Where are our protest songs?

Discussion in 'Old Hippies' started by dharmagrrl, May 24, 2004.

  1. dharmagrrl

    dharmagrrl Member

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    This morning I was talking to my girlfriend about how the current war in Iraq is probably the best thing to happen to contemporary country music. You cannot turn on CMT without seeing some flag-waving, troop-praising, trite video mess. I was a country fan but I cant even bear to listen to the radio anymore much less watch it on tv. My girlfriend pointed out something that hadnt occured to me, even though it seems many people in the entertainment industry do not support this war, no one is writing songs about it or making videos to protest or even just to show dissatisfaction. I know I can hear some protest songs when I tune into my local community radio station but you would think that at least a few mainstream artists would be speaking out. Anybody have any insight on this? Does our current administration have that much power over the entertainment industry?
     
  2. GentleHeartLamb

    GentleHeartLamb Member

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    I heard that there is a song that may become the protest song of today but I don't rember what it's call and I looked iut up on the net can could not find it but after june you may hear it around or maybe not because someone is going to play the song at something happening in toronto in june so if I find the name I will let you know of it ok
     
  3. Dakota's Mom

    Dakota's Mom Senior Member

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    David Rovics has a lot of new protest stuff out. One particular song, called "Song for Bosra" talks about the second city of Iraq that was bombed out. In fact it is the most bombed city in one of the most bombed countries in the history of the world. This song is on his cd "Living In These Times". You can read lyrics or get more info from

    www.davidrovics.com

    Personally I think he is great.

    Kathi
     
  4. mimosa

    mimosa Banned

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    thanks, Kathi, i learn a lot of new info from you, again thanks!! I will check him out. and I agree, we need new songs, and I'd love to see a new protest song go mainstream to make people sit up and notice. but some of the old ones are so fitting too.

    I was just thinking of Buffalo Springfield.
    There's somethin' happenin' here.
    What it is ain't exactly clear.
    There's a man with a gun over there
    A-tellin' me I've got to beware.

    I think it's time we stop.
    Children, what's that sound?
    Everybody look what's goin' down.

    There's battle lines bein' drawn.
    Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
    Young people speakin' their minds
    A-gettin' so much resistance from behind.

    I think it's time we stop.
    Hey, what's that sound?
    Everybody look what's goin' down.

    What a field day for the heat.
    A thousand people in the street
    Singin' songs and a-carryin' signs
    Mostly sayin' hooray for our side.

    It's time we stop.
    Hey, what's that sound?
    Everybody look what's goin' down.

    Paranoia strikes deep.
    Into your life it will creep.
    It starts when you're always afraid.
    Step out of line, the MAN come and take you away.

    You better stop.
    Hey, what's that sound?
    Everybody look what's goin'..
    You better stop.
    Hey, what's that sound?
    Everybody look what's goin'..
    You better stop.
    Now, what's that sound?
    Everybody look what's goin'..
    You better stop.
    Children, what's that sound?
    Everybody look what's goin'..
     
  5. sassure

    sassure Member

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    Strange, isn't it? So many seem to be so fed up with things as they are, yet there is a decided lack of protest music.

    A few months back, I wrote a protest song, "When You've Had Enough", and cruised the net for some good protest sites to submit it to. But time after time, the protest sites I found were either shut down or shutting down.

    There are occasional protest-song compilations from Protest Records, but it's a refreshing little drop in a very large, empty bucket......
     
  6. ~Sam~

    ~Sam~ Cosmic Traveler

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    Protest songs are great, as far as identifying and complaining about the way that things are. But the place to begin changing things is within yourself. I know that this song might be considered schmaltz by some, but I think it's telling...

    Put A Little Love In Your Heart
    Annie Lennox & Al Green

    Think of your fellow man
    Lend him a helping hand
    Put a little love in your heart

    You see it's getting late
    Oh please don't hesitate
    Put a little love in your heart
    And the world will be a better place
    And the world will be a better place
    For you and me
    You just wait and see

    Another day goes by
    And still the children cry
    Put a little love in you heart
    If you want the world to know
    We won't let hatred grow
    Put a little love in your heart

    And the world will be a better place
    And the world will be a better place
    For you and me
    You just wait and see
    Wait and see

    Take a good look around
    And if you're lookin' down
    Put a little love in your heart
    I hope when you decide
    Kindness will be your guide
    Put a little love in your heart
    And the world will be a better place
    And the world will be a better place
    For you and me
    You just wait and see
    Put a little love in your heart
    Put a little love in your
    Love in your heart

    With Love,
     
  7. sassure

    sassure Member

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    Yes...very true! While you are trying to change the outside world, you must also be changing your inside world.
     
  8. peacegypsy

    peacegypsy Member

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    Megalomaniac~Incubus
    Whats the world coming to~Fleetwood mac
    Hole in the world~Eagles

    None really say much about the war but I like these songs and they all have great lyrics. Megalomaniac is an anti-bush song with great lyrics and a great video. you can check out both on their website!
     
  9. TerminalMadness

    TerminalMadness Member

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    In our shallow, superficial, youth obsessed dumbed down, money grubbing, mindless culture its no surprise we dont have protest music.
     
  10. TerminalMadness

    TerminalMadness Member

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    God I loooooveeee Megalomaniac!!

    I pump my radio all the way up and just revel in its glory! "Hey megalomaniac, you're no jesus, yeah you're no fucking elvis."

    Fucking A!
     
  11. SvgGrdnBeauty

    SvgGrdnBeauty only connect

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    You took the words right out of my mouth...
     
  12. dharmagrrl

    dharmagrrl Member

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    Yeah, that's kind of what I came up with too. It's so depressing. It's awesome that there are a few songs floating around out there, but I wish there were more.
     
  13. SvgGrdnBeauty

    SvgGrdnBeauty only connect

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    I agree...there are so many of us out here ready for a change...


    ...we just need one of us to break through the superficial barrier and make a musical revolution, Beatle-style...ya know what I'm saying? We need something to kick off the change...a spark!
     
  14. Dakota's Mom

    Dakota's Mom Senior Member

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    Here's the words to a really great song:

    If I could sing a song for every bomb that flies
    I'd sing each and all the days
    If there were to be a verse for every dying child's cries
    For every helpless father's gaze
    If I wrote a love letter to each corpse as it is carried
    I'd never still my pen
    If I had to stop a moment for each one that's been buried
    I'd never move again
    And the stocks are going up in some safe place in America
    Sing a song for Basra

    If I could shed a tear for every home that bombs destroy
    I'd never stop crying
    If every broken brick were a heart of a little girl or boy
    All the world's children would be sighing
    If I could hold each shattered body, each baby stilled at birth
    I'd have no time for loneliness
    I'd spend all my time embracing the people of this savaged earth
    Feeling the poisoned wind's caress
    And the billionaires are laughing in some safe place in America
    Sing a song for Basra

    If each barren pharmacy were a woman's shining eyes
    I'd fall in love forever
    If every bombed-out kindergarten were a factory in disguise
    Wouldn't that be clever
    But bricks are only bricks, and dust is only dust
    And death is all around
    Each day another missile falls and sometimes the only thing to trust
    Is the shaking of the ground
    And they're loading up the warplanes in some safe place in America
    Sing a song for Basra

    Created July, 2001
    Copyright David Rovics 2001, all rights reserved
     
  15. Dakota's Mom

    Dakota's Mom Senior Member

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    This one has so much truth in it:

    Who Will Tell the People
    by David Rovics

    The CIA is pushing crack in the ghettoes of LA
    While the food crops in Colombia get sprayed by the DEA
    The FBI is reading your email with something called the carnivore
    And the rich are getting richer while the poor are staying poor
    They're launching nuclear-powered ships up into space
    One little accident could wipe out half the human race
    And they're putting radioactive waste into your silverware
    Or maybe your toaster or perhaps your wheelchair

    The Air Force is bombing people in Iraq every other day
    They don't like the government so the children have to pay
    The ozone hole is spreading and the sheep are going blind
    While the US spends more on arms than the rest of the world combined
    Journalists are getting fired from San Jose to Atlanta
    When they write about reality, not a fluff piece for Fanta
    A death threat every week and sometimes life is short
    When the truth is too dangerous for someone to report

    (Chorus)
    Who will tell the people that free speech is a ruse
    The corporations run the country and then they make the news
    Is it media or mind control, heroic victories or crimes
    Who will tell the people that we're living in these times


    The cancer rates are skyrocketing though people are smoking less
    If you live near a nuke your life is bound to be a mess
    Clean water's almost gone all over the earth
    And what's left they want to privatize and see how much it's worth
    Chevron is gunning down the students of Nigeria
    Turning the land to waste while the babies die of dyptheria
    And the weather's getting hotter, the world's forests are on fire
    Pretty soon Brazil will be one giant funeral pyre

    (Chorus)

    One in three adult Americans cannot read or write
    And their children go to bed hungry every night
    And two million US citizens are rotting behind bars
    And while they're there they're working hard building parts for cars
    And the Army's running torture schools to keep the earth under control
    And they're relocating Navajos so they can mine some extra coal
    Our taxes pay McDonald's to sell tumors in Shanghai
    While a hundred thousand poisoned vets are just about to die

    (Chorus)

    And the people are resisting wherever you may go
    And this is the single biggest fact they don't want you to know
    From New Delhi to New Mexico there are battles going on
    And the darkest hour is just before the dawn
    And in Berkeley and New York they're raiding radio stations
    Trying to turn the voice of the people into the voice of the corporations
    Will we seize the airwaves, wipe the sweat off of our brow
    Stand and face the beast and shout, "Democracy Now!"

    (Chorus)
     
  16. homebudz

    homebudz Hip Forums Supporter HipForums Supporter

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    I like the lyrics in the last two posts.Too bad there isn't more.For me,I have found that our protest songs from the 60's and early 70's are still relevent today,and should be played more.Perhaps that would inspire more of the younger generation to start writing and playing.Music plays an extremley inportant role in our lives.
     
  17. Dakota's Mom

    Dakota's Mom Senior Member

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    But there is more, so much more. This guy is really great. You can down load his stuff at

    davidrovics.com

    He encourages you to copy his music just to get it out there.

    From Kabul to Khartoum
    David Rovics

    From Guatemala to Korea
    To the tunnels beneath Hanoi
    From Tulsa to El Chorillo
    Fat Man to Little Boy

    We fought them in Nicaragua
    And upon the Cuban shore
    We killed Khaddafi's daughter
    See what the fatwa's got in store

    (chorus)
    We're gonna bomb our way to freedom
    With the cruise missiles of justice
    And the spent shells of democracy
    Oh, say, can you see


    From Kabul to Khartoum
    Where Allah's martyrs bled
    To the Iraqi desert
    Two hundred thousand people dead

    (chorus)

    From the School of the Assassins
    To Argentina's dirty war
    From Arizona to Nevada
    We'll nuke our way to heaven's door

    (chorus)
     
  18. Dakota's Mom

    Dakota's Mom Senior Member

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    Shut Them Down
    David Rovics

    [Shut Them Down in SPANISH] [Shut Them Down in ARABIC] [Shut Them Down in FRENCH] We shall fight them on the beaches
    We shall fight them on the shore
    They will bring us exploitation
    We'll bring them their class war
    We'll lock down to the gates
    As they're spreading vicious lies
    They want to dominate the world
    And we see through their disguise

    If they'd have one big multinational
    With their corporate flag unfurled
    Searching everywhere
    For the lowest wages in the world
    Then we'll have One Big Union
    From Melbourne to Prague to Seattle-town
    Wherever they may go
    We will shut them down

    (Chorus)
    We'll shut them down, we'll shut them down
    We will shut them down


    And CNN will spread the lies
    This is just how it's gotta be
    Well they can have their CNN
    'Cause we got our IMC
    And we will tell the truth quite clearly
    Though they don't want to hear it
    And they'll try to stop our broadcasts
    'Cause the truth is that they fear it

    (chorus)

    They want a world full of strip malls
    Plants grown by biotech
    As long as they get richer
    They just don't give a heck
    But we don't want their ecocide
    We want a world we can live in
    That's why we're here to stay
    And we're not gonna give in

    (chorus)

    And they'll infiltrate us
    Provocateurs within our ranks
    And if they can't divide us
    They'll send in the tanks
    But we will stand together
    Pacifists and Zapatistas
    Workers, farmers, the indigenous
    Tree-huggers and baristas

    (chorus)

    And we will build a new world
    Without the corporate elite
    And we will see the day
    Of their international defeat
    We'll have self-determination
    And equality for all
    For what choice do we really have
    But to rise up and see them fall

    (chorus)

    Created September, 2000
    Copyright David Rovics 1998, all rights reserved
     
  19. Dakota's Mom

    Dakota's Mom Senior Member

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    After We Torture Our Prisoners
    David Rovics

    We'll get rid of the dictator, rebuild your country
    Make sure all your kids go to school
    We'll clean up the cities, get the sewage plants running
    Institute parliamentary rule
    We'll bring you autonomy, senators and judges
    And a shiny new blue banner
    We'll bring you pride and prosperity, food in your bellies
    In every home a phone, fax and scanner
    After we torture our prisoners

    We'll bring you decades of peace, spiritual release
    Free religious expression
    You can say what you want in the papers you run
    We'll never force a confession
    After we torture our prisoners

    The oil will flow just where it should go
    Across the desert and into the sea
    And you'll thank your God and the CIA
    That finally you are free
    After we torture our prisoners

    You'll all be safe with us to protect you
    And keep you out of harm's way
    You'll thank creation and your liberation
    From the dark into a new day
    After we torture our prisoners

    You can all jump for joy, each girl and boy
    And look boldly into the distance
    You'll be so happy for all that we've done
    For such invaluable assistance
    After we torture our prisoners

    You won't have to worry about tyrants and bullies
    Now that you have sovereignty
    You can hold your head high, kiss Saddam goodbye
    Say hello to democracy
    After we torture our prisoners

    Created May, 2004
    Copyright David Rovics 2004, all rights reserved
     

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