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Protest 100: The Temptations – ‘Ball Of Confusion’

Posted on by dugtheship

Artist:          The Temptations

Song:           Ball Of Confusion (That’s What The World Is Today)

Album:        Greatest Hits II

Producer:    Norman Whitfield

Label:          Motown

Year:           1970

Notes:

When the band played on in 1970 it addressed the Vietnam War, segregation, white flight, drug abuse, crooked politicians, and a multitude of other topics. Not much has changed, but it makes clear one of the starkest dichotomies between then and now. Then it seemed normal for the people to question their government. Now…it’s not gonna work out as well if you don’t get out and vote. I don’t give a fuck if you never voted before and never do again. Now’s the time.

[alternate recording at the bottom]

Lyrics:

One, two
One, two, three, four

People moving out, people moving in
Why? Because of the color of their skin
Run, run, run but you sure can’t hide
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth
Vote for me and I’ll set you free
Rap on, brother, rap on

Well, the only person talking about love thy brother is the preacher
And it seems nobody’s interested in learning but the teacher
Segregation, determination, demonstration, integration
Aggravation, humiliation, obligation to my nation

Ball of confusion
Oh yeah, that’s what the world is today
Woo, hey, hey

The sale of pills are at an all time high
Young folks walking round with their heads in the sky
The cities ablaze in the summer time
And oh, the beat goes on

Evolution, revolution, gun control, sound of soul
Shooting rockets to the moon, kids growing up too soon
Politicians say more taxes will solve everything
And the band played on

So, round and around and around we go
Where the world’s headed, said nobody knows
Oh, great Googamooga
Can’t you hear me talking to you?

Just a ball of confusion
Oh yeah, that’s what the world is today
Woo, hey, hey

Fear in the air, tension everywhere
Unemployment rising fast, the Beatles new record’s a gas
And the only safe place to live is on an Indian reservation
And the band played on

Eve of destruction, tax deduction, city inspectors, bill collectors
Mod clothes in demand, population out of hand, suicide, too many bills
Hippies moving to the hills, people all over the world are shouting
‘End the war’ and the band played on

Great Googamooga
Can’t you hear me talking to you?

It’s a ball of confusion
That’s what the world is today, hey, hey
Let me hear ya, let me hear ya, let me hear ya

Sayin’ ball of confusion
That’s what the world is today, hey, hey
Let me hear ya, let me hear ya
Let me hear ya, let me hear ya, let me hear ya
Sayin’ ball of confusion

The version that introduced me to the song.
Numbers, 1985

Protest 100: Chambers Brothers – ‘Time Has Come Today’

Posted on by dugtheship

Artist:          Chambers Brothers

Song:           Time Has Come Today

Album:        The Time Has Come (1967)

Producer:    David Robinson

Label:          Columbia

Year:           1966

Notes:
It’s in the title. It’s in the chorus. It’s in the ticking clock and chants of “Time!” Now is the time to act. Later might not get here otherwise.

Columbia Records boss Clive Davis forbid the band to record the song. Willie Chambers told the story in a Songfacts interview: “After we signed with Columbia Records, there was a big party with all the food and booze and all this stuff. All the important people were there and we got to meet all of the head hogs and Clive was there. He was there for a couple of hours and he says, ‘Well, I must be going, I have other appointments.’ He immediately leans back in the door, ‘Oh, by the way, that song ‘Time Has Come Today’ that you guys do, we won’t be doing that. We won’t do that kind of shit on this label.’”

[alternate recordings at the bottom]

Lyrics:

Time has come today
Young hearts can go their way
Can’t put it off another day
I don’t care what others say
They say we don’t listen anyway
Time has come today
(Hey)

Oh
The rules have changed today (Hey)
I have no place to stay (Hey)
I’m thinking about the subway (Hey)
My love has flown away (Hey)
My tears have come and gone (Hey)
Oh my Lord, I have to roam (Hey)
I have no home (Hey)
I have no home (Hey)

Now the time has come (Time)
There’s no place to run (Time)
I might get burned up by the sun (Time)
But I had my fun (Time)
I’ve been loved and put aside (Time)
I’ve been crushed by the tumbling tide (Time)
And my soul has been psychedelicized (Time)

Now the time has come (Time)
There are things to realize (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
Time has come today (Time)

Time [x11]

Oh
Now the time has come (Time)
There’s no place to run (Time)
I might get burned up by the sun (Time)
But I had my fun (Time)
I’ve been loved and put aside (Time)
I’ve been crushed by tumbling tide (Time)
And my soul has been psychedelicized (Time)

Now the time has come (Time)
There are things to realize (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
Time has come today (Time)

Time [x4]
Yeah

Original version

Album version

 

The version that introduced me to the song

Protest 100: Run The Jewels – ‘Ju$t’

Posted on by dugtheship

Artist:          Run The Jewels

Song:           Ju$t

Album:        RTJ4

Producer:    El-P

Label:          Jewel Runners

Year:           2020

Notes:
Killer Mike crushes the words ‘real deal.’ He and El-P are Run The Jewels. Together they’ve been talking about what’s happening way before it even started. On ‘Ju$t’ the Atlanta/New York duo (with guests Pharrell Williams and Zach de la Rocha) takes direct aim at their country’s troubled racial history. El-P started working on ‘RTJ4’ in late 2018 and originally had a June 5, 2020, digital release scheduled. RTJ moved it up a couple of days though as protests broke out across the country in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, a process best explained themselves:

“Fuck it, why wait. The world is infested with bullshit so here’s something raw to listen to while you deal with it all. We hope it brings you some joy. Stay safe and hopeful out there and thank you for giving 2 friends the chance to be heard and do what they love. With sincere love and gratitude, Jaime + Mike” (Instagram)

[PS: Killer Mike is a metal head.]

Excerpt from ‘Unreality’  —
“We got some shit that needs dealing with. Now!”

Lyrics:
Mastered economics ’cause you took yourself from squalor (slave)
Mastered academics ’cause your grades say you a scholar (slave)
Mastered Instagram ’cause you can instigate a follow (shit)
Look at all these slave masters posin’ on yo’ dollar (get it, yeah)

Look at all these slave masters (ay)
Posin’ on yo’ dollar (get it, yeah)
Look at all these slave masters (ay)
Posin’ on yo’ dollar (get it)
Look at all these slave masters (ay)
Posin’ on yo’ dollar (get it, yeah)
Look at all these slave masters

Ay
Business time, I’m on mine, I be mindin’ mine (make money)
Every time on my grind, I’m just tryna shine (stay sunny)
Make a dollar, government, they want a dozen dimes (no cap)
The petty kind, might kill ya ’cause they see you shine (stay strapped)
I done had to have a talk with myself many times (for real)
Am I a hypocrite ’cause I know I did plenty crimes? (yes, I’m ill)
I get broke too many times, I might slang some dimes (back to trappin’)
You believe corporations runnin’ marijuana? (How that happen? Ooh)
And your country gettin’ ran by a casino owner (ooh)
Pedophiles sponsor all these fuckin’ racist bastards (they do)
And I told you once befo’ that you should kill your master (it’s true)
Now that’s the line that’s probably gon’ get my ass assassinated (yeah-yeah, yeah)

Master of these politics, you swear that you got options (slave, yeah)
Master of opinion ’cause you vote with the white collar (slave)
The Thirteenth Amendment says that slavery’s abolished (shit)
Look at all these slave masters posin’ on yo’ dollar (get it)

Look at all these slave masters (ay)
Posin’ on yo’ dollar (get it, yeah)
Look at all these slave masters (ay)
Posin’ on yo’ dollar (get it)
Look at all these slave masters (ay)
Posin’ on yo’ dollar (get it, yeah)
Look at all these slave masters

Man, you better duck out, get the bag and then bug out (uh)
Try to run home, you might run your luck out
‘Cause just when your bases loaded
They’ll roll a grenade in the dugout (you’re out)
Earth folk, not a mellow bunch
We got our thumbs in the air like hell or bust (uh)
Look at who we done blessed with our trust
I don’t think we’ll be left with too much
Hand on my heart and my mind on my drugs
Got a Vonnegut punch for your Atlas shrugs
They love to not love it’s just that dumb
Lord, sweet Buddha please make me numb
Brain bounce off walls like a sentient Roomba
Just found out his creator’s stupid
Lit by the supermoon, I’m too lucid
Plus got shrooms in the blood, I’m zoomin’
Beep beep, Richie, this is New York City
The X on the map where the pain keep hitting
Just us ducks here sitting
Where murderous chokehold cops still earnin’ a livin’
Funny how some say money don’t matter
That’s rich now, isn’t it, get it? Comedy
Try to sell a pack a smokes to get food
Get killed and it’s not an anamoly
But hey, it’s just money

Mastered economics ’cause you took yourself from squalor (slave, yeah)
Mastered academics ’cause your grades say you a scholar (slave)
Mastered Instagram ’cause you can instigate a follow (shit, yeah)
Look at all these slave masters (yeah-yeah)
Let it sink in (yeah)

2020, run the map
Raw, uncut, yeah my hourglass
Don’t watch it spill to the bottom half
You see the piece, now run it fast
On the tarmac, in a starter jack
C4 when I run it back
Like a track star, run a record lap?
Nah, like when his needle catch (yeah)
Clean look, poet pugilist
A shooters view, a Zapruder flick (yeah)
Too rude for ya rudiments
Who convinced you you could move against the crew?
In this, comin’ up through the fence
Off shore outta Port-au-Prince (yeah)
Overture left his fingerprints
On our hearts at the gate and the world our residence
How can we be the peace?
When the beast gonna reach for the worst (yeah)
Tear all the flesh off the Earth
Stage set for a deafening reckoning
Quick like the pace of a verse
So I’m questioning this quest for things
As a recipe for early death threatening (yeah)
But the breath in me is weaponry
For you, it’s just money

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.

Protest 100: Public Enemy – ‘State of the Union (STFU)’

Posted on by dugtheship

Artist:          Public Enemy

Song:           State of the Union (STFU)

Album:        State of the Union (STFU)

Producer:    DJ Premier

Label:          Enemy Records

Year:           2020

Notes:
‘Pulled together over the course of a month with producer DJ Premier, the premise of the song, a follow up to Public Enemy’s 2017 release Nothing is Quick in the Desert, is simple, D told American Songwriter. It’s an urgent call to get the president out of office—now.’

“We want to Nixon-ize this dude,” he says. “Nixon didn’t finish out his second term. This guy can just finish the one. Go on back to your casinos, your beauty pageants, and reality TV show. That’s all man.”

‘State of the Union’ started taking form while D was working with Prophets of Rage, the supergroup featuring PE’s DJ Lord, Cypress Hill’s B-Real, and Tom Morello, Brad Wilk, and Timothy Robert Commerford of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. When roused by the administration, he kept jotting phrases and lyrics into his notebook. Whenever he saw the acronym for SOTU, the president’s annual address, D always replaced it in his head with “STFU,” fusing the track’s persistent call out. ‘Sorry ass motherfucker. Stay away from me,’ just came from when I get into any situation, or near a person, that is toxic,” says D. “It’s easy to say, ‘stay away from me.’”’

Excerpt from ‘Unreality’  —
“If he was nearby in a state of partial dismemberment there’d be lunching sharks in the vicinity”

Lyrics:
Go, go, go, just go
Go, go, go (we have)

Whatever it takes, rid this dictator
POTUS my tail, Ass debater
Prime-time Preemo, rhyme-time crime
Like no other in this lifetime
White house killer, dead in lifelines
Vote this joke out, or die tryin’
Unprecedented, demented, many president’d
Nazi Gestapo dictator defended
It’s not what you think, it’s what you follow
Run for them jewels, drink from that bottle
Another four years gonna gut y’all hollow
Gutted out, dried up, broke and can’t borrow

State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me
State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me
State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me
State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me

Mister, I am the law and you are not
In fact, I’m god, I got a lot
Mister these united breaks takeover come over
Orange hair, fear the comb-over
Here’s another scare, keep them hands in the air
Better not breathe, you dare not dare
Don’t say nothing, don’t think nothing
Make America great again the middle just love it
When he wanna talk, walk y’all straight to them ovens

Human beings of color, yeah we be sufferin’ (come on)

State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me
State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me
State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me
State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me

Go, go, go, go, go
Go, go, go, go, go

Better rock that vote or vote for hell
Real generals now, not some USFL
Not a fuckin’ game, I dare not mention his name
Operation 45, yeah it’s the same thing
Sounds like Berlin burnin’, same thing
History’s a mystery if y’all ain’t learning
End this clown show, for real a state bozo
Nazi cult 45 Gestapo

State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me
State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me
State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me
State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me

State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me
State of the Union, shut the fuck up
Sorry ass motherfucker
Stay away from me

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.

Protest 100: Machine Head – ‘Stop The Bleeding’

Posted on by dugtheship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58W-m0acrs8

Artist:          Machine Head

Song:           Stop The Bleeding

Album:        Civil Unrest

Producer:    Robb Flynn

Label:          Nuclear Blast

Year:           2020

Notes:
Written just days after the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, ‘Stop The Bleeding’ channels the venom of Machine Head leader Robb Flynn’s lyrics through a call-and-response delivery teaming him with Killswitch Engage frontman Jesse Leach. Says Flynn: “I wrote and sang the lyrics on Wednesday, May 27th, 2020, the day that the four officers who murdered George Floyd were (originally) not charged with anything. This day was engulfed in protests and riots across America. I drove into Oakland past large demonstrations already happening and in a fury wrote down everything I was feeling after watching the horrific footage. Within hours, what I wanted to say, what I needed to say had been recorded in the song.”

Excerpt from ‘Unreality’  —
“Like you said, there sure ain’t a fuckin’ thing to stop them out here.”

Lyrics:
The endless scroll of human tragedy
I swipe along as the days go by
Another brother murdered out in the streets
I connect to the shame, we don’t know what it’s like

Born lucky cause the color of skin
America your heart is caving in
Somehow I thought this was the land of the free
Where is our humanity?
Our humanity

Beating after beating
Throat choked under knee
Help me please
Because I can’t breathe
Just stop the bleeding

Body after body
Piles up in the streets
Stand and fight
Not another life
Just stop the bleeding

And some will claim it’s a conspiracy
The fake news out to undermine
When riots fight off white supremacy
Never given a choice, so they’re drawing a line

I stare and look out at the world in disgust
These men are dying over nothing just
Good men stand up and show your bravery
For a lost democracy
Our democracy

Beating after beating
Throat choked under knee
Help me please
Because I can’t breathe
Just stop the bleeding

Body after body
Piles up in the streets
Stand and fight

Not another life
Just stop the bleeding

Our strife
Our struggle
Fight through these open wounds

Beating after beating
Throat choked under knee
Help me please
Because I can’t breathe
Just stop the bleeding

Body after body
Piled up in the streets
Stand and fight
Not another life
Just stop the bleeding now

Our strife
Our struggle
Fight through these open wounds

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.

Protest 100: Power Trip – ‘Armageddon Blues’

Posted on by dugtheship

Artist:          Power Trip

Song:           Armageddon Blues

Album:        Armageddon Blues

Producer:    (self)

Label:          Dark Operative (2018)

Year:           2009

Notes:
Power Trip has been laying down socially conscious crossover thrash out of Dallas, Tex., since 2008 and ‘Armageddon Blues’ gets almost back to the very beginning. Focused primarily on man’s failed stewardship of earth, the ultimate message is do what you can while you can but be getting your affairs in order in the meantime!

Excerpt from ‘Unreality’  —
“Neither karma nor irony were things Nathan spent much time mulling; except for when he once wondered to himself how he’d ended up getting into so much trouble despite being kind to women.”

Lyrics:
PROGRESSION has ceased!
We’ve doomed ourselves
Armageddon blues cause I can’t fool myself
And though we’d like to pretend that we have the choice
To shape the world without paying the price

Petty obsessions are the least of our transgressions
We’ve raped the land for power and possession
Two thousand years and all we’ll have
Is a planetary toxic deathbed

We’re not blind, we just lost the vision
As the sun remains unrisen
Sewn seeds can never come to fruition
And so the soul remains undriven

THE SOUL REMAINS UNDRIVEN!

You cannot stop the hands of time
You can’t break its wrists because we ignored the signs
In the final hour i’ll do what i can
Despite the futile attempts to stop a violent end
After all, in all that we’ve done
Do you really think we deserve forgiveness? NO!

Light for humanity is looking dim
If there’s a god, we’ve surely displaced him
Existence unfiltered
We took the gift of life only to burn it in return
Haunting reality, apocalyptic end is guaranteed!

Chemical dawn, come on and bring it on!
Find solace in the warmth of nuclear fog…
And let your armageddon blues turn to bliss!

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.

Protest 100: The Clash – ‘White Riot’

Posted on by dugtheship

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m_2XGm9GqQ

Artist:          The Clash

Song:           White Riot

Album:        The Clash

Producer:    Mickey Foote

Label:          CBS

Year:           1977 (US 1979)

Notes:
The Clash’s debut single lets you know what they had in store: short, sharp examinations of class divisions in a multiethnic world. It was written following Joe Strummer and bassist Paul Simonon’s experiences during the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival riots. The UK’s 1975 inflation rate was higher than 20%. Notting Hill was still working-class and inhabited by a mix of poor whites and Jamaican immigrants. The tinder was dry and heavy-handed policing of the annual event provided the spark.

As Strummer told NME: “The only thing we’re saying about the blacks is that they’ve got their problems and they’re prepared to deal with them. But white men, they just ain’t prepared to deal with them—everything’s too cosy. They’ve got stereos, drugs, hi-fis, cars. The poor blacks and the poor whites are in the same boat.”

Excerpt from ‘Unreality’  —
“Anyone inside the machine who might have opposed such measures was branded unpatriotic and drummed out at the next possibility.”

Lyrics:
White riot, I want to riot
White riot, a riot of our own
White riot, I want to riot
White riot, a riot of our own

Black man gotta lotta problems
But they don’t mind throwing a brick
White people go to school
Where they teach you how to be thick

And everybody’s doing
Just what they’re told to
And nobody wants
To go to jail

White riot, I want to riot
White riot, a riot of our own
White riot, I want to riot
White riot, a riot of our own

All the power’s in the hands
Of people rich enough to buy it
While we walk the street
Too chicken to even try it

And everybody’s doing
Just what they’re told to
And nobody wants
To go to jail

White riot, I want to riot
White riot, a riot of our own
White riot, I want to riot
White riot, a riot of our own

Hey, you, standing in line
Are we gonna sign an agreement?

White riot, I want to riot
White riot, a riot of our own
White riot, I want to riot
White riot, a riot of our own

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.

Protest 100: Black Sabbath – ‘Children of the Grave’

Posted on by dugtheship

Artist:          Black Sabbath

Song:           Children of the Grave

Album:        Master of Reality

Producer:    Rodger Bain

Label:          Warner Bros.

Year:           1971

Notes:
Geezer Butler is a pacifist and this song picks up right where ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Electric Funeral’ left off. War is bad. Love is all. And the future is lost if we don’t realize that. Add in some swirling extra percussion and a looped, whispered “Children of the grave…” at the end for spooky effect, and the doom warning is complete. Ozzy also called it “the most kickass song we’d ever recorded,” in his ‘I Am Ozzy’ autobiography. Three nails verses and no chorus will do that!

Lyrics:
Revolution in their minds the children start to march
Against the world in which they have to live
And all the hate that’s in their hearts
They’re tired of being pushed around
And told just what to do
They’ll fight the world until they’ve won
And love comes flowing through, yeah

Children of tomorrow live in the tears that fall today
Will the sun rise up tomorrow bringing peace in any way?
Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear?
Can they win the fight for peace or will they disappear, yeah

So you children of the world
Listen to what I say
If you want a better place to live in
Spread the words today
Show the world that love is still alive you must be brave
Or you children of today are children of the grave, yeah

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.

Protest 100: Nuclear Assault – ‘When Freedom Dies’

Posted on by dugtheship

Artist:          Nuclear Assault

Song:           When Freedom Dies

Album:        Handle With Care

Producer:    Randy Burns

Label:          In-Effect

Year:           1989

Notes:
From the second you see the cover, ‘Handle With Care’ presents itself as the pinnacle of socially conscious thrash metal. And it delivers song after song (‘Critical Mass,’ ‘Search & Seizure,’ ‘Torture Tactics’) of supercharged condemnation, with catchy riffs almost everywhere. Police repression, environmental destruction, the balance between freedom and security, fascism, and abuse of authority all take a beating before the journey’s over.

Excerpt from ‘Unreality’  —
“The freedom of assembly on the part of the nation’s youth was legislated against to the extent that any person wishing to host a group larger than 100 people 16-years of age or older had to first register the event and then accept criminal liability for any misdeeds.”

.”

Lyrics:
United in a time, a time of need
Against a common foe, the enemy
The years of death endured, the years of pain
Against an evil force, a force not sane

We become the enemy
When freedom dies for security

And then the world endured, a victory won
Against an insane man and his cohorts
But once the war was done, blind fear prevailed
And years of darkness came, freedom was nailed

We become the enemy
When freedom dies for security

We let our freedom die, we let it wane
We feared an enemy’s atomic rain
But what was on our minds, what we became
We and the enemy
We are the same

We become the enemy
When freedom dies for security
We become the enemy
When freedom dies for security

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.

Protest 100: Aerosmith – ‘Nobody’s Fault’

Posted on by dugtheship

Artist:          Aerosmith

Song:           Nobody’s Fault

Album:        Rocks

Producer:    Jack Douglas

Label:          Columbia

Year:           1976

Notes:
This one might seem like a stretch to some, but it’s one of my favorite Aerosmith songs and I heard it the way I heard it for decades before learning what actually inspired it. Written by guitarist Brad Whitford and vocalist Steven Tyler, ostensibly about earthquakes and flying, ‘Nobody’s Fault’ can be easily heard as offering a view of a world gone mad due to man’s neglect. That’s my interpretation and I’m sticking to it!

Excerpt from ‘Unreality’  —
“To do that we’ll need to head up the bridge and make sure nobody’s gonna be messing with the throttle.”

Lyrics:
Lord I must be dreamin’
What else could this be
Everybody’s screamin’
Running’ for the sea

Holy lands are sinkin’
Birds take to the sky
The prophets are all stinking drunk
I know the reason why

Eyes are full of desire
Mind is so ill at ease
Everything is on fire
Shit piled up to the knees

Out of rhyme or reason
Everyone’s to blame
Children of the season
Don’t be lame

Sorry, you’re so sorry
Don’t be sorry
Man has known
And now he’s blown it
Upside down and hell’s the only sound
We did an awful job
And now they say it’s nobody’s fault

Old St. Andres
Seven years ago
Shove it up their richters
Red lines stop and go
Noblemen of courage
Listen with their ears
Spoke but how discouragin’
When no one really hears

One of these day’s you’ll be sorry
Too many houses on the stilt
Three million years or just a story
Four on the floor up to the hilt

Out of rhyme or reason
Everyone’s to blame
Children of the season
Don’t be lame

Sorry, we’re so sorry
Don’t be sorry
Man has known
And now he’s blown it
Upside down and hell’s the only sound
We did an awful job
And now we’re just a little too late

Eyes are full of desire
Mind is so ill at ease
Everything is on fire
Shit piled up in debris

California showtime
Five o’clock’s the news
Everybody’s concubine
Was prone to take a snooze

Sorry, we’re so sorry
Don’t be sorry
Man has known
And now he’s blown it
Upside down and hell’s the only sound
We did an awful job
And now we’re just a little too late

—

‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.