A plea for help

[Kurt]

Does anyone know of a song that relates to women's rights, or African Americanculture? I need to bring in the lyrics of a representative song and a sheet on which I draw connections to the influences of African-American culture or perform the same task addressing Women's rights to school.

 

I CANNOT, for the life of me find a song that fits into this... Anyone have any ideas? It would be greatly appreciated.

 

Kurt

Edited December 12, 2006 by Kurt

[captainrick]

Hi Kurtie,

 

Don't know if this is exactly what you're looking for but:

 

the theme song from the feminist movement in the 70's was Helen Reddy's "I am Woman"

http://www.lyricsdepot.com/helen-reddy/i-am-woman.html

 

Dr. Martin Luther King's theme song from the Civil Rights era was often considered to be "We shall Overcome"

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/We-...8256AF3003CD7BC

 

 

se this link too. It's better.

http://www.k-state.edu/english/nelp/americ...l.overcome.html

 

don't know if that's what you're looking for, but it's the first thing that popped in my head.

 

Rick

[dkstories]

try this link for ten songs of the civil rights era...

 

 

http://folkmusic.about.com/od/toptens/tp/CivilRightsSong.htm

 

or just look up 'civil rights movement songs' or 'womens rights movement songs'

[glomph]

What would be tricky would be to come up with a popular song from the last 40 or 50 years that did not reflect the influence of African-American culture.

[sumbloke]

Does anyone know of a song that relates to women's rights, or African Americanculture? I need to bring in the lyrics of a representative song and a sheet on which I draw connections to the influences of African-American culture or perform the same task addressing Women's rights to school.

 

I CANNOT, for the life of me find a song that fits into this... Anyone have any ideas? It would be greatly appreciated.

 

Kurt

 

My favourite - if you ever get the chance to hear it it will blow you away! (And I hope that our resident Mississipians won't be offended - autres temps, autres moeurs)

 

(1963) Nina Simone

 

The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam

And I mean every word of it

 

Alabama's gotten me so upset

Tennessee made me lose my rest

And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

 

Alabama's gotten me so upset

Tennessee made me lose my rest

And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

 

Can't you see it

Can't you feel it

It's all in the air

I can't stand the pressure much longer

Somebody say a prayer

 

Alabama's gotten me so upset

Tennessee made me lose my rest

And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

 

This is a show tune

But the show hasn't been written for it, yet

 

Hound dogs on my trail

School children sitting in jail

Black cat cross my path

I think every day's gonna be my last

 

Lord have mercy on this land of mine

We all gonna get it in due time

I don't belong here

I don't belong there

I've even stopped believing in prayer

 

Don't tell me

I tell you

Me and my people just about due

I've been there so I know

They keep on saying "Go slow!"

 

But that's just the trouble

"do it slow"

Washing the windows

"do it slow"

Picking the cotton

"do it slow"

You're just plain rotten

"do it slow"

You're too damn lazy

"do it slow"

The thinking's crazy

"do it slow"

Where am I going

What am I doing

I don't know

I don't know

 

Just try to do your very best

Stand up be counted with all the rest

For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

 

I made you thought I was kiddin' didn't we

 

Picket lines

School boycotts

They try to say it's a communist plot

All I want is equality

for my sister my brother my people and me

 

Yes you lied to me all these years

You told me to wash and clean my ears

And talk real fine just like a lady

And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

 

Oh but this whole country is full of lies

You're all gonna die and die like flies

I don't trust you any more

You keep on saying "Go slow!"

"Go slow!"

 

But that's just the trouble

"do it slow"

Desegregation

"do it slow"

Mass participation

"do it slow"

Reunification

"do it slow"

Do things gradually

"do it slow"

But bring more tragedy

"do it slow"

Why don't you see it

Why don't you feel it

I don't know

I don't know

 

You don't have to live next to me

Just give me my equality

Everybody knows about Mississippi

Everybody knows about Alabama

Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

 

That's it for now! see ya' later

[NickolasJames8]

Keep your head up by Tupac Shakir address both issues well.....so does his song called White Man's World. They're both really beautiful songs with thoughtful lyrics about each issue.

[JamesSavik]

I think what you are looking for is Ethan Stoller's BKAB which appeared in the credits of V for Vendetta. In the version of the song that appeared in the movie, there were speeches by Malcolm X ("On Black Power" ) and Gloria Steinem (Address to American Women).

 

Currently the rights to this song are in limbo and you can only get a copy of the "speechless" version of the song that you can hear streaming here at Ethan Stoller's MySpace page.

 

The copy of MKAB w/the speeches by Malcolm X and Steinhem only exists on the DVD of the movie and is not included on the soundtrack compilation for V for Vendetta. If anyone knows how to rip a song odd of DVD and turn it into an MP3, I would love to have a copy.

[Rigel]

Here's one of my favo(u)rite women's rights songs, Peggy Seeger's "I'm Gonna Be an Engineer."

 

I'M GONNA BE AN ENGINEER

 

When I was a little girl I wished I was a boy

I tagged along behind the gang and wore my corduroys.

Everybody said I only did it to annoy

But I was gonna be an engineer

 

Mamma said, "Why can't you be a lady?

Your duty is to make me the mother of a pearl

Wait until you're older, dear

And maybe you'll be glad that you're a girl.

 

Dainty as a Dresden statue, gentle as a Jersey cow,

Smooth as silk, gives cream and milk

Learn to coo, learn to moo

That's what you do to be a lady, now.

 

When I went to school I learned to write and how to read

History, geography and home economy

And typing is a skill that every girl is sure to need

To while away the extra time until the time to breed

And then they had the nerve to ask, what would I like to be?

I says, "I'm gonna be an engineer!"

 

"No, you only need to learn to be a lady

The duty isn't yours, for to try to run the world

An engineer could never have a baby

Remember, dear, that you're a girl"

 

She's smart --- for a woman.

I wonder how she got that way?

You get no choice, you get no voice

Just stay mum, pretend you're dumb.

That's how you come to be a lady, today.

 

Well, I started as a typist but I studied on the sly

Working out the day and night so I could qualify

And every time the boss came in, he pinched me on the thigh

Said, "I've never had an engineer!"

"You owe it to the job to be a lady

The duty of the staff is to give the boss a whirl

The wages that you get are crummy, maybe

But it's all you get, 'cause you're a girl"

 

Then Jimmy came along and we set up a conjugation

We were busy every night with loving recreation

I spent my days at work so he could get an education

And now he's an engineer!

 

He said: "I know you'll always be a lady

The duty of my darling is to love me all her life

Could an engineer look after or obey me?

Remember, dear, that you're my wife!"

 

As soon a Jimmy got a job, I studied hard again

Then busy at me turret-lathe a year or two, and then

The morning that the twins were born, Jimmy says to them

"Your mother was an engineer!"

"You owe it to the kids to be a lady

Dainty as a dish-rag, faithful as a chow

Stay at home, you got to mind the baby

Remember you're a mother now!"

 

Every time I turn around there's something else to do

Cook a meal or mend a sock or sweep a floor or two

Listening to Jimmy Young - it makes me want to spew

I was gonna be an engineer.

 

I only wish that I could be a lady

I'd do the lovely things that a lady's s'posed to do

I wouldn't even mind if only they would pay me

Then I could be a person too.

 

What price for a woman?

You can buy her for a ring of gold,

To love and obey, without any pay,

You get a cook and a nurse for better or worse

You don't need a purse when a lady is sold.

 

Oh, but now the times are harder and me Jimmy's got the sack;

I went down to Vicker's, they were glad o have me back.

But I'm a third-class citizen, my wages tell me that

But I'm a first-class engineer!

 

The boss he says "We pay you as a lady,

You only got the job because I can't afford a man,

With you I keep the profits high as may be,

You're just a cheaper pair of hands."

 

You got one fault, you're a woman;

You're not worth the equal pay.

A bitch or a tart, you're nothing but heart,

Shallow and vain, you've got no brain,

 

 

Well, I listened to my mother and I joined a typing pool

Listened to my lover and I put him through his school

If I listen to the boss, I'm just a bloody fool

And an underpaid engineer

I been a sucker ever since I was a baby

As a daughter, as a mother, as a lover, as a dear

But I'll fight them as a woman, not a lady

I'll fight them as an engineer!

 

Words and music by Peggy Seeger in 1970

Copyright Stormking Music, Inc.

 

 

(sound bite sample: http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/trac...px?itemid=44646 has only the a and b parts of the tune, not the c part.)

[Xiao_Chun]

1. "We Shall Overcome"

2. When will we be paid

3. "Oh Freedom"

 

Hugs,

Michael.

[Rigel]

Some performers to look for in your searching:

Nina Simone, Odetta, Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger (Pete's half-sister)

 

Women's rights singer-songwriters: Meg Christiansen, Holly Near

 

A resource of traditional song lyrics to search through: The Digital Tradition at www.mudcat.org

 

--Rigel

[EleCivil]

My favorite feminist song is "The Realist" by Brenna Sahatjian. You can download it here: http://ia300127.us.archive.org/2/items/Bre...realist_vbr.mp3

 

Lyrics:

 

Are we still giving in to our own slavery?

Are we still working our lives away for the man who will never have to work

Beyond his office fax and phone

Beyond his big life built on your time and sweat which he thinks he owns?

But NO NO NO Could've sworn we told you no.

So LONG LONG ago

How many riots incited before you are shown

that we don't condone this arrangement

How many lives left in ruins before we all change it

and step up for humanity still reluctantly trudging through indentured slavery

 

We're indentured via time clock

We show up for work and we just take our wills off

and we just do what we're told

we're grateful for any small chunk of the American gold

well you can leave that gold in the ground

don't move the factories south or overseas

but you can still shut them down

We'll turn them all into free houses and schools

We'll replace paying bills with the tools that we use

to run it all ourselves

 

CHORUS:

How's that for naive? And how am I for an idealist?

trivialize, dismiss, critique

But that's just what they want you to think

that if you accept their broken world

you're just a realist.

 

And the women are still stuck in

To working the same to make less than husband father brother boyfriend

Some are still quoting the suffragettes

They say, “Come on, women died so men could represent us!

So vote, vote vote! We fought for the vote!

Vote for all the good men who keep this Titanic patriarchy afloat!

or you can vote for a woman who might stand a chance

if she plays along if she's got enough class

they might let her in... to push their phallosupremecist doctrine

You have the right to choose your master

Poor substitution for revolution but elections happen faster!”

I'm f**king over it. I'm done condoning it.

I don't want representation,

they never express my kind of dissension

We gotta know where we stand

Not who we;re supposed to write to when we make each other mad

 

How's that for naive? And how am I for an idealist?

trivialize dismiss critique

But that's just what they want you to think

that if you accept their broken world

you're just a realist.

You're just a realist.

You're just a realist.

 

 

Edit: Ah, jeez. Just remembered that there's a swear in there. Guess you probably can't use it for school, then. But, on the plus side, it does have the word "phallosupremecist", which is a pretty awesome word.

Edited December 13, 2006 by EleCivil

[The Reaper]

God im such a liberal leftist for things like this but F**k the Police by NWA or the remix by Rage Against The Machine. Also (to address the more realistic sense of how bad blacks are treated) i like Down Rodeo By RATM. Its pushing more on how African Americans are under the white class, but its good.

 

The only womens rights song i know of is Revolver by RATM.

 

Sorry if im such a RATM fan but they address good topics and take it to the extreme lol. They might not be what you're looking for (pretty sure you couldnt use any of them in class) but they hit hard and are worth looking up the lyrics IMO.

 

 

 

All praise the Big Zack,

 

Ian

[Kurt]

Thank guys!! You have all been so amazing! Many hugs to you all!

 

I used I am Woman by Helen Reddy, thank you Sharon and Rick!

 

Kurt

[jalaki]

I think what you are looking for is Ethan Stoller's BKAB which appeared in the credits of V for Vendetta. In the version of the song that appeared in the movie, there were speeches by Malcolm X ("On Black Power" ) and Gloria Steinem (Address to American Women).

 

Currently the rights to this song are in limbo and you can only get a copy of the "speechless" version of the song that you can hear streaming here at Ethan Stoller's MySpace page.

 

The copy of MKAB w/the speeches by Malcolm X and Steinhem only exists on the DVD of the movie and is not included on the soundtrack compilation for V for Vendetta. If anyone knows how to rip a song odd of DVD and turn it into an MP3, I would love to have a copy.

 

Well, this isn't really in relation to Kurt's quandry, but it seems he's been well taken care of But I should hopefully be getting the DVD for XMas, at which point I'd be happy to grab that song for you from it, JS. Just remind me or I'll probably forget lol