A few months back I ran one of my mini-series, with three sets of protest songs. I brought it to a close even though I knew I had several more good ones for it, and have decided to round it off as a one-off piece today. Looking at the set list I really couldn’t leave any of these out – you’ll see what I mean as things unfold: these are classics of the genre.

I’m starting with one which goes straight to the heart of what is wrong with governments – any government, whatever their political stance:

You Haven’t Done Nothin’ was a track on Steve Wonder’s seventeenth album, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, which was released in July 1974 and reached #1 in the US and Canada, and #5 in the UK. It was released as a single a couple of weeks after the album, in early August, and also reached #1 in the US and Canada, but had to be content with #30 in the UK. It was aimed directly at President Nixon, who resigned two days after the record came out – though it is debatable if this had anything to do with his resignation, as there were a good many other factors in play! Like many before and since, he had been elected on promises of making a better life for his people and then failed to deliver. Oh, and there was Watergate, too! I’m minded of the meme that was common several years ago, of Washington saying “I cannot tell a lie,’ Nixon saying “I cannot tell the truth,” and Trump saying “I cannot tell the difference.” Still relevant, I think! This is a later live performance of what still feels a very powerful song – on the original recording backing vocals were provided by the Jackson 5.

I played one by this next guy for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, and this is of similar vintage:

Bob Dylan released Blowin’ In The Wind as the opening track to his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, which came out in May 1963. He actually recorded this as early as July 1962, hence his tv appearance before the album release. His version wasn’t released as a single until August 1963, which was probably a mistake, as by then Peter Paul and Mary had achieved chart success with what to my ears is an inferior cover version. Bob’s is still for me the definitive version of his song, though: the sense of protest is greater than the watered down sound of PP&M. Nevertheless, he has a Gold Disc here in the UK for more than 400,000 sales of the single. The song poses a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war, and freedom, and its chorus of “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind” was described in a magazine article as being “impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind.” You make up your own mind!

My next choice for today is one that I regretted omitting first time round, and is one of the main reasons I’m playing this fourth set. This is simply masterful:

As you may have spotted, that official video of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On is a melange of the man himself and subsequent clips to make the song’s point for us. It was published just shy of six years ago and has over 13.5m views on YouTube: proof that it is still as meaningful now as ever. It was first released as a single in January 1971, and then became the title track of his eleventh album in May of that year. As a single it made #2 in the US, and despite only getting to #80 here in the UK it has achieved a Gold Disc for sales of more than 400,000 copies – a slow burner if ever there was one! It sold more than 2m in the US, too. The song is a response to one of its co-writers, Obie Benson (a Four Tops member) witnessing police brutality against protestors at an anti-war rally in Berkeley, California, in May 1969, which became known as ‘Bloody Thursday.’ He asked himself and fellow band members the question “What’s going on” and out of that the song was born. Marvin Gaye, himself, had been similarly inspired by social ills committed in the United States, citing the 1965 Watts Riot as a turning point in his life in which he asked himself, “With the world exploding around me, how am I supposed to keep singing love songs?” The song is from the heart, and is still. sadly, incredibly relevant. The album, by the way, made #6 in the US and #56 in the UK, and has gone Gold in the US and Platinum in the UK.

That’s two from the Seventies and one from the Sixties so far, so how about one that was written in 1949? This is a Pete Seeger song, first recorded by the band he was then in, The Weavers, in 1950. As Wikipedia tells us, it had quite the beginning: “The song was first publicly performed by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays on June 3, 1949, at St. Nicholas Arena in New York City at a dinner in support of prominent members of the Communist Party of the United States, including New York City Councilman Benjamin J. Davis, who were then on trial in federal court, charged with violating the Smith Act by advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government. Four months later, it was one of three songs Seeger played as the warm-up act for Paul Robeson’s September 4 concert near Peekskill, New York, attended by Davis, which subsequently erupted into the notorious, anti-Communist Peekskill Riot.” It then became a hit single for Peter Paul and Mary (them again) in 1962, but the version I always liked best is the one I’m playing today:

Trini Lopez released his version of If I Had A Hammer on his debut album, a live recording titled Trini Lopez At PJ’s – a nightclub in West Hollywood – which came out in 1963 and reached #2 in the US. Released as a single, this one made #3 in the US and #4 in the UK. Wikipedia says that it got to #1 in 36 countries but doesn’t identify them! His vibrant performance might seem at odds with the song’s roots as a protest, but while you sing along and tap your feet you can’t help but think about what the lyrics are saying, and the positive message of hope for a better world that they convey.

So that’s 2-all for the Sixties and Seventies, until the Sixties come in with the winner to make it 3-2:

Sam Cooke released A Change Is Gonna Come in March 1964 on Ain’t That Good News, the final album he made before he was shot dead in an altercation at a motel in Los Angeles in December 1964. The album peaked at #34 in the US, and this track was released as a single that December, one of two to be issued in his memory. It was officially the B-side but has since become well known as a protest song, as you can see from the video. The A-side, Shake, made #7 in the US and this one reached #31 in its own right. The song became an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement, and is widely considered one of Sam’s greatest compositions, being listed at #3 in the 2021 edition of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Hits Of All Time, among other accolades. Sam said that he was inspired to write the song when he heard Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ In The Wind (see above!) and felt ashamed that a white man had written a song that had so much meaning for a black man, and he hadn’t yet written anything like it. He began performing Bob Dylan’s song in his live shows, and it was included on a live album, Sam Cooke At The Copa, which was released in October 1964 and reached #29 in the US.

That neat link between my second and last of today’s songs brings the set to a close. All five are powerful songs of protest, all of which remain remarkably relevant fifty or sixty years on. It’s no coincidence that all of these are American songs: things haven’t changed, and when you have a President in effect declaring war on his own cities, it doesn’t feel like things will be getting any better there soon, does it? The poignancy of these songs, and many others like them, touches my heart.

That’s it for today. Next week’s tunes will be by way of celebration, so I hope to raise your spirits with them. Until then, I’ll see you again in a couple of days and then on Sunday. Take care and keep well 😊