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Songs of Inspiration and Activism

Each year music plays an important part of the Birmingham CROP Walk. During the pre-walk event, the air is filled with songs that not only serve to entertain but to inspire and motivate. The songs that are played during each CROP Walk event are specially chosen for their relevant activist message. Listed below is a sample playlist of songs likely to be heard at a Birmingham CROP Walk event.

I Wonder What Would Happen to This World - Harry Chapin
One Love - Bob Marley
If I Had A Hammer - Nanci Griffith
Higher Ground - Stevie Wonder
We Shall Be Free - Garth Brooks
Help Somebody - Susan Werner
This Land Is Your Land - Sharon Jones & Da Kings
I Hear Them All - Old Crow Medicine Show
Lean On Me - Rascal Flatts

What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
Times They Are A Changin - Brandi Carlile
Living For The City - Stevie Wonder
Put A Little Love In Your Heart - Al Green & Annie Lennox
We Shall Overcome - Bruce Springsteen
Talking About A Revolution - Tracy Chapman
This Land Is Your Land - Little Feat
If I Had A Hammer - Neville Brothers
All Men Are Brothers - Peter, Paul and Mary

Revolution - Rascal Flatts
What's So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding - Keb Mo
Times They Are A Changin - Tracy Chapman
Love Train -  O'Jays
Good People - Jack Johnson
Wonderful World, Beautiful People - Jimmy Cliff
All You Need Is Love - The Beatles
Get Together - Big Mountain

Women Gather - Sweet Honey In The Rock
Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) - George Harrison
Dialogue - Chicago
Someday We'll All Be Free - Alicia Keys
New Beginnings - Tracy Chapman
Peace, Perfect Peace - Toots & the Maytals
What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding - The Coal Porters
Just Like You - Keb Mo
Lean On Me - Club Nouveau


 

Song Lyrics

There is an activist message in the music. These songs raise awareness, provide inspiration, and hopefully motivate action. Listed below are lyrics to some of the featured songs played during annual Birmingham CROP Walk events.

We Shall Be Free

By Garth Brooks

This ain't comin' from no prophet, just an ordinary man
When I close my eyes I see the way this world shall be
When we all walk hand in hand

When the last child cries for a crust of bread
When the last man dies for just words that he said
When there's shelter over the poorest head
We shall be free

When the last thing we notice is the color of skin
And the first thing we look for is the beauty within
When the skies and the oceans are clean again
Then we shall be free

We shall be free, we shall be free
Stand straight, walk proud
'Cause we shall be free

When we're free to love anyone we choose
When this world's big enough for all different views
When we all can worship from our own kind of pew
Then we shall be free
We shall be free

We shall be free, have a little faith, hold out
'Cause we shall be free

And when money talks for the very last time
And nobody walks a step behind
When there's only one race and that's mankind
Then we shall be free

We shall be free, we shall be free
Stand straight, walk proud, have a little faith, hold out
We shall be free

We shall be free, we shall be free
Stand straight, have a little faith
We shall be free

Help Somebody

By Susan Werner

i got plenty and then some
what do i do?
go out and help somebody
get plenty and then some, too

i got a roof over my head
what do i do?
go out and help somebody
get a roof over their head, too

i got supper on the table
what do i do?
go out and help somebody
get supper on the table, too

'cause i got it to give
i got it to give
and when you got enough to give away
well it's the only way to live

i'm going to heaven
what do i do?
go out and help somebody
get to heaven, too

I Wonder What Would Happen to This World
By Harry Chapin

Oh well I wonder, yes I wonder
What would happen, what would happen to this world
Well I wonder what would happen to this world

Now if a man tried to take his time on earth
And prove before he died, what one man's life could be worth
Well I wonder what would happen to this world

And if a woman, she used a life line
As something more than some man's servant mother wife time
Well I wonder what would happen to this world

Oh well I wonder, yes I wonder, oh yes I wonder
'Bout what would happen, what would happen to this world
Well I wonder what would happen to this world

As I look around us, there's such strange things
There's muggers and there's jugglers, and we are led by clowns
If an answer ever found us would we change things
Or are we just a people rotten ready for the ground

And if our future lies on the final line
Are we brave enough to see the signals and the signs
I wonder what would happen to this world

We see the people, we see them marchin' down
Do we join the parade or do we try and turn around
Well I wonder what would happen to this world

Disciple children walk the streets, selling books and flowers
Can they be last ones with a semblance of a dream
If we say that no one's out there and we say we're goin' nowhere
And we avoid the question, is this all that it means?

Oh if a man tried to take his time on earth
And prove before he died what one man's life could be worth
I wonder what would happen to this world

I Hear Them All

By Old Crow Medicine Show

I hear the crying of the hungry in the deserts where they're wandering.
Hear them crying out for heaven's own benevolence upon them.
Hear destructive power prevailing, I hear fools falsely hailing.
To the crooked wits of tyrants when they call.

I hear them all, I hear them all, I hear them all

I hear the sounds of tearing pages and the roar of burning paper.
All the crimes in acquisitions turn to air and ash and vapor.
And the rattle of the shackle far beyond emancipators.
And the loneliest who gather in their stalls.

I hear them all, I hear them all, I hear them all

So while you sit and whistle Dixie with your money and your power.
I can hear the flowers a-growin in the rubble of the towers.
I hear leaders quit their lying
I hear babies quit their crying.
I hear soldiers quit their dying, one and all.

I hear them all, I hear them all, I hear them all

I hear the tender words from Zion, I hear Noah's waterfall.
Hear the gentle lamb of Judah sleeping at the feet of Buddha.
And the prophets from Elija to the old Paiute Wovoka.
Take their places at the table when they're called.

I hear them all, I hear them all, I hear them all
 

Songs of Social Conscience

Music is a powerful tool used by political and social activists. As a result, there is a long and proud history of protest songs and songs dedicated to revolution and social change. It has not been uncommon that the voices of dissent have often been expressed musically. Over the years, as as reaction to the temper of the times, singers and song writers have sought to deliver musical messages aimed at social change. Listed below are links devoted to the subject of protest songs.

Wikipedia: Protest Songs
Pop Matters: Great Protest Songs
About Folk Music: Classic Protest Songs
1980s Protest Songs
Lesson Planet: Protest Songs
1960s Protest Songs

Rate Your Music: Top 30 Protest Songs
Indopedia: List of Protest Songs
Rolling Stone: Best Protest Songs
 

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