Music to Fight Evil
seek inspiration from 50 years of protest with Jon Ewing
featuring artists like
Bad Religion, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg, Mavis Staples, Grace Petrie, The Clash, Woody Guthrie, IDLES, She Drew the Gun, Nina Simone, The Specials
Tolerance is good. There should be more of it. And whether you’re from the Left or the Right, don’t be fooled into thinking you have the monopoly on it. But we need to draw a line.
Let’s be clear: tolerance means accepting opinions and beliefs that conflict with your own. It doesn’t mean accepting prejudice in place of evidence, nor injustice in place of equality. And when the opinions and beliefs of others lead to deprivation and suffering – yours or anyone else’s – you don’t have to be tolerant any more. It’s time to rise up and act. The songs in this list shouldn’t have to exist. We should all just get along. Until that happens, seek inspiration from 50 years of protest, by way of a lot of anger and a little love.
Fuck Armageddon… This Is Hell – Bad Religion
24 October 2017
It’s hard to sum up a band with such an impressive canon as Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin urges you to always be on the lookout for the true agenda concealed behind the establishment’s strict rules because, as he wrote when he was just a teenager: “they hide behind their lies that they’re helping everyone”.
Speak My Mind – Rue Snider
17 October 2017
Speak My Mind is the protest song equivalent to one of those internet “unboxing” videos, except that instead of a first look at the new iPhone, it’s an unexpurgated reaction to the news that your fellow citizens have elected a leader who not only fails to represent your values but is in fact a very real threat to your way of life and the people you care about.
Two Tribes – Frankie Goes To Hollywood
10 October 2017
Experience the uncomfortable feeling that you’re celebrating the worst excesses of the Eighties, offset by the vague idea that war is basically bad
War on the Workers – Adam East, Kris Deelane
3 October 2017
The opportunity to do a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay is a basic right in a modern democracy and yet successive governments around the world fail their electorate by allowing corporations to make it impossible for workers to earn a living. Moreover, as pressure from the boardroom forces cutbacks on equipment maintenance and training, workers can be putting their lives at risk on the shop floor. And that’s one of the inspirations for War on the Workers.
Tunnel Vision – Kate Tempest
25 September 2017
I think I forgot to breathe for nearly three-and-a-half minutes while I was watching Kate Tempest performing at the Mercury Music Prize awards ceremony last week. With all due respect to Sampha, who eventually carried off the prize money, no other words carried such weight and no other performer wielded such a magnetic influence over the crowd as this 31 year-old poet-turned-rapper from Brockley in London.
Don’t Give Up the Ship – So Pretty
19 September 2017
So Pretty are a DIY feminist punk rock band from Chicago who not only make a fabulous raucous noise but are also community activists in their own right, creating their own arts space for women and trans individuals.
Which Side Are You On? – B. Dolan
12 September 2017
Rhode Island rapper B. Dolan calls out the hip-hop haters in this song that samples a folk song written for striking American miners in the 1930s.
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free – Nina Simone
5 September 2017
Like a lot of young British movie fans of my age, the deceptively cheerful piano melody of this song first came to my attention in the 1970s as the theme music to the BBC’s long-running Film Review series (Film 1972, Film 1973 etc etc…) and it was nearly twenty years before I learned that this jolly jazz-gospel piano tune was in fact one of the key cultural touchstones of the American Civil Rights movement.
Silver Lining – Stiff Little Fingers
29 August 2017
The music of SLF was a great influence on me as a teenager. Coming from a small, rural town in the East of England, I couldn’t relate directly to a bunch of Belfast boys who had grown up during The Troubles. But I had no difficulty understanding what it was like to be surrounded by generations of adults who thought they knew best about my future, despite making a mess of the world and their own lives.
Now – Potent Whisper + Maria-Christina & The 7 Pedals
21 August 2017
From the very start of Now you’ll be able to hear the simmering anger and imagine the sneering curl of London rapper Potent Whisper’s lip as he taunts the establishment. But what you might be surprised to learn is that the backing music isn’t the usual layer upon layer of samples. It’s not even a whole band, although you’d be forgiven for thinking it is. In fact, all of the music on Now is performed on… a harp.
My Mind is for Sale – Jack Johnson
15 August 2017
The mellow sound of Hawaiian folk-pop surf dude Jack Johnson has not got any less gentle on the ear with this first taste of his forthcoming new (seventh) album, so it might sound a bit abrupt when played alongside the likes of Prophets of Rage, but don’t mistake that chirpy, slick production and cooing, treacly vocal for terminal insouciance. Jack Johnson is cross.
Better Decide Which Side You’re On – The Tom Robinson Band
7 August 2017
The passion of Better Decide Which Side You’re On is just as strong and most of the lyrics seem particularly apposite 40 years after it was written. This is a song about standing up to fight against extreme right “bullyboys” and giving no quarter to those who are “sitting on the fence”.