MW: Songs of Protest, Rallies for Sanity
Posted by: chatblu on: October 30, 2010
- In: Civil Liberties | Class Warfare | Current Events | Democratic Values | Morning Widdershins | Music | War | You Tube
- Comment!
Good morning, Widdershins. I’m at a cat show today, but I did want to put this post up and get it running. I’m hoping that y’all will live blog the rally so that I can catch up on events tomorrow when I get home.
I also offer the category of protest songs. I know that we usually do things like that on the Lazy Sunday format, but tomorrow is Hallowe’en, so that format pretty much took care of itself. HT requested that we look at protest songs, and I really feel that today would be the better day to do so. This is also a topic that is seared into my soul from the turbulent days of my youth, and it was really, really REALLY hard to cut it down to five. So, with H/T to HT (yes, I know), here are my fav five:
(1) Abraham, Martin and John (1968): Recorded by Dion, who is much better known as a doo-wop artist.
(2) Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag (1965): Better known when associated with “The Fish Cheer”, thanks to Country Joe MacDonald.
(3) Fortunate Son (1969): This song comes from CCR’s aptly named Willy and the Poor Boys album.
(4) Ohio (1970): Written in tribute to the students killed at the Kent State University massacre, and one of the most gripping songs of the era.
(5) We Shall Overcome (1950-70ish): The quintessential anthem of the civil rights era was adopted from a hymn and brought forward to marches throughout the ear. I love this version:
This is an open thread.
65 Responses to "MW: Songs of Protest, Rallies for Sanity"
October 30, 2010 at 8:40 AM
what a great Idea Chat…what time is the FL GA game at the Nuetral Location? (Jacksonville) hope I am in tampa by kick off!
you better not miss it its going to be a good one!
October 30, 2010 at 9:06 AM
NY Gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino is the gift that keeps on giving. Now he calls NY Senate candidate Kirsten Gillibrand “Chuck Schummer’s little girl.”
October 30, 2010 at 9:30 AM
DYB, great clip – I forgot Sinnead. That Paladino is something else – a throwback to cave man days perhaps?
October 30, 2010 at 10:06 AM
While I love the version of Abraham, John, Martin and Bobby, my favorite of all time is Moms Mabley, so I’m going to post it. I adored Moms.
October 30, 2010 at 10:27 AM
@6 DYB is this Paladino’s “not your sweety moment?”
October 30, 2010 at 10:38 AM
Palladino is really a piece of work. Maybe he knows he’ll never win, so he’s taking no prisoners. The filter between the brain and the mouth is gone (and probably never existed.)
October 30, 2010 at 10:46 AM
La, Natalie Maines – Yes, one of the few and best protest songs of the last 30 years.
DYB, you are definitely after my own heart. Marielle Mathieu – brilliant. Have you any Francoise Hardy, btw?
October 30, 2010 at 11:33 AM
@13 Yes, HT. And it is so painful to have watched since that song, what less ten years ago, the movement toward “ready to make nice”. I find the “common ground” or “compromise” and “not look back” generation so damaging. I just assume that a generation of “common grounders” will be at that rally today. They are a slap in the face to the generations that came before them. I would think that the protest songs they will sing there today is “Up Up with People”.
October 30, 2010 at 11:46 AM
Sadly La, I agree with you – and it’s happening right before our eyes. Those that forget history are in control. Funny, it’s not a protest song – and I love me some protest, but 30 years ago there was this groundbreaking musical which was overlooked because it was – well a chick flick, musical and all. Fame – yeah I know current attitude is to recycle. Anyway, it’s not really considered a protest song, yet listen to the words. It was ahead of it’s time, quite frankly – and I just adored the red head
October 30, 2010 at 12:00 PM
I have been baking up a storm today the walnut brownies are done the chocolate chip w/walnut cookie dough is just out of the freezer it makes the dough easier to work with now the first batch of the cookies are in the oven! I am taking them to my poor baking challenged bear friends in Tampa! Its the least I can do they are just wasting away to nothing down there!
October 30, 2010 at 12:14 PM
Fuzzy @ 17> Recipes please! I’ve been wanting to try some baking one of these days, but never get around to it.
October 30, 2010 at 12:27 PM
Fuzzy, sounds delicious!
I think janicen is going to the Rally today. I hope she weighs in on what happened there! At temple today, the tenor said it was supposed to be a big comedy show, not a political event. I qess we will see.
The problem with the “post-partisan,” “post-memory” crowd is that they seem to be “post-principle” as well. I have no problems working with people with whom I disagree, as long as we actually share a common goal. Otherwise everything gets rather mushy and pointless.
I will be out all day today – am going to NJ for a party. Have fun, everyone!
October 30, 2010 at 12:52 PM
Unfortunately the “common goal” is rewriting history. I think Sinead is a good protest singer for my generation. Though, of course, she made the most waves with her cover of War. She has a determination not to allow history to be rewritten.
October 30, 2010 at 12:53 PM
Madama have a terrific time!
DYB, thanks for Francoise – wasn’t she terrific?
La Margaret Cho – terrific. I’ll raise you Buffy.
October 30, 2010 at 12:59 PM
And although it’s not a protest song – obviously Buffy never got the accolades that she deserved. She wrote this song and won an oscar for it, and quite frankly it’s the most heartfelt version I’ve ever heard.
October 30, 2010 at 1:27 PM
I love Fortunate Son! Thanks for that one, Chat. And of course, I’m still Not Ready to Make Nice (thanks, La), and probably never will be. You know, I could listen to either any time from my own music, but there’s something about sharing online that just makes them sound better.
October 30, 2010 at 2:15 PM
I think Madonna’s take on “Imagine” is surprisingly subtle and effective:
October 30, 2010 at 2:18 PM
Geez…how could folks of a “certain age” (ahem!) have left this songstress out:
October 30, 2010 at 2:29 PM
And oh my…the days of Boone’s Farm Wine and weed. 
I still had the lp 2 disk set of this before Katrina
October 30, 2010 at 2:35 PM
DYB, excellent. What the hell happened to us? And you and La raise another important form of protest – LGBT’s are humans (wow, who knew ?) and their rights are being used as political football. Makes me ill.
October 30, 2010 at 3:01 PM
I think that I made my list too long — it’s stuck in moderation! Sorry.
October 30, 2010 at 3:26 PM
The King of protest singers – Pete Seeger (BTW, am I hogging this thread?)
October 30, 2010 at 3:29 PM
Cream City@35: Remember WP won’t let you put more than 1 link in a post. Both chat and MB are gone, so no one can let you out. Maybe redo it with 1 link in each post?
October 30, 2010 at 4:04 PM
CC, Fredster is right, and because I’m impatient (at my age I could expire any moment) please repost!
Fredster – believe it or not, I’ve followed you (with difficulty). If I found you or Pat J or Fuzzy I knew that this was a place that I wanted to lurk. Fortunately Madamab hitched up with Chat, and that seems to be a really good fit. However, what most bloggers do not realize – present company excluded of course – is that the commenters are very important, if one wants to profit. If not, the commenters are most important because they are like us – regular people.
And to end my obsequeious diatriabe, I offer
October 30, 2010 at 4:10 PM
Okay, thanks! Now get ready for a SLEW as I cut and paste. . . .
Here are some I play for my students as I do classroom setup. These really all do fit into my course material! (But I don’t how to do your nifty embeds. . . .)
The sad, beautiful song to those “once living, they were once breathing, but now they’re all just names on a wall” — and to those left behind who do vigil there, every day . . . the amazing (to continue our Francophone theme) Francesca Berghe:
October 30, 2010 at 4:10 PM
Cool, it automatically embeds!
Continuing with the Francophone theme on this side of the ocean, enjoy my beautiful French Canadian cousins of many cultures — including fugitive refugees, Tories and slaves and others from our country — singing their anthem to the true North, strong and free/we stand on guard for thee, O Canada — of course, a very polite protest song against the tyrannies that they have endured. I love it in both of their languages! (and yes, this was Quincy Jones’ warmup for the better-known mob scene singing “We Are the World”):
October 30, 2010 at 4:11 PM
Instead, our country has the shame of the Trail of Tears all the way to the end in the Dakotas, with this great First Nations’ protest song by Lakotas against manifest destiny that irrevocably wounded us all — because we were all wounded at Wounded Knee:
October 30, 2010 at 4:13 PM
And on to another country with a sad history against its native peoples, halfway around the world — but at least my beloved Aussies, bless ‘em, have national, annual Sorry Day. And did you know this Australian protest song? A “waltzing matilda” was the backpack that Aussie troops carried, as this antiwar song — one of the saddest of all antiwar songs I’ve heard — tells us:
October 30, 2010 at 4:14 PM
And back to the Vietnam War theme, here’s the version of “Four Dead in Ohio” that I use, with photos of that horrible time I remember all too well:
October 30, 2010 at 4:14 PM
And right up there with the great “War” song and video above is Freda Payne’s “Bring the Boys Home” — bring ‘em back from ‘Nam, bring ‘em back alive . . . all the soldiers that have died, tryin’ to get home, tryin’ to get home. This one was a fave of the troops in ‘Nam, my vet ex told me:
October 30, 2010 at 4:15 PM
On to the civil rights movement, I am bookmarking that video of the marvelous Mahalia Jackson — is that Bayard Rustin doing the introduction? — but here’s Kathleen Battle’s version that I enjoy . . . from an inauguration of a Clinton (be sure to go to the end):
October 30, 2010 at 4:15 PM
And speaking of Clinton inaugurations, the great Aretha sang “I had a dream” turned to shame — a sad foresight, but “they can not kill the dream we dreamed”!– at that “people’s celebration” long before her more recent return for another inauguration:
October 30, 2010 at 4:17 PM
Of course, upon her return for the most recent inauguration, Ms. Franklin made sure to sing at the very site of a famous civil rights protest by Marian Anderson — a protest, too, by the great Eleanor Roosevelt, who made it happen and resigned from the DAR that would not allow Ms. Anderson to use its hall. So heard on radio around the world more than 70 years ago, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” as a protest song:
and another, moving view in actual video in a newsreel:
October 30, 2010 at 4:17 PM
And while we’re doing divas doing civil rights songs, I love Mary Travers’ version that was the first I heard of this one, but nobody does “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” better than Nina Simone — and how sweet it would be if we found that we could fly, with this homage to women’s rightist Amelia Earhart:
October 30, 2010 at 4:18 PM
But is there anything more rousing than the Black National Anthem? penned as a poem by James Weldon Johnson and set to music by his brother for grade-schoolers to sing in honor of Lincoln’s birthday more than a century ago — and look closely at the start to see who’s doing the intro to the great Kim Weston’s version:
October 30, 2010 at 4:18 PM
And Neil Young’s protest song to save, above all, our Mother Earth:
And more, many more! But I must get back to work . . . before I come back to enjoy more of the contributions here. What a thread!
October 30, 2010 at 4:51 PM
CC – Omg, I’m still at the third – the O Canada one. It hits home, doncha know. Thank you for including it. It’s quite amazing that most americans would be unable to identify anyone in that clip, yet they probably purchased music produced and performed by those artists. Molly Johnson and Liberty Silber for example – huge in jazz circles and (okay, I didn’t mention Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Gordon Lightfoot, Salome Bey (a transplanted american) and so many, many more.)
October 30, 2010 at 5:08 PM
CC: Phew! you *did* have a bunch! I will have to come back to view them. Since both Fuzzy and Chat are gone I’m doing honorary viewing of the Georgia/Florida game, but I’ll be back!
HT@40: I usually hang out at the same places all the time, here, John Smart, Uppity Woman, Edge of Forever Towelroad and Gary’s site. However, to paraphrase the old saying: so many blogs, so little time. 
October 30, 2010 at 5:16 PM
Sheite, Cream City you’ve really nailed it, however, I’m going to have to some time to revisit my life. Thank you for posting all of these very important, but neglected historical visuals.
October 30, 2010 at 5:23 PM
HT, great comment on the first one by Beghe. So haunting. I never can hear it enough . . . and my students will be hearing and seeing the vid soon on Veterans’ Day — including the vets in my class, where I teach students how to quietly recognize and thank vets when we see them on the street, in airports, etc.
And on O Canada! there’s another version on Youtube with great views of such a gorgeous country. I inflict both vids upon my students when we study the French Canadians who first settled this country (take that, Pilgrims) — and I always get comments from students about how that anthem sticks with them . . . as do the many marvelous faces of peoples so proud of their history.
Btw, you can go to this version on Youtube to read comments including recent ones by the organizer of the version almost 30 years ago, and he is trying to organize a repeat! Also read who would and would not donate their time then from the Canadian music industry, and who is willing to do so now on a new version. Also see the vid at a hockey game of Mariah Carey singing it so beautiful — and at another hockey game with 18,000 fans singing it beautifully, in both languages!
October 30, 2010 at 5:30 PM
Ah, found my vid with better audio of Neil Young in concert.
Respect Mother Earth!
October 30, 2010 at 5:38 PM
with respect CC, I’m not interested in Mariah Carey. However here’s one for you Susan Aglulkark. Here’s one for you – Susan Aglukark
October 30, 2010 at 7:41 PM
Alas, poor Chat. Her Dawgs led a brilliant fight against Fuzzy’s Gators but the Gators prevailed. Congrats to Fuzzy.
October 30, 2010 at 9:53 PM
Fredster I cannot understand the american obsession with wome sports – not all sports – just baseball and football. Why do americans find football and baseball exciting and what is it that make the fans rabidly devotional?
CC – it’s going to take another day to experience your videos. There are only so many tears one can shed, and my bleeping cheeks are chapped. But thank you! Now send me a lot of St Ives skin creams – lots of them.
October 30, 2010 at 10:42 PM
HT said: Fredster I cannot understand the american obsession with wome sports
Oh I don’t watch women’s sports, I watch the guys. I really enjoy college football because the players are obviously good but at that level I think they still have some *genuine* excitement for the sport. Besides…have you seen those guys in those tight football pants?
Why do americans find football and baseball exciting and what is it that make the fans rabidly devotional?
Well now, you all have the CFL and do they still have the baseball teams in Montreal and Toronto? As to the excitement of it…that’s not particularly American, look at the Europeans with soccer.
October 30, 2010 at 10:50 PM
I can relate, HT — with the house to myself for a change this morning, I spent hours with others’ videos here, at top volume. Hours that ought to have been spent on work I’ll just have to do tomorrow (if the li’l trick-or-treaters allow!).
Enjoyed the Inuit “Amazing Grace” — I use a lovely Cherokee version in class but now can add more from north of our border!
October 30, 2010 at 11:42 PM
CC – I’m still working my way through but it’s difficult when one is in tears for most of the journey. Not that I’m complaining but geez, protest used to be so easy (said she, tongue firmly in cheek)
BTB Susan Aglukark is an Inuit who is also a word renowned artist. She’s pretty special. Check her out here
http://www.susanaglukark.com/home.html
October 31, 2010 at 12:11 AM
Oops, BTB is distinctly Canadian. My apologies – not for using it, but not for explaining it. BTB is by the bye – which sorta means incidentally and other stuff – we’re nothing if not flexible eh. One more Susan Aglukark – an amazing artist who just happens to be a woman. OSiem.
Comments are closed.
L 2012 – Support Your Local Lefties!
Recent Comments
 | madamab on New Year’s Eve Widdershi… |
 | Eddie on New Year’s Eve Widdershi… |
 | HT on New Year’s Eve Widdershi… |
| madamab on New Year’s Eve Widdershi… |
| madamab on Happy New Year – We… |
October 30, 2010 at 8:08 AM
Gosh, tearing up here, but singing along. Here’s one that always makes me cry. It was the day of MLK’s I have a dream speech