Well, if you want to go back in time, there's Leadbelly's "Titanic"; the Carter Family's "The Cyclone of Rye Cove" a variety of Prohibition songs like "Prohibition is a Failure" by Lowe Stokes and his North Georgians or there's Mattie Delaney's "Tallahatchie River Blues" Or there's certain songs that became well known for crimes like "George Collins" or "Wreck of the Old 97" (I recommend at least hearing Jenks "Tex" Carmen's version)

If you want to have a hard time figuring out the politics, listen to Johnny Cash's "The Man in Black" or James Brown's "You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight" matt

----- Original Message ----- From: "Miller, James Andrew (UMC-Student)" <jam189@mizzou.edu> To: <zorn-list@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 4:57 PM Subject: topical pop songs?

Zornlist:

I'm looking for examples of what I'm calling "topical pop songs"-- the most obvious examples would be protest/folk songs, but they don't have to be specifically in that tradition. The criteria would be something like this:

-- A song intended for "popular consumption," with lyrics that take a definite stand on a specific issue or event.

-- The issue or event needs to be something relatively limited in scope or scale. For example, a straightforward anti-Cold War song would be too big, but Phil Ochs' "Talkin' Cuban Crisis" would be perfect. Here, Ochs is making statements about a relatively specific historical event, while at the same time saying something about larger political and ethical concerns. The topic of the song needs to be narrow enough that students could go to newspapers and the like to research the event and the various contemporary perspectives on its significance.

-- It would be great if I could find songs that take a variety of stands. I'm not specifically interested in songs that reflect my own political views.

Some examples of songs that would work: Woody Guthrie, "Two Good Men" (on Sacco and Venzetti) the Ochs song mentioned above Bob Dylan, "Hurricane" CSNY, "Ohio"

Any more suggestions?

Andy

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