Whatever happened to the protest song?

[ChandlerJr]

"I voted for change and it's kind of strange. Now it's all I got in my pocket," he sings on the track.

'Every successful movement has a soundtrack," songwriter Tom Morello told reporters after he had tried recently to fire up the crowd at the Occupy Wall Street Protest with a Woody Guthrie tune and one of his labor songs.

Perhaps he is right, but the protesters in New York have yet to find an anthem. Neither is the rest of the country humming songs about hard times. So far, musicians living through the biggest economic disaster since the Great Depression have filled the airwaves with songs about dancing, not the worries of working people.

Last week, Everlast, a Los Angeles songwriter who mixes rap and country blues, released an album, "Songs of the Ungrateful Living," with the song "I Get By," a brooding meditation on the problems of working-class people facing unemployment and foreclosures in today's economy. "I voted for change and it's kind of strange. Now it's all I got in my pocket," he sings on the track.

They just don't make 'em like they used to. (And get off my lawn!!)

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/132487978.html

[Brickbat]

1. I bought Morello's album of songs and about half of them are pretty damn righteous. But protest

songs -- especially Woody Guthrie's -- were like Twitter today; they were information and news bulletins first and entertainment and rousers second. A close second, but second. We as a people don't sing like we used to, whether it was at work or at church, or as entertainment on long winter evenings in front of the fire. It's not really part of our culture anymore.

[valerief]

2. I think it s/b a revised Beyond the Sea

Somewhere beyond the sea
Is my job but not me
I got the ax so what's a taaaaaax
Cut gonna do for guys like me?

Somewhere beyond the mass
Some banker's kicking my ass
He took my home, even my gnooooome
Cuz I'm not in the ruling class

It's far beyond the bank
SCOTUS is in their tank
I'll bet you a red cent
They own all government

And who are they, you say?
Tip of the one percent
My life they've spent so recklessly
Nothing is left over for me

Somewhere beyond the greed
Are folks who will be freed
We 99ers gotta win
So never again we'll go failin'

No more failin'
So long failin'
Bye bye failin'
Move on out, Geithner

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. The 60s had more freedom. We have more fear. The art coming from fear

and decrying fear isn't as catchy. I really agree that a good song can truly unify. I'll hope that someone is truly inspired and writes something timeless...

[MADem]

4. Well, if you look to history, it should be a while yet before we start with the

No body knows the trouble I've seen" type stuff.

During the Great Depression, all the movies were about rich people in fancy clothing--silken dresses and tuxedos. Everyone lived in houses with servants in these films, and played tennis with people named Chauncey. Escapism was the order of the day.

The grind had to get really bad before the sorrowful tunes came out.

[LeftyMom]

5. Oh great, another thread where a bunch of hippies tell us young'ns how they did things in their day.

DU needed more of those. :eyes:

We've done this thread fifty million times. Use search. You'll find many links to songs by younger artists dealing with current issues.

[garybeck]

6. I'm working on it.

Music is one of the most powerful things in the universe.

A song can change someone's mood,
make them happy, or sad, or melancholy, or angry, in seconds.
And it can motivate.

And because many people can tune in to a song and be affected en masse, the potential for music to change the world is incredible.

This is one of the things that motivates me as a musician.

So here's a song I'm working on. I wrote it a few years ago when Bush was in office but it seems pretty pertinent today. I can only give you the lyrics now, as I'm working on the recording, which is going to take a while. Let me know what you think.


There are people
by Gary Beck


There are people
Sleepin' on the floor
There are children
Knocking at our door
There are families
With no place to live
And there are billionaires
Who never give

They send our boys to fight
Without the proper protection
They rig the voting machines
Steal another election
There are people
Grieving from their greed
How many thousands dead?
How much oil do they need?

They speak of right to life
While the blood drips from their hands
Filling body bags
Like grains of sand
There are people
Sleeping on the floor
There are children
Knocking at our door