Without exception, “change” has been accompanied by soundtrack. While snatching control of the White House from the Republicans, Bill Clinton paraded in to Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.” And, on his inauguration day, Clinton was serenaded by Aretha “The Queen of Soul” Franklin with a rousing rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream.”
Barack Obama took Stevie Wonder with him on the campaign trail to get folks rallying ‘round to the funky change anthem “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.”
Social and political protests and movements can’t get started until the music is settled on: “We Shall Overcome”…. “Say it Loud [I’m Black and I’m Proud]”… “War [What is it Good For].”
So, let’s get the conversation started. When Obama takes the White House, what should his song be? And, what are some of your favorite songs of change? Here are a few classic songs of change (in no particular order) to get you thinking:
Black Am I (Junior Kelly)
War (Edwin Starr)
War (Bob Marley)
Free Nelson Mandela (Special AKA)
The Message (Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five)
Sign ‘O’ the Times (Prince)
We are the World (USA for Africa)
Strange Fruit (Billie Holiday)
Mississippi Goddamn (Nina Simone)
Fight the Power Pts. 1 & 2 (The Isley Brothers)
Fight the Power (Public Enemy)
Say it Loud-I’m Black and I’m Proud (James Brown)
A Change is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke)
We Shall Overcome (Rev. Charles Tindley)
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black (Nina Simone)
Happy Birthday [Martin Luther King, Jr.] (Stevie Wonder)
Lift Every Voice and Sing (James Weldon Johnson)
911 is a Joke (Public Enemy)
Fuck the Police (NWA)
You Must Learn (KRS-One)
Honorable mention: X-Clan
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