Protest Songs

[Eagle Boy]

Hi
JUst wondering if any of you know of any good protest songs out there as I need one to analyse for school.

Thanks

 

[Van Der Zeevalk]

Hi
JUst wondering if any of you know of any good protest songs out there as I need one to analyse for school.

Thanks

Just go yo your local music store and buy any Midnight Oil CD.
All those pack of droppos ever did was record whining protest songs.

 

[bunsen burner]

Blow up the pokies by The Whitlams. Topical and current and easy to analyse.

 

[materamagic]

Give Ireland Back To The Irish

John Sinclair

Power To The People

Give Peace A Chance

Save The World

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Bob's Hurricane

 

[bunsen burner]

Sunday Bloody Sunday

That's not a protest song. Bono told me so on Rattle and Hum.

ps How many George Harrison and Tom Petty protest songs did you dig because you can just bet he's going to want to analyse a song that no one gives a Tom Petty f*** about.

ps2 What about My Sweet Lord? I'm sure you can figure out some way to construe it as a protest song?

 

[materamagic]

That's not a protest song. Bono told me so on Rattle and Hum.

ps How many George Harrison and Tom Petty protest songs did you dig because you can just bet he's going to want to analyse a song that no one gives a Tom Petty f*** about.

ps2 What about My Sweet Lord? I'm sure you can figure out some way to construe it as a protest song?

No tom petty songs were listed by me. stop this childish aversion to all things beatle, its getting Petty

and also i wasnt referring to U2's sunday bloody sunday. and if you could pick out a harrison song from that bunch you must be a huge fan because that song is obscure as hell.

 

[harry_hawka]

Blow up the pokies by The Whitlams. Topical and current and easy to analyse.

Good call. Clearly not the best song one could find, but definitely what the bloke is looking for by the sounds of things. Also, the poster that shot down Midnight Oils probably gave a good suggestion!

I s'pose in a way you could call Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire' a protest song. Well it was more a summary of the ever-changing environment of Cold War times - however if you're looking for deep analysis that is obvious rather than cryptic, that could be a good one to do. However as I say, it may not exactly be a protest song.

 

[FrediKanoute]

John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance", "Imagine"
U2 - Bullet in the Blue Sky, Silver & Gold, Sunday Bloody Sunday
Sting - Russians
Simple Minds - Belfast Child, Mandela Day
Green Day - American Idiot
Bob Dylan - Hurricaine

 

[bunsen burner]

stop this childish aversion to all things beatle, its getting Petty

Words of wisdom. Any chance you can do the same? I'll make you a deal - you give it up and I'll give it up.

ps go look up "ironic" in the dictionary.

 

[Contra Mundum]

There Is Power In A Union

by Billy Bragg

There is power in a factory, power in the land
Power in the hand of the worker
But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand
There is power in a Union

Now the lessons of the past were all learned with workers blood
The mistakes of the bosses we must pay for
From the cities and the farmlands to trenches full of mud
War has always been the bosses way, sir

The Union forever,defending our rights
Down with the blackleg,all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters from many far-off lands
There is power in a Union

Now I long for the morning that they realise
Brutality and unjust laws cannot defeat us
But who'll defend the workers who cannot organise
When the bosses send their lackeys out to cheat us?

Money speaks for money,the Devil for his own
Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone?
What a comfort for the widow,a light to the child
There is power in a Union

The Union forever,defending our rights
Down with the blackleg,all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters together we will stand
There is power in a Union

 

[Contra Mundum]

The Internationale [variant words in square brackets]

Arise ye workers [starvelings] from your slumbers
Arise ye prisoners of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant.
Away with all your superstitions
Servile masses arise, arise
We'll change henceforth [forthwith] the old tradition [conditions]
And spurn the dust to win the prize.

So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.

No more deluded by reaction
On tyrants only we'll make war
The soldiers too will take strike action
They'll break ranks and fight no more
And if those cannibals keep trying
To sacrifice us to their pride
They soon shall hear the bullets flying
We'll shoot the generals on our own side.

No saviour from on high delivers
No faith have we in prince or peer
Our own right hand the chains must shiver
Chains of hatred, greed and fear
E'er the thieves will out with their booty [give up their booty]
And give to all a happier lot.
Each [those] at the forge must do their duty
And we'll strike while the iron is hot.

 

[Contra Mundum]

My personal favourite:
Bandiera rossa

Avanti o popolo, alla riscossa,
Bandiera rossa, bandiera rossa
Avanti o popolo, alla riscossa,
Bandiera rossa trionferà.

Bandiera rossa la trionferà
Bandiera rossa la trionferà
Bandiera rossa la trionferà
Evviva il comunismo e la libertà!

Degli sfruttati l'immensa schiera
La pura innalzi, rossa bandiera,
O proletari, alla riscossa
Bandiera rossa trionferà.

Bandiera rossa la trionferà
Bandiera rossa la trionferà
Bandiera rossa la trionferà
Il frutto del lavoro a chi lavora andrà.

Dai campi al mare, alla miniera,
All'officina, chi soffre e spera,
Sia pronto, è l'ora della riscossa.
Bandiera rossa trionferà.

Bandiera rossa la trionferà
Bandiera rossa la trionferà
Bandiera rossa la trionferà
Soltanto il comunismo è vera libertà.

Non più nemici, non più frontiere,
Sono i confini rosse bandiere.
O comunisti, alla riscossa,
Bandiera rossa trionferà.

Bandiera rossa la trionferà
Bandiera rossa la trionferà
Bandiera rossa la trionferà
Evviva il communismo e la libertà!

​

 

[Falchoon]

handy to know should you be asked to analyse protest songs in Italian class

 

[skilts]

The ultimate protest song, and one which would provide ample fodder for analysis is, 'Fixin' to Die Rag', by Country Joe (McDonald) and the Fish. It appears on the 'Woodstock' soundtrack, and elsewhere.

In ironically exhorting Americans to join the fight against the Vietnamese, McDonald penned this line:
"Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box."

 

[Lenny Briscoe]

fornutae son - ccr
holiday - green day

 

[Monkster]

Cold Chisel's Star Hotel is a song ABOUT a protest

 

[lioness]

My sister chose this one for a similar school thing years ago, it's called 'Where Have All The Flowers Gone' by Peter Paul & Mary. It's a great little song, the way it kind of goes around in a circle. I'll post the lyrics here!

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone for husbands everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the husbands gone, long time passing?
Where have all the husbands gone, long time ago?
Where have all the husbands gone?
Gone for soldiers everyone
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time ago?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

 

[Contra Mundum]

Billie Holiday sticks it to Jim Crow:

Strange Fruit


Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

 

[Contra Mundum]

Can't go passed American Idiot either

 

[Contra Mundum]

Born Dead by Body Count.

Brought to this world to wither away
Naive about the ways of life is what they say
Millions live millions die, more are yet to come
Living skeletons - where they come from

Born dead into this world
To starve and rot in agony
Born dead into this world
It’s their choice, why can’t you see

Life of misery, soon a corpse you be
As bones show through, nothing you can do
Relief does not exist
When you are born to die

Disease spreads fast across their dying world
Many cemeteries they will have to build
As process goes on for many years to come
A human waste land created when they are done

Born dead into this world
To starve and rot in agony
Born dead into this world
It’s their choice, why can’t you see

 

[CURVE]

WHITE RABBIT - Jefferson Airplane

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
POOR Alice
When she was just small

When men on the chessboard
get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen softly dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's off with her head
Remember what the doormouse said:
"Feed your Head
Feed your Head!"

 

[Contra Mundum]

There are about ten public enemy numbers - here's an example :

Shut 'em down

testified
My mama cried
Black people died
When the other man lied
See the TV, listen to me double trouble
I overhaul and I'm comin'
From the lower level
I'm takin' tabs
Sho nuff stuff to grab
Like shirts it hurts
Wit a neck to wreck
Took a poll 'cause our soul
Took a toll
From the education
Of a TV station
But look around
Hear go the sound of the wreckin' ball
Boom and Pound
When I
Shut 'em down
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
What I use in the battle for the mind
I hit it hard
Like it supposed
Pullin' no blows to the nose
Like uncle L said I'm rippin' up shows
Then what it is
Only 5 percent of the biz
I'm addin' woes
That's how da way it goes
Then U think I rank never drank, point blank
I own loans
Suckers got me runnin' from the bank
Civil liberty I can't see to pay a fee
I never saw a way to pay a sap
To read the law
Then become a victim of a lawyer
Don't know ya, never saw ya
Tape cued
Gettin' me sued
Playin' games wit' my head
What the judge said put me in the red
Got me thinkin' 'bout a trigger to the lead
No no
My education mind say
Suckers gonna pay
Anyway
There gonna be a day
'Cause the troop they roll in
To posse up
Whole from the ground
Ready to go
Throw another round
Sick of the ride
It's suicide
For the other side of town
When I find a way to shut 'em down
Who count the money
In da neigborhood
But we spendin' money
To no end lookin' for a friend
In a war to the core
Rippin' up the poor in da stores
Till they get a brother
Kickin' down doors
Then I figure I kick it bigger
Look 'em dead in the eye
And they wince
Defense is pressurized
They don't want it to be
Another racial attack
In disguise so give some money back
I like Nike but wait a minite
The neighborhood supports so put some
Money in it
Corporations owe
Dey gotta give up the dough
To da town
or else
We gotta shut 'em down

 

[Borgsta]

Anything by Rage Against the Machine.

 

[moistie]

One Pete Seeger song has already been posted in Where have all the flowers gone?

Try looking at We Shall Overcome, If I had a Hammer, The Bells of Rhymney and my personal favourite How Can I Keep From Singing?

 

[Monkster]

Born Dead by Body Count.

Brought to this world to wither away
Naive about the ways of life is what they say
Millions live millions die, more are yet to come
Living skeletons - where they come from

Born dead into this world
To starve and rot in agony
Born dead into this world
It’s their choice, why can’t you see

Life of misery, soon a corpse you be
As bones show through, nothing you can do
Relief does not exist
When you are born to die

Disease spreads fast across their dying world
Many cemeteries they will have to build
As process goes on for many years to come
A human waste land created when they are done

Born dead into this world
To starve and rot in agony
Born dead into this world
It’s their choice, why can’t you see

Hrmm that's different to the Born Dead that I know weird.

Born dead
1994 BC still in the house
They did everything they could do to take us out
But like any good monster that just made us stronger
You see, they don't like us and they don't like you,
The BC fan,
'Cause they know we stand for three things
Truth, justice and ******** the american way
That word justice got me ********ed up though
Twenty cops in the street, two go to jail
Thousands of people died in wars
Overseas and it's justice ?
You think they give a ******** about us ?
You're a fool
Born yellow,
Born brown,
Born red,
Born black,
Born dead
Dead
Born dead
Born asian,
Born jewish,
Born latino,
Born poor,
Born dead
Dead
Born dead
But you don't hear me though
Dead
New York , Atlanta, Chicago, Oakland, Miami, Detroit
Every day I gotta get out my mutha********in' bed,
Put on my mutha********in' gun,
Down in my mutha********in' pants, 'cause
Mutha********a's out here is trippin'
How the ******** you gonna get up every morning
Tryin' to worry about if you gonna make it to the next evening
Do you understand ?
Sometimes we take for granted
The little things like food, like freedom
Born in somalia,
Born in south america,
Born in south africa,
Born in south central,
Born dead
Dead Born dead