Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Follow The Leader: Episode 33: Protest Songs!



Martinex1: It is Tuesday, so please Follow the Leader! The fastest to comment here gets to start the conversation topic and we all jump in with observations, musings, and opinions.

Here are the subjects we have discussed thus far:

1) Television Theme Songs and Alien Movies.
2) Best and Worst Movies.
3) Jim Shooter - Editor.
4) Kirby's Art and Michael Jackson's Songs.
5) Building and Changing Comic Universes.
6) Foods We Dislike.
7) Falling Out of Love with a Comic Creator.
8) Comic Collecting - Stops and Starts.
9) Favorite Newspaper Comic Strips.
10) Musicals.
11) Country Music.
12) Favorite Comic Arcs.
13) First Comic Acquisition.
14) The Munsters or The Addams Family.
15) Classical Music.
16) Hammer Films.
17) Misheard Song Lyrics.
18) Reading Comics Today.
19) Arnold Schwarzenegger.
20) Great Comic Issues that Aren't the First Issue.
21) Departure of a Comic Creative Team.
22) Bad Beatles Recordings.
23) Characters that Bore You.
24) Additional Income and Summer Reading.
25) Secret Identities.
26) Five Beatles Questions.
27) Comic Reviews of Recommended Arcs.
28) Comic Book Annuals.
29) Elton John
30) Ray Harryhausen Films
31) Music Listening Devices
32) Last Week:  The Fantastic Four and BitBA Input

So what will the topic be?  Comics, creators, music, movies, television, books, food or something else from the Bronze Age?   Cheers all!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Discuss protest and political songs. Which are the best (or worst) ones ? Are they a waste of time ? Where are today's protest songs ? Perhaps things are going so well nowadays that we don't need protest songs ?

Anonymous said...

Here are some of my favorites:

Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday
Blowing In The Wind - Bob Dylan or Peter, Paul & Mary (it's a great song whoever sings it).
Where Have All The Flowers Gone - Pete Seeger.
Mississippi Goddam - Nina Simone.
A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke.
Give Peace A Chance - John Lennon.
War - Edwin Starr.
Little Boxes - Pete Seeger.
We Shall Overcome - Joan Baez.

In 1972 Wings released "Give Ireland Back To The Irish" (meaning Northern Ireland/Ulster should re-unite with the southern Irish Republic). The song was totally banned on all British TV and radio - a pathetic but entirely typical response at the time. But it was brave of Paul McCartney to write and release that song thereby standing up to the horrible, bigoted Protestant majority in Ulster. Unfortunately they haven't changed a lot - today the Protestant D.U.P. (Democratic Unionist Party) are still a bunch of narrow-minded reactionaries and are currently propping up Theresa May's weak government.

In 1980 UB40's first ever single was called "One In Ten" which was a protest song about high levels of unemployment.

In 1984 The Specials released a song called "Free Nelson Mandela" which the first time I (and many others I'm sure) had ever heard of Nelson Mandela.

In the recent UK general election there was a song called "Liar, Liar" by Captain Ska which was aimed at Theresa May but the BBC refused to play it because, by law, they must remain politically neutral. The song reached #2 in the singles chart anyway and on election night the Prime-Minister and her party got a huge shock when they lost their parliamentary majority after expecting to win handsomely (that's why the PM engineered an election three years early using Brexit as a convenient excuse) - but I doubt the Liar, Liar song can take too much credit for the election result :)

Charlie Horse 47 said...

I was too young since born in 61 to appreciate protest songs of that era. Over the years I've come to appreciate CCR's "Fortunate Son." I'll just leave it at that... LOL.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Also as I travel America and Europe and see the ubiquitous food and fast food and Walmart chains I've developed a great fondness for "Little Boxes."

Steve Does Comics said...

I think the only political song I've ever liked is Shipbuilding by Elvis Costello.

Having said that, I've always had a soft spot for Barry McGuire's Eve of Destruction because of it being so ridiculously over the top. It's like there's nothing at all in the world that he doesn't think is going to end in disaster.

Oops! I've just remembered The Jam's Going Underground, which is a classic. I suppose their Eton Rifles counts as political too, given that the people it's attacking always end up running the country.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

I'm digging the UK perspective! I was aware of Sir Paul's ban for his Ireland song. Was it's ban important? Or did it make the G or BBZ simply look old fashioned?

Redartz said...

Colin J- you mentioned my top choices. "Strange Fruit" is haunting, and "A Change is Gonna Come" never fails to affect me.

There was a folk song in the 60's by Henson Cargill called "Skip a Rope" with has a good message. Charlie- if you like "Little Boxes", you might like that song.

Of more recent vintage- I was impressed by Green Day's cover of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero". Also, "Uprising" by Muse...

Humanbelly said...

We tend to associate these songs with the 60's, don't we? But they've kinda been around forever-- which makes sense, since they're part&parcel with popular Folk music. STEP BY STEP (a Union song and a particular favorite) was sort of put together by Pete Seegar in 1948. And boy, the centuries(?)-long conflict in Ireland has sprouted a zillion over the years. BOOLAVOGUE (Father Murphy) was written in 1898, commemorating a campaign from 1798. (I dbl-checked my facts here, fer once--)

Probably on the goofy fringe of that genre, though, would have to be my own sappy favorite of that time ('cause I was at the age where it grabbed my geeky, sci-fi tendencies): Zaeger & Evans' IN THE YEAR 2525. It wins on sentimentality alone, though. Because it's almost hilariously "fake-deep" in its writing and execution. All allusions to time-frame; time scale; and even the supposedly hyperbolic "real" numbers ("Man has cried a billion tears--"), make no sense at all even after 3 seconds of scrutiny by a bright 12-year-old.

'Tis a MIGHTY ear-worm, though, no question. And that lead singer does have a cool, Burl Ives-y quality which you would never associate with a pop/rock beat otherwise.

HB

William said...

Some of my favorites are:

For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield
Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Woodstock - CSNY (written by Joni Mitchell)
Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell
The Times They Are A Changin' - Bob Dylan
Blowin' In The Wind - Bob Dylan
Rockin' In The Free World - Neil Young

Just to name a few.

An example of a good modern protest song would be "Royals" by Lorde.

Mike Wilson said...

Eve of Destruction was the first one that came to my mind, but a close second was Feel Like I'm Fixin to Die Rag by Country Joe and the Fish.

Anonymous said...

Some more songs I forgot about:

This Land Is Your Land - Woody Guthrie
Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell
Ghost Town - The Specials
Something Inside So Strong - Labi Siffre
Gimme Hope Jo'anna - Eddy Grant
Glad To Be Gay - Tom Robinson
I Am What I Am - Gloria Gaynor (OK, it started as a show tune but the lyrics are powerful and inspiring)
I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me - Nik Kershaw (it's about nuclear war and includes the great line:
Old men in stripey trousers rule the world with plastic smiles)
Meat Is Murder - The Smiths (one for vegetarians obviously)
God Save The Queen - Sex Pistols (God save the queen, she ain't no human bein')

Charlie, those bans made the BBC look ridiculous - eventually they stopped banning songs as it was counter-productive. A ban just gave a song more publicity.

Thanks for all the comments :)

Killraven said...

Well, in honor of Glen Campbell I'll add UNIVERSAL SOLDIER.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

I don't know if anyone is still reading,.. lol, can anyone recall the government in USA banning a song? I'm 56 and can't think of anything. I do recall The Dixie Chicks taking some heat around 2002 b/c they had a song(?) that was anti Gulf War II ? Maytit was the Press secretary complaining? But that's all I can recall for Government "censorship."

The Prowler said...

"This Land Is Your Land" was one of the first protest songs I learned. In elementary school...

Late 70s, we got cable. Having cable led to seeing The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, a benefit for Amnesty International. That led to a whole lot of other protest songs...

From the Sun City Album: Sun City, Let Me See Your ID, The Struggle Continues and Silver And Gold

From Little Stevie Van Zandt: Sanctuary, Native American and Los Despararecidos.

From Bono's group U2: Seconds, Sunday Bloody Sunday (which is not a rebel song), Pride (In The Name Of Love).

Peter Gabriel's Biko, John Mellencamp's Blood On The Scarecrow (which gave us Farm Aid), Bruce Cockburn's If I Had A Rocket Launcher, Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry and Buffalo Soldier, Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA, Bob Seger's Feel Like A Number, Bob Dylan's I Shall Be Released. I have a memory of Bob Geldof doing My Youngest Son Came Home Today but I can't find any mention of that on the internet...

And if we're going to mention Sir Geldof, there's Band Aid, Live Aid, Lemon Aid (just kidding).

As an aside, not necessarily a protest song, but Madonna's Papa Don't Preach made the novel statement of keeping her baby. I think her Papa Don't Preach shirts opened the door to Frankie Says Relax which circled us back to musicians telling us what to do....

(I take my card and I stand in line
To make a buck I work overtime
Dear Sir letters keep coming in the mail
I work my back till it's racked with pain
The boss can't even recall my name
I show up late and I'm docked
It never fails
I feel like just another
Spoke in a great big wheel
Like a tiny blade of grass
In a great big field
To workers I'm just another drone
To Ma Bell I'm just another phone
I'm just another statistic on a sheet
To teachers I'm just another child
To IRS I'm just another file
I'm just another consensus on the street
Gonna cruise out of this city
Head down to the sea
Gonna shout out at the ocean
Hey it's me
And I feel like a number
Feel like a number
Feel like a stranger
A stranger in this land
I feel like a number
I'm not a number
I'm not a number
Dammit I'm a man
I said I'm a man).

The Prowler said...

Can't believe I missed not only Marvin Gaye's What's Going On but his Trouble Man soundtrack...


“Marvin Gaye, 1972, Trouble Man soundtrack,”. “Everything you missed jammed into one album.”

It was staring me right in the face...


Graham said...

The Prowler referenced the Sun City album. That was one of the most powerful statements, and one that probably brought in listeners from all different political persuasions. For me, it was a great introduction to a lot of artists that I'd never heard, like Ruben Blades, Gil Scott-Heron, and Miles Davis. I dug much deeper into Gil Scott-Heron's music from there and some of his 70's material was so powerful and fearless.

B Smith said...

"...can anyone recall the government in USA banning a song?"

Songs were quite often censored in the land Down Under, if not banned outright.

Among the censored were such savage protest songs as...."Snoopy Vs The Red Baron" by The Royal Guardsmen. It was the use of the word "bloody" that set sensitive authorities' hearts aflutter. So it got radio play, but the chorus went "Eighty men died fighting in that spree, of the*beep* Red Baron of Germany..."

Another shocker the public had to be protected from was "The Ballad Of John And Yoko" by The Beatles. Taking the Lord's name in vain? It simply wasn't done! So you'd be listening to the radio and hear "*Beep* you know it ain't easy, you know how hard it can be..."

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Wow. Didn't know that Graham! Thanks!

Humanbelly said...

B Smith: I'm pretty sure that most folks in the U.S. are unaware that the use of the word "Bloody" (which we see as going hand-in-hand w/ a cartoon-ish British accent) was once (and maybe still is?) considered quite profane but lots of folks in the UK. It was used pretty much universally by British comedians in the US (guys like Terry Thomas) on TV in the 60's and 70's. Unless I'm mistaken, it could sometimes be softened by using "Bally" or "Ruddy" to pass muster, am I correct? (Like, how we'll sometimes use "Flippin'" or "Friggin'" as a replacement for the F-Bomb.)

Myself, I'm not even sure why Bloody is considered so awful a bit of profanity-- how did that come about? Am I remembering it implies some reference to the Virgin Mary? That disconnect makes it's being banned even more mystifying to us New-Worlders.

I cannot think of a single song that was ever banned in the U.S. for political reasons (well, that I know of). There was a time when they'd get tangled up because of sexual connotations or content (SQUEEZEBOX; MY DING-A-LING; MY SHARONA; etc), and the occasional use of profanity (DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA; BOY NAMED SUE), but again, as soon as a song was threatened with being restricted, the publicity made it a huge hit, and stations would quickly bow to listener demand. Often with an alternative version of the song.


HB

david_b said...

I've been gone WAAAAY too long, sorry, military duty does that..

Protest songs..? My most annoying one is 'Merry Xmas (War is Over)' by Lennon.., huge Beatles fan, trust me, but I'm vaguely annoyed I have to listen to his somewhat-whining voice about Christmas and war each year.., just not a favorite.

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