(2014)
Album: Vauxhall And I

Album: Which Way Is Forward? (2020)

With a voice reminiscent of the great Fela Kuti and a drum beat that reminds us of artist Raury, G.O.C is a powerful track that makes you want to go to church, sit in a jazz club and be a part of a revolution all at once. He sings “In this dance, we dance together. On our streets its armageddon” this politically charged song is the voice of the new generation and really makes it feel like positive change can come from music.

Obongjayar - God's Own Children

"God's Own Children is inspired by protests from around the world and the resilience of my generation. It's a reminder that we're all in this together and that this world we inhabit right now is what we're inheriting from the generation passed. If it all goes down it affects all of us and in-turn affects the ones that come after us. There's a realization of that and an active resistance to the suppression... (continua)

Album: Some Nights I Dream of Doors (2022)

The song is a protest against state corruption, and in particular, the carnage wrought by SARS, a Nigerian special police force that has come under scrutiny for the violence it has inflicted on young Nigerians. Obongjayar has spoken out against their brutality before, and he calls them out by name here. Over thumping drums, he delivers a lacerating diatribe, angrily reciting the titles of his country’s politicians—“President (thief), governor (thief), senator (thief)”—and declaring all of them murderers.

Pitchfork

Obongjayar referring to the Lekki toll gate massacre that occurred in Lagos Nigeria on 20th October 2020 and how the government tried to cover up the killing of innocent civilians during the #ENDSARS protests

*

La canzone protesta contro la corruzione dello Stato e, in particolare, contro il massacro causato dalla SARS, una squadra... (continua)

2021
Skip The Small Talk

2016
A Toast To St. Jude

2023
Sail Away

Much travelled Folk-Punkers CLOVER’S CURFEW got married there in the Summer – congratulations – and ‘The Love Song’ is a beautiful song that came out just in time for St. Valentine’s Day.

[2024]

Lyrics and music / النص والموسيقى / Testo e musica / מילים ולחן / Paroles et musique / Sanat ja sävel :
Seth Staton Watkins

*Caption : Desperately hungry Palestinians line up for free meals in Gaza City. Civilians there are said to be suffering from famine and malnutrition, with many children dying of starvation due to the Israeli military blockade of the northern part of the camp.

Didascalia : Palestinesi disperati per la fame fanno la fila per i pasti distribuiti a Gaza City. Si riporta che i civili soffrano di carestia e malnutrizione, con molti bambini che muoiono di fame a causa del blocco militare israeliano della parte settentrionale del campo.

I proventi dell’esecuzione della canzone sono devoluti al PCRF, Palestine Children's Relief Fund.

Situazione a Gaza al 4/03/2025 (Ufficio Ocha dell’ONU)
I dati cumulativi dal 7/10/2023 sono i seguenti:

Palestinesi uccisi: 48.505... (continua)

Save the Whales! - Country Joe McDonald - 1975

Words and music by Joe McDonald
Copyright © 1975 Alkatraz Corner Music Co BMI.

The Mudcat Cafe'
Lyr Add: SAVE THE WHALES!(Country Joe McDonald)
From: Jim Dixon. Date: 18 May 10

2003
Her Majesty the Decemberists

[1954]
IN: London Is The Place For Me 7 (Calypso, Palm-Wine, Mento, Joropo, Steel & String Band), 2019

"The Soviet nuclear test in August 1949, coupled with the “fall” of China to Communism later that year, struck fear in many Americans. The perceived balance of power that had existed between the Western countries and the Communist Bloc since World War II seemed to have radically shifted in the Communists’ favor. [...] The debate over whether or not to build the super would be played out in the last months of 1949 and Truman’s decision in January 1950 would drastically alter the course of the Cold War. [...] Two and a half years later on November 1, 1952, the United States tested its first ever thermonuclear device at Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific. The Mike Shot, as it was known, yielded 10 megatons of TNT and was roughly 1000 times larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima seven... (continua)

[.....] Prendiamo il tema classico della prigione: anche il blues al femminile ne parla copiosamente. Davis si sofferma a commentare Chain Gang Blues di Ma Rainey. La canzone narra di una donna che per un reato minore viene condannata ai lavori forzati. A leggere in profondità questo blues racconta del sistema di «affitto dei detenuti» in voga in molti stati sudisti, un traffico che consentì di reintrodurre il lavoro schiavistico dopo la sua abolizione. Con il compromesso Hayes-Rutherford (1877) i diritti civili ottenuti con la guerra civile erano stati congelati e gli stati del sud avevano promulgato i cosiddetti Black Codes che prevedevano i lavori forzati e l’affitto dei detenuti. Un sistema che proseguì nel Novecento e che era ancora più brutale della schiavitù: il padrone della piantagione aveva a cuore la salute dei neri in quanto beni di sua proprietà; l’imprenditore che affittava... (continua)

[2021]
Lyrics and music / Testo e musica / Paroles et musique / Sanat ja sävel:
Hippie Sabotage

Avevamo riposto questa canzone in un archivio, come decine di altre, in attesa di un’occasione valida. Daremo conto di fatti recenti riguardo alla sicurezza dei porti, quelli noti ai comuni mortali. Le spiegazioni le potranno dare solo alcuni addetti, una frazione ristretta di quella ristretta platea del mondo di sopra. .

Safe Harbor ?

Nella tarda serata del 14 Febbraio 2025 nella Riviera di Ponente le condizioni atmosferiche erano buone, la temperatura era sotto i 10 °C, il cielo poco nuvoloso, raffiche di vento, il mare sottocosta era piatto anzi “stirato” come si dice in gergo. Insomma si preannunciava una notte tranquilla anche a bordo della petroliera Seajewel ancorata nella rada di Vado Ligure, non lontano da Savona. La petroliera era attraccata al terminal “Liquid bulk” del Campo... (continua)

[1946]
Performed by Slim Gaillard Quartette
Written-By – Slim Gaillard
On 10" shellac: Atomic Cocktail / Yep-Roc-Heresay



In December 1942,  Gaillard was drafted into the United States Army Air Forces. There, Corporal Gaillard was an assistant crew chief working on B-26 “Marauder bombers” at Laughlin Field, Del Rio, Texas. [...]. He resumed his music career on his release from the draft in 1944. Upon his return he released the song "Atomic Cocktail", which featured seemingly lighthearted lyrics laced with symbolism about nuclear war.

Source: Slim Gaillard - Wikipedia

Nota .
Negli anni '60 Skip James ha ri-registrato
"Cypress Grove Blues" con una nuova strofa che rende questo Blues ancor piu' meritevole, sec. me , di essere pubblicato come una AWS.
Pluck.

Cypress Grove Blues.

"Yes, I'm goin' away
Honey, don't you want to go?
Yes, I'm goin' away
Honey, don't you want to go?
I'm scared to go back down south
Them people goin' kill me, sure ".

Social (racial) protest in the blues | Steve Hoffman Music Forums
page #1

Good Road Camp Blues--Skip James - 1968

Skip James Lyrics

Hard Time Killing Floor Blues - Skip James - 1931

Hard Time Killing Floor Lyrics by Skip James

Skip James – "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" (1931).

Il più blues di tutti i blues....... Dal ventre profondo e violato dell'America rurale, nel nome degli esclusi e dei reietti, di chi ha perso tutto, degli oppressi, degli emarginati e degli sfollati, la voce dell'angelo del Delta Skip James si leva come un canto di preghiera e di speranza. Inafferrabile, straziante, celeste. «Hard times is here and everywhere you go / Times are harder than ever been before». Siamo nel pieno della grande depressione e lo stesso James, dopo avere registrato una ventina di brani per la Paramount (ce ne sono arrivati 18, anche se il diretto interessato raccontava di averne incisi 26), sarà costretto ad appendere la chitarra al proverbiale chiodo fino al 1964, anno in cui sarà rintracciato da John Fahey e compagni... (continua)

If You Haven't Any Hay Get On Down The Road
 "Skip" James - 1931

Written by: SKIP JAMES

Album: The Zealot Gene (2022)

Paul Tibbets era il pilota del B52 che sganciò un ordigno atomico sulla città giapponese di Hiroshima. L'aereo era stato soprannominato Enola Gay proprio dal nome della signora Tibbets cui fa riferimento il titolo.
Per la comprensione del testo occorre sapere che little boy era l'ordigno, un gingillo venuto fuori dal Progetto Manhattan.

[1979]
Traccia A del single con "Yellowcake UF6" sul retro
Album: The Raven

“Nuclear device” fu scritta dagli Stranglers in seguito ad un viaggio in Australia nel 1979, dove la band si trovò ad affrontare la brutalità della polizia a Brisbane, nel Queensland, allora governato dal premier molto conservatore Joh Bjelke-Petersen (dal 1968 al 1987). La sua premiership ha lasciato un segno nella politica australiana non solo per la sua longevità, il suo conservatorismo intransigente e la sua leadership autoritaria, ma anche per una serie di scandali, tra cui brogli elettorali, corruzione sistemica e la spoliazione di terre aborigene, in particolare per l'estrazione dell'uranio. Gli Stranglers evocano queste vicende producendo l'immagine di un personaggio simile a Ubu, che sogna il potere che il possesso di un “dispositivo nucleare” gli conferirebbe.

[2005]
Poesia di / A poem by / Poème de Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegutin runo
--> A Man Without a Country, 2005

Sì, proprio lui, Kurt Vonnegut. Quello, naturalmente, del Mattatoio n°5, o la Crociata dei Bambini, che sicuramente avrete letto tutti quanti o che leggerete prima o poi (sempre che ci sia un poi), e che è pure servito alla nostra Quindicimila, nel 2012. Quello del bombardamento di Dresda, di cui pochi giorni fa è caduto l’ottantesimo anniversario; quello di Billy Pilgrim e del pianeta Trafalmadore, quello dell’uccellino che cinguetta poo-tee-weet tra le rovine, quello che aveva un fratello scienziato e tante altre cose. Tra cui, questa poesia che appartiene all’ultima fase della sua vita (la scrisse datandola precisamente al 4 febbraio 2005).

E’ una poesia molto semplice, e scritta in un linguaggio altrettanto semplice. Al tempo stesso, è perfettamente apocalittica, e,... (continua)

Belton Sutherland [1911- 1983] - (vocal and guitar) performs an improvised blues on Clyde Maxwell's porch. Shot by Alan Lomax, John Bishop, and Worth Long at Maxwell's farm near Canton, Mississippi, September 3, 1978.
Lomax Film Collection.

Key to the Highway -Big Bill Broonzy - 1941


“Key to the Highway” is a blues standard that has been performed and recorded by several blues and other artists. Blues pianist Charlie Segar first recorded the song in 1940. Jazz Gillum and Big Bill Broonzy followed with recordings in 1940 and 1941, using an arrangement that has become the standard.
When Little Walter updated the song in 1958 in an electric Chicago blues style, it became a success on the R&B record chart. A variety of artists have since interpreted the song, including Eric Clapton, who recorded several versions. (Wikipedia)



Key to the Highway, recorded by Charles Segar, Big Bill Broonzy, Little Walter, and many others:
As far as I know, nobody has ever called this classic blues a song of protest, but I believe that it is quite likely that it was used to express protest. I've identified it as a protest song partly because... (continua)

"In real life Joe Turner was Joe Turney, a prison officer, notorious in 1890s Tennessee for entrapping young black men in crap games to replenish the convict labor pool at Nashville Penitentiary. After one of his sweeps, anyone inquiring about a missing black man would likely be told: "They tell me Joe Turner come and gone". As is apparent from Hobart Smith's interjection ("Joe Turner was a bad man"), Turney's infamy, which transcended racial lines, long outlived him".
WeenieCampbell.com
Joe Turner

Alan Lomax recorded Hobart Smith and Ed Young performing a version of "Joe Turner" in 1960, playing a banjo and fife. (The text only occurs at the end of the recording, at 2:10.)

(2025)

Award-winning US rapper Macklemore released a powerful track on Tuesday, taking aim at US President Donald Trump, billionaire Elon Musk, and the war-torn regions of Gaza, Sudan, and Congo.

Since the onset of Israel’s war on Gaza on 7 October 2023, the American artist has notably used his online platforms to amplify pro-Palestine advocacy.
Macklemore's latest song takes aim at Trump, Musk and Israel

Melvin "Lil' Son" Jackson - Freedom Train Blues - 1948

I hear protest in this song in a couple of ways. First of all, every single person who left the Jim Crow south to escape racial oppression left someone and something behind: a home, friends, a lover, family -- maybe even a husband or wife who refused to leave for one reason or another. You shouldn't have to abandon your home and family in order to find freedom. But that's what happens in this song: a man's woman, possibly his wife, leaves him to search for freedom.

Second, many black listeners must have heard the song as directing racial protest at the city of Chicago. And that's because the song's protagonist is lamenting losing his woman, who is leaving Chicago to find freedom in the west. Chicago, Detroit, and other northern cities weren't exactly beacons of freedom in 1948, which is the year this song was recorded. Conditions in... (continua)

(1970)
Album: Anyway

[2024]
Lyrics / نص / Testo / ליריקס / Paroles / Sanat :
Seth Staton Watkins

Music / موسيقى / Musica / מוזיקה / Musique / Sävel :
Pete St. John , Fields of Athenry

Album: Fields of Palestine


* Source : Half of northern Gaza’s buildings wrecked by war , Financial Times, Nov. 20, 2023

ספר ויקרא פרק יט / Leviticus chap.19:17

לא־תשנא את־אחיך בלבבך הוכח תוכיח את־עמיתך ולא־תשא עליו חטא :
[lō- ṯiś·nā’eṯ-’ā·ḥî·ḵābil·ḇā·ḇe·ḵā; hō·w·ḵê·aḥtō·w·ḵî·aḥ’eṯ-‘ă·mî·ṯe·ḵā wə·lō ṯiś·śā ‘ā·lāw ḥêṭ]

You shall not hate your brother in your heart ; you shall rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin against him

Non odierai tuo fratello nel tuo cuore ; rimprovererai il tuo prossimo e non ti caricherai di peccato contro di luiשמע [Shemà]

Noi che viviamo sicuri
nelle nostre tiepide case,
noi che troviamo tornando a sera
il cibo caldo e visi amici:
consideriamo se questi sono esseri umani

che lavorano... (continua)

Tune: Greensleeves

In a few lucky western countries, when today’s elders were children, Sundays were relatively quiet. Most shops were closed so we looked forward to the sound of ‘Greensleeves’. This well known tune heralded the approach of an ice-cream van. What joy!
Unfortunately in many countries today, there is little enjoyment in being a child. The causes of this impoverishment of childhood are many and varied, but surely the horror to which the children of Palestine have been subjected is exceptional.
Instead of hearing the ice-cream van’s approach, the children of Gaza have been forced to listen to the wail of bombs, screams of the wounded and the siren of the mortuary van.
It is difficult being a child. It is sad being a parent watching powerlessly.
My partner Gene sings this one perfectly.

[2016]
Nell'album "Changes", il terzo e ultimo in vita per Charles Bradley

Nell'estate del 2016 Charles Bradley fu costretto ad interrompere un tour in atto...
È morto nel settembre dell'anno seguente, a soli 68 anni.
La versione strumentale di questo brano è legata alla colonna sonora delle serie TV "Barry".

[2011]
Featuring the Menahan Street Band
Da "No Time For Dreaming", album di debutto per questa splendida voce soul, classe 1948.
Testo trovato su Genius

Charles Bradley - "The Screaming Eagle of Soul", com'è chiamato - è nato a Brooklyn NYC più di 60 anni fa, in una famiglia poverissima. Nel 1962 sua sorella lo portò al memorabile concerto di James Brown all'Apollo Theater di Harlem NYC e quell'esperienza segnò, come molti, anche il giovane Charles. Ma non tutti hanno la fortuna ed il carisma di un James Brown e toccava prima di tutto guadagnarsi da vivere. Charles Bradley divenne un cuoco ma segretamente continuò a coltivare il sogno. Mise su anche una band, ma i suoi compagni furono tutti richiamati per il Vietnam e quella maledetta guerra fece naufragare le residue speranze di un giovane afroamericano che pure era dotato di una voce incredibile, così vicina a quella dell'immortale Otis... (continua)

[1996]
Da un brano scritto da Noël Coward per la sua opera teatrale "Cavalcade" del 1931, poi nell'omonimo film del 1933.

Title track dell'album della Faithfull pubblicato nel 1996.

Testo trovato su Genius
Molte le versioni.
Credo che le prime siano quelle di Binnie Barnes e di Jack Payne, risalenti proprio al 1931.

Forse la canzone andrebbe attribuita al suo autore, ma preferisco proporla in morte della Faithfull.

[1983]
Album "Childs Adventure"
Scritta con Barry Reynolds
Testo trovato su Genius

Vita complessa, quella della Faithfull... D'altra parte era figlia della baronessa Eva Hermine von Sacher-Masoch... e niente abbiamo detto!

2023
Rachel Corrie

2014
Vote Nobody

Levee Camp Moan Blues -Alger "Texas" Alexander - 1927
(Source: Michael Tuft, Blues Lyric Poetry: An Anthology, Garland, 1983, p. 4)

Note

Don Kent* points out in his note to the Yazoo reissue that Alexander's 'Levee Camp Moan Blues' is only nominally a blues. Even though he is accompanied by Lonnie Johnson on guitar [and Kent suggests that only a guitarist with Johnson's skills could follow the free metre of the singing], the piece is essentially a field holler. See also Dave Evans 'Big Road Blues' p 27: 'They [field hollers, field blues, arwhoolies] are a sort of worksong sung in the fields and levee camps ... They tend to be loosely structured, highly embellished and rythmically free, often consisting of falsetto whooping or hollering with no words or a very minimal text. Some, of course, do have more complex texts. Vocally they are very much like the blues, and they were an important... (continua)

2013 (2005)
In Memoriam: Margaret Thatcher



English
Italiano

Back in 2005, anarchist collective Chumbawumba pre-sold an EP called In Memoriam: Margaret Thatcher which they would keep under wraps until the prime minister passed away. Since Thatcher did pass earlier this week, the band has delivered the EP and is also streaming the release online. Along with that, the band delivered a eulogy:
Let's make it clear: This is a cause to celebrate, to party, to stamp the dirt down. Tomorrow we can carry on shouting and writing and working and singing and striking against the successive governments that have so clearly followed Thatcher's Slash & Burn policies, none more so than the present lot. But for now, we can have a drink and a dance and propose a toast to the demise of someone who blighted so many people's lives for so long. If we must show a little reverence and decorum at this time,... (continua)