You Don't Need No Engine to Go Downhill
During the New Deal, an unprecedented amount of money was given to the arts. Through the Federal Arts Program, the working class heard symphonies for the first time, murals decorated our towns, and around 10,000 artists were commissioned for work. By 1939, the country had stabilized, and the programs were cut. Most have never returned, and the funding remains minimal. In 2016 The National Endowment for the Arts received .004 percent of the federal budget (147.9 million). The following year, Donald Trump proposed cutting all funding for the arts and humanities to zero. The bill that was eventually passed was not extreme but cut another $5 million from an already meager allocation. The 2023 budget increases that funding to 203.55 million.
We're Not Gonna Protest! We're Not Gonna Protest!
The very process of making art is political protest. There are plenty of arguments to be had about what is art and what is product. In plenty of cases, there is an overlapping of those two states. This playlist contains mostly songs that go the extra mile to ensure the listener knows it's political. In a recent episode of the Broken Record Podcast, David Byrne brought a list of protest songs that he made to discuss with Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell. Byrne had been noticing a lot of comments about the lack of protest songs in our contemporary culture. He explored and found, "They haven't gone anywhere; they're still here. People are writing them and, what's more, some of them are big pop hits by big pop artists. So not only they haven't gone away, but they're now part of the mainstream." He goes on to say that if you weren't listening to the lyrics, you might not realize it was a protest song. Kesha's Here Comes the Change is one "big pop hit" from his list. My guess is I've heard this in the CVS pickup line and not noticed. Maybe the token 'Dylan' harmonica would have clued me in, but I don't think so. With its smoothed-out edges, contemporary production often transforms songs into ambient music. It's there, but it's not. I'm not sure this is effective as a protest song. The message may be reaching a new audience, but the genre's best music offers something shocking or unpalatable; it demands to be heard. It would help if the message of Here Comes the Change was more substantial, more controversial. This is probably the most specific line in the song:
Is it a crazy thought
That if I have a child
I hope they live to see the day
That everyone's equal?
In her song Bastards she says "motherfucker" in the first thirty seconds. I would suggest throwing that into this song:
It is a Motherfucker of thought...
I'm not saying it's a bad song; I'm just not sure I agree it's protest music. Theodor Adorno considered something art only if it didn't go down easy. He believed that art is meant to expose the barbarity of capitalism, which is perhaps why the American government does little to support the arts.
The Dukes Turn on Their Hazzards
Okie From Muskogee by Merle Haggard was another interesting choice on Byrne's list. I'm curious if my favorite talking head just wanted to get the conversation started on what exactly makes a protest song. This is a good choice for that task.
Here are the lamest lines from that song:
Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear;
Beads and Roman sandals won't be seen.
And football's still the roughest thing on campus,
And the kids they still respect the college dean.
I think it's safe to say that maintaining the status quo - bootlicking the 'manly footwear' of the college dean- is not protest. When all varieties of white nationalists showed up in Charleston, they never claimed it was a protest- the word they used was "Rally." Okie From Muskogee is rally music. Haggard would later perform this song through the eyes of his younger self. He was smart enough to grow out of the viewpoints held in these lyrics. The Grateful Dead and Beach Boys did a joint concert in 1971 where they played this song. They all appear to be very high on all the drugs mentioned in the lyrics ("We don't take our trips on LSD"). That version may qualify as protest music.
Nazi Punks Fuck Off
As fascism rises, the arts are among the first to be attacked. The Nazis had their degenerate art show, and Max Beckman and Max Ernst, branded enemies of the state, fled Germany. Emil Nolde remained in the country but was prohibited from purchasing paint.
Music, mostly jazz and Jewish music, was also deemed degenerate. Hans Eisler, who had collaborated with Bertolt Brecht on the protest songs Solidarity Song and The Ballad of Paragraph 218 (The first song protesting laws against abortion), fled. Mischa Spoliansky, who composed Das Lila Lied (The Lavender Song) - one of the first known gay anthems in 1920, emigrated to London. Kurt Weill, also known for his collaborations with Brecht, including Mack the Knife and Alabama Song (later covered by the Doors and Davide Bowie), moved to Paris. His working relationship with Brecht had come to an end over politics, saying he was unable to "set the communist manifesto to music." Nonetheless, he was a prominent, successful Jewish composer; enough to make him an enemy of the state. Friedrich Hollaender wrote an early feminist anthem Raus mit den Männern, for Claire Waldoff.
Out with the men from the Reichstag,
and out with the men from the Landtag,
and out with the men from the mansion.
we will turn it into a women's house!
Waldoff joined the Reichskulturkammer Association (the cultural chamber of the nazi party). Hollaender emigrated to the United States, where he wrote music for over 100 films. The modern atonalists Ernst Krenek and Arnold Schoenberg did not fit the Wagnerian mold. They both escaped Germany.
Others did not.
Composers Karel Švenk, Erwin Schulhoff, Pavel Haas, and Viktor Ullmann all died in concentration camps.
I'm so Bored with the USA
Censorship and exile are found in every corner of the globe.
Folk singer Bonga was exiled from Angola in the late 60s for his opposition to Portuguese colonial rule, and the album Angola 72 became the soundtrack to the revolution that won independence in 1975.
Pinochet seized power in Chile in 1973. The folk group Inti-Illimani was on tour during the coup. They would not return home for 15 years, during which time they recorded Venceremos, which became an anthem of the opposition:
We will win, we will win
A thousand chains will break
We will win, we will win
Tel-Aviv-born Gilad Atzmon went into a self-imposed exile after accusing the Israeli government of genocide against Palestinians.
Yungchen Lhamo left Tibet in 1989, and her second album Tibet, Tibet is dedicated to the bravery of her people.
Ilham al-Madfai, "the Baghdad Beatle," was forced out of Iraq during the first Gulf War.
The Kabul Ensemble, Afghanistan's first all-female orchestra, has been in exile since the seizure of Kabul by the Taliban in 2021.
The Chimurenga ("Revolutionary Struggle") songs of Thomas Mapfumo were initially banned by the white Rhodesian government, then by the Mugabe regime.
Hugh Masekela was one of the many musicians forced to leave South Africa following the Sharpesville Massacre in 1960. Miriam Mikaba was also forced from the country, and in 1977 she collaborated with Masekela on Soweto Blues about the uprising the prior year.
In 2012, jihadists in Timbuktu banned music, and the quartet, Sanghoy Blues, left their homeland.
Tinarawen, a collection of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert region of Mali formed in 1979 while exiled in Algeria. Their latest release Amatssou is among my favorite records of the year.
Outline My Route!
I was born in 1987. By then, the capitalist machine had long figured out how to sell 1960/70s counterculture. Grateful Dead Bears, Forrest Gump, the Woodstock sequels, and Bob Dylan in a Victoria's Secret commercial. Those that came of age during the Vietnam War era have largely done a reverse Merle Haggard. Is it all, as Jello Biafra once put it, "nostalgia for an age that never existed"? Or did they trade their peace signs for economic opportunity? Regardless, subsequent generations have not always had the kindest words for the boomer generation. Maybe selling all of that counterculture ideology was a mistake. Al Franken joked earlier this year, "A shout-out to my baby boomers: Feels like we got the last chopper out of Saigon, doesn't it?" It sure does, Al.
Anohni sings on 4 Degrees,
I wanna burn the sky, I wanna burn the breeze
I wanna see the animals die in the trees
Oh, let's go, let's go; it's only four degrees
Oh, let's go, let's go; it's only four degrees
There is a state of denial happening. But the earth is protesting our selfishness and stupidity. It has one hell of a song to sing.
The very idea of America makes me shake and tremble and gives me nightmares. - Josephine Baker,
[ in response to the East St. Louis Massacre in 1917. ]
I have purposely skipped the most well-known protest songs on this playlist. Or, in some cases, famous ones like Mississippi Goddamn are included because they are new to me.
I don't believe, to pick two of the most famous songs of protest, that This Land is Your Land or Strange Fruit no longer hold relevance; they contain even more power in many ways because so little has changed. It is worth reflecting on their strength, especially in our present moment, and I will do so. A primary idea of the playlist is highlighting how many people had and continue to have the same viewpoints as those songs we continually referenced. Oppression is evergreen - or as LL Cool J would put it, "The past doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."
"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." -Dom Helder Camara
This Land is Your Land:
I was taught only the first few verses of This Land is Your Land:
This land is your land; this land is my land
From California to the New York Island,
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters;
This land was made for you and me.
As I was walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway;
I saw below me that golden valley;
This land was made for you and me.
I don't think it's a coincidence that these more commonly repeated lyrics could just as quickly be interpreted as an anthem of manifest destiny. In reality, Guthrie was writing a satirical response to Kate Smith's God Bless America. When considering the song's initial title, God Blessed America For Me, you start to get a clearer picture of his intentions.
As I went walking, I saw a sign there,
And on the sign, it said, "Private Property."
But on the other side, it didn't say nothing.
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple, I saw my people,
By the relief office, I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
When Bruce Springsteen performed the song alongside Pete Seeger at the inauguration of President Obama, he made sure to sing all the verses. However, they skip the critical question, "Is this land made for you and me"? This was a celebratory day, so I get it, but a much younger and bolder Pete Seeger once added the lines, "This land was stolen from you by me." Even in celebration, it is perhaps worth adhering to reality. It would have been more entertaining, anyway. Guthrie himself would edit out those last two verses from his 1944 version when he became supportive of the U.S. war effort in WWII, ironically transforming his song into something much closer to the naive patriotism of God Bless America.
The deal struck this weekend over America's debt ceiling includes compromises that will increase work requirements for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and cash welfare. This comes at a time when more and more Americans are using Buy Now Pay Later services to get groceries. It significantly increases the military budget.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
"The very idea of America makes me shake and tremble and gives me nightmares." - Josephine Baker, responding to the East St. Louis Massacre, 1917.
Strange Fruit
"That is about the ugliest song I have ever heard. Ugly in the sense that it is violent and tears at the guts of what white people have done to my people in this country." - Nina Simone
This song, penned by Abel Meeropol, is devastating. It places the listener as an onlooker, initially just far enough away from the aftermath of a lynching to recognize the scene's unsettling quality. That vantage point quickly turns to horror.
Southern trees bear a 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 magnolia, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
Billie Holiday's pained, weary delivery emphasizes the inescapable brutality of American white supremacy. John Hammond, the co-producer on Dylan's Masters of War, refused to record the song. Undeterred, she went to the small leftwing label Commodore to record it in 1939. At the time of its release, Samuel Grafton, reviewing it for the New York Post, called it "a fantastically perfect work of art, one which reversed the usual relationship between a black entertainer and her white audience: 'I have been entertaining you,' she seems to say, 'now you just listen to me.'"
At least 4,742 people, predominantly black, were reported lynched in the United States between 1882 and 1968. Ninety-nine percent of all perpetrators of lynching escaped from punishment by State or local officials.
Despite only making up thirteen percent of the population, black Americans make up 35% of unarmed killings at the hands of police. They are seldom charged, and even rarer is a conviction. In the past five years, there have been at least 121 unarmed killings of black people by police.
Here are the cases in which officers were charged:
Fanta Bility: Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania: 27 August 2021. Three officers were charged with manslaughter in the death of 8-year-old Fanta Bility after recklessly firing at a car they wrongfully believed to be involved in a shooting.
Daunte Wright: Brooklyn Center, Minnesota: 11 April 2021: Daunte Wright, following a struggle with police, re-entered his car, where he was shot by Kim Potter, who claimed she thought she was using a taser. She was convicted of first and second-degree manslaughter, for which she received a two-year sentence.
George Floyd: Minneapolis, Minnesota: 25 May 2020: George Floyd was murdered by Dereck Chauvin, who knelt on his neck for over nine minutes, including three minutes in which he was motionless and had no pulse. His knee remained on his neck even as paramedics arrived. Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 22+1⁄2 years in prison. Chauvin later pleaded guilty to the federal charge of deprivation of rights under color of law and was sentenced to a concurrent 21 years in prison. Three other officers who held Floyd down were also charged.
George Robinson: Jackson, Mississippi. 13 January 2019: Officers pulled 62-year-old George Robinson from his car and repeatedly kicked and beat him. He would die from his injuries, and Officer Anthony Fox was given five years for manslaughter. The other two officers involved were not charged.
That's four convictions in one hundred and twenty-one killings. SCOTUS has decided that police officers have the right to use deadly force based on the perspective of the "reasonable" officer, considering the split-second decisions they must make. N.W.A. sang in Fuck The Police, "Police think they have the authority to kill a minority." This decision confirms the lyric. The broad ruling has allowed many officers to get away with murder. Lynching is extrajudicial killing. What do we call it when we enable law enforcement to commit racially biased killings? State-sanctioned murder.
Nearly 200 antilynching bills were introduced in Congress during the first half of the 20th century. Just last year, the Emmit Till Antilynching Act was signed into law. It's time we have a ruling that makes the murder of unarmed civilians by police illegal. It is a Motherfucker of thought.
99 Problems: Listen Here
You Haven't Done Nothin' - Stevie Wonder: An attack on Richard Nixon, who resigned two days after this was released. The Jackson 5 is on the chorus!
Society's Child (Baby, I've Been Thinking) [Single Version] - Janis Ian: Centered on an interracial romance and the judgment of those around her, written when Ian was thirteen.
When Will We Be Paid - The Staple Singers: A ledger sheet of the foundational wealth via slavery on which the United States was built. I just watched the Wanda Sykes comedy special I'm an Entertainer. She addresses the typical reaction to reparations- "Why should I pay for something that I had nothing to do with?" Her response: "Did you have something to do with your trust fund?"
6 Little Piano Pieces Op 19. No. 1: Leicht Zart - Arnold Schoenberg, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim, conductor: "popular art becomes the mere exponent of society, rather than a catalyst for change in society." He described America as a soft totalitarianism whose ideology was spread by the culture, and his music opposes that totalitarianism.
Is it Because I'm Black - Syl Johnson: Described as the first black concept record, released two years before Marvin Gaye's What's Going On?
(For God's Sake) - Give More Power to the People - The Chi-Lites
Between The Wars - Billy Bragg: Inspired by the UK Miner's Strike (1984-1985). All proceeds went to the striking miner's fund.
Fight the Power, Pts. 1 & 2 - The Isley Brothers: Later interpolated by Public Enemy on their song of the same name.
The Ludlow Massacre - Woody Guthrie: A mass killing of 21 people on the side of the striking miners during the Colorado Coalfield War by the National Guard and private guards of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. Women and children were among the casualties.
When The Revolution Comes - The Last Poets: A group that emerged from the 1960s Civil Rights and Black Nationalist ideology. Their name comes from the South African poet Keorapetse Kgositsile who believed in one last era of poetry before guns took over.
(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go - Curtis Mayfield: A warning about the issues of race relations in America's Inner cities.
I Can't Write Left Handed. Live at Carnegie Hall - Bill Withers: A young soldier returns from Vietnam after losing his arm. This was covered by John Legend and the Roots in 2010 in an equally powerful version.
March to the Witch's Castle - Funkadelic: Another perspective on soldiers returning from Vietnam.
Bring the Boys Home - Freda Payne
Does Anybody Know I'm Here? - The Dells: A soldier waiting on The Letter.
Mississippi Goddamn. Live at Carnegie Hall. - Nina Simone: A reactionary song to the murders of Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, and the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombings.
Biko - Peter Gabriel - A musical eulogy inspired by the death of the black South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in police custody on 12 September 1977.
Ghost Town - The Specials: A report on urban decay. The song is remembered for being a hit while riots occurred in British cities.
Sólo Le Pido A Dios - León Gieco: discusses the military dictatorship of his country, Mercedes Sosa's exile, and the threat of war between Chile and Argentina at the time.
Alright - Kendrick Lamar: he found inspiration for "Alright" while visiting South Africa and witnessing problems that locals faced: "Their struggle was ten times harder." The track opens with lines from Alice Walker's The Color Purple, "Alls my life, I had to fight."
Seize The Time - Elaine Brown: A member of the Black Panther Party — this is a call for revolution.
Bella Ciao - Interpreti dello spettacolo: an Italian protest folk song from the late 19th century, initially sung by the mondina workers in protest against the harsh working conditions in the paddy fields of Northern Italy. It later became a song of the Italian Resistance fighters in WWII.
Trouble Everyday - The Mothers of Invention: Written while watching footage of the Watts Riot.
Come Out - Steve Reich: A Benefit for the Harlem Six. It uses the voice of Daniel Hamm, one of the boys involved in the riots but not responsible for the murder; he was nineteen at the time of the recording.
Changes - 2Pac, Talent
Aquele Abraço - Gilberto Gill: Gil was inspired to write the song on Ash Wednesday of 1969, his last day before leaving Rio, shortly after he had been released from detention in a military prison
It isn't Nice - Malvina Reynolds
Zombie- Fela Kuti, Afrika 70: a scathing attack on Nigeria's military regime.
Glad to Be Gay - Tom Robinson Band: Britain's Gay National Anthem. Banned by the BBC.
(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang - Heaven 17: Calls Reagan the fascist God in motion. Also banned by the BBC.
Shipbuilding - Elvis Costello and the Attractions: Written during the Falklands War of 1982, Costello's lyrics highlight the irony of the war bringing back prosperity to the traditional shipbuilding areas to build new ships to replace those being sunk in the war while also sending off the sons of these areas to fight and, potentially, lose their lives in those same ships.
Whitey on the Moon- Gil Scott-Heron: Money for the space race, but none for the poor.
Black Boys on Mopeds - Sinead O'Connor: Tells the story of Colin Roach, a young black man killed in police custody.
Living Like a Refugee - Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars
1,000 Deaths - D'Angelo: Released following the death of Michael Brown at the hands of police.
Sunshine - Pusha T, Jill Scott: References the murder of Freddie Gray.
4 Degrees- Anohni
We The People - A Tribe Called Quest
Europe is Lost - Kae Tempest: An extensive survey of contemporary issues.
Right to Work - Chelsea
Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace - Max Roach: Referred to as "an early soundtrack to Black Lives Matter" by the North Carolina Arts Council, the tracks addressed injustices in the US and South Africa
Draft Dodger Rag- Phil Ochs
Soubour - Songhoy Blues
The Unknown Soldier - The Doors
Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation - Tom Paxton
Police State - Dead Prez, Chairman Omali Yeshitela
Army Dreamers - Kate Bush: The reflections of a mother whose son was killed in military maneuvers
Black Man in A White World - Michael Kiwanuka
Reagan - Killer Mike
Children's Bread Live at KCRW - Jimmy Cliff: "They took the children's bread And give it to the dogs"
Rich Man Poor Man - The Gladiators
Di Black Petty Booshwah - Linton Kwesi Johnson
Nuclear War - Sun Ra
Variations For Orchestra Op. 31: VI: Variation IV: - Arnold Schoenberg, Philharmonia Orchestra. Robert Craft: "Far be it from me to question the rights of the majority. But one thing is certain: somewhere there is a limit to the power of the majority; it occurs, in fact, wherever the essential step is one that cannot be taken by all and sundry."
Alabama - John Coltrane: Written following the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing.
Part V (Come Sunday) - Duke Ellington: Dedicated to the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue
(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue - Louis Armstrong
Hellhound on My Trail - Robert Johnson
Haitian Fight Song - Charles Mingus
Un Violador en Tu Camino - Lastesis: "The Rapist is You." a Chilean feminist performance piece protesting violence against women
Sisters O Sisters- Yoko Ono - "Women of the world take over, because if you don't, the world will come to an end, and it won't take long."
Solidarity Song - Hans Eisler, Sylvia Anders, D. Justus Noll
Das Lila Lied - Mischa Spoliansky, Ute Lemper, Matrix Ensemble: The song is a product of Germany's Weimar Republic. During this time, lesbians and gay men enjoyed a short improvement in quality of life when the government established basic democratic rights that covered the LGBT community and abolished censorship.
Suffer the Little Children - Buffy Sainte-Marie: "You think I have visions because I'm an Indian. I have visions because there are visions to be seen."
Ku Tando - Bonga
Pod destnikem- Karl Svenk, Anne Sofie Von Otter, Bengt Fosberg, Bebe Risenfors
Trigales- Inti Illimani
Refuge Prayer- Yungchen Lhamo
John Sinclair- John Lennon
Study For Strings- Pavel Haas, New Czech Chamber Orchestra, Jirí Belohlávek
ون يا قلب - Ilham al-Madfai
I Was Only 19 (A Walk in the Light Green)- Redgum
Khorassani- The Kabul Ensemble
Stimela (The Coal Train)- Hugh Masekela
Violin Sonata , WV 83: I. Allegro von fuoco-Erwin Schulhoff, Baiba Skride
Goodbye Poverty- Miriam Makeba
Dal'ouna On The Return - Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble
Venceremos - Quilapayún
Soweto Blues - Miriam Makeba
一无所有 - Cui Jan
Emperor of Atlantis, Scene I: Dance of Death - Robert Osborne
Iran Iran - Fadaei
Baraye- Shervin Hajipour
Sorode Zan - Mehdi Yarrahi
Shallagh - Toomah, Justina
Kabar Ma Kyay Nu- Myanmar Gen-Z, Sang C;T
Raus mit den Männern! - Friederich Hollaender, Ute, Lemper, Matrix Ensemble
Hum Dekhenge- Zohaib Kazi, Ali Hamza
Bayan KO- Freddie Aguilar
Rauch-Haus-Song - Ton Steine Sccherben
Yankees raus - Slime
A Nation Once Again- The Wolfe Tones
Welterusten Mijnheer De President- Boudwijn de Groot
Хочу перемен - Kino
Two Tribes - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Managua - Naked Raygun
Stop The Violence - Boogie Down Productions
Be Free - J. Cole
Monk Time - The Monks
This album is composed mostly of sounds made by the creatures of our oceans. The artist is giving 50% of the publishing royalties to organizations that support these creatures and their ecosystems.
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