As is my habit, kind of, when I find a good theme I play several sets for it – usually no more than three. As this is my third set of protest songs I guess that means I’ll be looking for a new theme for next week, but for now I hope you enjoy another five songs that tell about something wrong in our world. They will, I am sure, all be known to you, though one may not be a familiar version. But it is well worth it, so I’m saving it to the end.

No time to waste, let’s get going with a real pop classic and a video that makes its point:

War was a single for Edwin Starr, released in June 1970, when it topped the US and Canadian charts and reached #3 in the UK. The song had first appeared earlier that year on The Temptations’ album Psychedelic Shack, but there were arguments about whether it should become a single. Edwin heard about the debate of whether or not to release it and volunteered to re-record it. His version of War was dramatic and intense, depicting the general anger and distaste the anti-war movement felt towards events in Vietnam – hence that video that someone made for it. Edwin earned a Grammy nomination in 1971 for Best R&B Male Vocal, though he didn’t win, but in 1999 his recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

An environmental protest for my next tune. I’ve played this one twice before, in 2022 and just a couple of months ago, but it is too good to leave out today:

Big Yellow Taxi was a track on Joni Mitchell’s third album, Ladies Of The Canyon, which was released in April 1970 and reached #8 in the UK and #27 in the US. The song was issued as a single to coincide with the album and made #11 in the UK and #67 in the US. There have been many cover versions, my favourite of which is the one by Counting Crows, which made #13 as a single in the UK – the only top twenty single hit they have had here. As a message of concern for the damage humans are doing to the environment I don’t think that there are many better than this, and that line “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” has become ever more true down the years, particularly with the onslaught that environmental protections are enduring in the US from the orange maniac.

It was pure coincidence that those first two tunes both dated from mid 1970, but this next one is a little later:

In case your memory needs refreshing, that was Tracy Chapman and Talkin’ ’bout A Revolution. As someone has remarked in the comments on YouTube: “No overdone makeup, no expensive dress, no dramatic stage lights, just pure talent.” I completely agree with him. This was the opening track on Tracy Chapman’s eponymous debut album, which was released in April 1988 and topped the charts in the UK and the US, as well as several other countries. For me, it was a wonderful album which is still a favourite to this day, and it was great to see a new singer-songwriter being so successful. Her subsequent albums haven’t fared quite that well, but they are all lovely, full of carefully crafted songs sung in that rich voice of hers. Fast Car was the single chosen to accompany the album’s launch, and it also did well, reaching #6 in the US and #4 in the UK. This was taken as the second single in July of that year, but I guess by then we all had the album, as it only got to #75 in the US and #85 here in the UK. It is still for me a great song from a great album, which is one of the best sellers of all time – over 20m copies worldwide.

Mid 1970 seems to have been a fertile time for protest songs, as today’s penultimate track is another from that era:

I wasn’t a big fan of Motown music back then, but like Edwin Starr this one forced itself into my consciousness and has stayed there ever since. Ball Of Confusion was from the time that The Temptations were going with what was known as ‘psychedelic soul,’ and this was the classic example of it. The song was released as a single in May 1970, and peaked at #3 in the US, #5 in Canada and #7 in the UK. The band recorded it after their Psychedelic Shack album had already been released, but it was then included on their Greatest Hits II collection which came out in September 1970, reaching #15 in the US and #28 in the UK. It had several targets: the lyrics speak of problems affecting the world, including crime, taxes and drugs, which add up to the  “ball of confusion” that is the title. It still feels effective to me, nonetheless.

I’m closing today with a song which has become a standard for protest marches all over the world, and I was really spoiled for choice about which version to play. In the end, I went for this:

We Shall Overcome was originally a gospel song, but since Pete Seeger first recorded it in 1959 it has been adopted as the anthem of the US civil rights movement and, as I said, around the world. It has since been widely played and recorded and earlier this year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Pete Seeger’s adaptation at #8 on its list of The 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time. Bruce Springsteen recorded it for his album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, which was released in April 2006 and reached #3 in the US, Canada and the UK, and won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 49th Grammy Awards, in February 2007. It was recorded with the help of a huge set of musicians, going way beyond his usual E Street Band, and he then put together another huge band to take the album out on tour – featured in the video you saw Charles Giordano on accordion, Soozie Tyrell and Sam Bardfeld on violins, and Marty Rifkin on pedal steel guitar. This then became the June 2007 CD and DVD Live In Dublin, from which this performance comes: the record reached #23 in the US and #21 in the UK, but naturally fared well in Ireland, where it got to #1.

This may perhaps be one of The Boss’ lesser known recordings, both in studio and live format, but I played it to bits at the time, and can still remember blasting out my accompaniment to the songs when I was driving down to see my Mum in the nursing home that she lived in at that time, until we lost her in 2008. Bittersweet memories – one of those things that music does for us.

That concludes today’s set of five more protest songs and as always I hope you enjoyed them: possibly more of a mix than I sometimes play. Enjoy your week – and if you’re in the UK heatwave stay hydrated! I’ll see you again soon 😊