Dorrk Dot Com

This one was fun due to my inexplicable love of lefty agitation ballads, which I discovered when my junior high Careers class watched “Harlan County U.S.A.” and I was haunted by the backwoods cry of “Which Side Are You On?” Special mention for this section goes to amazing 10-disc collection Songs for Political Action and The Best of Broadside 1962-1968: Anthems of the American Underground from the Pages of Broadside Magazine.

Even though I fall on the opposing side of the some the protests in these songs, I still think that this is a key facet of American culture, and there’s no denying the powerful impact that the 1960s counterculture still has on our media today. I had to draw the line at Bob Dylan’s idiotic “God On Our Side,” however.

Since this list is aimed at kids, I tried to keep away from the more hysterical and cynical political subject matter, and when dealing with the Civil Rights era, you need to take care in introducing the foreign concept of racial prejudice to children who are oblivious that such a thing exists.

More source material here.

1 – Which Side Are You On? – The Almanac Singers
2 – We Shall Not Be Moved – The Weavers
3 – We Shall Overcome – Jewish Young Folksingers
4 – A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall – Pete Seeger
5 – A Change Is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke
6 – Times They Are A-changin, The – Bob Dylan
7 – Mr. Tambourine Man – The Byrds
8 – Turn, Turn, Turn – The Byrds
9 – Subterranean Homesick Blues – Bob Dylan
10 – For What It’s Worth – Buffalo Springfield
11 – Abraham, Martin & John – Dion
12 – The Ballad Of Martin Luther King – Mike Millius
13 – Revolution – The Beatles
14 – Easy To Be Hard – Three Dog Night
15 – Get Together – Youngbloods
16 – Star Spangled Banner – Jimi Hendrix
17 – Amazing Grace – Judy Collins
18 – Ohio – Neil Young
19 – Share The Land – The Guess Who
20 – United We Stand – Brotherhood of Man
21 – Who’ll Stop the Rain – Creedence Clearwater Revival
22 – Southern Man – Neil Young
23 – Have You Ever Seen The Rain – Creedence Clearwater Revival
24 – Maggie’s Farm – Bob Dylan
25 – What’s Going on – Marvin Gaye
26 – Signs – Five Man Electrical Band
27 – Black and White – Three Dog Night
28 – Fire and Rain – James Taylor
29 – Lift Every Voice & Sing – Ray Charles

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