Protest Songs

• Blog – Continue the idea of values. What ideas are being presented in these protest songs that echo back to the older works we’ve looked at?

These three protest songs all deal with the reoccurring themes of freedom and racism. In the protest song, “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round” the reoccurring themes are bravery and freedom. This song shows that those who sang this song were not scared of jail, “Ain’t gonna let no sheriff turn me ‘round” (Line 13) as well as a variety of other things. The song shows different examples of the different things people did to the slaves to try and make them give up hope of freedom. Freedom presents itself in that the words “turn around” mean that the slaves thought they could changes minds that they can be free. The slaves were very set on freedom; nothing was in their way. In this song all the whites are trying to get the African Americans to stop fighting racism. The song, “Strange Fruit” is a song about having a vision of hanging black men in the south; those are what the slaves were referring to each time they sang this song. This protest song dealt with racism directly. To me, this song stood out the most. It was as though it was different from the two others but in a way the same. In the song, “We Shall Overcome”, the main themes are believing and hope. The slaves believed that racism will be overcome in the future, they won’t give up and that they will win. “We’ll walk hand in hand someday.” (Line 6) All of these songs have the theme of anti-slavery and mention the horrible things that have happened to the slaves and the fact that they will never give up, which is how they are similar to the others we have read.

John Henry

John Henry is about a man named John Henry who from when he was a kid said that working on the railroad would kill him. “Setting on his mamma’s knee, He said The Big Bend Tunnel on the C. & O. Road Is gonna be the death of me.” (Verse 2) The ballad later goes on to tell that John Henry will be participating in a contest in which he has to race a steam drill. While John Henry beats the steam drill he died afterward. My interpretation on why he raced the steam drill is that it could have been for money or to fight a technological process because he wanted to prove that a man could beat technology. So, if John Henry did this contest because he was fed up with how the railroad company was treating him this ballad could have influenced the songs “The Message” and “N.Y. State of Mind.” In both of these songs the artist sings about how he is either about to be pushed over the edge or has been. In the ballad, “John Henry”, I think that he has been pushed over the edge because he let himself be. However I think that this ballad relates more to “The Message” because in that song the artist tells of how he is trying to the right thing throughout a struggle. In John Henry the railroad system is pushing more towards efficiency and not so much concerned about the workers. John Henry proves to them that a man can beat a steam drill and that the workers should be treated better. What makes me think that the railroad didn’t treat the workers well is because John Henry’s last words were, “Give me a cool drink of water ‘fore I die.” (Verse 19) To me that says that the workers had to work long hours without water or food. In “The Message” it also talks about living in a harsh environment, the ghetto. Both the ballad and “The Message” tell stories of how living life was hard.