Looking for songs of peace and social justice....your suggestions

[stevebreeze]

I am a beginning guitar player. Trying to find more songs I can play that have meaning to me. I love songs like Give Peace a chance and Todd Snider's "Conservative Christian"
any other suggestions you could add would be appreciated.

[abq e streeter]

1. Dylan and Woody Guthrie will be a treasure trove ( Blowin in the Wind etc.)

my favorite among the more modern songs( relatively) is Elvis Costello's What's so Funny About Peace Love and Understanding, ( written by Nick Lowe) from E.C.'s 1979 album Armed Forces... Another one I love that's not about peace, but sure as hell about social justice is Bruce Cockburn's If I Had a Rocket Launcher. If you can find it, either The Righteous Brothers , or just Bill Medley solo had a beautiful song in about '68 called Peace , Brother, Peace. And the Rascals' People Gotta be Free, and Ray of Hope , although these last three are much more heavily orchestrated and may be hard to pick out on just guitar if you're just starting out. Definitely check out Dylan's The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll ( "and you, who philosophize disgrace"), and Phil Ochs' I Ain't Marchin Anymore .

[stevebreeze]

2. Maybe I should have been a little more specific,,,,

I love Dylan and Woody, but being a geezer of sorts myself, I was hoping to tune in to some more modern titles.

Thank you for the suggestions however I will check them all out.

[abq e streeter]

3. Hi--wasn't sure if you were a young person just starting out

and wasn't too familiar with our geezer music. I suspect there's some good political stuff out there these days, but yeah, I'm sadly out of the loop, although I do try to keep up with at least a little bit of the music the young people are creating ...but can't really think of anything like what you're looking for from my very limited knowledge. Best wishes on learning the guitar; I'm a singer and multi instrument wind player, but have tried to learn the guitar, and can't figure out for the life of me, how anyone can play one of those things........ Actually, come to think of it, I think James McMurtry , who's no kid ( mid 40's) , but a very active singer/songwriter from Texas( and the son of the author Larry McMurtry; Lonesome Dove etc.) is supposed to be doing some good politically oriented stuff these days...

[east texas lib]

5. Indeed he is...

He's got a killer tune called "Can't Make It Here Anymore" from the Foolish Thoughts album.

[JeffR]

4. Check out The Jam, if you're not acquainted with their stuff.

You can find some vids here:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+Jam&search=Search

At their best, they were incisive and powerful about social justice. And though they sprang from the punk era, their musicianship was superb. Still, the songs were seldom complicated, so a novice guitarist should have no problems with most of them. It's surprising how some of their loudest tunes lend themselves to a voice and an acoustic guitar. Same goes for a lot of the Clash catalog, too.

And you can't go wrong with Billy Bragg, if you want to try something that was purpose-built for solo performance, or the great Steve Earle, to bring things back stateside.

I've also been getting into James McMurtry, and I feel like a jackass that I wasn't really aware of this guy until recently. Try this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_vN0--mHug

[east texas lib]

6. Try Steve Earle...

He's got some good ones.

[PVnRT]

7. "The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen

[regularguy]

8. Check out Billy Bragg.

Just saw him play live a few months ago. Good political stuff...looks fairly easy to play.

[here_is_to_hope]

9. The Style Council....

Though I believe they are no longer together, they had a very catchy and full "Motown Sound" though they are English.
Paul Weller of the Jam (mentioned upthread) was the singer/guitarist for them.

Lyrics to "Walls come tumblin' down"

You dont have to take this crap
You dont have to sit back and relax
You can actually try changing it
I know weve always been taught to rely
Upon those in authority -
But you never know until you try
How things just might be -
If we came together so strongly

Are you gonna try to make this work
Or spend your days down in the dirt
You see things can change -
Yes an walls can come tumbling down!

Governments crack and systems fall
cause unity is powerful -
Lights go out - walls come tumbling down!

The competition is a colour tv
Were on still pause with the video machine
That keep you slave to the h.p.

Until the unity is threatened by
Those who have and who have not -
Those who are with and those who are without
And dangle jobs like a donkeys carrot -
Until you dont know where you are

Are you gonna realize
The class wars real and not mythologized
And like Jericho - you see walls can come tumbling down!

Are you gonna be threatened by
The public enemies no. 10 -
Those who play the power game
They take the profits - you take the blame -
When they tell you theres no rise in pay

Are you gonna try an make this work
Or spend your days down in the dirt -
You see things can change -
Yes an walls can come tumbling down!



Always one of my favorite bands.

[JeffR]

10. Thanks for mentioning this band

When I referred to The Jam upthread, it didn't even occur to me to mention Weller's next band after he broke up The Jam. But a lot of the Council's stuff was more overtly political than The Jam's.

And some happy news if you're a Weller fan: he has a brand new double album out June 2 which sounds really interesting. There are some previews at his site:

http://www.paulweller.com/index.php

[treblemaker]

11. You might like Justin Currie "No, Surrender"

Currie is the former lead singer of Del Amitri, if you remember them from the 80s. I got turned on to this by a DJ on the local community radio station in Portland, KBOO, who often plays it -- didn't make the connection with Del Amitri until I looked for more info online. The song's simple to play.

Currie says about the song in this interview:

"It's a protest song," Justin admits. "But I'm not being angry. Instead, it's saying, I give up.

"It's a tirade. The chorus is saying, is there any point in fighting all of this because we can't change it? Things have gone too far for a bunch of little poets and songwriters to write an anti-war song and think it has any kind of impact because it's too late for that. I'm trying to say we should give up and go on strike."

The lyrics are readily available on a bunch of different lyrics web sites.

[treblemaker]

12. Also

You might find some neat new-to-you stuff along the lines of what you're looking for by mining the playlists here: The Dharma Wheel - KBOO FM, Portland, OR

(locals and non-locals alike can stream the station, too -- lots of delicious and nutritious lefty programming...)

[paparush]

13. Flag Decal by John Prine "Jesus don't like killin, no matter what the killin's for.."