Thursday, November 27, 2008

Your Music 12 - songs of struggle

Track list for Your Music 12 - songs of struggle and protest

It seems the candidates running for public office at both the local and national levels very rarely address issues of substance or take truly bold stands on anything except reactionary policies like militarizing the borders or threatening wars. Music, of course, knows no borders and inasmuch as it can help build understanding between cultures it serves as a tonic to te kinds of conflicts that lead to wars. You have to wonder, then why it is that songs of protest and struggle so rarely find their way to the airwaves - except, of course on community radio stations like the one you're listening to now. In this case we're talking about music that directly confronts the hypocracy and inhumanity of the powers that be.
1)Atlanta -based artist Susan Hickey Pict Song - words by Rudyard Kipling and arranged by . That's from her self-published 2004 CD Ramble in the Grass.
2) Peggy Seeger from her 1992 Folkways anthology titled Songs of Love and Politics. That track was titled Song of Change and Peggy Seeger was joined in that recording by the late Ewan Mcall.
3) Pete Seeger. That was Quite Early Morning, performed by Holly Near and that's on a 1998 Appleseed collection titled Where Have all the Flowers Gone, The Songs of Pete Seeger.
4) Sweet Honey in the Rock and Would You Harbor Me from their 1995 release on the Earthbeat label called Sacred Ground.
5) David Rovics with Song fir Big Mountain from his self-published CD Live at Club Passim.
6) Dayton, Ohio based native american duo Ga-Li with a track from their self-published 2002 release From the Outside Indian. That track was called All Is One Is All
7) Victoria Parks and What Our Children is Learning from her self-published CD Duh-mocracy spelled D-U-H-mocracy. My only contention with that song is that she identifies George Bush as the President when, as we all know; the man never won a national election. Victoria knows this well, as she was one of a handful of intrepid souls who actually investigated the fraudulent election in Ohio in 2004. Musicians stepped in where even the Democrats feared to tread.
8) Billionaires for Bush or Gore with a cut called Rest Easy Wealthy Gentlemen. That's on a self-published CD.
9) Mike Morningstar from a CD called Moving Mountains, voices of Appalachia, a compilation of songs and interviews from the folks who are fighting against Mountain Top Removal coal mining in West Virginia, Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky. The song was called Song for Mother
10)Phil Ochs with a much earlier song on the same topic. That was the Hills of West Virginia.
11) Grand Master Flash with his classic The Message released initially on the Sugar Hill label
12) Micheal Franti with " Rock the Nation" from a 2001 6-degrees records single by that same title
13) Gil Scott Heron with his rendition of a Marvin Gaye tune called Inner City Blues, about police reprisals against housing activists in New Orleans. That's on Gil Scot Heron's Arista label release, Reflections

http://rapidshare.com/files/168014737/YM._12.mp3

No comments: