The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #17515   Message #577651
Posted By: GUEST
22-Oct-01 - 06:45 PM
Thread Name: Greatest protest singer of the sixties
Subject: RE: Greatest protest singer of the sixties
I can't include Dylan or many of those mentioned above because they were so inconsistent with their politics. Dylan has been pretty apolitical for a couple of decades. Ditto with Baez--we hear more from Ronnie Gilbert than we do Baez. I think those mentioned were the most commercially successful artists doing political song in the 60s, but they certainly weren't the best in my book.

But then, as someone mentioned, Pete and I'd add Ronnie from above, and Sweet Honey in the Rock, Richie Havens, Gil Scott Heron, John Prine (the only musician, to my knowledge, who avoided the draft by going to Canada), Arlo fer sure (and my favorite by him in addition to AR is Clams Ahoy oh Clams-O!), Judy Collins, and many more who still make their politics known through their music and their activism.

But Dylan, Baez, and Ochs? Nah. They'd never win my vote.