Best protest songs.

John Lennon - Imagine

Marvin Gaye - What's Goin' On

Here ya go.

London Calling, The Clash.

Zombie, The Cranberries.

Beds Are Burning, Midnight Oil.

Another Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young song.

Fortune Son

"For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield

The Times They Are a-Changin' - Bob Dylan

🖕🏿🐷👮🏻‍♂️

"Beautiful World" - Devo.

Joan Baez - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

Pink Floyd "Another Brick in the Wall"

"We Shall Overcome"

Masters of War—Dylan

"Universal Soldier" - Buffy Sainte - Marie.

"..and he really is to blame..." are lyrics, when I was younger, I disagreed with. But now that I'm a bit wiser, I interpret them as a variation of "What if they Gave a War, and Nobody Came?"

Good one, r18.

"Stand"

"Stand" again...

I clearly haven't had my coffee this morning...

R20...

Sam Cooke, “A Change Is Gonna Come”

Chicago (the band) skillfully utilized the chant from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968

Another from from Sly & the Family Stone, "Everyday People".

Nina Simone - Mississippi Goddam

Wake up!

Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday

A bit more relevant to today.

The Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine In

Phil Ochs: "I Ain't Marching Anymore", "Draft Dodger Rag", "There But For Fortune."

Fight the Power - Public Enemy

"For What It's Worth" - version by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 (vocals by Karen Philipp)

How could we forget Elaine's favorite song?

"School's Out" - Alice Cooper.

Do You Hear the People Sing

Kill Whitey

Ya know, Madonna wrote a VERY relatable protest song!

I'm drinking a soy latte

I get a double shot-e

It goes right through my body, and you know I'm satisfied

I drive my Mini Cooper, and I'm feeling super-dooper

Yo, they tell I'm a trooper, and you know I'm satisfied

I do yoga and pilates, and the room is full of hotties

So I'm checking out the bodies, and you know I'm satisfied

I'm digging on the isotopes

This metaphysics shit is dope, and if all this can give me hope

You know I'm satisfied

I got a lawyer and a manager, an agent and a chef

Three nannies, an assistant, and a driver, and a jet

A trainer, and a butler, and a bodyguard, or five

A gardener and a stylist

Do you think I'm satisfied?

I'd like to express my extreme point of view

I'm not a Christian and I'm not a Jew

I'm just living out the American dream

And I just realized that nothing is what it seems

She’s the new Bob Dylan 🙄

Another Man Done Gone

RIP George Floyd

"Burn Down the Mission"

"Suppertime" by Irving Berlin. Sung by Ethel Waters in "As Thousands Cheer".

The 60's had much better protest songs than today.

"People Have the Power" - Patti Smith.

LIttle Boxes

Where have all the flowers gone

Buffy Sainte Maire - "My country 'Tis Of Thy People You're Dying"

Universal Soldier

What have they done to the rain

Prison Trilogy

Shout - Tears for Fears

What’s Going On - Marvin Gaye

Power to the People- John Lennon

Man in Black - Johnny Cash

Simple Song of Freedom

I love this song. He took a lot of grief for it.

Do You Hear the People Sing

From 25th Anniversary show. Not the movie.

Regarding r49, Call me crazy, and I haven't heard that for decades, but after re-listening to BS-M's "My Country Tis of The , Your People Are Dying", I'm declaring her and that song a foundational song of Rap.

Yes, she's singing, but I hear in Public Enemy and other later rap artists, the Echo of Buffy Sainte-Marie

"We Shall Overcome," as R16 said.

"Not Going to Play Sun City"

A very, very good one. And job done.

The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia

Not sure if this is a true protest song, but appropriate considering current events.

Now I'm kicking myself that I forgot this one. My elder memory isn't what it used to be!

Back when Elvis was still good-lookin'.

"Border Song"

All We Are Saying Is - Give Peace A Chance

Song to refresh a weary protestor:

Another from Broadway, "The Day After That" from Kander & Ebb's "Kiss of the Spider Woman"

(Featured singer: Michael Romeo Ruocco at Broadway Rising Stars 2014)

Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus

I think this counts.

Ball of Confusion

I already posted this one, but this video has great pics.

Has anyone here heard of this guy?

One Tin Soldier. The Cher version.

Here's a really old one.

R77 Which is currently being OVERPLAYED over and over again in that television commercial for Frontier Communications. I can't grab for the remote fast enough to hit mute. .. lol!

Ha, I've never seen the commercial, R78. I just discovered the song today.

REM has several. Orange Crush is a good one.

"My City Was Gone" - The Pretenders.

Jefferson Starship - well, they TRIED.

R83, that makes many lists for worst song of all time, which I guess counts as a protest?

Something more recent: Depeche Mode - "Where's the Revolution"

R84 Singing we “Built This City” in public is not a peaceful protest - it’s a terrorist act.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Bob Dylan, "Only a Pawn in Their Game"

Not a protest song, but one about the 1967 Detroit riots. It was apparently banned in some states in the US, not sure if it still is.

Cover of John Lee Hooker's "The Motor City is Burning".

"This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land."

Does "In The Year 2525" count?

"Waist Deep in the Big Muddy."

Martha and the Muffins scream with angry power:

Mention of The Motor City at R90 reminded me of "The New World" by X, which was an indictment of what they saw happening to the country while they were on a cross-country tour during Reagan's first term.

"Takin' it to the Streets"

"Umi Says" by Mos Def.....it's a chill jazzy number that sneaks up on you at the end:

Not a protest song per se, more of a riot song. And it’s been in my head for days. Gotta love any song that name checks Hesperia and Fountain Valley, lol. Sung like a true son of the LBC.

A Woody Guthrie classic. Union Maid.

This Land Is Your Land

It's one, two, three what are we fighting for? Don't ask me, I don't give a damn. My next stop is Viet Nam. Oh, it's five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates. There ain't no time to wonder why, Whoopie! We're all gonna' die.

The Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the U.K.

I love this...I treasure this woman.

The Internationale certainly belongs in this thread.

Eddy Grant - Electric Avenue

A song about the 1981 Brixton riot. The riot was a confrontation between the Metropolitan Police and protesters in Brixton, South London, England, between 10 and 12 April 1981.

r103. Thanks for the education, I had no idea (of course clueless American) that happened.

U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday

Curtis!

Australian song about Vietnam War

Harvest for the world

Definitely NOT Culture Clubs The War Song

Another song about the Vietnam War

Although it doesn't seem like it, the lyrics at the end make it so...

Hard to believe it's taken 112 replies for someone to mention it, but Peter Gabriel's eulogy to Steve Biko is a strong candidate for the greatest protest song ever recorded. An emotional behemoth.

Joan Baez has a glorious voice, but it seems that since this is Data Lounge, Miss Dietrich must be included.

Still relevant almost years on. Asking the same questions.

60 years on^

MILCK - Quiet

Mavis Staples - Eyes on the Prize

Country Joe and The Fish

Don’t go breaking my neck- Elton John And KiKi Tribute Remix

I can feel (you not) breathe- Faith Hill

Chasing pavement (with my face)- Adele

Let’s do the twist (around your neck)- Chubby Checker

Every breath you don’t take The Police, what irony

Depeche Mode - People Are People

Sparks - Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth

The Beatles - Revolution

Blowin' In The Wind

With God On Our Side

The Times They Are A'Changin'

A Hard Rain's A'Gonna Fall

Chimes Of Freedom

The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll

Only A Pawn In Their Game

Union Sundown

Masters Of War

Hurricane

I'd say I win, yes?

Blowin' in the Wind Bob Dylan

The Beatles - Taxman

Oh, AND Maggie's Farm.

Cat Stevens - Peace Train

Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen

Isley Brothers - Fight the Power

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Enola Gay

Through the years, I've found Jackson Browne's "Our Lately of the Well" particularly relevant.

^^^ "Lady," dear.

Believe it or not, Freda Payne

Stevie. Sounds familiar in 2020.

Helen Reddy

The Temptations

Monkees (same subject as For What It's Worth)

Jefferson Airplane

Aretha

5th Dimension

Rascals

"Sam Stone" is a song written by John Prine about a drug-addicted veteran with a Purple Heart and his death by overdose. It appeared on Prine's eponymous 1971 debut album. The song was originally titled "Great Society Conflict Veteran's Blues".[1]

The song's refrain begins, "There's a hole in Daddy's arm where all the money goes."

"Wooden Ships". CSN had the bigger hit, but I liked the Jefferson Airplane's version better.

Saigon Bride (Joan Baez version)

Farewell, my wistful Saigon bride I'm going out to stem the tide A tide that never saw the seas It flows through jungles, 'round the trees …

Mandate my ass!

Chambers Brothers

The week after Trump was elected, A Tribe Called Quest released 'We The People'. I think it's one of the most underrated protest songs of all time, and very relevant to the orange ogre and MAGAts.

Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) - Marvin Gaye

March March - The (Dixie) Chicks

Poor people are going to rise up and take what's theirs...

r147 is the only song on this thread that mentions us "gays".

American Idiot - Green Day. The best protest song from the Bush era.

Sigur Rós - Untitled

American Idiot is relevant again.

Anti-Flag "Die For The Government"

Propaghandi - Stick the Fucking Flag Up Your Ass

I think I read somewhere that this is considered to be the first protest song in American popular music. It resonates with me. I don't know if it resonates with me because I am southern or because Billie Holiday just knocks me out or because the song is so harrowing or maybe it is a combination of the three but I give you "Strange Fruit" and I hope it moves some of you as much as it moves me.

To Be Young Gifted and Black - Nina Simone

Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell

Wasn't The Battle Hymn of the Republic originally a protest song?

PALAYE ROYALE - Massacre, The New American Dream

Elvis Costello, Oliver's Army - about "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland

"Fight The Power" by Public Enemy is EASILY the GREATEST protest song in music history.

All right, boys! This is it. Over the hill.

"We Shall Overcome" and "Blowin' In The Wind" would beg to differ, R163.

Speaking of which r162:

Better yet...