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CounterPunch
February
1, 2003
Songs of Protest
and Peace
A
Guide to Protest Music, Part One
by DON ATAPATTU
In mid 2002, British pop superstar George Michael
took what he described as the 'biggest risk of my career' with
the release of a single entitled 'Shoot the Dog'. Despite not
being an entirely accurate statement (most would think that waving
his genitals at an LAPD officer in a public toilet would be more
damaging to a pop star's livelihood), it was certainly a brave
move as the dog of the title was Dubya's favourite poodle, Prime
Minister Tony Blair. Like many, I desperately wanted to like
the tune as Blair and Dubya's virtually homoerotic relationship
was an extremely worthy target of satire; the only problem was
that the song wasn't actually much good. Consequently, I thought
that rather than wasting a good ideal, I would compile an alternative
list of essential protest tunes that every progressive should
own.
'Step On' by the Happy Mondays
'Hey rainmaker, come away from that
man
You know he's gonna take away your promised land
Hey good lady he's got God on his side he got a double
Tongue you never think he would lie'
This version of John Kongo's 'He's Going
To Step On You Again' was surely not picked by intellectually
challenged and pharmaceutically enhanced Manchester combo 'The
Happy Mondays' for its lyrical content; but their version is
superior nonetheless. Originally about the imposition of Apartheid
era Bantustans by South Africa (of which Kongo was a native),
the lyrics are eerily predictive of occupied Palestine under
Ariel Sharon.
'Stars and Stripes of Corruption'
by Dead Kennedys
'No wonder others all hate us, and
the Hitlers we handpick\ To bleed their people dry for our evil
empire' raged San Francisco's
punk favorites in 1985, with a remarkable insight for Americans
(many of whom were genuinely baffled during 9-11 that some foreigners
may actually have a reason to be angry at Washington). No one
could accuse Dead Kennedys of lack of ambition. Contrary to the
2 minute burst of premeditated idiocy that typified much of punk
rock, this six minute epic is a scathing, witty attack on Yankee
imperialism abroad coupled with consumerism induced apathy at
home. Almost like 1970's progressive rock in its sprawling length,
rambling lyrics, clever time changes, and tight musicianship;
it is also great fun - never has pissing on Capitol Hill sounded
more exciting. Like Noam Chomsky, Biafra has made a career out
of being Un-American and indeed if Chomsky had a sarcastic, degenerate
son that picked up a guitar, this is undoubtedly what he would
sound like. 'You say you'll fight to the death to save your
worthless flag\ If you want a banana republic that bad, why don't
you go move to one?' he spits, and with Bush/Ashcroft's current
dismantling of the US constitution, this sounds even more salient
today. If you were allowed to take one Left-wing track to take
to a desert island, make it this one.
'Strange Fruit' by Billie Holiday
Not many singers could claim to have
'suffered for their art' as Billie Holiday. Born Elinore Harris
in 1915, Billie certainly knew torment. As well as growing up
Black in the Jim Crow South; she endured sexual abuse; extreme
poverty; homelessness; and a stint as a prostitute before she
began recording music at the age of 18. Later in life she would
survive chronic alcohol abuse, heroin addiction and regular beatings
from the violent boyfriends her masochistic streak subconsciously
picked. 'Strange Fruit' is the track most associated with Halliday,
mostly due to the huge publicity given to its unusually politicized
subject matter (the lynching of Blacks in the American South).
However, the evocative, haunting piano and brass that back her
world weary vocals (not to mention the gothic imagery of the
lyrics), make this track a classic even had there not been such
controversy.
'Say it Loud (I'm Black and Proud)'
by James Brown
'We'd rather die on our feet, than
be livin' on our knees.'
Like George W Bush, James Brown is not
what you would describe as 'intellectual', and anyone who has
heard this or any other of his monosyllabic funky classics would
not describe him as a master lyricist either. It is a great tune
though, and let anyone who has listened to this dare deny the
righteousness or sincerity of this particular firebrand.
Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater
Revival
This anti government rant concerns the
hypocrisy of the privileged classes supporting the Vietnam war
while doing all in their power to secure a draft dodge for their
own children (the wealthy families of Dan Quayle and George W
Bush being prime examples). Mystifyingly, this was often used
by American television networks following 9/11 to shore up patriotic
sentiment, although the lyrics do not support such a position.
The first verse may start 'Some folks are born made to wave
the flag \ Ooh, they're red white and blue'; but is almost
instantly knocked aside by the chorus which repeats 'it ain't
me' four times over. Inevitably this throwback of Sixties
revolt was later used a commercial for Wrangler jeans, much to
the wrath of the song's writer John Fogerty who condemned it
as 'another nail in the coffin of the ideals of the '60s'. Another
notable protest tune from CCR is 'Run Through the Jungle', which
shares 'Fortunate Son's alternatively grungy and twanging guitars
and R & B drenched rhythm section. Notwithstanding, the icing
on the cake was always John Fogerty's gloriously raucous vocals,
which constantly made him sound like he was gargling 6 inch nails
in sulphuric acid.
'Gimme Hope Jo'anna' by Eddy Grant
This British born, Caribbean based reggae
singer's cheerful sounding dance-floor smash is actually an unlikely
anti Apartheid anthem (the Jo'anna in question refers to Johannesburg).
Your feet would have to be nailed together to hear this and stand
still.
Satisfaction by Rolling Stones
This raunchy sixties classic was actually
a tirade against the vacuous sedative of consumerism a
sentiment that would be admirable were it not coming from Mick
Jagger. 1968's 'Street Fighting Man' was written about the near
revolution in France that same year, but fails to qualify as
it is unclear whether the lyrics are in favour of youthful idealism
or just a good rumble.
We Gotta Get Outta This Place by The
Animals
Can there be anyone who hasn't heard
this song? The 'place' in question is Vietnam of course.
KYEO by Fugazi
Anti Gulf war anthem from veteran Leftist
hardcore rockers. 'WE WILL NOT be beaten down' bellows lead shouter
Ian Mckaye, and by God you believe him.
Rock and Roll Nigger by Patti Smith
Another veteran maverick of the music
scene, Patti Smith started her career writing poetry and acting
in underground theatre productions in the New York scene of the
early 1970's. After meeting with small time rock journalist and
amateur guitarist Lenny Kaye, the two performed as a duo with
Kaye providing instrumental backing for Smith's poetry reading.
This partnership would lead to a collaboration over 3 decades
in what was to become the Patti Smith Group. Due to hugely disparate
influences on her work that were musical (Dylan, James Brown,
'Philadelphia jazz') and otherwise (the surrealist Antonin Artaud,
the poet Arthur Rimbaud, and her own abandoned Jehovah's Witness
upbringing), her music was hardly likely to be conventional.
Indeed what was striking about Patti's records is how they combined
her rambling spoken word performances with sometimes quite ferocious
guitar based compositions; and the Patti Smith Group seemed to
straddle the seemingly contradictory art rock tradition with
that of the emerging proto punk scene. The PSG's first release
was the typically leftfield double A side single 'Hey Joe' (a
bizarre cover of the song made famous by Hendrix, rewritten as
a commentary on the Patti Hearst kidnapping) and 'Piss Factory'
(her own experience of escaping a grimy New Jersey assembly line
to work as an artist in Bohemian New York); which inevitably
was an independent release. Smith's first album 'Horses' was
released by the newly created Arista label and was one of the
most critically acclaimed and original LPs of the 1970's, and
its follow up 'Radio Ethiopia' was almost as good. However, after
a couple more less distinguished records in the 1970's, Patti
made the unbelievably conformist decision to retire from music
to devote herself full time to being a housewife and mother (she
had married former Mc5 guitarist Fred 'Sonic' Smith in 1980 to
whom she bore two children). It was 1988 before there would be
another Patti Smith album with the horribly bland MOR of 'Dream
of Life', replete with bright 80's style production and typically
American soft-rock style guitar. Unhappily it took major tragedy
for Patti to return to form; and 1996's excellent 'Gone Again'
was a bleak, downbeat reflection on bereavement and loss following
the deaths of her husband, brother, and her former keyboard player
Richard Sohl. 1997's 'Peace and Noise' continued its predecessors
dark, bleak feel, though being somewhat harder and more guitar
orientated; while the 2000 release 'Gung Ho' is a homecoming
back to mid 70's eclecticism. Patti Smith is 57 now and continues
to produce challenging, quality work which is hardly true for
her contemporaries that are still recording, and neither have
her politics moved rightwards (she was one of the celebrity backers
of Ralph Nader presidential bid alongside Jello Biafra, Bill
Murray, Danny Glover, Phil Donahue, and Susan Sarandon).
'Rock and Nigger' is a more straight
forward rock number from 1978's 'Easter', and is the best track
on that album. What appears at first glance to be a racist attack
on Jimi Hendrix, is actually a hymn to radicals through the ages;
from Jesus Christ to Jackson Pollack, to Hendrix himself. It
is probably this song that got Smith credited with the tag 'the
godmother of punk'.
Fight the Power by Public Enemy
This savage dose of Black nationalist
rage was one of the best songs of 1989 and fittingly was the
title track to the best film of that year - Spike Lee's stunning
racial drama 'Do the Right Thing'. Main rapper Chuck D's fierce
barks take bitter swipes at Elvis, John Wayne, and naturally
the American government; over pounding, dense, bass heavy beats.
A musical call to arms.
Kick Out the Jams by MC5
"We were Punk, before Punk. We were
New Wave before New Wave. We were Metal, before Metal. We were
even "M.C. before hammer.....We were the electro-mechanical
climax of the age, or some sort of cruel counter culture hoax.
We were considered killer, righteous, high energy dudes who could
pitch a whang dang doodle all night long...." proclaimed
MC5 ever modest vocalist Rob Tyner. 'Kick Out the Jams' is the
title track of their 1969 debut LP, which was recorded live and
was quite possibly the first 'acid rock' album ever recorded.
Under the guidance of their guru cum manager John Sinclair, they
were the in house band of the White Panther Party, whose radical
manifesto demanded the abolishing of money; the ending of national
borders; the freeing of prisoners; support for the Black Panthers;
and a 'total assault on the culture by any means necessary, including
rock n' roll, dope and fucking in the streets'. However, once
Sinclair was jailed in 1970 for marijuana possession the political
militancy fizzled out, and the band were mostly preoccupied with
drug problems, bankruptcy, and getting dropped by their various
record labels. The sweaty fury of 'Kick Out the Jams' keeps it
an essential of proto punk heavy rock, and has been covered in
recent years by Rage Against the Machine, Henry Rollins, and
the Presidents of the United States of America. Rob Tyner's trademark
yell of 'Kick out the jams motherfuckers!', also provoked an
early example of lyric censorship after the Hudson's chainstore
refused to stock the record, and MC5's record company surreptitiously
removed the offending profanity.
'Hurricane' by Bob Dylan
'Here comes the story of the Hurricane/The
man the authorities came to blame/For somethin' that he never
done'
A seven minute narrative of the events
leading to the incarceration of Black middleweight boxer Rubin
'Hurricane' Carter. Carter was eventually released in 1985 (after
2 decades of imprisonment) after the appeal judge agreed with
Carter's belief that his conviction 'was based on racism rather
than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure'. Dylan was
among many celebrity supporters, and was sufficiently angered
by the injustice to immortalise Carter in song. With its urgent
pace, funky rhythm section and fuming vocals (a welcome departure
from his usual nasal whine), it is also one of the few Dylan
tracks that could be described as danceable. Apparently it is
also the song that inspired Jon Bon Jovi to pick up a guitar.
'Exodus' by Bob Marley
'Movement of Jah people!'
The title track of the album that Time
magazine described in 1999 as the most important of the twentieth
century, is a call for Black people to leave 'Babylon' in favour
of Ethiopia (the 'fatherland'). Although Rastafarian criticism
of the decadence and immorality of the imperialist West had a
degree of validity, it is questionable whether the ideal solution
would be for the ethnic cleansing of all Blacks from within it
(particularly as Marley's own father was a White Englishman).
A great song though, and his heartfelt passion is unmistakable.
War by Edwin Starr
This funk masterpiece was later covered
by Bruce Springsteen and er, Frankie Goes to Hollywood. If only
the youthful Dubya had spent some of his dope money on this or
its follow up ('Stop The War Now') while he was dodging the draft,
history might be very different.
Leonard Cohen The Future
Brilliantly chilling 'Nineteen Eighty
Four' style warning of a future totalitarian society built on
power rather than morality. Left-wing it isn't, but his darkly
satirical muttering is compelling nonetheless. Never have both
notes of Cohen's vocal range been used to more evocative effect.
Don Atapattu
can be reached at: dwk_atapattu@yahoo.co.uk
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