Music Surprising protest songs

[Cheimoon]

You can often tell quite well that a song's a protest song by the music or lyrics - take Peter Gabriel's Biko or virtually any serious punk rock song. But sometimes, songs surprise me.

For example, I am listening to Tears for Fears's 1989 The Seeds Of Love album currently, and while reading up on it, I found out that Sowing The Tears Of Love is actually an anti-Thatcher protest song, that reflects (among other things) the reading on socialism that Orzabal (the songwriter) had been doing in reaction to one of Thatcher's electoral wins. I had always thought it was some kind of soppy flower power song - but reading the lyrics properly now, there are actually indeed a fair few references to politics.

Another case: Iron Hand by Dire Straits. It's a very soft and calm song from their 1991 On Every Street album, but it is actually about the 1984 Battle of Orgreave during the UK miners' strike, and compares the police charging on horseback into the crowd of miners with the savagery of medieval times.

So, what songs surprised you by turning out to be protests song?

 

[AllGoodNamesRGone]

Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA isn’t a surprising protest song but it does surprise me how many people miss the point of it and think it’s a song championing USA as some sort of patriot song.

 

[Siorac]

Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA isn’t a surprising protest song but it does surprise me how many people miss the point of it and think it’s a song championing USA as some sort of patriot song.

Nothing's funnier than American hardcore right-wingers blasting Born in the USA or indeed The Fortunate Son at political events.

 

[M15 Red.]

U2. Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Always felt this song really encapsulates the frustration of a Sunday. You wake up in the morning, you've got to read all the Sunday papers, the kids are running round, you've got to mow the lawn, wash the car, and you think "Sunday, bloody Sunday!"

Recently found out it's actually about some massacre in Derry. Ugh. I won't be playing that again.

 

[Cheimoon]

Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA isn’t a surprising protest song but it does surprise me how many people miss the point of it and think it’s a song championing USA as some sort of patriot song.

Nothing's funnier than American hardcore right-wingers blasting Born in the USA or indeed The Fortunate Son at political events.

Yeah, that use of Born in the USA is on a par with people playing The Police's Every Breath You Take at a wedding. That's a stalker song disguised as a romantic ballad. If that describes your relationship, then you've got serious issues!

Can't believe people would play Fortunate Son though, that's so obviously a criticism...

U2. Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Always felt this song really encapsulates the frustration of a Sunday. You wake up in the morning, you've got to read all the Sunday papers, the kids are running round, you've got to mow the lawn, wash the car, and you think "Sunday, bloody Sunday!"

Recently found out it's actually about some massacre in Derry. Ugh. I won't be playing that again.

Not sure if serious!

 

[Siorac]

Can't believe people would play Fortunate Son though, that's so obviously a criticism...

You'd think so - and John Fogerty would agree with you.

 

[Deery]

The Cranberries Zombie, but that’s probably a well known protest song.

 

[Acrobat7]

Yeah, that use of Born in the USA on a par with people playing The Police's Every Breath You Take at a wedding. That's a stalker song disguised as a romantic ballad. If that describes your relationship, then you've got serious issues!

Hearing „every breath you take“ at weddings (and it really does happen!) is even worse than hearing U2’s „With or without you“ at them.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Countdown to Extinction by Megadeth. Always assumed it was just some gnarly metal song but it’s actually a protest song about big game hunting.

 

[djembatheking]

99 Red Balloons - Nena

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Until a few years ago, I didn't pay much attention to the lyrics of Happy Hour by the Housemartins beyond the words "it's happy hour again" and "what a good place to be". I am fond of a happy, major-key song that isn't particularly happy at all.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

Countdown to Extinction by Megadeth. Always assumed it was just some gnarly metal song but it’s actually a protest song about big game hunting.

Yes indeed

 

[Green_Red]

Maggies Farm by Bob Dylan is a classic protest song.

 

[Cheimoon]

Until a few years ago, I didn't pay much attention to the lyrics of Happy Hour by the Housemartins beyond the words "it's happy hour again" and "what a good place to be". I am fond of a happy, major-key song that isn't particularly happy at all.

I have too look them up - I had never heard their music, but it sounds like a happy version of The Smiths. (Except then they actually aren't, lyrically. )

Happy sounding songs are always a 'great' way to hide critical or negative lyrics. Alors on danse by Stromae is an example of that as well (dancing to forget all your trouble), although that's more negative than critical of anything. But Ska-P is an extremely danceable ska-punk band that bitterly critizice aspects of society in all of their happy-sounding songs.

Maggies Farm by Bob Dylan is a classic protest song.

No-one is surprised to find out that a Bob Dylan song is a protest song though.

 

[FireballXL5]

 

[Deery]

I did not know this until today…

Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (1998)
The band's first number one single was about the Spanish Civil War that took place between 1936 and 1939. A group of Welsh miners travelled to Spain to join in the fight against General Franco's troops, and the title was taken from a propaganda poster of the time. One line from the song is a genuine quote from a Welshman: "If I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists." Nicky Wire later claimed that the ideology behind the song was that political issues seemed to have lost their relevance in modern society.

 

[Salt Bailly]

U2. Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Always felt this song really encapsulates the frustration of a Sunday. You wake up in the morning, you've got to read all the Sunday papers, the kids are running round, you've got to mow the lawn, wash the car, and you think "Sunday, bloody Sunday!"

I knew someone would say it.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

The Cranberries Zombie, but that’s probably a well known protest song.

Not to Zack Snyder it isn't...

 

[Cheimoon]

It's A Sin by the Pet Shop Boys might be another one where the upbeat nature of the sound and image of the band may stop you from realizing the song criticizes the environment of the singer's Catholic high school.

Not to Zack Snyder it isn't...

How's that? I feel like I'm missing out on a good anecdote.

Other than that, the bit about 'they are fighting / With their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns' is a pretty good giveaway about the nature of the song.

 

[Organic Potatoes]

Nothing's funnier than American hardcore right-wingers blasting Born in the USA or indeed The Fortunate Son at political events.

Or “Killing in the Name Of” at a pro-police (read: anti-BLM) rally…

Mine was Orange Crush by REM. I remember as a kid thinking it was so cool they made a song about my favorite soda. I never caught it until I started educating myself about the Vietnam War as an adult and then actually listened to the lyrics. .

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Or “Killing in the Name Of” at a pro-police (read: anti-BLM) rally…

Mine was Orange Crush by REM. I remember as a kid thinking it was so cool they made a song about my favorite soda. I never caught it until I started educating myself about the Vietnam War as an adult and then actually listened to the lyrics. .

I take it you weren't old enough to catch Tour of Duty on the TV?

 

[Organic Potatoes]

I take it you weren't old enough to catch Tour of Duty on the TV?

No, I’ve never heard of that.

 

[Cheimoon]

Or “Killing in the Name Of” at a pro-police (read: anti-BLM) rally…

Mine was Orange Crush by REM. I remember as a kid thinking it was so cool they made a song about my favorite soda. I never caught it until I started educating myself about the Vietnam War as an adult and then actually listened to the lyrics. .

I didn't know that either!

R.E.M.'s The One I Love is another song people really shouldn't play at weddings or similar occasions btw - but I bet it happens...

 

[Desert Eagle]

Like the name of the group says it's Rap against Dictatorship.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

U2. Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Always felt this song really encapsulates the frustration of a Sunday. You wake up in the morning, you've got to read all the Sunday papers, the kids are running round, you've got to mow the lawn, wash the car, and you think "Sunday, bloody Sunday!"

Recently found out it's actually about some massacre in Derry. Ugh. I won't be playing that again.

 

[Sir Matt]

Because of its use in numerous films relating to the Vietnam War, many people think that "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield is a Vietnam protest song, but Stephen Still wrote it about curfew riots on the Sunset Strip in the 1966.



Most people don't know this, but "Macarena" by Los Del Rio is actually a protest song about American imperialist intervention throughout Latin America during the Cold War and CIA's influence in creating the drug war. Macarena is the name of a girl who was killed by the Contras.
lol

 

[Cheimoon]

Like the name of the group says it's Rap against Dictatorship.

So... what's the surprise here?

 

[Wibble]

Hearing „every breath you take“ at weddings (and it really does happen!) is even worse than hearing U2’s „With or without you“ at them.

Or Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen at funerals thinking it is a hymn. We went to a funeral that played it and it caught me totally by surprise and I really had trouble not laughing out loud.

 

[Wibble]

R.E.M.'s The One I Love is another song people really shouldn't play at weddings or similar occasions btw - but I bet it happens...

Listening to the lyrics is so important.

On a related note my wife choose Thorn In My Side by The Eurhythmics for our (second) wedding song as a piss take (I hope).

 

[The Boy]

I did not know this until today…

Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (1998)
The band's first number one single was about the Spanish Civil War that took place between 1936 and 1939. A group of Welsh miners travelled to Spain to join in the fight against General Franco's troops, and the title was taken from a propaganda poster of the time. One line from the song is a genuine quote from a Welshman: "If I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists." Nicky Wire later claimed that the ideology behind the song was that political issues seemed to have lost their relevance in modern society.

And there was me thinking it was always a song protesting against Graeme Rix!

 

[Desert Eagle]

So... what's the surprise here?

Surprisingly good

 

[Cheimoon]

Listening to the lyrics is so important.

On a related note my wife choose Thorn In My Side by The Eurhythmics for our (second) wedding song as a piss take (I hope).

At least that one shows it right from the title. The R.E.M. song sounds really good ('this one goes out to the one I love - for you!') - but you'd better not miss the 'another broad has occupied my thoughts' line (or the rest). [Edit: should've been 'fire' instead of 'for you', and the second one is 'a simple prop to occupy my time'.]

 

[Vidyoyo]

I was surprised to find out that Baby got Back is actually about the Heideggerian idea of thrownness and how Sir Mix-a-Lot was inspired to write it after a bad experience with an ex-girlfriend left him lamenting that advertising in the fashion industry was undermining the human condition.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

At least that one shows it right from the title. The R.E.M. song sounds really good ('this one goes out to the one I love - for you!') - but you'd better not miss the 'another broad has occupied my thoughts' line (or the rest).

Fire and prop, actually.

 

[Jippy]

It's A Sin by the Pet Shop Boys might be another one where the upbeat nature of the sound and image of the band may stop you from realizing the song criticizes the environment of the singer's Catholic high school.

How's that? I feel like I'm missing out on a good anecdote.

Other than that, the bit about 'they are fighting / With their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns' is a pretty good giveaway about the nature of the song.

Given that they're gay, it was the 80s and it has that title, I think you can imagine what it's about tbf.

 

[Withnail]

Or Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen at funerals thinking it is a hymn. We went to a funeral that played it and it caught me totally by surprise and I really had trouble not laughing out loud.

Nobody actually thinks it's a hymn, do they? I've heard it at a funeral and it was because the deceased, who wasn't at all religious, liked the song.

 

[Cheimoon]

Fire and prop, actually.

I knew I should look it up before posting! The 'fire' I even knew, 'for you' is what I always heard before reading the lyrics. 'Prop' makes it even worse.

Given that they're gay, it was the 80s and it has that title, I think you can imagine what it's about tbf.

Yeah, true, it's pretty obvious if you pay attention; but I think it's easy for a casual listener to just take it as another fun PSB song, that's 'probably about relationships' (as a lot of their songs are).

 

[Ramos]

Vamos a la Playa by Righeira

Apparently not a fun summer song about going to the beach at all, but a protest song about the aftermath of a nuclear explosion.

 

[Wibble]

Nobody actually thinks it's a hymn, do they? I've heard it at a funeral and it was because the deceased, who wasn't at all religious, liked the song.

Oh yes. The one I went to did for sure.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

'Prop' makes it even worse.

It really does, so very dismissive.