SONGS TO REVISIT: THE PROTEST EDITION

Remembering the political anthems of decades ago (which are needed now)
By Danny R. Phillips, with Jason Gross
(August 2025)

Watching the news, following social media, seeing society and civility collapse at an ever increasing rate, I wonder what makes our time that much different than the days of my parents? We have protests in the streets, seemingly endless, meaningless wars, cries for social justice and acceptance being screamed from rooftops and from fingers on keyboards.

We have government officials running our government that are as useful as a blind man at a turkey shoot; aimless, never hitting the target, shooting theories wildly in the dark, hoping something hits.

There are movements popping up from the masses demanding to be heard, fashion and art shift and change, worry and loss often feeds the starving creative mind.

While I sit perplexed by our current times, I think of the stories told to me as I grew up. Stories told by my family about the wooly and wild 1960s. The array of music that came oozing from their stereo speakers. Music had weight and substance, songs touched the listener, making them ask why, smile or maybe even shed a tear. Where are those songs for today in a time so ripe for observation and inspection? Why are there so few voices leading the young to the streets, where are the ones truly trying to bring about thought and change?

The time is upon us for a new wave of protest music, of music that questions and proposes change at both a personal and a systemic level. Here, I have compiled a list of songs steeped in want and anger, perhaps it will stoke the artistic fire inside.

Bob Dylan "Masters of War" Many songs from Mr. Zimmerman's catalogue could be used for the purposes here but "Masters of War" is the winner, hands down. Sure, "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Hurricane" are powerful but "Masters" is his most straightforward, pissed off release. Dylan's hate for the war machine is palpable, a sour venom spit forth at anything fueling the country's march toward world dominance, led by corporations and greed.

Creedence Clearwater Revival "Fortunate Son" Creedence, America's greatest rock band in my opinion, encapsulates the fear of going to war, much felt by those that didn't have money or a name to keep them off the front line. It's a song but it's also the truth: the rich, the connected make the calls not pull the triggers. Songwriter John Fogerty spits about the people born with silver spoons grasped firmly in hand but when the taxman comes to the door, "Lord, the house look like a rummage sale" and when the soldier asked how much do we give, "the answer is just more, more, more." CCR shines a bright light on the hypocrisy and greed that feeds war while leaving us a classic.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young- "Ohio" "Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'/ we're finally on our own." Written by Neil Young just hours after the Kent State University shooting and killing of 4 students by Ohio National Guardsmen, it is Young at the top of his game as a writer, he was pissed and it shows. Recorded while a member of CSN&Y, their combined powers take this call to revolution from anger to a place of power energy calling, screaming, for change. "Gotta get down to it/ soldiers are cutting us down/ should've been gone long ago" An opening line as fitting today as it was in 1971. Sadly, things just don't seem to change.

Sam Cooke "A Change is Gonna Come" "It's been a long time/ a long time comin' but I know a change is gon' come/ oh yes it will." An anthem of the early Civil Rights movement, Sam Cooke used his gift to ask people to stay strong, get back up and move forward because it will get better. Cooke didn't live to see the way his voice and those words help hold up and push a wave of resistance and hope; that wave is still battling with great force, stronger in today's times, having to fight and push even more as progress moves backwards. Some of us still have faith, waiting patiently if anxiously for that storied change to come.

Stevie Wonder "You Haven't Done Nothin'" Though he's known by many in the pop world for some of the most beautiful love songs ever written, let's not forget that that one of Motown's greatest singers and songwriters also wrote some biting social protests. "Living For the City" bared the horrors of ghetto life and a decade later, he'd skew Reagan/Iran/Contra with "Skeletons" but in the mid '70s, he had another president in mind. This soulful jam was a big spit in the face to Nixon, with the Jackson 5 backing him up here, laying out how ignorant and tin-eared Tricky Dick was (maybe a coincidence that he resigned a few days after this song came out?). And the song sounds just as fresh and poignant about the current White House occupant.

Marvin Gaye "What's Going On" Like Stevie, another great Motown singer and songwriter who could also detail ghetto ugliness ("Inner City Blues"). Fighting against the label head to do a big statement here, Gaye was making an unabashed plea for understanding and dialog. While that might not seem like a strong political statement to some, it was definitely something that needed to be said in a the divided nation of the early '70s. And like Stevie, this statement remains relevant in this day and age.

Edwin Starr "War" Barrett Strong laid out financial desperation in "Money" about a decade before this (also providing a great cover for the Beatles) but here, along with fellow Motown producer Norman Whitefield, he made an unequivocal statement: "War/what is it good for/ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!" Can't get much clearer than that now, can you? Everyone from Bruce Springsteen to hardcore Canadian punks D.O.A. would take up the mantle of this song in the '80s and it's frustrating and infuriating that this needs be heard again, and embraced, in 2025.

Tyler Childers "A Long Violent History" A recent edition to the long line of straight ahead anger and sadness songs. Childers, a leader in the modern day charge that has brought country music back to the spotlight, He spins a tale of people oppressed, of getting kicked, cuffed in the streets, people "worryin' kickin' and fightin', begging to breathe" and what happens when those same people have had enough. Push someone long enough, they'll push back. Sometimes with "Papaw's old pistol." The song is a warning not a threat.

Now is the time for the creative minds to come together and say the things that need to be said, to question those pulling the strings like they did in the time of my Mother. Write songs, draw, paint, design. Build something beautiful in an ugly world. Show them your spirit can't be broken and that, no matter what, we will keep asking why.