Tag Archives: protest song

News

“You can’t have my body and you can’t have my country”

Leave a comment

On January 20, 2025, singer-songwriter Finn O’Sullivan, from Denver, US, released a duo of songs, a sort of anti-celebration of what was the day of Trump’s inaguration.

O’Sullivan is very clear about the message she’s sending “the man” with the couple of songs; “art is catharsis and action and power.” With the new government in place she sadly no longer wants to call the US her home and found no better way to express her frustration than by creating music.

The first of the duo, “Not My America”, takes aim at anti-choice laws and rhetoric, to unchecked gun violence, power imbalances, the refusal to accept the climate crisis, and the election of a convicted felon for the highest office in the country.

“My Trunk” however, as O’Sullivan told us via email, is “a direct response to a frequently re-posted post-election tweet, “Your body, my choice. Forever.” O’Sullivan’s response, expressed in the soft and sweet vocal style that is a hallmark of much of her other work, is repeated in the chorus of the song: “My body, whatever you want? Your body, my trunk.”

“I have this dream where I’m made of fire / I’m the belly of the beast / I’m a livewire / I had a nightmare 4 years long / He came back with a vengeance / I came back with a song

You think I’ll go quietly, your mistake / Your bars, my jailbreak / My body, whatever you want? / Your body, my trunk”

This is honest, well written protest music. Empathising with O’Sullivan’s words comes easy and while the music is mellow, her words are fierce. At the end of “My Trunk” she sings They warned me of men like you / Get on your knees, lick my boots / And when you go, you’ll tell the whole world / But who’s gonna believe I scared you? / I’m just a girl.”

Well, we here at Shouts will believe you Ms. O’Sullivan. And all the harrassed, and imprisoned musicians around the world will too. For they know what the power of song is. The fact that democratic governments, such as Spain for example, arrest musicians for their lyrics makes only one thing very clear: No matter who you are or where you’re from – if you make a certain type of music and lyrics, chances are “the man” will fear you.

And your fellow people will unite behind your song.

Find Finn O’Sullivan’s music and work on Instagram l Facebook l YouTube l Soundcloud.

News

Fold set to release a new single, reflecting on Eisenhower’s words of power, war, and peace

Leave a comment

The activist music collective out of Leeds, England, will soon release their new single, and we here at Shouts HQ have been spinning it all day. The words of the former US president resonate hard today, as they most likely will for an unforeseeable future, as the military-industrial complex and the psychopaths in charge of it are not going away anytime soon. That is, unless the people, with the help and unity of music and art, come together and tear it down.

Also read: Amplifiying Humanitarian Perspectives Through Music: An Interview With Fold

But as the band explains, this song is not only a history lesson, but also a commentary on the duality of someone so powerful as the US president, and, while protecive of democratic ideals, Eisenhower’s administration was also complicit in covert CIA operations that installed oppressive regies across the globe.

“This duality is woven into the track’s DNA, inviting listeners to critically reflect on the broader narrative. The track’s eerie, distorted guitars were recorded in 1998 on a 4-track cassette recorder in a suburban New York basement, giving it an anachronistic, nostalgic edge. The bass was created by pitch-shifting an electric guitar through a Korg Pandora FX unit, and the overall sound carries echoes of Portishead’s experimental 90s influence.”

“We pray that in the goodness of time all people will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower

In the Goodness of Time is out on all digital platforms + limited edition 7″ vinyl with Forever War B-side (25 uniquely adorned copies) on 21st of February, 2025. Hit that ‘Wishlist’ button on Bandcamp and better yet, ore-order the track. One little British pound is not much for a song that helps fuel the revolution.

News

A Jewish communist, labour activism and protest songs: a glimpse into a new book by Dave Schechter

Leave a comment

“What propelled the daughter of a renowned Jewish scholar to join a movement on the fringe of American society that rejected religion, capitalism, and other mainstream ideals?”

The answer is found in Dave Schechter’s fascinating book, A Life of the Party, about his great-aunt, Amy Schechter, a woman born in England and educated in the United States, and who devoted more than four decades to the Communist Party in a quest to improve the lives of working men and women.

Her work brought her all across the United States, and on her journey, among other things, she was acquainted with the power of song. Of particular interest to Shouts’ readers, this book includes sections with labor and protest music from 1920s-50s.

Among many others, there are such songs as ‘Red Flag’, a Socialist and Communist movements’ anthem, originally written in 1889, or ‘Mill Mother’s Lament’, a powerful protest song whose lyrics resonate just as hard today as they did in 1929 when Ella May Wiggins, a legendary protest singer and union activist, was murdered by corporate thugs ordered to silence her revolutionary voice and music.

Dave told me via email, that it felt important to him to include “the music that applied to the labor actions in which [his] great-aunt took part, whether it actually happened or history says it could have happened.”

‘A Life of the Party’, available through Fulton Books, which blends historical records with narrative fiction, is definitely a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the power of unity, labour unions, protest music and the strength of normal people standing up to their opressors.