Play it Loud! Soundtracks for Protests ✊🏻🎶

Music is a powerful tool for social change. It's always playing during every era's troubles, igniting ideas and movements.

Jun 15, 2025

This is Essay #143

People throughout history have been fighting for what they believe in. These highly emotional, passionate moments call for the right kind of music… to inspire, educate, and connect us.

Music is the ultimate communication tool.

After No Kings Day, our dinner conversation turned to protest songs. We took a dive into our playlists, opened a new bottle of wine, started playing our favorites… and discovered some new ones. (My favorite is at the end of this article.)

I get music is very personal, and some of these may not be your cup of tea, but they are absolutely worth noting. In no particular order:

Little Feat ‘Apolitical Blues’. 1977. I love this live version. If you remember this album cover, then we’re both old and need to get together.

well my telephone was ringing
and they told me it was chairman mao
you can tell him anything
'cause i just don't wanna talk to him now
i've got the apolitical blues
and that's the meanest blues of all

Rage Against the Machine. ‘Killing in the Name’ 1992 I love Rage. Strong, driving, loud. This was inspired by the police brutality suffered by Rodney King and the subsequent 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Grandmaster Flash ‘The Message’ 1982 This one is on my gym playlist. Toe tapping poetry and great rhythm. From Rolling Stone:

The song paints a bleak portrait of urban blight, failing inner-city schools, the prison-industrial complex, and how all that fuels an endless cycle of violence and despair.

A sample of the powerful lyrics:

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
Broken glass everywhere
People pissin' on the stairs, you know they just don't care
I can't take the smell, can't take the noise
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away but I couldn't get far
Cause a man with a tow truck repossessed my car

Marvin Gaye, ‘What’s Going On’ 1971. I still get teary when I listen to this. 😭

Some of the lyrics:

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today

Phil Ochs. I don’t remember this antiwar activist/songwriter, but he was quite a force in the 60’s. And whatta sad story. Died by suicide (bi-polar) in 1976 when he was just thirty five years old. He wrote 200 songs, hated war, and was deeply committed to social change. Listen to “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” then “Love Me I’m a Liberal”

Bob Dylan, ‘Blowing in the Wind’ 1962. Never been a Dylan fan (I’m among friends here so I feel comfortable admitting that!) but this had to be included.

From Lit Charts:

“…. addresses the incomprehensible cruelty of war and oppression. In this song, the speaker asks a series of unanswerable questions about how long it will take for humanity to establish lasting peace, compassion, and justice, and then repeatedly concludes: “The answer is blowin’ in the wind.”

Creedence Clearwater Revival. ‘Fortunate Son’ 1969 Oh, hell yes. And since they don’t know how to fascist, the dumb asses in charge of the orange monsters failed parade actually played it. 😂 They are so clueless.

Some folks are born made to wave the flag
Hoo, they're red, white and blue
And when the band plays "Hail to the chief"
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no senator's son, son
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no furtunate one, no

The Clash ‘White Riot’ 1977. Punk isn’t genre I’m drawn to, but is there a more intense, urgent, and angry protest song out there? I think not. Lyrics sample:

Black people gotta lot a problems
But they don't mind throwing a brick
White people go to school
Where they teach you how to be thick

An' everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
An' nobody wants
To go to jail!

Neil Young ‘Rocking in the Free World’ 1989. It’s Neil Young for gods sake… what’s not love about this? Sample lyrics:

There's colors on the street
Red, white and blue
People shufflin' their feet
People sleepin' in their shoes
But there's a warnin' sign
on the road ahead
There's a lot of people sayin'
we'd be better off dead
Don't feel like Satan,
but I am to them
So I try to forget it,
any way I can.

Even during the Civil War, there was John Browns Body, and Dixie. And, you can find this playlist on Spotify if you are so inclined.

So much music… never enough time to appreciate it all.

And now, my favorite. Searing lyrics.

James McMurtry ‘We Can’t Make it Here’ 2004 Tim introduced me to his music. James is the son of Larry, the wildly famous American author who wrote Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, to name a few. James is a singer/songwriter whose lyrics sting. This is a tremendous song.

There's a Vietnam vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
The flag on his wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing and both hands free
… No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's just stretched so thin
And now there' s more coming back from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore
… And that big ol' building was the textile mill
That fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
'Cause we can' t make it here anymore
… You see those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna sit there 'til they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
… Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No, I hate the men sent the jobs away
… I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their shit don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in their damn little war
And we can't make it here anymore
… Will work for food, will die for oil
Will kill for power, and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
… So let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat shit, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore
… So that's how it is, that's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper, read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind if you're listening at all
Get out of that limo, look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone, tell us all why
… In Dayton, Ohio or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down, along with the school
And the hospital, and the swimming pool
… Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley and trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore