Protest Songs

Protest songs are part of the human experience, it is how we show rage, understanding, and pity. They are how we protest the conditions and issues that we disagree with in this world. They are powerful and long lasting pieces that bring forward an emotional reaction. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described the protest songs this way: "They invigorate the movement in a most significant way [...] these freedom songs serve to give unity to a movement. Through out  history you can find examples of protest songs from animals rights to anti-war protest songs. Even Beethoven wrote a protest song in the form of "Ode to Joy" that right it is a protest song in a manner of speaking. Some of the most moving or well known may be from artists such as Bob Dylan,  Marvin Gaye and  John Lennon. One of Bob Dylan most moving and popular protest songs was the Hurricane which was written about the wrongfull  imprisonment of a champion prize fighter. Dylan sings about how the Hurricane was arrested because he was an African-American and getting very popular. The following is an exerpt from the song:

The Hurricane by Bob Dylan

Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood
Cries out, “My God, they killed them all!”
Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin’ that he never done
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world

Three bodies lyin’ there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin’ around mysteriously
“I didn’t do it,” he says, and he throws up his hands
“I was only robbin’ the register, I hope you understand
I saw them leavin’,” he says, and he stops
“One of us had better call up the cops”
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin’
In the hot New Jersey night

Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin’ around
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Paterson that’s just the way things go
If you’re black you might as well not show up on the street
’Less you wanna draw the heat