The 20 Greatest Protest Songs of All Times

To mark May Day   – a date synonymous with public demonstrations – Gigwise counts down the 20 greatest protest songs of all time.


From Marvin Gaye's soul classic 'What's Going On?' to Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit', Gigwise presents 20 anthems that rage against racism, war, society and, of course, the machine:


1. Marvin Gaye: 'What's Going On?'
2. Billie Holiday: 'Strange Fruit'
3. Plastic Ono Band: 'Give Peace A Chance'
4. Barry McGuire: 'Eve Of Destruction'
5. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: 'Ohio'
6. U2: 'Sunday Bloody Sunday'  

Opening with a military drumbeat, U2's highly political 1983 anthem soon turns into a heady protest at The Troubles in Northern Ireland - most notably the Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry in January 1972 when British soldiers opened fire on protesters, killing 14 and injuring 29 more. Composed by The Edge, arguably the most hard-hitting moment of the song comes when Bono proclaims “I won't heed the battle call”. An earlier version of the track interestingly featured the line “Don't talk to me about the rights of the IRA, UDA”, but this was later removed as the band did not want to directly reference political groups. 

To read the complete list of the 20 songs selected , here. 

source:www.gigwise.com