A playlist of politically meaningful songs from throughout the past 70 years

Black Power | The Peace | Black Power | 1975

All Is One | Mighty Sparrow | Calypso A La King | 1970

To The White People Of America | New York Ensemble | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022

We Will Overcome | “Texas” Bill Strength | 1952

It’s Outrageous | Larry Estridge | Broadside Ballads, Vol. 7 | 1973

Already Guilty | Free Radicals, Swatara Olushola | White Power Outage, Vol. 1 | 2020

Profilin | The Frightners, Preet Patel | Always | 2022

Effects of Slavery | Macka B | Global Messenger | 2000

H2OGate Blues | Gil Scott-Heron, Brian Jackson | Winter In America | 1972

Politicians In My Eyes | Death | …For The Whole World To See | 2009 (1975)

Preacher and the Slave | Socialists | 2012-2019 | 2021

Songs Of Slavery and Emancipation is a multimedia project presenting recently discovered songs composed by enslaved people and explicitly calling for resistance to slavery. The book, CD and documentary film come out Friday June 17, and we hear from Mat Callahan who spearheaded the project. He tells about the origins of these songs, the process of researching them and the significance of publishing them now in some cases for the first time in centuries. 

Recognition March of the Independence of Hayti | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022

March On | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022

The Negro’s Complaint | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022

Nat Turner | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022

Children, We All Shall Be Free | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022

Hymn of Freedom | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022

Uncle Gabriel The Negro General | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022

Song of the “Aliened American” | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022

The Band of Thieves | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022

A playlist of politically meaningful songs performed mostly a cappella by vocal ensembles.

The Workers Song | The Longest Johns, Seth Lakeman | Smoke & Oakum | 2022

The Song of the Lower Classes | Martin Carthy | Out of the Cut | 1982

Poverty Knock | Chumbawamba | English Rebel Songs 1381-1984 | 2003

We Do The Work | John Fromer | We Do The Work | 2000

I’m Gon’ Stand!!! | Sweet Honey In The Rock | Breaths | 1988

Rich Man’s House | Resistance Revival Chorus | This Joy | 2020

Which Side Are You On? | Windborne | Recollections | Revolutions | 2020

Freedom Is A Constant Struggle | Barbara Dane and the Chambers Brothers | Barbara Dane and the Chambers Brothers | 1966

Had, Took, Misled | Bernice Johnson Reagon | Give Your Hands to Struggle | 1975

Digger’s Song | The Horses Of The Gods | We Wish You Health | 2020

Cable Street | The Young’uns | Strangers | 2017

For his 81st birthday, we listen to politically meaningful songs written by Bob Dylan, as performed by other artists.

Blowin’ In The Wind | Bettina Jonic | The Bitter Mirror: Songs By Bob Dylan & Bertolt Brech | 1975

The Death of Emmett Till | Isaac Taylor | Peace In The Valley | 2018

Only A Pawn In Their Game | Barbara Dane | Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs | 2018

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll | Les Shelleys | Les Shelleys | 2010 

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll | Charlie Ballentine | Life is Brief: The Music of Bob Dylan | 2018

License to Kill | Richie Havens

The Times They Are A Changin’ | Nina Simone | To Love Somebody | 1969

With God On Our Side | The Neville Brothers | Yellow Moon | 1989

Masters of War | The Flying Pickets | Lost Boys | 1984

Masters of War | Bill Frisell | Further East/Further West | 2005

A playlist of politically meaningful songs, including several from Stevie Wonder who turned 72 last week.

I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free | Mavis Staples, Levon Helm | Carry Me Home | 2022

You Haven’t Done Nothin’ | Stevie Wonder | Fulfillingness’ First Finale | 1974

Black Man | Stevie Wonder | Songs in the Key of Life | 1976

It’s Wrong (Apartheid) | Stevie Wonder | In Square Circle | 1985

Pastime Paradise | Stevie Wonder | Songs in the Key of Life | 1976

Can’t Put It In The Hands of Fate | Stevie Wonder, Rapsody, Cordae, CHIKA, Busta Rhymes | 2020

The Preacher and the Slave | Utah Phillips | Classic Labor Songs from Smithsonian Folkways | 2006

Preacher and the Slave | Socialists | 2012-2019 | 2021

I Pity The Country | Leanne Betasamosake Simpson | Theory of Ice | 2021

List of Demands (Reparations) | The Kills | 2018

We listen to a playlist of songs exploring themes of freedom and class war. "There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning." - Warren Buffett 

Who’s Free | Super Sounds Namba | 1981

Rich Get Richer | The O’Jays | Survival | 1975

None Of Us Are Free | Solomon Burke, Blind Boys of Alabama | Don’t Give Up On Me | 2002

The Capitalist Blues | Leyla McCalla | The Capitalist Blues | 2019

Bourgeois Blues | The Last Internationale | New York, I Do Mind Dying | 2013

The Guillotine | The Coup | Sorry To Bother You | 2012

Class War | The Dils | 198 Seconds Of The Dils | 1977

Do They Owe Us A Living? | Crass | The Feeding of the 5000 | 1978

Do They Owe Us A Living? | Croy and the Boys | Of Course They Do | 2020

Class War | Ty Segall | Fudge Sandwich | 2018

I Hate The Rich | The Dils | 1977

Class War - How Much | She Drew The Gun | Behave Myself | 2021

Rakel Stammer joins to discuss the egregious breach of freedom that would be the outlawing of an individuals choice whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term, in the wake of the newly leaked Supreme Court document indicating an imminent decision as such. In between conversation we listen to several songs emerging from the long fight for bodily autonomy in the form of access to abortion in the 20th century.

La Femme Fatale | Digable Planets | Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time And Space) | 1993

Abortion is illegal (The Ballad of Paragraph 218) | Sylvia Anders, D. Justus Noll | There’s Nothing Quite Like Money | 2000

Abort The System | Poison Girls | Songs of Praise | 1985

Abortion Song | New Haven Women’s Liberation Rock Band | Mountain Moving Day | 1972

Back Alley Surgery | Malvina Reynolds | Mama Lion | 1980

To mark his centennial we spend the hour listening to the politically engaged music of Charles Mingus, the seminal jazz composer and bass player born April 22, 1922. Never shy to express his convictions, Mingus would often speak to contemporary political issues including war and racism, with commentary in song titles as well as recitations or lyrics within his songs.

Original Faubus Fables | Charles Mingus | Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus | 1960

Don’t Let It Happen Here | Charles Mingus | Music Written For Monterey 1965 (Not Heard... Played in its Entirety, at UCLA) | 1966

It Was A Lonely Day in Selma, Alabama - Freedom | Mingus Big Band | Blues & Politics | 1999

Freedom - Pt.1 | Charles Mingus | The Complete Town Hall Concert | 1962 

Oh Lord Don’t Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me | Charles Mingus | Oh Yeah | 1962