Opinions please: Protest Singers

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: Clean Supper
Date: 09 Jan 04 - 07:52 AM

There´s a singer from Melbourne called Penelope Swales and her songs are about blatantly political stuff but very few of them are specifying the message. Not all of her stuff is original but she sings an attitude to life and one that is divergent from the official line, which, to me, is protest singing.

Two young American protest singers come to mind and I hope I can remeber their names now:

Dana Lyons - he writes and sings very clearly message giving songs, some of them protesting and some messages of hope or values in general. I like his music.

Casey Neil - he wrote "We´re dancing on the ruins of multinational corporations" and other songs of a kind of "punk-attitude, folk-sound". I don´t know if he wrote it, it kind of sounds older than him but he sings Hurrah for the Riff-raff.

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jan 04 - 11:42 AM

Kendall, Everyone,

I'm really pleased someone started this thread. Not only has it been thought provoking, but it has been strangely comforting to find there are others with the same concerns as myself.

Looking back I don't think that the songs themselves actually changed anything. They were allied with, and used by, National Movements for political and social change that today would seem impossible. The songs were a way of making people aware of what was going on, and often (perhaps still are) a way of conveying what a singer or song writer felt about something.   When a listener is able to identify with and feel empathy for this feeling, then the song becomes an extremely powerful means of communication.

There have been several references to Michael Moore.   Moore has obviously tapped into a huge well-spring of disquiet over what is happening. not only in the US but world wide. On this basis alone it seems to me that there is already a world wide 'protest movement' that might at any moment be galvanised over an issue, particularly as today we also have the Internet.   By this means a good song could reach a worldwide audience almost immediately, and be picked up by a huge number of individual singers. It just needs that catalyst.

Perhaps too we should expect methods of protest to change. Tucked away on the BBC website is a story that "Boycotts by ethical shoppers cost big brands at least £2.6bn" I find this interesting particularly as I was not aware of anybody co-ordinating such a campaign for ethical shopping

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3299575.stm

Naturally as a 'late boomer' and veteran of various sit-ins and marches, the thought immediately struck me that if this were extended to any multi-national corporation that was seen to be supporting a particular politician or party then they could be vulnerable across the world. Much in the way that South African goods were boycotted during the Apartheid Era.   

Tell me the name of a company that supports Bush or funds his party, and I will be delighted to boycott their products on this side of the pond. I'll also be happy to write to the shop and tell them why I won't be shopping at their premises any more. Anyone care to join me?    Turn that £2.6bn into £260bn and the buggers will soon start to sweat.

Kendall, in answer to your question I think there's still plenty to protest about, and from the responses you've prompted here, there seem to be a fair few of us that are prepared to protest more than we do. Maybe we just need to update the ways we do it! Maybe the songs too have a diffrerent role   

SM

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: GUEST,ella
Date: 09 Jan 04 - 01:32 PM

Guest..I didn't know a campaign was being co-ordinated re ethical shopping either. But it is very easy to support the Fairtrade principle. Some of the big name supermarkets do stock a wide range of their produce, and it is easy to substitute some of your weekly basics for those offered by Fairtrade instead. We have been doing this with tea, coffee, fruits and chocolate for a couple of years at least.
It obviously all adds up, and maybe one day will make the big producers rethink their practices.

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Jan 04 - 02:31 PM

Songs can on occasion become important for a movement - "We Shall Overcome" is the classic case. It helped people in a very direct way when they were involved in direct confrontations with authioriy which needed confronting.

But most of the time songs that get saddled with the name "protest songs" aren't doing that at all. What they can achieve is get people to think for themselves and talk to each other, and that might lead them on to doing things together, and that's a movement. A quiet process often enough, and quiet songs can often do it.

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: Nemesis
Date: 09 Jan 04 - 03:11 PM

This is a very interesting thread .. I'm just completing a 30 minute radio programme on the history of the protest song .. with much plagiarisation of Chuwumba Wumba "English Rebel Songs" and the like :)

The points about Rap .. of course it dominates mainstream music culture .. but you can't sing it!

A quick spin through some research I did came up with
Sting .. John Tams .. Coope, Boyes and Simpson, Tom Robinson, (Steve Knightley) Show of Hands, Martyn Joseph, Rikki Lee Jones "Ugly Man"
Chuwumbawumba of course .. although what is a protest song? An anthem for marching? (then none of those mentioned would fit .. poss some of Tams?)

I believe many people are writing protesting lyrics but these aren't the same as the songs one would hear chanted, sung on a protest.

And certainly, I believe young people are becoming more politicised - "what Tony Blair has succeeded in doing is politicising an entire generation of young people", one local 14 year old anti-war protester outside school - just before the Police came and arrested the students with the school's collusion.

What they are not interested in (I think) is mainstream politics (aside from major issues like the Iraqi war) .. they are fighting globalisation, multi-corporations, environmental, fair trade issues -

Certainly, within 2 years in our town there has been an unprecedented explosion of protest groups: activist environmental protests/ anti-road campaigners/ anti-racism/ anti-war/ anti-vivesection/ rock against racism / rock against the war .. of young people .. what they are doing is writing their own protest agenda. Perhaps, we just don't recognise it yet?

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: GUEST,Cliff McGann
Date: 09 Jan 04 - 04:12 PM

There's lots of Anti-Governement stuff out there especially outside the "folk world". I have an MA in folklore but love hip-hop and quite a bit of anti-government stuff is popping up in hip-hop today. Michael Frente and Sweat Shop Union are two of my present faves. Frente is popular in France which might tell you how anti-US hsi message is. Taleb Kwali is another great rapper as well. Its all folk music to me.

Cliff

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: dianavan
Date: 10 Jan 04 - 02:19 AM

I am so happy to hear your thoughts. The torch has been passed but the folks are still around.

All that we can and should do will be done by each of you personally. Some of you are talented enough to write songs about it. Some will write poems. Some will sing and dance. Others will e-mail.

Ethical consumerism? I started by boycotting Safeway in the 60's when they tore down housing for the elderly and built a new supermarket. I've never shopped there since.

Buy organic food. Do not buy poisoned or genetically altered food.
Do not buy shoes or clothing made in sweatshops by child labourers. Ride public transit. Refuse to eat beef from feedlots. I'm sure you can add many more tips on ethical conduct but...

Can you sing about it?

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: GUEST,Observer
Date: 13 Jan 04 - 02:08 AM

I don't think your family did any of those things for Clinton Hammond Dianavan. Clinton's a Canuck by birth, and he lives there still.

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: GUEST,Sandy Andina
Date: 14 Jan 04 - 12:49 AM

Well, I may not be famous but I'm sure getting a lot of mileage out of current events. Dr. Demento played my "Because We Can" last week; he also has my little ode to Bush called "The Shrub" (as does www.radioleft.com) and my Enron/recession ditty "Kenny Boy/www.bankrupt.com." You can go to Radio Left or drdemento.com and request any or all of 'em; and you can download a version of "Because We Can" and my serious antiwar song "We Belong to the World" at my website www.sandyandina.com (click the link that takes you to my downloads sites). Leela and Ellie Grace have a marvelous antiwar song called "Not In My Name;" and Pete Norman is fast becoming one of the social consciences of modern folk music. Finally, for those of you going to Folk Alliance 2004, I urge you to check out the Insurgent Folk showcases---all protest, all the time!

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: andymac
Date: 14 Jan 04 - 02:21 AM

Uk protest singers? Can't comment too much on the scene in other areas but certainly Glasgow still has some people singing out in protest.
How about Alastair Hulett? Check out both his "Red Clydeside" and "Sleepy Scotland" CDs for more info.

I noticed mention of the anti-war protests that took place last year. My wife's choir, the Eurydice Choir, took part and marched all the way from Glasgow Green to the SECC singing many of the protest songs mentioned previously. I was heartened to see so many young faces in the crowd that day, lots of whom were coming over to listen in and join in with the singing.

As for other protests and singers, there was also the Govanhill Pool campaign which was trying to prevent the (labour!) council from closing down the local swimming pool. A CD of protest songs appeared as a result of that. Other individuals such as John Mcreadie, Ian Davidson and Kenny Caird locally continue to write and sing songs of protest and struggle.

I still actively hunt out and sing protest songs as I feel they still have a resonance and relevancy today (le plus ca change?)

Whilst there may not be as much protest singing taking place as before, I would caution against being over nostalgic about just how active and politicised people were in the past. As has already been asked, just how did Nixon get elected if everyone was "protesting"?

Andymac

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: Bobjack
Date: 14 Jan 04 - 03:23 AM

Protest singers, hmmmmmmmmm don't think osama's quaking in his boots because people may sing at him do you?

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: Sandina
Date: 14 Jan 04 - 04:48 AM

Whoops.....meant Pete MORTON, not Norman......guess it's a sign that I'm up past my bedtime

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: saulgoldie
Date: 15 Jan 04 - 01:01 PM

Don't know if I am repeating; I read too slowly to puruse the whole thread. But I just heard a wonderful young woman last night named Kathy Moser who is from New Jersey. See her here:

http://www.wingsoverwater.net/

(I hope the blicky worked.) In her show she ranted about almost every evil on my list and some I hadn't thought of much lately (feeling as I do so dismally defeated on almost everything that matters I have felt, like why bother?). Add her to the list. Couldn't think of replicating her songs though, cause she plays, like complicated--tunings and fingerings and the like.

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: freda underhill
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 11:21 AM

check this out - paul is one of our great young hopes in oz

//paulspencer.4t.com/


and lives the life

freda

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: Azizi
Date: 06 May 09 - 05:17 PM

I just read a dailykos diary about Six Puerto Ricans artists and musicians who support Puerto Rico's sovereignty interrupted the U.S. congress today singing 'Oubao Moin' (a patriotic Puerto Rican [sic] folk song, carrying.with signs that read '111 years of Colony'' ''It's a shame: End the colony" and carrying the national flag of Puerto Rico.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/6/728539/-Puerto-Ricans-disrupt-U.S.-Congress-session

Puerto Ricans disrupt U.S. Congress session
by parsley44   
Wed May 06, 2009 at 01:39:35 PM PDT

**

I was going to post this to this thread African American Protest Slogans & Songs which includes some interesting opinions as to why there appears to be so little (if any) protest singing by demonstrators at rallies and marches. But then I realized that by its name the subject of that thread was limited to African Americans. I then went looking for more appropriate thread on this topic and found this one.

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: Azizi
Date: 06 May 09 - 05:22 PM

There are a number of YouTube videos of Oubao Moin.

Here's a link to one that is sung and played by an acoustic guitarist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyNRM0fZbhA&feature=related
Roy Brown - Oubao Moin

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: Azizi
Date: 06 May 09 - 05:30 PM

Let me rephrase what I wrote:

But then I realized that by its name the subject of that thread was limited to a discussion about why there was little if any protest singing by folks who participate in African American protest marches and rallies.

-snip-

That is still a poorly written sentence since I wanted to convey that non-African Americans can and do participate in "African American" protest marches and rallies. But I think it's an improvement over my previous one .

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: GUEST,Margaret
Date: 12 Sep 19 - 04:09 PM

Old thread, but I'm astonished that nobody mentioned Malvina Reynolds, surely one of the world's most prolific political songwriters! Can it really be that folk here are all so young that they don't at least remember "Little Boxes"? :-)

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: Acorn4
Date: 12 Sep 19 - 05:24 PM

As it's an old thread revisited seems appropriate to mention Grace Petrie from Leicester who has established quite a reputation as a writer since the last surfacing on this thread.

Subject: RE: Opinions please: Protest Singers
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Sep 19 - 05:14 PM

Protest songs are alive and well...just not on the Media.

A song CAN change the world. It can solidify a movement such as We Shall Overcome or
it can be a tune that can win a war....Yankee Doodle.

Songs can clarify political ideas, mobilize people, work as a campaign song, or take down
offensive political figures or authoritarians. That's why Pinochet killed Victor Jara. His songs
were too powerful. That's why Pete Seeger was blacklisted for so long.

That's why Woody Guthrie is known today. He brought attention to the plight of the migratory worker.

Paul Robeson was a concert protest singer and was considered anathema by reactionaries.

The songs will always be written because social change is inevitable. Not in some of our
lifetimes but they will go on for the future.

"If I had a song, I'd sing it in the morning."