Protest Singing, Part 1: A Little Bit of History

01/19/21 • 38 min

Choral Fixation

The books, songs and Saturday morning cartoon discussed in this episode include:

The World in Six Songs by Daniel J. Levitin, from Penguin Random House

The World in Six Songs: Dr. Daniel Levitin at TEDxUSC 2012

The Power of Grayskull by Prince Adam, aka He-Man

The "Tenore Ulianesu" singing Sardinian Pastoral Songs in an Irish Pub

33 Revolutions per Minute: A History of Protest Songs, from Billie Holiday to Green Day by Dorian Lynskey, from HarperCollins

Yankee Doodle by The Robert Shaw Chorale (note: This isn’t actually played in the episode, but we wanted to note that Jacqui slightly misrepresents the origins of this song. The original lyrics, pre-dandy talk, were mostly nonsense words in English and Dutch).

John Brown’s Body by Pete Seeger

Tubthumping by Chumbawamba

The Diggers’ Song Chumbawamba

Captain Kidd by Great Big Sea

Bonus hymn based on a song about a pirate: Precious Name performed by Dr. Terry Morris, First United Methodist, Downtown, Houston TX

Special thanks to Aaron P, Ian D and Jeffrey C for listening and giving feedback. Much appreciated!

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The books, songs and Saturday morning cartoon discussed in this episode include:

The World in Six Songs by Daniel J. Levitin, from Penguin Random House

The World in Six Songs: Dr. Daniel Levitin at TEDxUSC 2012

The Power of Grayskull by Prince Adam, aka He-Man

The "Tenore Ulianesu" singing Sardinian Pastoral Songs in an Irish Pub

33 Revolutions per Minute: A History of Protest Songs, from Billie Holiday to Green Day by Dorian Lynskey, from HarperCollins

John Brown’s Body by Pete Seeger

Tubthumping by Chumbawamba

The Diggers’ Song Chumbawamba

Captain Kidd by Great Big Sea

Bonus hymn based on a song about a pirate: Precious Name performed by Dr. Terry Morris, First United Methodist, Downtown, Houston TX

Special thanks to Aaron P, Ian D and Jeffrey C for listening and giving feedback. Much appreciated!

7ytjdniKj7BDQpXZ2GtF

Previous Episode

Spotlight Song #1: Hasselhoff's Looking for Freedom

This episode, we’re doing a deep dive on a song that means a lot to Germans who remember the heady days of reunification in 1989. If you want to do your own exploration of the earworm that may* have ended the Cold War, check out:

David Hasselhoff - Looking For Freedom Official Music Video: https://youtu.be/h2f9dumn8DM (We’re listening to this at 9:10 in the episode)
David Hasselhoff - Looking For Freedom Live in Berlin (1989): https://youtu.be/dYVi7n7aoB4 (Starting at 14:52 in the episode)
David Hasselhoff & André Rieu - Knight Rider Theme Song & Looking For Freedom: https://youtu.be/BSeWA8f0Qv0 (We start watching this at 23:16 in the episode)

Special thanks to Aaron P for listening and giving feedback. Much appreciated.

It absolutely did not.

Next Episode

Spotlight Song #2: Barrett's Privateers (and Other Sea Shanties)

Big thanks go out to Canadian folk music icon Garnet Rogers. He kindly shared with us some amazing stories and fantastic music recommendations. Go to his website to purchase his memoir Night Drive: Travels with My Brother about his time on the road with Stan and check out his music on his website, or wherever you get your tunes.

Thanks also to Sam Pope, ShantyTok leading light, and lead vocals on The Wellerman’s Official TikTok version of, well, The Wellerman. He gave us great insight into the current sea shanty phenomenon and was extremely charming and generous with his time. Find him on TikTok (of course), YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and wherever you get your tunes.

Thanks, as always, to our unofficial co-producer, Aaron P.

Just FYI: There's a bit of salty language in this ep, which makes sense when you think about it.

Here are the songs, articles, and that one podcast you'll hear about in this episode:

The Wellerman (Sea Shanty) - From TikTok to Epic Remix, Nathan Phillips and others (Thanks to The Kifness for putting it up on YouTube)

Barrett’s Privateers by Stan Rogers, 1977 Fogarty's Cove Music

The Canadian Encyclopedia Stan Rogers, by Chris Gudgeon, Andrew McIntosh, August 29, 2013

Hail to You, Santa Claus by Stan Rogers, 1970 RCA (Thanks to Nick Spacek for putting it on YouTube)

STAN ROGERS: An Interview at Mariposa, 1978, Reprinted from The Folk Life Quarterly, Vol. III, No 1, Summer, 1978

Stan Rogers intros & sings "Barrett's Privateers" in One Warm Line produced by Kensington Communications

Stan Rogers shows off his first guitar from the CBC Digital Archives. Stan explains privateering to the host of Canada After Dark, Paul Soles. Broadcast Date: Nov. 30, 1978

The Maritime Cultural Resource Center Is the Stan Rogers song "Barrett's Privateers" true? by Dan Conlin

Sloop John B. by The Kingston Trio. 1958 Universal Music Group.

Stand by Your Band Tom Thakkar and Tommy McNamara talk about the bands that Pitchfork attacks and your friends make fun of). The October 10, 2019 featuring Charlie Bury is all about Stan Rogers.

Ordinary Day Great Big Sea 2011 WMG (This is the song Liz heard in a Scarborough bar)

Four Strong Winds by Neil Young. 1978 album Comes a Time, written by Ian Tyson.

Sea Shanty TikTok is the perfect expression of masculinity for 2021 MSNBC opinion piece by Hayes Brown

Michael Row the Boat Ashore by Pete Seeger. Live in 1963. (Thanks to Evan for putting it on YouTube)

In the Moment of Zen clip at the end, Jacqui is singing Bluenose by Stan Rogers. It is waaaaaaay out of her range.