Songs of Protest
Protest Singers, Folk Revival, Student Civil Rights Movements,
Singer-Songwriters & Activists
Folk & Songs of protest
The foundation for 1960’s protest music lies at the turn of the century by the
International Workers of the World (IWW). Members of the group, known as
Wobblies first penned protest songs in the United states and expressed
equality for American workers.
“Solidarity Forever” 1910s (based on the music of the Battle Hymn of the Republic)
They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn
But without brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the Union makes us strong
Solidarity forever!
The union was raided and its offices were closed by the state authorities
during the “Red Scare” (post WW I).
The Red Scare in U.S. continued (and grew) through the 1950s. “Better Dead than Red!”
Folk & Songs of
protest
Woody Guthrie (1912 – 1967)
This Machine Kills Fascists
“I don’t sing any songs about the nine divorces of
some millionaire play gal or the ten wives of some
screwball. I wouldn’t sing them if they paid me
$10,000 a week. I sing the songs of the people that
do all of the little jobs and the mean and dirty hard
work in the world and of their wants and their hopes
and their plans for a decent life.”
“A folk song is what's wrong and how to fix it or
it could be who's hungry and where their mouth is or
who's out of work and where the job is or
who's broke and where the money is or
who's carrying a gun and where the peace is.” - WG
“This Land is Your Land”
“I Ain’t Got No Home”
Folk & Songs of protest
“This Land is Your Land”
Woody Guthrie
This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream
waters
This land was made for you and Me.
As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.
I've roamed and rambled and I followed my
footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds
rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.
As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
Folk & Songs of protest
Pete Seeger (1919 –2013)
Quit Harvard Universtiy during late 1930s and worked with
folklorist Alan Lomax.
Joined Woodie Guthrie, roaming the countryside to sing
songs to and about the American worker.
Almanac Singers (early 1940s), The Weavers (late 1940s)
McCarthy Witch-hunt era (1950s) -> Censure & Blacklist
1960s -> Folk revival in college campuses
“Which Side are You On?” , “We Shall Overcome”
“Good-Night Irene”, “The Hammer Song”
1960s & the Folk revival
Folk Music reappeared around 1960, most notably around the
college and university scenes (number of college students also
increased by this time).
These college aged youths searched for an alternative to the popular,
romanticized hit singles of the teen market.
Look magazine 1961; “The college students are weary of the more and
more juvenile level of ‘pop’ music, frustrated by the dearth of good
Broadway show tunes, and slightly befuddled by the growing complexity of
jazz, and are ready to turn solidly folknik.”
The Commercial Folk Boom (late 1950s)
The Kingston Trio
The Limeliters
New Christy Minstrels
Rediscovery of Traditional Folk
& other “roots” (early 1960s)
* Coffeehouse to Campus to TV
* “Hit” Singles to LP albums
Civil rights movements
Passive Resistances; “sit-ins”; “freedom riders”
“We Shall Overcome”
Newport Folk Festival (started 1959, annual folk festival)
John F. Kennedy (elected 1960), supported civil right movements
Martin Luther King Jr “I have a dream”
August 1963, Washington
Kennedy assasinated November 1963
Civil rights movements
Student civil right activism
Generation Gap,
“Don’t trust anyone over thirty” Jack Weinberg
Vietnam War approaching…
Bob dylan & Joan baez
Robert Allen Zimmerman
Protest folk singer-songwriters (Dylan then turned to folk-rock by mid-60s)
The effect of the convergence of the civil rights movement and folk music on
college campuses led to the rise of both artists as their brands of protest
folk music.
Both started to get famous by first appearing
and performing in coffehouses around universities,
as well as coffehouses in major cities (ex. Dylan
appeared in coffehouses and clubs in Greenwich
Village, NYC)
Both composed songs about the current social and political issues.
Bob dylan & Joan baez
Masters of War – Bob Dylan 1963
Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.
You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion'
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud.
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul.
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly.
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins.
And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're
lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead.
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain.
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do.
Bob dylan & Joan baez
Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall – Bob Dylan 1963
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son ?
And where have you been my darling young one ?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Oh, what did you see, my blue eyed son ?
And what did you see, my darling young one ?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son ?
And what did you hear, my darling young one ?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'
I heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Oh, who did you meet my blue-eyed son ?
Who did you meet, my darling young one ?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded in hatred
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son ?
And what'll you do now my darling young one ?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are a many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my songs well before I start singin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Bob dylan & Joan baez
“…all of us in America who didn’t speak out were betrayed by our own silence” Bob Dylan
Blowin’ in the Wind* – Bob Dylan & Joan Baez 1963
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man ?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand ?
Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky ?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry ?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea ?
Yes, how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free ?
Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
* became the anthem for the civil rights movements
Bob dylan & Joan baez
“Folk music depends on intent. If someone desires to make money, I don’t call it folk music” J. Baez
House of the Rising Sun – American Folk Song; Joan Baez 1960
There is a house in New Orleans,
they call the rising sun.
It`s been the ruin for many a poor girl, and me, oh Lord, I`m one.
My mother was a taylor, she sewed our new blue jeans,
my father was a gambling man, down in New Orleans.
If I had listened to what my mother said,
I`d have been at home today,
but I was young and foolish, oh, God, let a rambler lead me astray.
Oh Mothers, tell your children not to do what I have done,
to spend their lives in sin and misery
in the house of the rising sun.
I`m going back to New Orleans, my race is almost run,
I`m going back to spend my life beneath the rising sun
Bob dylan & Joan baez
“Folk music depends on intent. If someone desires to make money, I don’t call it folk music” J. Baez
Birmingham Sunday – (R.Farina) ; Joan Baez 1964
Come round by my side and I'll sing you a song.
I'll sing it so softly, it'll do no one wrong.
On Birmingham Sunday the blood ran like wine,
And the choir kept singing of Freedom.
That cold autumn morning no eyes saw the sun,
And Addie Mae Collins, her number was one.
In an old Baptist church there was no need to run.
And the choir kept singing of Freedom,
The clouds they were dark and the autumn wind blew,
And Denise McNair brought the number to two.
The falcon of death was a creature they knew,
And the choir kept singing of Freedom,
The church it was crowded, and no one could see
That Cynthia Wesley's dark number was three.
Her prayers and her feelings would shame you and me.
And the choir kept singing of Freedom.
Young Carol Robertson entered the door
And the number her killers had given was four.
She asked for a blessing but asked for no more,
And the choir kept singing of Freedom.
On Birmingham Sunday a noise shook the ground.
And people all over the earth turned around.
For no one recalled a more cowardly sound.
And the choir kept singing of Freedom.
The men in the forest they once asked of me,
How many black berries grow in the Blue Sea.
I asked them right back with a tear in my eye.
How many dark ships in the forest?
A Sunday has come a Sunday has gone.
And I can't do much more than to sing you a song.
I'll sing it so softly, it'll do no one wrong.
And the choir keeps singing of Freedom.
Other protest musicians of 60s
Phil Ochs “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” “The Ballad of the Cuban Invasion”,
“Talking Vietnam”, “What are you fighting for?”
Sundowners (aka Singing Socialists)
Freedom Singers
Buffy Sainte Marie (canadian singer-songwriter)
Tom Paxton “What did you learn in school today”, “Buy a gun for your son”
Ritchie Havens “Handsome Johnny”
By late 60s as Bob Dylan turned to electric guitars and rock band format; met with negative reactions from his fans
to whom he was “commercializing” the folk. However he also opened the way for Folk-Rock, influencing many
other musicians & bands in the following years as; The Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor
…etc.
Other protest musicians of 60s
“What did you learn in school today” Tom Paxton
What did you learn in school today
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that Washington never told a lie,
I learned that soldiers seldom die,
I learned that everybody's free,
That's what the teacher said to me,
And that's what I learned in school today,
That's what I learned in school.
What did you learn in school today
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that policemen are my friends,
I learned that justice never ends,
I learned that murderers die for their crimes,
Even if we make a mistake sometimes,
And that's what I learned in school today,
That's what I learned in school.
What did you learn in school today
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned our government must be strong
It's always right and never wrong
Our leaders are the finest men
That's why we elect them again and again
And that's what I learned in school today,
That's what I learned in school.
What did you learn in school today
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that war is not so bad,
I learned about the great ones we have had,
We fought in Germany and in France,
And someday I might get my chance,
And that's what I learned in school today,
That's what I learned in school.
Homework #4
Due March 6th
1) Make a mini research on P.Bourdieu’s views on «Forms of
Capital» and explain what he means by «Cultural Capital».
2)
What do you think about Rock music as a cultural capital?
Explain and try to give some examples from your
experiences and observations.