Social Justice Song Treasure Trove - Vote for Your Favorite & Contribute!

Folk, rock, rap, hip-hop: in common we have compelling artists with beautiful messages. As we move closer to America's Thanksgiving Holiday, everybody deserves a moment for great music and visions of a better tomorrow. That's what we have below (along with some rage, some specific complaints, and some vague concerns). Take a moment to 

1. listen, 
2. vote (below) for your favorite social justice song, and 
3. add song suggestions in the comments section (I'll then post your suggestions). 

You can vote for as many or as few of these songs as you like. Please share, forward, post, and tweet to get far-flung-friends involved in this contest, conversation, and vote!

Stand by Me, by Playing for Change

Peace Train, by Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam)

 Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, by Billy Bragg

Fight the Power, by Public Enemy

This Land is Your Land (Springsteen's version)

AND Born in the USA by The Boss, again Mr. Springsteen

I hear them all by Old Crow Medicine Show

I wish I knew how (it would feel to be free) by Nina Simone

 I wish I knew how (it would feel to be free) by The Lighthouse Family

One by U2 with Mary J. Blige 

One by Johnny Cash

The General, by Dispatch

Kurt Vile, Puppet to the Man

Dylan's Hard Rain

If you Miss Me from the Back of the Bus, by SNCC Freedom Singer Reunion

If I had a Hammer, by Peter, Paul, and Mary 

Judy Collins & Pete Seeger, Turn, Turn, Turn

Sam Cooke, A Change is Gonna Come

Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit

Joe Hill, by Joan Baez

Where is the Love? by The Black Eyed Peas

Fast Car by Tracy Chapman

Redemption Song by Bob Marley

BB King Why I Sing the Blues

Array of Incredible Artists doing We Shall Overcome at Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Party

Pete Seeger (90+) and several others do We Shall Overcome at Occupy Wall Street

American Ruse, by The MC5

White Riot, by The Clash

What's So Funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding, by Nick Lowe

What's So Funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding, by Elvis Costello

What's So Funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding, by Springsteen and Friends

I Asked When, by Brett Dennen

Ain't No Reason, Brett Dennen

F**k Da Police, by NWA

They Schools, by Dead Prez

Man in Black, by Johnny Cash

Get Involved, by Freddie McGregor

Big Man, by Antibalas

I'll Take You There, by The Staple Singers

Imagine, John Lennon

Freedom Day, by Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln

Pride in the Name of Love, U2

The Decline, by NOFX

Uprising, by Muse

Crime to be Broke in America, by Spearhead

And songs related to social justice that I just can't stand: 

• John Mayer's Waiting on the World to Change (and an explanation as to why that's the case). 

Please add additional suggestions here. I'll post them and add them to the list below (for votes) as well. Please broaden the conversation by re-posting, re-tweeting, or forwarding. You deserve a break for great music! 

"For the Poor and Beaten-Down" Johnny Cash, Man in Black ... and US Income Inequality Rises

It's obviously still a very important song, particularly as US income inequality is higher than it's been for generations. For more, check out this article I'm taking an excerpt from below.

"The U.S., in purple with a Gini coefficient of 0.450, ranks near the extreme end of the inequality scale. Looking for the other countries marked in purple gives you a quick sense of countries with comparable income inequality, and it's an unflattering list: Cameroon, Madagascar, Rwanda, Uganda, Ecuador. A number are currently embroiled in or just emerging from deeply destabilizing conflicts, some of them linked to income inequality: Mexico, Côte d'Ivoire, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Serbia."

Workin' Class Hero is Somethin' to Be - and other Social Justice Song Classics (late) from Labor Day

Rock critics Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot unwittingly collaborated with my ongoing effort to collect and share social justice songs with their Labor Day rendition of Sound Opinions. Check out the MP3 stream or the podcast.

They have more narrative description and history around each of the songs they feature, but I'm going to share the youtube clips here, so it's still possible to jump around the "social justice" and "music" links on this site and see the growing compilation of social justice songs. Thanks for the recommendations around what I haven't shared yet. I'll catch up and keep the suggestions coming! 

Working Class Hero by John Lennon

We Gotta Get Out of This Place by the Animals

Cleaning Windows by Van Morrison

Career Opportunities by The Clash

Bob Marley's Night Shift

Lou Reed's Don't Talk to Me about Work

Smithers-Jones by The Jam

and last by not least, Bad Days by The Flaming Lips

And if you dig music and rock criticism, do check out Sound Opinions. It's an excellent show and site.

Working Man (me), Union Man (Joe Hill), Singing for a Sweeter Tomorrow

I'm doing my best to learn whatever insights experience in the private sector might lend to my commitments in the public and university sectors, and it sure is taking way too much time! I generally don't have the time to read, to post, to think, and (unfortunately), to do the good works that I feel are 1000% necessary for good clean livin'. I'm working on this situation. In the meantime, a really interesting article on the Union Organizer Joe Hill, and the song dedicated to him by Joan Baez:

What is a Social Justice Song? - Dylan's Hard Rain?

Justly complaining? Proposing? Moving others to action? Raging? What makes something a social justice song? As I move (ever so slowly) to pulling together the songs I've posted here and the tracks that others have nominated, the question becomes more important. One day, we'll vote. First, any additional songs suggestions or arguments for what makes an excellent social justice song are very much appreciated!

Recent Comer to Social Justice Songs: Kurt Vile, Puppet to the Man

Thanks to a loyal reader for this recent social justice song nomination. Dark, brooding: I can dig it. I'll organize a social justice song vote soon. Please send any suggestions my way or share your favorites below!

Social Justice Songs Return: The General, By Dispatch

This beautiful experience happened into my earphones as I was running to Pandora's Matisyahu station yesterday:

Take a moment to enjoy. Previous social justice songs I love: 

• Stand by Me, by Playing for Change
• Peace Train, by Cat Stevens, along with Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, by Billy Bragg
• Fight the Power, by Public Enemy 
• This Land is Your Land AND Born in the USA by The Boss 
• I hear them all by Old Crow Medicine Show
• I wish I knew how (it would feel to be free) by both Nina Simone and The Lighthouse Family, along with One by U2 with Mary J. Blige and then Johnny Cash's own excellent version

And songs related to social justice that I just can't stand: 

• John Mayer's Waiting on the World to Change 

I'd love to read about your favorites. Please share them if you happen by. Thanks for reading. I hope you get the moment to listen to a few of these today. Peace. 

And the #1 Social Justice Song Is....

We're not ready people. We're not ready for that kind of definitive victory. There are way too many excellent protest, freedom, and organizing songs out there. We'll have to keep sifting through the many suggestions you've been advancing. But for the moment, in honor of the Amizade Water Walk and all that it symbolizes, let me suggest Stand by Me as delivered by Playing for Change, an organization that pulls together musicians spanning the globe in common songs. They create a shared sense of hope and they raise money to increase children's access to music and musical instruments. Wicked Cool. Here's their most-watched video, which has more than 30 million hits:

Take a look and feel good about the world. Have great weekends. And props to all who are walking in or supporting this year's Amizade Water Walk. It's excellent work. Feel good about your efforts to change the world. They're making a difference. Catch you in a few days.

#4: Why I Hate John Mayer's Social Justice Attempt

Apparently some people find Mayer’s song inspiring, and it has even made it on to some otherwise great political / social justice song sites. But “Waiting, waiting on the world to change,” as the song goes is about as anathema to good work, democracy, progress, rights, hope, and the improvement of the human condition as one can get. This blog title – Journey toward Justice – is no joke. It’s a journey: improving rights and lengthening life expectancies is the product of human cooperation, collaboration, and effort (not waiting, fool). 

That effort takes many forms, and musicians have a role. Mayer could take cues from Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, the bizillion artists who have given voice to We Shall Overcome, or currently from Angelique Kidjo and Wil.i.am (immediately below), as well as from scores and legions of others. But instead Mayer is waiting – and beyond that he’s whining: “We see everything that's going wrong / with the world and those who lead it / We just feel like we don't have the means / To rise above and beat it.”

What? You can’t make a difference? You’re famous, fool. You can move mountains. My friends can manage to make the world change for whole villages. And we’re just average Joes. It’s true that sometimes celebrities’ attempts at good works are un- or under-informed -- but study-up. Often enough celebrities behave as serious and smart people with clear commitment to specific issues that they learn a great deal about. Excellent examples include George Clooney, Bono, Mariska Hargitay, and Matt Damon, who has been a driving force on water issues through the nonprofit organization Water.org.      

Interestingly, in Mayer’s video the waiting involves spray-painting as consciousness-raising (and at the end, just to be sure you know neither Mayer nor his boys are radicals, there’s a message indicating that all spray painting was completed on private property with permission). Now I’m waiting for Mayer to do something interesting. Here’s the thing: I deeply respect, value, and appreciate the role of musicians and other artists in consciousness-raising. Mayer sings (and then even paints!) so close to this idea, but the message we get is just wait. Just wait is blasphemy to the good citizens of the world who fancy themselves as working in the tradition of fundamental human freedoms, democracy, and universal rights.

At least other artists dreaming after an as-yet-unimagined tomorrow paint us some kind of picture, like Cat Stevens’ (now Yusuf) Peace Train (which he did a sweet rendition of for Muhammed Yunis’ Nobel Peace Prize Award) and Billy Bragg’s Waiting for a New World Order. (By the way all of you out there who think “social justice” or “activist musician” is precisely equal to “totalitarian commie,” listen to the equal abuse Bragg hands out to the far ends of the political spectrum).

Of course it’s not surprising that Mayer’s song suggests what it does. We seem to have been struck (in the United States and many other places around the world) with an irrational and unfounded assumption that somehow the miracles we see all around us (basic human security, individual rights and respect for diversity across cultures and genders, 300 million people getting along pretty well across a whole continent, water when you turn on the faucet, public education) are not the product of cooperation, collaboration, and individual sacrifice for purposes that are bigger than ourselves: purposes like improving the human condition.

To bring this closer to home(s), Pennsylvania and Arizona are advancing massive cuts in education budgets. I know there are strong contingents emerging and organizing in Pennsylvania to put pressure on the state government to continue its investment in our shared futures by better funding education. Some students, for example, recently put together this video:

That’s what strong democratic (small d) states do: invest in their citizens’ human capital and tax them at reasonable rates later to continue to pay for the ongoing investment in the future. In Arizona I have students telling me that they’re going to have to pay more for college  and that their four-years of funding doesn’t match the five-years of schooling they’ll need with the planned schedule cuts and lack of class availability, but there’s no strong organizing. Perhaps they’re waiting, waiting for the market to take over their lives more completely.

Wherever you are, speak up for education. It’s something many generations of Americans have taken for granted. And it only exists if Americans work together to make it happen.

Beyond the explicit political sphere is the strong nonprofit and volunteerism sector – and the place I was really referencing above when I asserted what my friends could do. This is why the water walk is so phenomenally important. We’re not waiting for the world to change. We’re making it happen, in clear and considered cooperation with community organizations half-way around the world. These small efforts: organizing, cooperating across cultures, people donating, people walking – extend lives and give women and children a chance to get an education or work rather than constantly returning to the daily drudgery of gathering water.

Register and walk this weekend. If you can’t, donate. Don’t wait. Change the world for families in rural Tanzania, right now.    

Really. Donate. Just $25. It’s a world-changer.  

OK, thank you for reading. Now I must admit: I’m flummoxed, flabbergasted, confused and maybe just a little bit maligned – I keep hearing from people via individual emails, etc., about the blog but I have no comments and few followers and I would absolutely love more of either. I’d love to hear your song suggestions that have yet to make the list. (Tomorrow we will have the Best Social Justice Song Ever, in celebration of Amizade’s Water Walk, but in the days that follow I’ll continue to post enough to follow the due course of this fun little exercise in social justice song). I also remain generally curious about your thoughts, feedback, etc. OR, OR, OR – tell me how much you really love John Mayer and why he’s amazing, or re-post, re-tweet, and share how your share my considerable consternation with the whole unacceptable notion of “Waiting, waiting on the world to change…”  

Social Justice Songs: Imagining Peace & The Great Leap Forward

Performing at the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony for Muhammed Yunis (Founder of The Grameen Bank and so much of the micro-finance movement) makes this Cat Stevens / Yusuf performance especially poignant:

And in a similar vein - imagining future possibilities - is Billy Bragg's classic Waiting for the Great Leap Forward (from the Henry Rollins show, no less):  

Social Justice Songs: Springsteen

Born in the USA and This Land is Your Land just begin to indicate Springsteen's talent and considerable commitment to expressing social issues and working class challenges through his music.

With more time or on another day, we'll do much more with The Boss.

Social Justice Songs #3: Fight the Power, Public Enemy

Classic, important. Sometimes the fights come through protest, sometimes they come through solidarity. If you can't make the Amizade Water Walk this year, be part of the fight for basic rights and water access for women and children by leveraging some of your resources with a donation today.

Take Time for Great Music & Justice-Dreaming, Day 2. & 4 Days to the Water Walk!

First, this pensive and beautiful I wish I knew how it would feel (to be free) by the Lighthouse Family. This is a 2001 version of the song originally written by Billy Taylor and Dick Dallas and first recorded by Nina Simone in 1967. The Lighthouse Family's version picks up some lyrics from U2's One at the end. 

So we get four for one today, because it wouldn't be fair not to share Nina Simone's version:

To offer U2's One (in a version featuring Mary J. Blige):

And then of course, ever since he started doing remakes, it's not fair at all to mention One without sharing Johnny Cash's version (which for my money, no offense Bono or Mary, is the best version). Enjoy:

The connection to the Amizade Water Walk? These songs are all about solidarity. The Water Walk is at its core a creative fundraising, awareness-raising, and solidarity event. And the fruits of the walk go toward raising the funds necessary to continue building a better world - one that we're only imagining at present. Be there!

And I'm still looking for more song suggestions, from you, please!

Gearing Up for the Amizade Water Walk: Social Justice Songs that Inspire

After listening to some upbeat and soul-full bluegrass from Old Crow Medicine Show, don't forget to register for the walk or learn more about Amizade's crucial work with water in Africa here. Any other social justice favorites?