The power, passion and possibilities of political songwriting

I’ve never written a political song. Ever. I kind of feel like I wouldn’t touch the genre with a ten-foot pole, but I know it’s because I think I would fail miserably. Certainly I greatly admire successful protest/political songwriters including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg, Neil Young, and the like. But I’ve always been shy of tackling a big, broad issue in my own songwriting.

I asked Songwriting Scene’s Facebook fans for their take on political songwriting — a few highlights:

Abigail Anderson: “I think political songs are tricky. I’ve certainly heard a load of bad ones ( I qualify bad ones as being overly preachy, using divisive language, being painfully cliche, or seeming insincere).”

Tom Ryan: “I think some of the difficulty in writing political songs lies in choosing whether to preach to the choir or try to sway an opposing opinion. My stabs at political songwriting are based on a belief that all politics are ultimately personal, so rather than dealing with slogans, I try to find the universal hope for change in our personal struggles/conflicts.”

D. Whitney Quinn: “Is it a tough genre to get it right? I don’t think so, as long as you stay with your feelings. “Biko” is a perfect example. Peter Gabriel is outraged, but sticks with his feelings and doesn’t preach, in my mind.”

Joe Iadanza: “I don’t write political for politics sake. I’d rather listen and let the song come in the way it wants to. Obviously, my state of mind at the time pulls the song in a direction. But, I’m not one to pull out my horn on an issue.”

Next, I decided to approach my friend Fred Gillen Jr., a Westchester, NY-based songwriter who is extremely passionate about protest songs and activism — yet it suits his energetic, down-to-earth style and I always enjoy his music a lot — both solo and with his duo, Hope Machine. Here’s just a little bit of what he had to say on the subject:

I have learned, just for myself as an artist and songwriter, that it is not my job to decide what I am going to write about.  It is my job to write whatever it is as well as I can, but I don’t decide what it is.  So my early attempts at writing songs about what’s wrong and who’s hungry and how to fix things were self-righteous, trite, and just badly written because I was trying to control the message.  What I need to do to write these songs is be a human being first, then an activist.  Then an artist.

In spite of where he came from and how he’d left to find work like all the other okies, Woody Guthrie was telling racist jokes and singing cowboy songs on the radio until he went to a Jungle camp and saw how people were living.  So he started taking old gospel melodies and writing lyrics about the suffering of the people.  The sponsors got mad and he got fired, over and over again.  I guess that’s how it is for me.  The thing I feel most passionate about is people’s suffering.  So it seems inevitable I’d write about it.

Overall, for me to write protest songs or whatever you want to call them, it is imperative that I work toward humility.  So I never become bigger than the song.  My song “Sing Sing Sing” is way bigger than I’ll ever be.  I could never live up to that song.  But what I can do is understand that when the 4th graders in the Beacon Schools sing it, it is at its most powerful.  This is how to write songs about the world.  You gotta be in it, you gotta pay attention, and you gotta get out of yourself.

Thanks Fred! And some of the other artists Fred and other Songwriting Scene readers suggested as artists who do a great job at penning politically-minded tunes: Ani DiFranco, Peter Gabriel, John Lennon, Pete Seeger, Joe Strummer.

Any other suggestions? Let me know!

Tagged as: politics, protest songs, songwriting

  • Markus Rill

    I believe that art thrives on ambiguity and ambivalence and suffers from a black & white world view. Unfortunately, very many "political" songs are very black & white.
    Boy, do I love Steve Earle but, boy, don't I like his overtly political songs like "Ashes To Ashes".
    He – like most songwriters – is much better when he steps off the soap box and tells a story and lets the listener come to a conclusion like in "Billy Austin", "Ellis Unit One" or "Over Yonder". Certainly, those songs have a point to make about the death penalty but they make their point in a much subtler way.

    Personally, I don't see why my political opinion as a guitar player should be that much more interesting than the listeners'. So I don't feel like it's my place to write an expressly political song.
    Then again, firstly I don't consider my songs apolitical, either, and secondly, I understand that some artists just feel a need to express themselves that way. I just hope they'll either manage to write an interesting, engaging song or else express their political opinion in an essay or something.

  • Anonymous

    There are really excellent political songwriters, like Ruben Blades (who hasn't written that much in English, mostly in Spanish) but wrote "you can't protect your life in Salvador" in english as a pale example to his spanish language songs. His songs have beautiful heartbreaking stories and are not at all black and white- they aren't about heroes and villains but people making hard and bad choices and suffering the consequences. Racism, sexism, drugs, colonialism, right wing and left wing tyranny are all features of his songs, as well as wonderful songs like "Sebastian" about a village crazy who builds a spaceship as a monument to his imaginary girlfriend. When he dies, she stands by the place he died and refuses to ever be anyone else's imaginary girlfriend for eternity. He is one of the best songwriters I know of in any language and one of my lights. But I confess I have a hard time writing political songs, I've written a few but they're mostly forgettable to me so probably to everyone else. It is hard to write one that isn't short lived in relevance. Two exceptions are Daddy please about a child who has nightmares about war and "We're just the Fungus that got up and walked away", about the root cause of all bad deeds- the consumption of vegetation by the animal world who doesn't produce anhything on their own. Greg Troll

  • cinderkeys

    I wrote my very first political song not too long ago. I wasn't sure if it was any good as I was writing it. I'm still not sure. I attempted to avoid the pitfalls of other political songs I don't like — I avoided getting into the gory details, and I think I didn't make it too preachy. Still, it's not terribly nuanced either.

    Everyone you quoted had good insights. Remind me to come back to this post if I ever try my hand at a political song again.

    I particularly liked Fred Gillen's line about not deciding what he's going to write about. In fact, I got a post of my own of it. :)