Freedom Highway: Recent Episodes
Nick Panken
Freedom Highway follows the long tradition of music as an expression of struggle and solidarity. In all movements for justice, from the enslaved struggling for emancipation, to the employed struggling against exploitation, songs emerge as a means of building strength in the face of power. Each week we follow these songs across borders of race, class, gender and geography with an hour of politically potent music and conversation exploring connections between these histories and the present day.
A playlist of politically meaningful songs from throughout the past 70 years
Black Power | The Peace | Black Power | 1975
All Is One | Mighty Sparrow | Calypso A La King | 1970
To The White People Of America | New York Ensemble | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022
We Will Overcome | “Texas” Bill Strength | 1952
It’s Outrageous | Larry Estridge | Broadside Ballads, Vol. 7 | 1973
Already Guilty | Free Radicals, Swatara Olushola | White Power Outage, Vol. 1 | 2020
Profilin | The Frightners, Preet Patel | Always | 2022
Effects of Slavery | Macka B | Global Messenger | 2000
H2OGate Blues | Gil Scott-Heron, Brian Jackson | Winter In America | 1972
Politicians In My Eyes | Death | …For The Whole World To See | 2009 (1975)
Preacher and the Slave | Socialists | 2012-2019 | 2021
Songs Of Slavery and Emancipation is a multimedia project presenting recently discovered songs composed by enslaved people and explicitly calling for resistance to slavery. The book, CD and documentary film come out Friday June 17, and we hear from Mat Callahan who spearheaded the project. He tells about the origins of these songs, the process of researching them and the significance of publishing them now in some cases for the first time in centuries.
Recognition March of the Independence of Hayti | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022
March On | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022
The Negro’s Complaint | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022
Nat Turner | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022
Children, We All Shall Be Free | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022
Hymn of Freedom | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022
Uncle Gabriel The Negro General | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022
Song of the “Aliened American” | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022
The Band of Thieves | Songs of Slavery and Emancipation | 2022
A playlist of politically meaningful songs performed mostly a cappella by vocal ensembles.
The Workers Song | The Longest Johns, Seth Lakeman | Smoke & Oakum | 2022
The Song of the Lower Classes | Martin Carthy | Out of the Cut | 1982
Poverty Knock | Chumbawamba | English Rebel Songs 1381-1984 | 2003
We Do The Work | John Fromer | We Do The Work | 2000
I’m Gon’ Stand!!! | Sweet Honey In The Rock | Breaths | 1988
Rich Man’s House | Resistance Revival Chorus | This Joy | 2020
Which Side Are You On? | Windborne | Recollections | Revolutions | 2020
Freedom Is A Constant Struggle | Barbara Dane and the Chambers Brothers | Barbara Dane and the Chambers Brothers | 1966
Had, Took, Misled | Bernice Johnson Reagon | Give Your Hands to Struggle | 1975
Digger’s Song | The Horses Of The Gods | We Wish You Health | 2020
Cable Street | The Young’uns | Strangers | 2017
For his 81st birthday, we listen to politically meaningful songs written by Bob Dylan, as performed by other artists.
Blowin’ In The Wind | Bettina Jonic | The Bitter Mirror: Songs By Bob Dylan & Bertolt Brech | 1975
The Death of Emmett Till | Isaac Taylor | Peace In The Valley | 2018
Only A Pawn In Their Game | Barbara Dane | Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs | 2018
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll | Les Shelleys | Les Shelleys | 2010
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll | Charlie Ballentine | Life is Brief: The Music of Bob Dylan | 2018
License to Kill | Richie Havens
The Times They Are A Changin’ | Nina Simone | To Love Somebody | 1969
With God On Our Side | The Neville Brothers | Yellow Moon | 1989
Masters of War | The Flying Pickets | Lost Boys | 1984
Masters of War | Bill Frisell | Further East/Further West | 2005
A playlist of politically meaningful songs, including several from Stevie Wonder who turned 72 last week.
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free | Mavis Staples, Levon Helm | Carry Me Home | 2022
You Haven’t Done Nothin’ | Stevie Wonder | Fulfillingness’ First Finale | 1974
Black Man | Stevie Wonder | Songs in the Key of Life | 1976
It’s Wrong (Apartheid) | Stevie Wonder | In Square Circle | 1985
Pastime Paradise | Stevie Wonder | Songs in the Key of Life | 1976
Can’t Put It In The Hands of Fate | Stevie Wonder, Rapsody, Cordae, CHIKA, Busta Rhymes | 2020
The Preacher and the Slave | Utah Phillips | Classic Labor Songs from Smithsonian Folkways | 2006
Preacher and the Slave | Socialists | 2012-2019 | 2021
I Pity The Country | Leanne Betasamosake Simpson | Theory of Ice | 2021
List of Demands (Reparations) | The Kills | 2018
We listen to a playlist of songs exploring themes of freedom and class war. "There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning." - Warren Buffett
Who’s Free | Super Sounds Namba | 1981
Rich Get Richer | The O’Jays | Survival | 1975
None Of Us Are Free | Solomon Burke, Blind Boys of Alabama | Don’t Give Up On Me | 2002
The Capitalist Blues | Leyla McCalla | The Capitalist Blues | 2019
Bourgeois Blues | The Last Internationale | New York, I Do Mind Dying | 2013
The Guillotine | The Coup | Sorry To Bother You | 2012
Class War | The Dils | 198 Seconds Of The Dils | 1977
Do They Owe Us A Living? | Crass | The Feeding of the 5000 | 1978
Do They Owe Us A Living? | Croy and the Boys | Of Course They Do | 2020
Class War | Ty Segall | Fudge Sandwich | 2018
I Hate The Rich | The Dils | 1977
Class War - How Much | She Drew The Gun | Behave Myself | 2021
Rakel Stammer joins to discuss the egregious breach of freedom that would be the outlawing of an individuals choice whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term, in the wake of the newly leaked Supreme Court document indicating an imminent decision as such. In between conversation we listen to several songs emerging from the long fight for bodily autonomy in the form of access to abortion in the 20th century.
La Femme Fatale | Digable Planets | Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time And Space) | 1993
Abortion is illegal (The Ballad of Paragraph 218) | Sylvia Anders, D. Justus Noll | There’s Nothing Quite Like Money | 2000
Abort The System | Poison Girls | Songs of Praise | 1985
Abortion Song | New Haven Women’s Liberation Rock Band | Mountain Moving Day | 1972
Back Alley Surgery | Malvina Reynolds | Mama Lion | 1980
To mark his centennial we spend the hour listening to the politically engaged music of Charles Mingus, the seminal jazz composer and bass player born April 22, 1922. Never shy to express his convictions, Mingus would often speak to contemporary political issues including war and racism, with commentary in song titles as well as recitations or lyrics within his songs.
Original Faubus Fables | Charles Mingus | Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus | 1960
Don’t Let It Happen Here | Charles Mingus | Music Written For Monterey 1965 (Not Heard... Played in its Entirety, at UCLA) | 1966
It Was A Lonely Day in Selma, Alabama - Freedom | Mingus Big Band | Blues & Politics | 1999
Freedom - Pt.1 | Charles Mingus | The Complete Town Hall Concert | 1962
Oh Lord Don’t Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me | Charles Mingus | Oh Yeah | 1962
Coming off last week's episode where we heard Paul Robeson's first commercial recording from 1947 of the song No More Auction Block, we trace the evolution of this song from it's likely 19th century composition by black workers held in slavery, to it's many interpretations in the mid and late 20th century, as well as it's melodic offspring in the form of well known songs We Shall Overcome and Blowin' In The Wind.
No More Auction Block | Paul Robeson | 1952
No More Auction Block For Me | Odetta | At Carnegie Hall | 1960
No More Auction Block For Me - William Riley, 1943 | Helen Creighton | Sankofa Songs, A Legacy of Roots and Rhythm: African Nova Scotian Songs From The Collection Of Dr. Helen Creighton | 2019
No More Auction Block For Me | Alan Mills | O’ Canada: A History in Song | 1956
No More Auction Block For Me | Sweet Honey In The Rock | Songs of the Civil War | 1991
No More Auction Block | Pete Seeger | America’s Favorite Ballads - Vol. IV | 1961
No More Auction Block - Live at the Gaslight Cafe, New York, NY - October, 1962 | Bob Dylan | The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3 | 1991
Blowin’ In The Wind | Bob Dylan | The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan | 1963
We Shall Overcome | Sing Out! Hootenanny | 1963 (recorded between 1950-1955)
We Will Overcome | Texas Bill Strength | 1952
No More, No More | Richie Havens | Live at the Cellar Door and at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium | 1972
Paul Robeson was a widely celebrated singer (among many other vocations) and a fiercely outspoken revolutionary. Born April 9, 1898 in Princeton, NJ, the son of a formerly enslaved man, Robeson understood the connections between racial discrimination and labor exploitation. His commitment to using his public life in the struggle against racism and capitalism brought significant personal consequences, facing violence from the KKK, political persecution from the House Un-American Activities Committee, and the revocation of his passport for a number of years. We learn about his sustained commitment in the face of resistance, in between recordings of his extraordinary voice.
No More Auction Block | Paul Robeson | 1947
Spring Song | Paul Robeson | 1941
The Peat-Bog Soldiers | Paul Robeson | 1942
Joe Hill | Paul Robeson | 1942
My Thirty Thousand | Billy Bragg, Wilco | Mermaid Avenue Vol. III | 2012
Scandalize My Name | Paul Robeson | 1959
In 1973 Lavender Country crowdsourced funding to make the first known openly gay country music album. Now nearly 50 years later Lavender Country is bringing their brand new follow-up record on tour, with a nearby show Friday April 9 at the Egremont Barn. We listen to selections from an interview with Lavender Country founder Patrick Haggerty originally aired in 2018, where he speaks about using music to communicate connections between the struggle for gay liberation and wider revolutionary movements.
Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears | Lavender Country | Lavender Country | 1973
Waltzing Will Trilogy | Lavender Country | Lavender Country | 1973
Straight White Patterns | Lavender Country | Lavender Country | 1973
Clara Frazer, Clara Frazer | Lavender Country | Blackberry Rose | 2022
Workers - Get Ready | Progressive Labor Party | Power To The Working Class | 1971
Roll The Union On | The Song Swappers | Talking Union and Other Union Songs | 1941
There Is Power In A Union | Billy Bragg | Talking With The Taxman About Poetry | 1986
Roll The Union On | John Handcox
We begin with Gil Scott-Heron's musical reference to President Eisenhower's 1961 warning about the formation of a military industrial complex, then we go back and explore the history and ongoing relevance of wartime era songs of the past, in particular the first commercially successful anti-war song, I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier, from 1915.
Work For Peace | Gil Scott-Heron | 2001
Madison Avenue | Gil Scott-Heron | Secrets | 1978
I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier | Morton Harvey | 1915
Let Us All Speak Our Minds | Elizabeth Knight | Songs of the Suffragettes | 1958
I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier | John Kirkpatrick | Tunes From The Trenches | 2015
I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier | Rana Choir | 2018
Stay Down Here Where You Belong | Tiny Tim | God Bless Tiny Tim | 1968
Praise The Lord and Pass The Ammunition | Eli Radish Band | I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier | 1969
Over There | Eli Radish Band | I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier | 1969
When Johnny Comes Marching Home | Eli Radish Band | I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier | 1969
instagram.com/freedomhighwaywkny
facebook.com/freedomhighwaywkny
radiokingston.org/broadcast/freedom-highway
Following up last week's four year anniversary show, we hear more songs from more artists who we have previously featured in depth on Freedom Highway for their commitment to voicing radical political perspectives through music, and their impactful contribution to this longstanding and ongoing practice.
Worker's Song | Dick Gaughan | Handful Of Earth | 1981
The Flood And The Storm | Woody Guthrie | Ballads of Sacco & Vanzetti | 1960
With God On Our Side | Bob Dylan, Joan Baez | The Bootleg Series Vol. 6 Concert at Philharmonic Hall 1964 | 2004
Living With War | Neil Young | Living With War | 2006
War | Bob Marley & The Wailers | Rastaman Vibrations | 1976
We Shall Not Be Moved | Barbara Dane | 1970
They’ll Never Keep Us Down | Hazel Dickens | 1981
How Long Have You Been Blind | Floyd Red Crow Westerman | The Land Is Your Mother | 1984
Nazi | Chumbawamba | Showbusiness (Live) | 1995
For the four year anniversary show, we listen to an eclectic playlist of songs from some of the luminaries of Freedom Highway - politically engaged artists who we've previously devoted full hourlong episodes to throughout the past four years of broadcasting.
When Will We Be Paid | The Staple Singers | We’ll Get Over | 1970
Whitey On The Moon | Gil Scott-Heron | Small Talk At 125th and Lenox | 1970
Freedom Death Dance | Eugene McDaniels | Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse | 1971
Revolution (Pts 1 & 2) | Nina Simone | To Love Somebody | 1969
My Country ‘Tis of Thy People You’re Dying | Buffy Sainte-Marie | Little Wheel Spin and Spin | 1966
Joe Hill | Paul Robeson | 1936
Casey Jones | Pete Seeger, The Song Swappers | Talking Union and Other Union Songs | 1955
There Is Power In A Union | Billy Bragg | Talking With The Taxman About Poetry | 1986
No Country’s Law | Roy Bailey | Sit Down And Sing | 2005
Overtime | Malvina Reynolds | Malvina Reynolds | 2007
More Time | Linton Kwesi Johnson | More Time | 1999
I Ain’t Marching Anymore | Phil Ochs | I Ain’t Marching Anymore | 1965
All past episodes can be found at:
radiokingston.org/broadcast/freedom-highway
instagram.com/freedomhighwaywkny
facebook.com/freedomhighwaywkny