10 June, 2020
Historic Protest Songs
Listen to the full Spotify playlist here
Our communal singing initiative – Fire Choir – was born from a love of group singing, and the power that voice and song has for empowerment and activism. There is a special kind of catharsis in coming together to vocalise the love or discontent for the world, and there is a long history of using song as a vehicle for protest and political stands. As the music of the people, folk music is intertwined with the music of protest by very nature of it coming from communities that were at the mercy of the ruling elite. Folk music and protest music are often one and the same thing, coming from the gut and the heart, voicing the woes of society that often fell on deaf ears. Be it the miners strikes, civil rights movements, wars, or simply the rising inequality between rich and poor, some of the most poignant political moments come in the form of songs. Here is a selection of our favourite protest songs – by no means an exhaustive list, but one we hope you’ll enjoy.
Pussy Riot – Holy Shit at Christ the Savior Cathedral
Punk feminist group Pussy Riot made international headlines in 2012 when they staged a guerilla gig at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral. After performing a ‘punk prayer’ from the altar entitled Holy Shit, which condemned the Russian Orthodox Church’s close ties with Putin, they were subsequently arrested two weeks later (the day before Putin’s victory at the presidential election) and charged in connection with hate crimes and violations of public order.
Nina Simone – ‘Mississippi Goddam’
Mississippi Goddam was Nina Simone’s first civil rights song, railing against the gross racial injustices felt throughout the US. The opening stanza ‘Alabama’s gotten me so upset / Tennessee made me lose my rest / And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam’ refers to the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers in Mississippi in June, and the September bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church by white supremacists in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four young girls. It was a powerful revelation, according to Nina, “I suddenly realized what it was to be Black in America in 1963, but it wasn’t an intellectual connection…it came as a rush of fury, hatred and determination.”
Ewan MacColl – The Manchester Rambler
The Manchester Rambler was inspired by MacColl’s participation in the Kinder trespass in 1932, where 500 walkers trespassed en masse from Hayfield to Kinder Scout in the Peak District. A protest by the urban Young Communist League of Manchester against the fact that walkers in England and Wales were denied access to huge areas of open country, it was an act of civil disobedience to secure free access to England’s mountains and moorlands. The protest’s long-term consequences included improved access to the countryside in the form of national parks and long distance public footpaths.
Hozier & Mavis Staples – Nina Cried Power
Protest music is constantly evolving, but each evolution must pay homage to the forebears of the movement who have paved the way. ‘Nina Cried Power’, from Hozier’s 2019 album, acts as an ode to those that have come before, a protest song about protest songs. It’s a reminder that for all our ‘woke’ culture, ‘It’s not the waking / It’s the rising’. The song features civil rights activist Mavis Staples, and references Nina Simone, Billie Holliday, Curtis Mayfield, Patti Smith, John Lennon, James Brown, B.B. King, Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie as those who have ‘cried power’ in the lyrics.
The Cranberries – Zombie
Zombie is Irish band The Cranberries’ seething condemnation of the IRA bombing in Warrington in 1993, and the death of two children, 3 year old Jonathan Bell and 12 year old Tim Parry. The band were particularly incensed that the IRA was carrying out these acts in the name of Ireland, with singer Dolores O’Riordan claiming the song was “our cry against man’s inhumanity to man; and man’s inhumanity to child.”
Dave – Black (Live at the BRITS 2020)
Dave used his BRITS platform to raise issues of continuing racial and economic inequality in his performance of ‘Black’, taken from his debut album Psychodrama, which picked up the Album of the Year award. Dave added verses labelling Boris Johnson a racist and referenced the Windrush generation, Grenfell and the treatment of Meghan Markle, as well as paying tribute to Jack Merritt, a victim of the London Bridge attack. This moment is even more poignant considering what has happened since, with the death of George Floyd and subsequent global protests and calls for action.
Listen to the full playlist on Spotify
Find out more about Fire Choir and how to join here
