2017/12/roy-zimmerman-vote-republican-video-worth-watching/
"This Land is Your Land" I wish people remembered how much this is OUR song.
@cvvhrn
Bad Moon Rising by CCR
@cvvhrn Small Axe - Bob Marley and the Wailers.
@cvvhrn Except IIRC For What It's Worth was ... designed to sell, not protest :P
That said, what I do with a song has nothign to do with the author's intentions.
Dylan's Hard Rain's Agonna Fall comes to mind...
Prine: Your Flag Decal Won't GEt You Into Heaven AnyMore....
@cvvhrn I remember Kent state. "War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing."
@cvvhrn Fight the Power
Public Enemy
Elbows Up! @cvvhrn Zombie by The Cranberries
@cvvhrn Revolution, and Piggies by The Beatles.
@cvvhrn God Save The Queen - The Sex Pistols
@cvvhrn One Tin Soldier - Coven
(That's a cover of the original done by "The Original Caste", but IMO the Coven version seems stronger.)
@cvvhrn My faves are also good for dancing:
- The Guillotine, by The Coup
- T5, by Swet Shop Boys
- Somos Sur, by Ana Tijoux
- Sound of da Police, by KRS-One
- 5 Millions Ways to Kill a CEO, by The Coup
- Fam Jam, by Shad
- Fuck Tha Police, by NWA
@beandreams @cvvhrn I'm so glad "Sound of da Police" was mentioned before I got here.
@cvvhrn Do They Owe Us a Living? - Crass
@cvvhrn
The Bushwackers - Leave It In The Ground
I saw it live at a rural music festival a few years ago. In recordings online it's nothing to write home about, they do a cheery version with a tambourine. But on that night these guys were SO angry. I have literally never seen someone so angry on a stage.
@cvvhrn Led Zeppelin, Immigrant Song?
@cvvhrn "Shipbuilding" by Robert Wyatt.
So many more I could think up. Great idea for a thread.
@cvvhrn For Rage Against The Machine, may I suggest "Down Rodeo"? No mistaking the message, and the lyrics are even more potent.
Also, how about this song:
NYOil - "Soul Glow (March)"
@cvvhrn Free Your Hate and New American Century by KMFDM
(Actually a huge part of their discography is protest songs now that I think about it)
Through the Eyes of a Pig - Cypress Hill
@cvvhrn “Can’t make it here” by James McMurtry.
@cvvhrn no Bella Ciao?