Protest song

A protest song is often a kind of folk music (or, more recently, pop-influenced folk music). Such songs become popular during times of social disruption and among socially neglected groups and their supporters. They rail against injustice, racial discrimination, war, globalization, inflation, social inequalities and the like.

Folk songs occur throughout history, as in the American Revolutionary War and in the abolitionist movement of the 1800s. In the 20th Century, the union movement, the Great Depression and the Vietnam War also spawned protest songs. Some protest music traditions also date back to the American Civil War, when traditional songs such as 'We Shall Overcome' served as protest songs.

A common form of protest song, with acoustic guitar and harmonica, was popularized by the work of Woody Guthrie during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl.

Table of contents

1 Protest songs regarding unions and labor 2 Protest songs concerning racism, apartheid and civil rights 3 Protest songs concerning war 4 Protest songs concerning nuclear weapons 5 Protest songs concerning politicians or world leaders 6 Protest songs against police or authority 7 Protest songs concerning poverty 8 Protest songs concerning alienation 9 Protest songs concerning governments and imperialism 10 Protest songs concerning feminism 11 Protest songs concerning environmentalism 12 Protest songs concerning prohibition and the War on Drugs 13 Protest songs concerning heroin, drug abuse, and drug culture 14 Protest songs concerning globalization and corporate dominance 15 Protest songs concerning guns and violence 16 Protest songs concerning materialism 17 Protest songs concerning slavery 18 Protest songs concerning the persecution of homosexuals 19 Protest songs concerning the days of the week 20 Protest songs concerning television 21 Protest songs concerning music critics and the music industry 22 Protest songs concerning animal rights and meat consumption 23 Protest songs concerning protest songs 24 Protest songs concerning Youth Rights 25 Other protest songs 26 Some protest song artists:

Protest songs regarding unions and labor

• "Allentown" Billy Joel
• "Angel of Freedom"
• "Banks of Marble"
• "Bear The Burden in The Heat of The Day"
• "The Blackleg Miners"
• "The Blind Ploughman"
• "Casey Jones - The Union Scab" Joe Hill
• "Centralia"
• "Coal Miner's Blues"
• "Coal Miner's Grave"
• "The Coal Owner And The Pitman's Wife"
• "Come All You Coal Miners"
• "The Diggers Song"
• "Dump the Bosses" John Brill
• "From Little Things Big Things Grow" Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody
• "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" Harry McClintock
• "Hard Times Come Again No More"
• "The International"
• "It Takes a Long Pull to Get There"
• "John Henry"
• "Joe Hill"
• "Little Man, You Had a Busy Day"
• "Part Of The Union" The Strawbs
• "Peg and Awl"
• "The Popular Wobbly"
• "The Preacher and the Slave" Joe Hill
• "Rebel Girl" Joe Hill
• "Roll the Union On"
• "Shearing In The Bar"
• "Shores of Botany Bay"
• "Sixteen Tons" Tennesee Ernie Ford
• "Solidarity Forever" Ralph Chaplin
• "Struggle In The West"
• "The Two Bums"
• "There is Power in a Union" Billy Bragg
• ";This Land is Your Land" Woody Guthrie
• "Traveling Down the Castlereagh"
• "Union Burying Ground" Woody Guthrie
• "Union Maid" Woody Guthrie
• "The Union Scab" Joe Hill
• "The Union Train"
• "Which Side Are You On?"
• "Why Paddy's Not At Work Today"

Protest songs concerning racism, apartheid and civil rights

• "7 o'Clock News/Silent Night" Simon and Garfunkel
• "All My Trials" Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary et al.
• "Biko" Peter Gabriel
• "Blackheart Man" Bunny Wailer
• "Can Blue Men sing the Whites?" Bonzo Dog Band
• "Dance Stance" Dexy's Midnight Runners
• "Free Nelson Mandela" The Specials
• "Hurricane" Bob Dylan
• "If I had a Hammer" Pete Seeger
• "Jimmy Sharman's Boxers" Midnight Oil
• "John Brown's Body"
• "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" Bob Dylan
• "Mississippi Goddam" Nina Simone
• "Om Nia Merican" Saul Williams
• "Oxford Town" Bob Dylan
• "Society's Child" Janis Ian
• "So Strong" Labi Siffre
• "Sun City" Artists Against Apartheid
• "Too Many Martyrs" Phil Ochs
• "Trouble Comin' Every Day" Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
• "Woke Up This Morning with My Mind on Freedom"

Protest songs concerning war

• "123 What are we fighting for?" Country Joe and the Fish
• "Abraham, Martin and John" Dion
• "All Along the Watchtower" Jimi Hendrix
• "Alice's Restaurant" Arlo Guthrie
• "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" Eric Bogle
• "Army Man in Vietnam" Big Joe Williams
• "Ball Of Confusion" The Temptations
• "Ballad of Penny Evans" Steve Goodman
• "Beach Party at Vietnam" Dead Milkmen
• "Blowin' in the Wind" Bob Dylan
• "Born in the U.S.A." Bruce Springsteen
• "Bring the Boys Home" Freda Payne
• "Buffalo Solider" Bob Marley & the Wailers
• "Charlie on the MTA" The Kingston Trio
• "Chicago" Graham Nash* "Cops of the World" Phil Ochs
• "The Crow on the Cradle" Sydney Carter
• "Desolation Row" Bob Dylan
• "Dialogue" Chicago
• "Don't Let The Bastards (Get You Down)" Kris Kristofferson
• "Dover Beach" The Fugs
• The Electric Spanking of War Babies (album) Funkadelic
• "Eve of Destruction" Barry McGuire
• "Fighting for Strangers" Steeleye Span
• "Fight War Not Wars" Crass
• "Fortunate Son" Creedence Clearwater Revival
• "For What It's Worth" Buffalo Springfield
• "The Four Insurgent Generals"
• "The Four Rivers"
• "Freedom" Richie Havens
• "The Green Fields Of France" Eric Bogle
• "Handsome Johnny" Richie Havens
• "Heroes" David Bowie
• "How Does It Feel To Be The Mother of 1000 Dead?" Crass
• "I Ain't Marching Any More" Phil Ochs
• "I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier" Morton Harvey
• "The "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die" Rag" Country Joe and the Fish
• "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" Bruce Cockburn
• "In a World Gone Mad" The Beastie Boys
• "Imagine" John Lennon
• "Killing Song"
• "Masters of War" Bob Dylan
• "My Generation" The Who
• "My War" Black Flag
• "My Youngest Son Came Home Today" Eric Bogle
• "Mothers, Daughters, Wives"
• "Ohio" Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - about the Kent State massacre
• "One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack)" Coven
• "Peace" Los Lobos
• "Peat Bog Soldiers"
• "People Gotta Be Free" The Young Rascals
• "Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town" Kenny Rogers
• "Run Through the Jungle" Creedence Clearwater Revival
• "Sam Stone" John Prine
• "Send the Marines" Tom Lehrer
• "Signs" The Five Man Electrical Band
• "Sky Pilot" Eric Burdon
• "Today I Killed a Man" P. J. Proby
• "The Train For Auschwitz"
• "Tape From California" Phil Ochs
• "The Times They Are A-Changin'" Bob Dylan
• "Turn Turn Turn" The Byrds or Pete Seeger
• "Universal Soldier" Donovan
• "The Unknown Soldier" The Doors
• "Vietnam" Jimmy Cliff
• "Vietnam" Lars & the Bastards
• "Vietnam Love Song" as sung by Judy Collins
• "War" Bob Marley & the Wailers
• "War" Edwin Starr
• "War Pigs" Black Sabbath
• "We gotta have Peace" Curtis Mayfield
• "Civil War" Guns 'n Roses
• "We Shall Overcome" Traditional
• "What's Goin' On" Marvin Gaye
• "What's That I Hear" Phil Ochs
• "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" The Kingston Trio

Protest songs concerning nuclear weapons

• "99 Luftballoons" Nena
• "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" Bob Dylan
• "Nagasaki Nightmare" Crass
• "Pride of Man" Quicksilver Messenger Service
• "Put Down That Weapon" Midnight Oil
• "Redemption Song" Bob Marley & the Wailers
• "Russians" Sting
• "Stand or Fall" The Fixx
• "Two Suns in the Sunset" Pink Floyd
• "Killer of Giants" Ozzy Osbourne
• "We Will All Go Together When We Go" Tom Lehrer
• "Wooden Ships" Crosby Stills and Nash

Protest songs concerning politicians or world leaders

• "The Ballad of Ronald Reagan" The Austin Lounge Lizards
• "California Uber Alles" The Dead Kennedys
• "Old Mother Reagan" The Violent Femmes

Protest songs against police or authority

• "911 is a Joke" Public Enemy
• "Cop Killer" by Ice-T
• "I Fought the Law" by Bobby Fuller Four
• "I Shot the Sheriff" Bob Marley & the Wailers
• "Police Truck" The Dead Kennedys

Protest songs concerning poverty

• "Cloud Nine" The Temptations
• "Electric Avenue" Eddie Grant
• "Freddie's Dead" Curtis Mayfield
• "In the Ghetto" Elvis Presley
• "The Message" Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
• "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)" Bob Marley & the Wailers

Protest songs concerning alienation

• "At Seventeen" Janis Ian
• "Beautiful People" Melanie
• "The Boxer" Simon and Garfunkel
• "I am a Rock" Simon and Garfunkel
• "Rocky Top"
• "The Sound of Silence" Simon and Garfunkel
• "What the World Needs Now" Dionne Warwick

Protest songs concerning governments and imperialism

• "All Hawai'i Stand Together" Dennis Pavao
• "God Save the Queen" The Sex Pistols
• "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" Paul McCartney
• "James Connolly"
• "Revolution" Bob Marley & the Wailers
• "Revolution" The Beatles
• "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" U2

Protest songs concerning feminism

• "Better Man" Pearl Jam
• "I am Woman" Helen Reddy
• "Jump Mama Jump" The Poison Girls
• "Only Women Bleed" Alice Cooper
• "Woman is the Nigger of the World" John Lennon
• "Women" Crass

Protest songs concerning environmentalism

• "Crazy Horses" The Osmonds
• "Damn this Traffic Jam" James Taylor
• "The Days of Pearly Spencer" David McWilliams
• "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" Marvin Gaye

Protest songs concerning prohibition and the War on Drugs

• "Burn One Down" Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
• "Coming into Los Angelese" Arlo Guthrie
• "Henry" New Riders of the Purple Sage
• "Illegal Smile" John Prine
• "Legalize It" Peter Tosh
• "Police in Helicopter" John Holt
• "The Pusher" Steppenwolf
• "Smoke Two Joints" Sublime
• "Sam Stone" John Prine

Protest songs concerning heroin, drug abuse, and drug culture

• "Cocaine" Jackson Browne

• "Kicks", Paul Revere & The Raiders
• "The Message Part 2" Grandmaster Flash
• "The Needle and the Damage Done" Neil Young
• "Straight Edge" Minor Threat

Protest songs concerning globalization and corporate dominance

• "Californication" Red Hot Chili Peppers
• "Panic" The Smiths
• "Radio, Radio" Elvis Costello & the Attractions
• "Throw Away Your Television" Red Hot Chili Peppers
• "We love the Pirate Stations" reportedly The Rocking Berries although credited to 'The Roaring Sixties' to distance themselves from the campaign to save offshore radio around the UK.
• "Won't Get Fooled Again" The Who

Protest songs concerning guns and violence

• "If It Were Up to Me" Cheryl Wheeler
• "Police and Thieves" Junior Murvin
• "Saturday Night Special" Lynyrd Skynyrd
• "Zombie" The Cranberries [1]
• "Tool and Die" Consolidated

Protest songs concerning materialism

• "Little Boxes"
• "My Pink Half of the Drainpipe" Bonzo Dog Band
• "Pleasant Valley Sunday" The Monkees
• "Rockin' in the Free World" Neil Young
• "Well Respected Man" The Kinks
• "Where Do the Children Play" Cat Stevens

Protest songs concerning slavery

• "Mister Charlie" Robert Hunter/Grateful Dead
• "Redemption Song" Bob Marley

Protest songs concerning the persecution of homosexuals

• "Fuck Aneta Briant" (sic) David Allen Coe

  (Presumably, the spelling of Anita Bryant's name was altered to avoid slander charges.)

• "Luister Anita" Zangeres Zonder Naam (lyrics with English translation)

Protest songs concerning the days of the week

• "Gloomy Sunday"
• "I don't like Mondays" Bob Geldof

Protest songs concerning television

• "I Am the Slime" Frank Zappa
• "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles
• "Television, the Drug of the Nation" Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy

Protest songs concerning music critics and the music industry

• "Hurry Up Garry (The Parson's Farted)" Crass
• "Jimmy Buffett Doesn't Live in Key West Anymore" David Allen Coe
• "Jules and Jim" Pete Townshend

Protest songs concerning animal rights and meat consumption

• "Berkshire Cunt" Conflict
• "Boxing Day" Robb Johnson
• "Meat is Murder" Conflict
• "Meat is Murder" The Smiths

Protest songs concerning protest songs

• "The Protest Song Army" Tom Lehrer

Protest songs concerning Youth Rights

• "Dyers Eve" Metallica
• "Hell is for Children" Pat Benatar
• "Prisoner of Society" The Living End
• "Minor Disturbance Too Young To Rock" The Teen Idles
• "Another Brick in the Wall" Pink Floyd

Other protest songs

• "Aenima" Tool
• "The Cutty Wren"
• "Excuse Me Mister" Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
• "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" Frank Zappa
• "Industrial Disease" Dire Straits
• "Losing My Religion" R.E.M
• "Maggie Out" Anonymous
• "One in a Million" Guns N' Roses
• "Rain on the Scarecrow" John Cougar Mellencamp
• "The River" Bruce Springsteen

Some protest song artists:

• Joan Baez
• Billy Bragg
• The Clash
• Crass
• Donovan
• Bob Dylan
• Woody Guthrie
• Joe Hill, see Industrial Workers of the World
• Burl Ives
• Victor Jara
• Tom Lehrer
• Bob Marley
• NWA
• Public Enemy
• Phil Ochs
• Pete Seeger
• Peter Tosh
• Wilco