“As an artist I come to sing, but as a citizen, I will always speak for peace, and no one can silence me in this.”
—Paul Robeson
When most Americans think of protest songs, they probably think of the ‘60’s. Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, anti-war, pro-civil rights. The 1960’s were especially active years for this genre of songwriting, but they certainly weren’t the only years. The oral tradition of protest songs dates back further than we are probably able to accurately identify, and the songwriting tradition continues today. Our bulletin board outside of the entrance to the music library honors the tradition of artists engaging in political protest through music.
From the marches of the civil rights movement to the stages of Woodstock and the opera house, music has long been an important medium for the expression of (sometimes unpopular) political opinion.
It’s important to remember that it’s not just the flower children of the past who had a knack for singing about times that are a-changin’. It’s also current popular artists whose albums you come across on Spotify, and whose singles show up on Billboard charts.
• Lupe Fiasco – Words I Never Said • Bright Eyes – When the President Talks to God • Dispatch – The General • Tracy Grammer & Dave Carter – Hey Ho • Prince – United States of Division • Radiohead – Idioteque • Beyonce – ***Flawless • Kings of Leon – Crawl • Hozier – Take Me to Church • Eminem – White America • John Mayer – Waiting on the World to Change / • The Decemberists – 16 Military Wives
Here are the items currently featured on our display, and available to you in the music library:
- Songs that Changed the World – Score
- Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock: LP
- “[A] labor opera composed in a style that falls somewhere between realism, romance, vaudeville, comic strip, Gilbert & Sullivan, Brecht, and agitprop.” – Marc Blitzstein
- Let Freedom Sing: how music inspired the civil rights movement – DVD
- Sing for freedom: the story of the civil rights movement through its songs CD and online access, Score
- I Have a Dream: cantata for mixed chorus, baritone solo, narrator and orchestra (or piano). Score
- Strange Fruit – VHS (DVD at main library)
- A history of the anti-lynching protest song made famous by Billie Holiday
- Folk Song America: a 20th century revival: CD
- Includes performances by Paul Robeson, The Almanac Singers, Woody Guthrie, Josh White, The Weavers, et al
- Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits – CD
- Don’t Look Back (Bob Dylan 1965 English tour) – DVD
- The Songs of Bob Dylan: 1966 through 1975 – Score
- Steve Reich: Early works: CD
- Includes Come Out, which uses an excerpt from a recording of Daniel Hamm (one of the 1964 “Harlem Six”) saying “I had to, like, open the bruise up, and let some of the bruise blood come out to show them.” Hamm is explaining how he tried to prove he had been beaten by police.
- Woodstock – CD .
- Includes Jimi Hendrix’s Star-Spangled Banner and Joan Baez’s Joe Hill
- The people united will never be defeated: 36 variations on El pueblo unido jamás será vencido – Score, CD
- Variations on a Nueva Cancion Chilena song, originally an anthem of the Unidad Popular, a coalition of left wing, socialist, and communist political parties
- Public Enemy: Fear of a black planet – CD
Hope to see you in Sloan soon!
