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.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Gil Scott-Heron
10 April 2017
Often credited as one of the godfathers of rap music, Gil Scott-Heron didn’t set out to be a singer-songwriter. He started his career as a youngster writing poetry but a cult legend was born when jazz producer Bob Thiele – recognising the raw charisma of Scott-Heron’s vocal delivery – set Scott-Heron’s poetry to music for the first time. These early recordings included The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, a scything indictment of white America’s blind ignorance of racial issues.
Give Us Something Worth Voting For – The Tuts
30 March 2017
Exactly the sentiment that the Fight Evil playlist was created for, this is a song for anyone who has washed their hands of the current crop of hypocritical politicians and demands an alternative.
It’s also a belter of a protest song by a melodic pop punk three-piece from the outer limits of London.
Where’s the Revolution – Depeche Mode
18 March 2017
A leviathan of a rebel-rousing track… Martin Gore’s lyrics are strong stuff and difficult to contradict
Doesn’t Make It Alright – The Specials
7 March 2017
It seems unlikely that a ska revolution started at 51 Albany Road, Coventry – go ahead and take a look on Google Street View and tell me I’m wrong – but from these inauspicious surroundings, songwriting mastermind Jerry Dammers and his friends introduced the world to the music of the Caribbean filtered through the prism of the West Midlands.
Dear Mr President – Pink and the Indigo Girls
7 March 2017
The more things change, the more they say the same. This song from 2006 could have been written in 2017, which is not to say that protest is futile, but rather a solemn reminder that the fight for equality and justice against greed and brutality never ends.
Erupt and Matter – Moby with The Void Pacific Choir
7 March 2017
Moby despises Donald Trump and everything he stands for. If you’ve watched the video for Erupt and Matter, you’ll know that, even if you don’t follow the veteran DJ and activist on social media. The sheer venom and anthemic roar of the music would be enough to tell you how he feels, even if the words weren’t written in letters that fill the screen. This is a pounding techno incitement to riot under the banner “we don’t trust you any more”.
Fighting Times – The Neurotics
7 March 2017
When Neurotics frontman Steve Drewett wrote this song for the 1986 mini-album Repercussions, its chief target was the South African apartheid regime and thankfully that has long since been overturned. But every other point of reference in this rallying cry against inaction sounds depressingly contemporary. “Why are you so quiet?” Drewett asks in the chorus, “when these are fighting times?”
P.O.W.A – M.I.A.
7 March 2017
“Say this is people power / Throw up my finger and I’m taking on the Tower”. Taking pot shots at The Donald is all fine and good but it is so much better when it’s done by a daring, eclectic, unpredictable original like Ms Maya Arulpragasam. An activist and a true artist of rap, MIA’s POWA is a unique mix of doo-wop loops, laid-back, bitter rhymes and Tamil folk percussion.
Fight the Power – Public Enemy
7 March 2017
If you’ve ever seen Spike Lee’s extraordinary 1989 comedy drama Do The Right Thing, then you’ll never forget the scene where Italian-American pizzeria owner Sal (Danny Aiello) squares off with Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) as Fight the Power blares out of his boombox, lyrically laying down the gauntlet, drawing a line at which Sal’s racism has to stop and, as it turns out, laying his life on that same line.
Goodnight America – Until the Ribbon Breaks
7 March 2017
As immigrants living in the USA, British trio Until the Ribbon Breaks released this anthem during the US presidential campaigns in 2016, insisting that it’s “pro-America”, but clearly frustrated with a nation that is “sucking on its thumb” with its refrain of “goodnight goodnight goodnight” as the electorate drifted off to sleep when it most needed be awake, on the brink of doom.
Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who
7 March 2017
For almost 50 years, the words “meet the new boss / same as the old boss” have rung true, but perhaps for once that’s not quite true, with the leader of the free world who refuses to play by history’s rules. And yet one constant remains: those who lead us only ever seem to listen to us when it suits their own agenda.
Demagogue – Franz Ferdinand
7 March 2017
Smooth Scots pop art geeks Franz Ferdinand supplied this song for the excellent awareness-raising 30 days 30 Songs project in the lead-up to the US Presidential election, organised by Secretly Group’s Phil Waldorf.
