Sunday Evening Fight Songs
Enough of all this! Post your favorite inspirational political protest song.
How about this phenomenal young Columbian artist to kick it off?
Ela Minus - megapunk
- Warning Flashing Lights -
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@mastodonmigration Can I interest anyone in making a playlist from these songs?
@mastodonmigration Bruce Cockburn my favorite anti war song. Love this version. “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” https://youtu.be/nOjHior0RfU
Great song. Did not know that one.
Brought this classic to mind..
Cowboy Junkies - Powerderfinger
@mastodonmigration I like that one also! Bruce Cockburn, when he was on a religious visit to middle Latin America, was onsite when a helicopter gunboat swooped down and shoot a bunch of villagers he was with. He escaped and when he made it back to his room he wrote that song. The context is the Reagan undeclared wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras. Think Ollie North, Fawn Hall, Iran Contra. The anti-immigrant killings, like today, were real and horrific.
@mastodonmigration Yeah it is amazing. His story about that song has been written about several times. As I was playing it again I was listening to the lyrics and there is so much that is still the same. He is an amazing musician as well and he did a perfect job in conveying in a controlled way the rage he felt at watching helpless people being senselessly murdered.
He's certainly a great musician. Looking forward to listening to more of his music.
It is very frustrating that more contemporary young artists are not playing music that 'conveys rage' at what is going on. With a few notable exceptions (like Ela Minus above) they are playing it safe and sticking to vapid subjects. Get that it is out of fear, by very frustrating to see.
@mastodonmigration
Difficult to choose which Levellers song, but this feels right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGm1d3meOEM
"You've got it all and it's still not enough"
@mastodonmigration Not all protest songs are inspirational. Some are just tragic, especially in view of how little times have changed.
Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit 1939
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-EhtNjUJAU&list=RDU-EhtNjUJAU&start_radio=1
@mastodonmigration It's just a sledge hammer of a song, isn't it?
@mastodonmigration I guess it’s more politics adjacent that directly political but Blow Up The Pokies by The Whitlams protesting the way gambling is embedded in Australian society and a major source of tax revenue is so powerful (pokies is Australian for poker machines/slot machines)
Always loved this Australian protest song...
Midnight Oil - Beds Are Burning
@mastodonmigration Treaty by Yothu Yindi is another powerful historically important Australian protest song. It was an incredible moment to recently hear them play it at the signing of Australia’s first government treaty with Indigenous nations in Victoria
South African Freedom Songs also played a central role in their struggles. In particular, this mesmerizing beauty:
Somlandela by Mayibuye
Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth
@mastodonmigration The song background is a bit surprising:
Although "For What It's Worth" is often considered an anti-war song, Stephen Stills was inspired to write the song because of the Sunset Strip curfew riots in Los Angeles in November 1966, a series of early counterculture-era clashes that took place between police and young people on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, California, the same year Buffalo Springfield had become the house band at the Whisky a Go Go.
Interesting. Always thought it was a Vietnam protest song. Certainly got adopted by the anti-war movement.
@mastodonmigration I always thought that as well.
Dropkick Murphys - Who'll Stand With Us
Sinéad O’Connor - This Is A Rebel Song
The Clash - English Civil War
[Honestly could have picked ten Clash songs]
