Post-Roe, a look at how old and new protest music reflects political moments

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Last Friday night, some friends and I popped into a crowded basement bar in Provincetown, Mass. Pianist Billy Hough and singer Darlene Van Alstyne began a familiar old song.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SHAPIRO: It was just hours after the Supreme Court had sided with the state of Mississippi in a case that overturned the nationwide right to an abortion. Suddenly, this tune from 1963 took on new meaning. It caused a lot of controversy when Nina Simone wrote it because the title is provocative.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BILLY HOUGH AND DARLENE VAN ALSTYNE: (Singing) And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam.

SHAPIRO: The performance last Friday was not caught on tape. This is a recording of them on a different night. "Mississippi Goddam" is not a song of consolation or resolve. It doesn't offer the solace of protest tunes like "We Shall Overcome" or "This Land Is Your Land." This tune is a howl of rage.

DARLENE VAN ALSTYNE: The more I sing this song, the more pissed off I get. How about you?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeah.

(CHEERING)

SHAPIRO: It made me want to know more about the role of music in moments of political upheaval and social change, and so we've invited two experts who have literally written books on the subject - Columbia University Professor Shana Redmond and NPR music critic Ann Powers. Good to have you both here.

SHANA REDMOND: Thank you for having me.

ANN POWERS, BYLINE: Hello. Thanks for having me, Ari.

(SOUNDBITE OF NINA SIMONE'S "MISSISSIPPI GODDAM")

SHAPIRO: To start specifically with that ferocious Nina Simone song from 1963, how do you reflect on the fact that it still hits so hard today?

REDMOND: I think there's only a sense of continuity that we can take from its legacy - from its usage in this very moment. The structures to which Nina Simone was responding have continued to face us in this future that she hoped would be free and clear and beautiful.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MISSISSIPPI GODDAM")

NINA SIMONE: (Singing) You don't have to live next to me. Just give me my equality.

REDMOND: And so the rage that she brought to the production of that song - the moment at which she said, I'm either going to take up arms, I'm going to buy a gun or I'm going to write this song is precisely where so many people see themselves fitting in today.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MISSISSIPPI GODDAM")

SIMONE: That's it.

SHAPIRO: Except I wondered, as I was listening to it, are we hearing a protest song from 1963 because today's music just doesn't stack up - it doesn't compare? Ann, what do you think?

POWERS: Well, Ari, I think, you know, it's always tempting to say it was better in the good old days. But in fact, the lineage of protest music is one of constant dialogue and constant reinterpretations within these songs. And one song that really stood out for me after the Supreme Court decision came down on Friday was a rewriting of an American anthem, "My Country Tis Of Thee," by a young singer-songwriter named - who goes by Reina del Cid...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

REINA DEL CID: (Singing) My country tis of thee...

POWERS: Who rewrote the song to have these incredibly cutting and almost despairing lyrics.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

REINA DEL CID: (Singing) Land where my mothers cried, fought, bled, and sacrificed for rights which we are now denied. Let freedom ring.

POWERS: That is another example of how to engage with protest is to engage with history, and musicians can do that so artfully.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

REINA DEL CID: (Singing) Behind dusty oaken doors, six robed dinosaurs conspired to wage a holy war over our bodies.

SHAPIRO: Shana, has there been a moment of music for you in the last week that really hit home?

REDMOND: One of the songs that has come up for me that was brought to mind again through social media was Digable Planets' "La Femme Fetal."

(SOUNDBITE OF DIGABLE PLANETS' "LA FEMME FETAL")

REDMOND: That song, which was very explicitly about abortion 30 years ago, is actually now making the rounds again not because it's new, but because of its documentation of a certain kind of prophecy.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA FEMME FETAL")

DIGABLE PLANETS: (Rapping) The pro-lifers harassed me outside the clinic and called me a murderer.

REDMOND: That Clarence Thomas is already represented in the song, that the stories they're telling about fascism and the ways in which this is not about your protection or safety - this is about control - all of those things are at the fever pitch point of discussions around this decision this week, and so I'm drawn back here very solidly.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA FEMME FETAL")

DIGABLE PLANETS: (Rapping) If Roe v. Wade was overturned, would not the desire remain intact, leaving young girls to risk their health, doctors to botch and watch as they killed themselves.

SHAPIRO: You're both referencing songs from an earlier time that are being reinterpreted or revived. Is there present-day music - stuff being written right now by people who are kind of at the cutting edge of the culture that you think has the power of the great protest songs of an earlier era.

POWERS: After the murder of George Floyd, there was a huge groundswell of songs - of music being made. One particularly poignant one was by Anderson .Paak. It's a song called "Lockdown."

(SOUNDBITE OF ANDERSON .PAAK'S "LOCKDOWN")

POWERS: And the song really represented not only the spirit of resistance, but the exhaustion that overcomes people when, you know, life itself requires resistance.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOCKDOWN")

ANDERSON PAAK: (Rapping) We was tryin' to protest, then the fires broke out. Look out for the secret agents, they be planted in the crowd.

SHAPIRO: What do you think makes a great protest song? Because, I'll admit, I've seen a few attempts on social media in the last week that, for me, have just not connected - have fallen flat - have landed kind of with a splat. Shana, what do you think makes a protest song work?

REDMOND: I think it has to be connected to people's experiences. You have to be pulling your information, your sentiments, but also your sound from the people around you. You have to have a real sense of the ground and be able to demonstrate that you're in community with people.

POWERS: Also, I will say, humor can sometimes be a strong force within protest and something that brings people together. After Friday's ruling, at the Glastonbury Music Festival, Olivia Rodrigo joined Lily Allen to perform Lily Allen's song - we'll just call it "F You."

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

OLIVIA RODRIGO: This song goes out to the justices - Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas...

(CHEERING)

SHAPIRO: It's like a sunny, bouncy pop tune.

POWERS: It's a dagger in the purse, Ari (laughter). And it was funny. It was powerful. It was quite direct, and it just spread like wildfire.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "F*** YOU")

LILY ALLEN: (Singing) Look inside. Look inside your tiny mind.

REDMOND: And we should not discount how significant it is that it be danceable or movable - right? - that this is the joy. Even if the lyrics are devastating, that there is joy and movement - literal movement in these songs. And I think a lot of the statements that are going to come out around this that people are going to identify with are going to happen live and in real time. But I think if we're also pulling on our traditions and on our existing knowledges, I have to say "You Don't Own Me" hits really, really hard right now, right?

SHAPIRO: That Lesley Gore song from...

REDMOND: The Lesley Gore is impossible to ignore in this moment. It's just a pitch-perfect declarative sentence and one that I can feel very intimately in this moment.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU DON'T OWN ME")

LESLEY GORE: (Singing) You don't own me. I'm not just one of your many toys.

SHAPIRO: Professor Shana Redmond of Columbia is the author of "Anthem: Social Movements And The Sound Of Solidarity In The African Diaspora," and Ann Powers is a music critic for NPR and author of "Good Booty: Love And Sex, Black And White, Body And Soul In American Music." Thank you both for talking with us today.

REDMOND: Such a pleasure.

POWERS: Thanks so much, Ari.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU DON'T OWN ME")

GORE: (Singing) When I go out with you, don't put me on display. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.