My goodness, Ellen! What a herculean task so beautifully curated and presented! So much new music (and new and fascinating writers)! I look forward to taking my time to ingest (and digest) it all! Thank you so much for pulling this all together!🙏🎵✌😊
Oh, wow, that turned out great. Thank you for doing this; you got an impressive range of contributors (and songs).
There's a bunch of new music to listen to, but responding to some of the songs that I know.
I was just looking up, "If I Had A Rocket Launcher" yesterday, and I love this detail from Wikipedia: “During their Maybe You Should Drive tour, Barenaked Ladies often inserted the "some son-of-a-bitch would die" lyric [from “If I Had A Rocket Launcher”] into their own song "If I Had $1000000".“
A nice tribute from one Canadian icon to another.
"Mississippi Goddam" is an all-time classic protest song.
I love the Smothers Brothers performance of "Draft Dodger Rag"
The video for "California Uber Alles" is a blast of punk energy (I never had any Dead Kennedys in my collection, but I do have the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBAkOifDeSw ).
Thanks to David Drayer for his post about "Waltzing Matilda"
If you are still purchasing vinyl (or CD or cassettes or whatever new medium comes out), I highly recommend the DK's debut 'Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables' album. Though all 5 of their full-length releases are worth owning.
Nicely done, Ellen! Thanks for including me, and as Brad says I look forward to digging in deeper and taking some time to listen to everything and follow up on the writers. Great stuff!
Wowzers! I'm so impressed. What a collection -- I'm saving this one so I can easily come back to it at any moment. So many amazing writers here; I'm humbled to be included among them.
Thank you for including me in this mammoth undertaking, Ellen, and for presenting the results so compellingly. Some favourites listed here, and many that I don't know and look forward to discovering.
Wow Ellen, what a great Thanksgiving present. This sure beats watching football! Wonderful collection of writers, wonderful selection of songs (just based on what I've heard so far), and so much history. Actually the history is as important as the songs themselves. Thank you for including me, it's an honor.
Ellen, all top-notch. Fantastic songs, and fab observations from this groovy gang of writers (sorry, couldn’t resist). Chuffed to be a part of this. Thank you.
Wow so many great songs and many I have never heard of. Thank you for posting this and including me in the group! This is a wonderful gift I have much gratitude for and for knowing you here at the stack...especially on Thanksgiving. Much love to you xoxo
There were some other writers I invited who were busy with Thanksgiving and unable to participate (timing!).
There were also substack writers I would have loved to invite, but I don't have a relationship with them and hesitated to ask.
There are also some folks who are passionate about music and participate enthusastically on substack and in this series but don't put out their own posts, and this post was focused on substack writers.
So I will be opening it up to others who have a protest song they'd like to share for a new post going out next week. Stay tuned for information on that.
This was a great idea and turned out very well. There were a number of interesting choices. I will return to this many times I’m sure. You can tell a lot about the author by the song selection they made. Protest songs have obviously evolved throughout the years. It’s a long way from Pete Seeger to my personal favorite, Al Jourgensen and Ministry.
My goodness, Ellen! What a herculean task so beautifully curated and presented! So much new music (and new and fascinating writers)! I look forward to taking my time to ingest (and digest) it all! Thank you so much for pulling this all together!🙏🎵✌😊
Oh, wow, that turned out great. Thank you for doing this; you got an impressive range of contributors (and songs).
There's a bunch of new music to listen to, but responding to some of the songs that I know.
I was just looking up, "If I Had A Rocket Launcher" yesterday, and I love this detail from Wikipedia: “During their Maybe You Should Drive tour, Barenaked Ladies often inserted the "some son-of-a-bitch would die" lyric [from “If I Had A Rocket Launcher”] into their own song "If I Had $1000000".“
A nice tribute from one Canadian icon to another.
"Mississippi Goddam" is an all-time classic protest song.
I love the Smothers Brothers performance of "Draft Dodger Rag"
Michael Maupin also selected "Percy's Song" as a favorite protest song (https://substack.com/@michaelmaupin/note/c-66956261 )
The video for "California Uber Alles" is a blast of punk energy (I never had any Dead Kennedys in my collection, but I do have the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBAkOifDeSw ).
Thanks to David Drayer for his post about "Waltzing Matilda"
If you are still purchasing vinyl (or CD or cassettes or whatever new medium comes out), I highly recommend the DK's debut 'Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables' album. Though all 5 of their full-length releases are worth owning.
IIRC, didn't the Ladies do a cover of Rocket Launcher?
I'm aware of, "Lovers In A Dangerous Time"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_oOc3Zj0KU
Ah, I got them confused!
Nicely done, Ellen! Thanks for including me, and as Brad says I look forward to digging in deeper and taking some time to listen to everything and follow up on the writers. Great stuff!
Wowzers! I'm so impressed. What a collection -- I'm saving this one so I can easily come back to it at any moment. So many amazing writers here; I'm humbled to be included among them.
Thank you for including me in this mammoth undertaking, Ellen, and for presenting the results so compellingly. Some favourites listed here, and many that I don't know and look forward to discovering.
Thank you so much for including me in this project. I'm very honoured to be among so many great writers.
When you asked me and specifically mentioned Australian music, I worried that in mentioning my pick Australia would be left out so thrilled that Waltzing Matilda was mentioned. More Aussie songs are here: https://mixdownmag.com.au/features/a-brief-history-of-australian-protest-songs/
And here's a list of Candian tunes. Relieved Rocket Launcher is on it, as it's not a traditional protest song. Many names on this list will sound familiar: https://www.wildculture.com/article/ten-canadian-songs-made-difference/1993
Congratulations on this post. Many songs to check out!
What an amazing collection of songs by an amazing collection of writers - thank you, Ellen, for inviting to take part!
What a fantastic assortment of songs, and writers! "Mississippi Goddam" was my runner-up song, so I'm happy to see it made the list.
Thank you for doing this, and for asking me to participate.
Great post, Ellen!! Thanks for a fun and thoughtful opportunity for so many voices!!
Wow Ellen, what a great Thanksgiving present. This sure beats watching football! Wonderful collection of writers, wonderful selection of songs (just based on what I've heard so far), and so much history. Actually the history is as important as the songs themselves. Thank you for including me, it's an honor.
Ellen, all top-notch. Fantastic songs, and fab observations from this groovy gang of writers (sorry, couldn’t resist). Chuffed to be a part of this. Thank you.
Thank you so much Ellen for this striking list. And a few are some of my favorite tunes. I was honored to participate ❤️
Wow so many great songs and many I have never heard of. Thank you for posting this and including me in the group! This is a wonderful gift I have much gratitude for and for knowing you here at the stack...especially on Thanksgiving. Much love to you xoxo
There were some other writers I invited who were busy with Thanksgiving and unable to participate (timing!).
There were also substack writers I would have loved to invite, but I don't have a relationship with them and hesitated to ask.
There are also some folks who are passionate about music and participate enthusastically on substack and in this series but don't put out their own posts, and this post was focused on substack writers.
So I will be opening it up to others who have a protest song they'd like to share for a new post going out next week. Stay tuned for information on that.
This is such brilliant stuff 👏
This was a great idea and turned out very well. There were a number of interesting choices. I will return to this many times I’m sure. You can tell a lot about the author by the song selection they made. Protest songs have obviously evolved throughout the years. It’s a long way from Pete Seeger to my personal favorite, Al Jourgensen and Ministry.