Crying, Laughing, Loving: Protest Songs

I said I’d write about some of my Tenerife adventures this week, but I’ve since been commissioned to write about the Island of Eternal Spring for Pellicle, so I’m going to change it up. Don’t worry, it’ll be worth the wait!

I’ve noticed a distinct change in my listening habits this year. Background music, for me, has always been dub, big beat like The Crystal Method and late 90s/early 00s Prodigy, and progressive house. Stuff that rolls on and on, but, ideally, is unobtrusive enough to let me write without accidentally typing out lyrics or getting distracted by an outrageous sax solo.

Lately, I’ve needed something more nourishing. The daily news is a permanent shock to the system, and what is happening in and to our world is a constant ache. On a smaller scale too, communities are breaking apart, people care less about their individual accountability (I am convinced of this more and more every time I see more litter where there was none before, people being ruder to each other online for no good reason, the sheer amount of dog shit on the pavements…I’m not being funny, everything is getting worse in even the smallest ways) and count on withdrawing from society and living in ignorance to protect themselves. The most vulnerable people are scapegoated and bullied, and the poorest are getting poorer. We see US news all day every day, but comparing the UK to America as some sort of yardstick to prove we aren’t doing to badly is a farce. Everything is fucked.

So, what is there to do? You already know: write to your MPs, sign petitions. Speak loudly and clearly about the world you believe in, that you want to create. Correct and diminish hate speech whenever you hear it. We’re doing it, we’re trying. But it never feels enough.

We also need to feel personally able to keep doing this important work. Being exhausted and overwhelmed is not how you overthrow fascism and grow community.

What’s working for me right now is a long playlist full of songs from the 1960s and 70s, sung by people who really understand what it’s like to live in horrendous times of inequality and violence. Songs of war, poverty, the aching desire for a better world. Angry, sad voices singing beautifully about the reality of living through troubled, violent, turbulent times. I look to them for comfort. But I also ask them for ways to get through it. Their answers? Love. Desire. Sex. Faith. Songs written to venerate lovers (Take Yo’ Praise by Camille Yarbrough — what a song!) and celebrate family and friendships, deeply describing the importance of individual connection, especially during times like these. Heartbreak, and its sharp perspectives — personal problems thrown into the mix of larger issues. Songs written with Gospel in their hearts and hope in their souls. I’m no Christian, but I do believe in the strength that comes from having something to believe in. And I believe that things can be better, that people can be better, because Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Minnie Riperton and Bill Withers all believed it too, right through some of the hardest, harshest times of the 20th century; Black artists describing the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, revolution. I’m using them as my guides. They can explain it to me, give me an understanding over all the noise. Get me through this.

I understand that Spotify is a really bad way to share music but I wanted to make a playlist with some of my favourite songs mentioned and referred to in this article and I don’t know a better way of doing it. I hope it reignites your love for soul.

I just wanted to let you know that I’m using Instagram more to promote my work and share memes/news. You can find me here. Give me a follow!