Protestapalooza

The other day as I was kicking my Pumas off for yet another adventure through the airport security line (ah the life of a traveling feminist), I realized that Peter Yarrow, famed singer of Peter, Paul, and Mary, was a few grumpy people ahead of me in line. I added it to my growing list of weird and wonderful airport encounters (I also found myself sockless with Chuck Schumer lately). In any case, it got me thinking about the contemporary state of “protest music,” and then GOOD (HI ANN!) ran this piece on Public Domain Protest Songs and, this week, The Nation published this list of reader’s favorite protest songs. Doesn’t it just seem like I am supposed to write a post on protest music?

So what makes a song bonafide “protest music?” I’m sure music critics much more cultured than I would have something to say about this, but I’m thinking about it less from a musical standpoint and more from an emotional standpoint. What makes you feel like fighting back, standing up for justice, taking to the streets, or taking a chance on hope?

Some songs get me going because the lyrics speak directly to the pathetic status quo, hypocrisy, and the need for justice. Songs like Brother Ali’s “Uncle Sam Goddamn” (lyrics after the jump):

But some songs get me riled up, less from a lyrical, cerebral place, and more from a feeling creeping up my spine kinda way. Songs like Dead Prez’ “Fake Records” (lyrics after the jump, nonetheless). Obviously there are some radical messages here, but it strikes me on more of a visceral level. It also make me feel immediately transported back to my college days, which tells you how old I’m gettin':

I’m obviously impartial to hip hop for my protest fix, but my Facebook friends offered up a range of other suggestions: “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine, “Draft Dodger Rag” by Phil Ochs, “Fight The Power” or “Can’t Truss It” by Public Enemy, “Mississippi Goddamn” by Nina Simone, “Vietnam” by Jimmy Cliff, “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, “Handsome Johnny” by Richie Havens, “One By One” by Emma’s Revolution, “Strangefruit” by Billie Holiday, “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke, “Roll Me Through The Gates Of Hell” by Mischief Brew, “Changes” by Tupac, “Get Up” by The Coup, “The Point of No Return” by Immortal Technique, “Zombie” by Fela, “Whose Side are You On Now” by Ani Difranco, “Dyke March” by Le Tigre, “Nomads Revolt” by Mischief Brew etc. (And now you also see why I love my friends so much.)

What do you listen to when you need to get inspired for activism? What do you listen to in order to reconnect with your anger or feel empowered to take action?

Lyrics to “Uncle Sam Goddamn“:

Ah,
The name of this song is uncle sam goddamn
It’s a show tune but the show ain’t been written for it yet.
We’re gonna see if tony Jerome and the band
can maybe work this shit out for me
And straighten me out right quick
I like it so far man

Yeah

Come on, let’s go

Welcome to the united snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grand imperial guard where
the dollar is sacred and proud

Let’s do this shit for real, come on now

Smoke and mirrors, stripes and stars
Stollen for the cross in the name of God
Bloodshed, genocide, rape and fraud
Written to the pages of the law, good lord

The cold continent latch key child
Ran away one day and started acting foul
King of where the wild things are, daddy’s proud
Cause the roman empire done passed it down

Imported and tortured the work force
They never healed the wounds or shook the curse off
Now the grown up Goliath nation
Holdin open auditions for the part of David, can you feel?

Nothing can save you, you question the rain
You get rushed in and chained up
fists raised but I must be insane
Cause I can’t figure a single goddamn way to change it

Welcome to the united snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grant imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is God

All must bow to the fat and lazy
The fuck you obey me and
why do they hate me, who me?
Only two generations away from
the Worlds most despicable slavery trade

Pioneered so many ways to degrade a human being
That it can’t be changed to this day
Legacy so ingrained in the way that we think
We don’t only need chains to be slaves

Lord it’s a shameful display
The overseers even got raped along the way
Cause the children can’t escape from the pain
And they’re born with the pores
and this hatred in their veins

Try and separate a man from his soul
You’ll only strengthen him and lose your own
Well shoot that fucker if he walk near the throne
Remind him that this is my home (now i’m gone)

Welcome to the united snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grant imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is god

Welcome to the united snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grant imperial guard where the dollar is sacred

Hold up, gimme one right here, hold up

You don’t give money to the bums
On the corner with a sign, bleeding from their gums
Talking much, you don’t support a crackhead
What you think happens to the money from yo’ taxes

Shit the governments an addict
With a billion dollar a week kill brown people habit
And even if you ain’t on the front line
When the master yell crunch time you right back at it

You ain’t look at how you hustling backwards
And the end of the year add up what they subtracted
3 outta twelve months your salary
Paid for that madness, man that’s sadness

What’s left get a big ass plasma
To see where they made Dan Rather point the damn camera
Only approved questions get answered
Now stand your ass up for that national anthem

Welcome to the united snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grant imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is God

[instrumental break]

Custom made, the consumer news

Keep saying we’re free
But we’re all just blue (x3)

Custom made, the consumer news
Keep saying we’re free
But we’re all just blue