re: Protest Songs

The Charades - "Hammers & Sickles"

Marty Robbins - "Ain't I Right"

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In 1966, Robbins wrote and recorded "Ain’t I Right", a song that takes aim at communists (“a bearded, bathless bunch”), protestors (“tramps”) and “two-faced politicians”. Robbins reportedly wanted "Ain’t I Right" released as a single but studio bosses refused, declaring it too provocative and far too political.

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quote:

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neil innes - protest song

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/thread

Chicago - (We Can Change the World) - Graham Nash (CSN&Y)

eta: LINK

Though your brother's bound and gagged
And they've chained him to a chair
Won't you please come to Chicago
Just to sing. . .

"Galveston" - Glen Campbell

Anthem - Hello People

Several pretty well done ones come to mind. The first is a straightforward folk approach to a controversial topic with a little Latin American filigree. The second is harder to put into a genre and it's take on Vietnam comes from an unexpected group.
The third, also a Vietnam War era statement is a very pretty counterpoint harmony.

The bonus fourth and fifth are a very well done anti-war protest using WW1 as a vehicle and an equally well done response.

1. El Salvador-Peter, Paul & Mary

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They say for half a billion they could do it right
Bomb all day, burn all night
Until there's not a living thing upright
In El Salvador

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2. Requiem For The Masses-The Association

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Black and white were the figures
that recorded him
Black and white was the newsprint he was mentioned in
Black and white was
the question that so bothered him He never asked,
he was taught not to ask
But was on his lips as they buried him

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3. Scarborough Fair/Canticle-Simon and Garfunkle

quote:

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Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather
(War bellows blazing in scarlet battalions)
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (Generals order their soldiers to kill) And gather it all in a bunch of heather
(And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten)
Then she'll be a true love of mine.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

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Bonus 4. The Green Fields of France-Eric Bogle

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Well the sun's shining now on these green fields of France;
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance.
The trenches have vanished long under the plough
No gas and no barbed wire,
no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard that's still No Man’s Land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
And a whole generation
who were butchered and damned.

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Willie McBride's Reply (written by Stephen L. Suffet

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My dear friend Eric,
this is Willie McBride,
Today I speak to you across the divide
Of years and of distance,
of life and of death,
Please let me speak freely with my silent breath.
You might think me crazy,
you might think me daft,
I could have stayed back in Erin, where there wasn't a draft,
But my parents they raised me to tell right from wrong,
So today I shall answer what you asked in your song.

CHORUS:
Yes, they beat the drum slowly, they played the pipes lowly,
And the rifles fired o'er me as they lowered me down,
The band played "The Last Post" in chorus,
And the pipes played
"The Flowers of the Forest."

Ask the people of Belgium or Alsace-Lorraine,
If my life was wasted,
if I died in vain.
I think they will tell you when all's said and done,
They welcomed this boy with his tin hat and gun.
And call it ironic that I was cut down, While in Dublin my kinfolk were fighting the Crown.
But in Dublin or Flanders the cause was the same:
To resist the oppressor, whatever his name.

CHORUS

It wasn't for King or for England I died,
It wasn't for glory or the Empire's pride. The reason I went
was both simple and clear:
To stand up for freedom
did I volunteer.
It's easy for you to look back and sigh,
And pity the youth of those days long gone by,
For us who were there, we knew why we died,
And I'd do it again,
says Willie McBride.

CHORUS

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Billy Bragg--Which Side Are You On?

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Billy Bragg! ????

Country Joe McDonald's

Fish Cheer... and I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag