"PROTEST!" American Protest Songs 1928-1953

The definition of protest is 'a statement or action showing that you disapprove of something'. This is something that we seem to have pushed to one side in this day and age (in Western Culture anyhow). In the first part of the 20th Century, it was a different story, with protest songs coming in all guises and musical genres. Within the confines of this album, we have tried to represent great examples of each. They range from the incredibly emotional and heart breaking : Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' and Woody Guthrie’s ‘1913 Massacre' - to the light hearted and humorous : The Golden Gate Quartet's 'Atom & Evil ' and Texas Jim Robertson's ' The Last Page of Mein Kampf'- (but still with a serious message).
Subject matters include: Civil Rights, the Atom Bomb, being poor, homeless and unemployed, Prostitution, War and at times all the wrongs of our society. This subject matter was never going to make for easy listening but surely music and song writing is not just about entertainment! It should also enlighten and if not directly change the world, at least point out a few home truths about the society we have created. Music can be used as an incredibly effective weapon - something it seems we have forgotten about… Listen and learn. (VIPER)

Although it wasn't until the folk revival and folk-rock movements of the 1960s that the protest song was a widely recognized wing of popular music in the U.S., there had been socially conscious protest songs of sorts since the dawn of the recording age. This compilation assembles 20 of them, and refreshingly, it doesn't emphasize material from the roots of the folk revival (though there's certainly some of that). Instead, this comes from all over the roots music map, from country-blues and old-timey folk/country artists to gospel, hillbilly, and Western swing. There are certainly a number of famous artists and classic songs here, including the Sons of the Pioneers' "Old Man Atom," Bessie Smith's "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," Big Bill Broonzy's "Black, Brown and White," Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," and Woody Guthrie's "1913 Massacre." There are, too, sides by Bill Monroe (as part of the Monroe Brothers), Uncle Dave Macon, Memphis Minnie, and even Gene Autry, who shows a surprising and little-known side of his repertoire with "The Death of Mother Jones," inspired by the labor activist Mary Harris Jones.
Many of these tracks are not "protest" songs in the angry and earnest sense that many listeners associate with the style; they often take a more lightly satirical, even a congenial approach. The enjoyable novelty tinged pieces on the then-new threat of atomic energy ("Old Man Atom," the Golden Gate Quartet's alternately somber and swinging gospel number "Atom and Evil," Billy Hughes and His Rhythm Buckeroos' "Atomic Sermon") remind us of how ambivalently the nuclear threat was viewed when it was a new thing, and how songs commenting on it sounded rather like they were whistling in the dark. If you do want songs that were more audible ancestors of the folk revival, however, they're here in cuts like Josh White, Millard Lampbell, and the Almanac Singers' "Billy Boy" and Lee Hayes with the Almanac Singers' "The Dodger Song," the Almanac Singers being a huge influence in getting said folk revival off the ground in the middle of the 20th century. Whatever your sociopolitical perspective, this is impressive on purely musical and lyrical grounds, and can be enjoyed for those qualities alone. (ALLMUSIC)

trax:
1. Old Man Atom - The Sons Of The Pioneers 2. The Last Page Of Mein Kampf - Texas Jim Robertson 3. The Dodger Song - Lee Hayes with The Almanac Singers 4. Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out - Bessie Smith 5. We're Up Against It Now - Uncle Dave Macon 6. Black, Brown & White - Big Bill Broonzy 7. Bread Line Blues - Slim Smith 8. Atom & Evil - The Golden Gate Quartet 9. The Forgotten Soldier Boy - The Monroe Brothers 10. Hustlin' Woman Blues - Memphis Minnie 11. Fifty Years From Now - Harry McClintock 12. Sales Tax '34 - Mississippi Sheiks 13. Billy Boy - Josh White, Millard Lampell with The Almanac Singers 14. Atomic Serman - Billy Hughes & The Rhythm Buckeroos 15. Poor Man, Rich Man - Dave McCarn 16. The Death Of Mother Jones - Gene Autry 17. Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday 18. Judge Harsh Blues - Furry Lewis 19. All I've Got Is Gone - Ernest V Stoneman And His Dixie Mountaineers 20. 1913 Massacre - Woody Guthrie
...served by Gyro1966...