The Return of Good Protest Songs

During Pearl Jam's 2003 Riot Act tour, there was a fuss made about Eddie Vedder's treatment of a George Bush mask during a performance of their song "Bu$hleaguer". The media latched onto it and made it sound like hundreds had walked out of one concert (try 10-20), outraged by the song and Eddie's actions. All in all, it's a pretty silly song with lyrics like "a think tank of aloof multiplication/a nicotine wish and a columbus decanter", and Eddie treated the mask exactly like he would have treated an Al Gore mask if the 2000 election had, you know, turned out correctly. But at that point, it was an outrage that anybody was speaking out at all against such a "popular" president. Then came the Dixie Chicks...and you know what followed.

Well, what a difference (less than) three years make. If there's one single thing that encourages me about the state of today's music industry, it's that protest songs are making themselves heard and felt again. To be sure, they've always been around. It's just that mainstream artists haven't always been the ones carrying the protest torch, radio hasn't always been anywhere near receptive, and, to be honest, most protest music sucks. To make an impact, you have to have good words and great music.

So I can't say just how thrilled I was the first time I heard Pearl Jam's new single, "World Wide Suicide", a few weeks ago. (You can hear it for free at www.myspace.com/tenclub) First of all, some lyrics:

Medals on a wooden mantle
Next to a handsome face
That the president took for granted
Writing checks that others pay
And in all the madness
Thought becomes numb and naive
So much to talk about
Nothing for to say

It's the same everyday and the wave won't break
Tell you to pray, while the devil's on their shoulder
Laying claim to the take that our soldiers save
Does not equate, and the truth's already out there

The whole world...World over...It's a world wide suicide.

Great lyrics, but here's the thing: it rocks. To the point of being the #1 song on Modern Rock Radio. Apparently PJ feels strongly enough about what they have to say that they're willing to play the "fame" game again. I love that. But they're not alone. Check out Ben Harper's "Better Way":

What good is a man who won't take a stand
What good is a cynic with no better plan
I believe in a better way

Take your face out of your hands and clear your eyes
You have a right to your dreams, and don't be denied
I believe in a better way

And that's to say nothing of his Katrina response, "Black Rain"

You left them swimming for their lives down in new orleans
Can't afford a gallon of gasoline
With your useless degrees and your contrary statistics
This government business is straight up sadistic

...

Don't you dare speak to us like we work for you
Selling false hope like some new dope we're addicted to

Again, it rocks. And again, that's important.

The Dixie Chicks' first single ("Not Ready To Make Nice") basically gives the finger to the backwards fans who threatened them and burned their albums ("I made my bed and I sleep like a baby/With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’/It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her/Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger/And how in the world can the words that I said/Send somebody so over the edge/That they’d write me a letter/Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing/Or my life will be over"), and that's enough to make me buy their upcoming album. My parents would be so proud of me for buying a Dixie Chicks album.

There are a lot of mainstream acts speaking out, doing it well, and getting well-received for it. This is important because they're giving a voice and a tune to the president's plummeting approval ratings and the rising voice of dissent that's been kept quiet since 9/11. That makes me think that, assuming we don't start a nuclear war with Iran, the United States could pull out of its current tailspin. It might take a decade or so, but at least there's a chance.