Political, Topical Songs

Subject: Political, Topical Songs
From: topical tom
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 03:30 PM

It was inevitable that with a Mudcat name like mine I would suggest this as a thread.In fact I love to hear and sing political and topical songs as sung by Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Eric Bogle and a host of others.One of my favourite singers is Chuck Brodsky. Here's hoping we can amass a large collection of such songs.

Here's Chuck Brodsky

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: topical tom
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 07:07 PM

In the interest of equal time listen to Canada andthe voice of the beaver:

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 07:14 PM

How far back do you want to go? "McNally's Row Of Flats" is certainly political and topical, and dates from 1882. "Yankee Doodle" is political and dates from about 1770. Rudy Vallee sung "Brother Can You Spare A Dime?" during the Depression. And of course, there's Woody and few like him....

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: topical tom
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 08:08 PM

I realize that there is an infinite number of such songs.A broad cross-section through the decades would be fine.

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 09:22 PM

Okay...

The Willing Conscript
Talking Vietnam Blues
George W. Told The Nation
Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation
Tinky-Winky
Nell Flaherty's Drake
Moses Ri-to-ri-li-a
Billy Sol Estes
The John Birch Society
I'm Going To Say It Now
A Small Circle Of Friends
The Titanic
Meadows Green
Si Me Quieres Escribir
Peat Bog Soldiers
Ballad of the Boll Weevil
Die Gedanken Sind Frei
Oh What A Friend We Have In Hoover
Queen Elinor's Confession
What Did You Learn In School Today?
So Long Mom, I'm Off To Drop The Bomb
La Marsellaise
Vive La Quince Brigada

That'll do for now. I think there might be one or two more, and if they occur to me I'll let you know.

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 09:27 PM

And what about songs that are associated with events, like "Don't Stop Thinkin' About Tomorrow" which W. Clinton used as his campaign song? Or JFK using the song "High Hopes" for his?

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: Beer
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 09:36 PM

Does "Eve of Destruction" count?
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: Susan of DT
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 09:38 PM

The DT has a keyword @political

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 09:43 PM

Yeah, Susan, but I was just trying to see how many I could remember without looking 'em up.

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: open mike
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 09:50 PM

McCutcheon has quite a few of these. His Web site features a section called short shelf life songs..as Tom Paxton calls them.
i think it is www.folkmusic.com

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: mark gregory
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 09:53 PM

I've been building a large site called Union Songs for over 10 years now.

The front page says

Call them rebel songs, slave songs, songs of freedom, work songs, songs of dissent, songs of struggle, protest songs, liberation songs, labour songs, labor songs, workers songs, environmental songs, songs of equlity, peace songs.

For over two centuries working people across the world have built trade unions. This site documents the songs and poems that they made in the process, union songs. It includes songs and poems that are being written today, as the process of union building continues all around the world.

and the collection now contains over 600 songs and poems from more than 240 authors and I'm adding new and old songs all the time.

see http://unionsong.com/

I need the permission of the authors of course and that's not always easy to obtain

cheers

Mark

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: topical tom
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 05:33 AM

Thanks, everyone, for those great collections of songs and yes, Adrien, "Eve of Destruction" is most certainly acceptable. It's a powerful and moving anti-war song.

Subject: Lyr Add: LET EVERY MAN OF ADAM'S LINE + IF WE WILL
From: Newport Boy
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 09:29 AM

To begin at the beginning (or at least fairly near it), here's two that I don't think appear in the DT or the Mudcat. I'm fairly sure I got both these from John Greenway's "American Folk Songs of Protest", but my old 1960s notebook has fallen apart, so I stand to be corrected.

First, a broadside from about 1801. The last 3 verses are a direct counter to the Federalist party arguing for a life term for senators. Alexander Hamilton wrote:

"All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are rich and well-born, and the other the mass of the people who seldom judge or determine right."

LET EVERY MAN OF ADAM'S LINE

Let every man of Adam's line
In social contract freely join
To extirpate monarchic power,
That kings may plague the earth no more.

As power results from you alone,
Ne'er trust it on a single throne.
Kings oft betray their sacred trust
And crush their subjects in the dust.

Nor yet confide in men of show,
Aristocrats reduce you low.
Nobles at best are feeble things
And oft far worse than cruel kings.

Nobles combine in secret fraud
(Tho' in pretence for public good)
To frame a law the most unjust
And sink the people down in dust.

When laws are framed the poor must lie
Distressed beneath the nobles eye,
Unpitied there, to waste their breath
In fruitless prayers till freed by death.

A year is long enough to prove
A servant's wisdom, faith and love.
Release him from temptation then,
And change the post to other men.

Now is the prime important hour,
The people may improve their power
To stop aristocratic force
And walk in reason's peaceful course.

Choose all your servants once a year
With strict reserve and nicest care,
And if they once abuse their place
Reward them with deserved disgrace.

Not a lot of change in 200 years, then.

Then there's the anthem of the Knights of Labor - the earliest American union, so this is probably about 1870.

IF WE WILL, WE CAN BE FREE

Base oppressors, cease your slumbers
Listen to a people's cry.
Hark, uncounted, countless numbers
Swell the peal of agony.
Lo, for labor's sons and daughters
In the depths of misery,
Like the rush of many waters
Comes the cry "We will be free".

By our own, our children's charter,
By the fire within our veins,
By each truth-attesting martyr,
By our tears, our groans, our pains,
By our rights, by nature given,
By the laws of liberty,
We declare before high heaven
That we must, we will be free.

Tyrants quail! The dawn is breaking,
Dawn of freedom's glorious day.
Despots on their thrones are shaking,
Iron hands are giving way.
Kingcraft, statecraft, base oppression
Cannot bear our scrutiny.
We have learned the startling lesson,
If we will, we can be free.

Winds and waves the tidings carry,
Electra in your fiery car
Winged by light'ning, do not tarry,
Bear the news to lands afar.
Bid them tell the thrilling story
Louder than the thunder's glee
That a people, ripe for glory,
Are determined to be free.

It's interesting that the first is determinedly male, while the Knights of Labor 70 years later included "sons and daughters". That didn't stop them allowing segregation in the South, or excluding the Chinese, though. There's always some class you can exclude.

Phil

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: maire-aine
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 09:38 AM

Just bought a Phil Ochs album called A Toast to Those Who Are Gone, and, even 20 years on, the songs are still topical.

My favorite social-justice singer-songwriter is Si Kahn. His songbook is on line at his website

Maryanne

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: Rog Peek
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 02:23 PM

Tom

I am absolutely amazed that you did not mention Phil Ochs in your original posting. In my opinion, Phil was THE topical songwriter of the 20th century. If there is such a genre within the field of folk as the topical song, then Phil personified it. He wrote about the burning issues of the day and never pulled his punches. His uncompromising criticism, particularly of American foreign policy made him very powerful enemies, and this undoubtedly contributed to his lack of exposure on TV and Radio. As he once quipped himself, "A protest song is one you don't hear on the radio".

Rog

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: Rog Peek
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 02:28 PM

Bye the way, if it's topical songs you're looking for you'll find a few in here: Songs of Phil Ochs

Rog

Subject: RE: Political, Topical Songs
From: topical tom
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 03:20 PM

Afew? Thanks, Rog!