I like my music ANGRY. My favourite types of song

Are those that call for change, to try to right some wrongs.

I’ll take lyrics about war or peace or duty socially bound,

Over any heartfelt soulful dirge about love lost or found.

 

But it seems my favourite protest songs have limited success,

Judging by the fact the world is still in such a mess.

The answers blowing in the wind have flown too far away,

The times are still a-changing but the crap is here to stay.

 

The Eastern world still explodes, haters gonna hate.  

They’ve made it to the moon and back but peace will have to wait.

Nuclear war still threatens, the bomb’s still in production,

Fifty plus years later, we’re still on the eve of destruction.

 

Fountain-pen led thievery is still the bankers’ game,

They now use mouse and keyboard, but they rob us just the same.

We need the songs of outlaws, the folk like Robin Hood,

To make us really question who’s the bad guy and who’s good.

 

And those who dare to speak out, they must wonder still

Do they risk being sentenced to their deaths like poor Joe Hill?

A trumped up charge of murder, full pie in the sky

State-sponsored execution and I think we can guess why.

 

There’s been many Bloody Sundays, all days of the week,

For the planet and its people, the future’s looking bleak.

We could ride the Wind of Change, say we want a Revolution

But going back to where we started is not a real solution.

 

Must we accept that poverty just will exist forever?

That history’s just a load of injustices strung together?

It can’t only be in stories that the good guys get to win:

In the real Battle of Evermore, we will not give in.

 

One day We Shall Overcome, we won’t give up the fight

We’ll say War’s good for nothing, Get Up and Stand Up for our rights.

I will speak out for others, to be at peace with myself,

And that’s worth more than any one percent’s ill-gotten wealth.

 

The rulers and the choosers, we’ve got them running scared

Cos when they put a foot wrong - they know that we’ll be there.

We shall not be silenced, don’t ever let them doubt it,

Where there’s injustice, there’ll be protest, and someone to sing about it.

 

Songs quoted or referenced in this poem:

Bob Dylan “Blowin’ in the Wind (1962)

Bob Dylan “The Times they are a Changing” (1964)

P.F. Sloan / Barry McGuire “Eve of Destruction” (1965)

Woody Guthrie “Pretty Boy Floyd” (1939)

Joe Hill “The Preacher and the Slave” (1911)

U2 “Sunday Bloody Sunday” (1983)

Scorpions “Wind of Change” (1990)

The Beatles “Revolution” (1968)

Led Zeppelin “The Battle of Evermore” (1971)

“We Shall Overcome” (protest song based on gospel hymn, 1900/1945)

Bob Marley / Pete Tosh “Get Up, Stand Up” (1973)

Norman Whitfield / Barrett Strong/ Edwin Starr “War” (1969)