They'll Never Keep Us Down

They’ll Never Keep Us Down: Songs of Protest, 1913–2018
Aaron Smithers
Southern Cultures, Volume 24, Number 3, Fall 2018, pp. 165-167 (Article)
Published by The University of North Carolina Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/scu.2018.0040
For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/705148
[ Access provided at 1 May 2020 18:36 GMT from The Library of California State University, Fullerton ]
Illustration by Bill Thelen.
Liner Notes
They’ll Never Keep Us Down

Songs of Protest, 1913–2018
b y A a ro n S m i t h e r s, M u s i c E d i t o r
Hazel Dickens wrote “They’ll Never Keep Us Down” in 1976 for the soundtrack to Barbara Kopple’s Oscar-
winning documentary Harlan County, USA. In Dickens’s lyrics, “they” are the rich men who prioritize profits
over people, who “rob, steal, and kill” to maintain their power. Songs of protest have been around as long as
humans have made music, and the “they” in these songs is not exclusively rich men but shifts according to
the socio-historical context of the singer, or the needs of a community organizing around a common cause
for whom the song provides a rallying cry. “They” can be any people, institutions, or structures that would
oppress or otherwise subjugate another’s human rights. While protest songs are often communiqués for a
specific audience, the power of the medium allows for transcendence of the subject and can lead to greater
understanding of our shared humanity. We may not know who “they” are, but when we listen, we are ener-
gized, outraged, and connected.
The songs collected here span over a century, and the emotions and issues distilled in the music intersect
constructs of race, class, sexuality, and politics: workers demand decent wages; farmers struggle against
industrial agriculture; African Americans stand up for equal rights; prisoners lament the corruption of the
criminal justice system; gender-nonconforming persons affirm their identities; artists reject the strictures
of genre; immigrants and “others” have names. Not just a vehicle for airing grievances, protest songs act as
focal points for engagement, catalysts for change, and inspiration for action. They offer hope and a vision
of a better world. Like Allen Toussaint, we can hold Lee Dorsey’s words close, a mantra: “Oh yes we can, I
know we can can, yes we can can, why can’t we? If we wanna, yes we can can.”
Playlist streaming at southerncultures.org/article/music-protest:

1 | “There Is Power in a Union (1913)” 9 | “Hamlet Chicken Plant Disaster”
Entertainment Workers IU 630 Jello Biafra with Mojo Nixon &
with Utah Phillips the Toadliquors
Don’t Mourn—Organize! Songs of Labor Songwriter Joe Hill (1984) Prairie Home Invasion (1994)
2 | “Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues” 10 | “I Hate the Capitalist System” Barbara Dane
Skip James (1931) I Hate the Capitalist System (1973)
3 | “Weave Room Blues” 11 | “Genocide” Link Wray

The Dixon Brothers (1936) Yesterday—Today (1969)
4 | “Aragon Mill” Si Kahn 12 | “Los Deportados (Deportee)”

In My Heart (1994) Tish Hinojosa
After the Fair (2013)
5 | “Tom Moore Blues” Lightnin’ Hopkins
The Texas Bluesman (1968) 13 | “Alabama” John Coltrane
Live at Birdland (1963)
6 | “Heartland” Willie Nelson with
Bob Dylan 14 | “Freedom Day” Max Roach with
Across the Borderline (1993) Abbey Lincoln
We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite (1960)
7 | “Campesino” Piñata Protest
Plethora (2010) 15 | “Let Freedom Ring” Terry Allen and
the Panhandle Mystery Band with
8 | “9 to 5” Dolly Parton Surachai Janitmatorn & Caravan
9 to 5 and Odd Jobs (1980)
Amerasia (1987)
16 | “The Freedom Rider” Art Blakey & 34 | “The Riddle” Ornette Coleman Trio
The Jazz Messengers At the Golden Circle, Stockholm (1965)
The Freedom Rider (1964)
35 | “A Change Is Gonna Come” Sam Cooke
17 | “Birmingham Sunday” Joan Baez Ain’t That Good News (1964)
5 (1964)
36 | “We Rise” Rhiannon Giddens, with
18 | “Here’s to the State of Mississippi” Pura FÉ and Charly Lowry
Phil Ochs We Rise (2014)
I Ain’t Marching Anymore (1965)
37 | “Take This Hammer” Toumani Diabaté
19 | “Backlash Blues” Nina Simone and Taj Mahal
Sings the Blues (1967) Kulanjan (1999)
20 | “How Much Can I Stand?” Gladys Bentley 38 | “Take This Job and Shove It”
(1928) David Allan Coe
Family Album (1978)
21 | “Any Other Way” Jackie Shane
Any Other Way (1967) 39 | “Lavender Country” Lavender Country
Lavender Country (1973)
22 | “Ballad of the Sad Young Men”
Roberta Flack 40 | “Chicano” Rumel Fuentes with
First Take (1969) Los Pingüinos Del Norte
Del Mero Corazon (1978)
23 | “Up Against The Wall, Red Neck”
Jerry Jeff Walker and The 41 | “Say It Loud—I’m Black And I’m Proud”
Lost Gonzo Band James Brown
¡Viva Terlingua! (1973) Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud (1969)
24 | “Hard Out Here (2011 Edition)” 42 | “You Don’t Know Me” Mykki Blanco
Casby & Colby Mykki (2016)
Welcome to Rob Co. (2011)
43 | “Caddo Revival” Jim Pepper
25 | “Backstreets of Downtown Augusta” The Path (1988)
Anne Romaine
Broadside Ballads, Vol. 5: Time Is Running Out (1970)
44 | “Mi Gente” J Balvin & Willy William,
featuring Beyoncé (2017)
26 | “I Got Too Much Time for the Crime I Done”
J. B. Smith 45 | “Idle No More” Pura Fé
Sacred Seed (2015)
Ever Since I Have Been a Man Full Grown (1965)
27 | “Are They Gonna Make Us Outlaws Again?” 46 | “Corrido De Gregorio Cortez” Ramon Ayala
Hazel Dickens Y Sus Bravos Del Norte
Corridos Famosos - Contrabando y Traicion (1975)
By the Sweat of My Brow (1983)
28 | “Crooked Officer” Geto Boys 47 | “Red Revolution” StenJoddi,

Till Death Do Us Part (1993)
featuring Thomas X
The 7th Generation Prophecy (2016)
29 | “Pardon Denied Again”
Robert Pete Williams 48 | “Human Garbage” MAKE
Pilgrimage of Loathing (2016)
Those Prison Blues (1959)
30 | “God Bless America—For What” 49 | “Impeach the President”

Swamp Dogg The Honey Drippers
45 rpm single (1973)
Rat On! (1971)
31 | “Wasteland of the Free” Iris DeMent 50 | “Freedom of Choice” Earth, Wind & Fire
Powerlight (1983)
The Way I Should (1996)
32 | “The Bourgeois Blues” Lead Belly 51 | “Yes We Can Can” Allen Toussaint
Our New Orleans (2005)
Negro Sinful Songs (1939)
33 | “La Granja” Los Tigres Del Norte

La Granja (2009)
Liner Notes 167

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They’ll Never Keep Us Down: Songs of Protest, 1913–2018

Published by The University of North Carolina Press

For additional information about this article

They’ll Never Keep Us Down

Playlist streaming at southerncultures.org/article/music-protest:

3 | “Weave Room Blues” 11 | “Genocide” Link Wray

4 | “Aragon Mill” Si Kahn 12 | “Los Deportados (Deportee)”

28 | “Crooked Officer” Geto Boys 47 | “Red Revolution” StenJoddi,

30 | “God Bless America—For What” 49 | “Impeach the President”

33 | “La Granja” Los Tigres Del Norte

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