I'm so loathsome I could spy...
April 24, 2007 5:20 PM   Subscribe

I used to wonder where all the protest songs had gone. Now I’ve found where over 17,000 (and counting) of them have gone. Audio conditionally NSFW. via
posted by Huplescat (24 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
1,700, perhaps?

Great link; thanks!
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:36 PM on April 24, 2007


I was so hoping this would be about Tom Lehrer's "Folk Song Army"
posted by briank at 5:39 PM on April 24, 2007


Thanks, Huplescat!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:42 PM on April 24, 2007


This is sweet. I was wondering the same thing myself (there was a discrepency with the protests and anger with the administration, and what seemed like a lack of music to go along with it).
posted by spiderskull at 5:46 PM on April 24, 2007


Shameless self-link to my own protest song, just a few doors down at MeFi Music.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:50 PM on April 24, 2007


There's been tons of protest hiphop for years. Here's just one example. (youtube link)
posted by yeloson at 5:51 PM on April 24, 2007


Also: Funny by Native Guns. (NSFW, some swearing)
posted by yeloson at 6:14 PM on April 24, 2007


Mojo's list of the 100 greatest protest songs, for those of you who are suckers for 'greatest' lists from British rock magazines, just like I am.
posted by kimota at 6:38 PM on April 24, 2007


How many links must a man click on,
before you can call him a man?
The answer, my friend, is
404 error: file not found


Nifty stuff, thanks Huplescat
posted by Smedleyman at 6:39 PM on April 24, 2007


Wow. A microphone and an acoustic guitar. Especially that '1000 miles' sung by 3rd link Jennifer Matthews. It just doesn't get any better. Thanks for this.
posted by Cedric at 6:51 PM on April 24, 2007 [1 favorite]


I am in the need for some angry protest music, is anything here along the lines of: kinda-like-Rage-Against-the-Machine-but-even-more-pissed-off? Because that would be about perfect.
posted by quin at 7:08 PM on April 24, 2007


Great stuff, thanks!
posted by amyms at 7:27 PM on April 24, 2007


I'm sure there's something in the 1700 quin - although more pissed off than RATM? Wow.

Great find. spreading the love of Neil Young is always fine by me.
posted by rmm at 8:22 PM on April 24, 2007


You know why no one sings protest songs anymore? Because no one's heard of any of those musicians.

And because there's no draft. If college students thought their number was up, they'd start singing toot sweet.
posted by DonnieSticks at 8:24 PM on April 24, 2007


DSticks, a lot of those singers aren't college age. Nothing personal, seriously, I just can't tell if you're joking or not. I guess I mean it's not just up to college students to sing that kind of song.
posted by Cedric at 8:37 PM on April 24, 2007


1,700 songs... I bounced around for awhile and found some good stuff, but there’s a lot there. There are things I would hate to see lost in the shuffle, like this; part way down the via link under Poetry From The Front:
http://www.neilyoung.com/lwwtoday/index.html


The ghosts of American soldiers

wander the streets of Balad by night,

unsure of their way home, exhausted,

the desert wind blowing trash

down the narrow alleys as a voice

sounds from the minaret, a soulful call

reminding them how alone they are,

how lost. And the Iraqi dead,

they watch in silence from the rooftops

as date palms line the shore in silhouette,

leaning toward Mecca when the dawn wind blows.
posted by Huplescat at 9:00 PM on April 24, 2007


I'm saying they should be. Who's going to listen to (or take seriously) old folkies from a war nearly 32 years gone? Then again, no one takes the youth vote seriously either so who knows.

But if young adults drive trends in music, then that's who should be making waves. And I would argue that there's no voice out there today who evokes the same spirit that Dylan or The Byrds had and if there is, Clear Channel's certainly not playing them on the radio. And if they did, would anyone listen?

I admire the spirit and thought behind the effort, but 1700 songs isn't a movement, it's a mess. Seriously, how do you even find a good one with that many?

Conscription would boil it down fast and not just from the usual suspects like Steve Earle and Ani DiFranco; we'd start hearing from hip-hop and rap artists about a whole new kind of race/class warfare.

(For the record, I'm not advocating the draft, I'm just saying if it happened and kids thought they were going to war, they'd start doing something so they wouldn't. In this day and age, they'd probably flee en masse, but some might stick around to sing on the empty campuses.)
posted by DonnieSticks at 9:49 PM on April 24, 2007


Donnie Sticks writes: "You know why no one sings protest songs anymore? Because no one's heard of any of those musicians."

Yep, it's true those musicians don't have a major corporate entity behind them, propping them up and pouring on the kind of promotional dollars that they'd need to really get their image and music out there in the public eye. Gosh, if only there were, say, some kind of interweb, where people could hear about (and actually hear!) music from people who weren't in the mainstream, who weren't signed to major labels.

Oh, but then you'd have to, like, click on links n'stuff, right? You'd have to spend some time, finding out for yourself if someone is to your liking. You might have to hear stuff you didn't like, just to get to something good. I mean, you'd have to research it, you'd have to actually listen. People can't be bothered to do that.

Now, where's that Blink 182 CD? Their new video is so cool! I've been seeing it everywhere!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:43 PM on April 24, 2007 [1 favorite]


This is some good shit. Thanks. =)
posted by ZachsMind at 11:16 PM on April 24, 2007


I love this. Thank you, Huplescat & Neil Young.
posted by Superfrankenstein at 2:40 AM on April 25, 2007


Some other protest music you may not have heard:

Peter Mulvey, Abilene
David Francey, Fourth Of July
Eliza Gilkyson, Hiway 9
Allison Moorer, All Aboard
Merle Haggard (!), America First
posted by EarBucket at 5:49 AM on April 25, 2007 [1 favorite]


Hippies.
posted by tadellin at 6:59 AM on April 25, 2007


Hippies.

You tell 'em!
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:43 AM on April 25, 2007


Hey, Huplescat, thanks again for this post: One of my songs from here at MeFi Music (it's called "Undefined") is now linked to on the LWW page.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:09 AM on May 6, 2007


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