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Back in the day, when I first started learning how to play guitar, fifty-some years ago, there was a subset of folk music called “protest music.” Redundant, the term, since folk music has always had a thick vein of that particular ore running through it, but there you go.
Most of those at the time were anti-war songs.
Soon as I had three major and one minor chord, I started writing protest songs. This was in my pre-hippie days, circa 1966, right about the time I got married. Anti-war, but also anti-hypocrisy.
Here’s the first one I did. Bear in mind I was nineteen, and soooo earnest, me planning on being the next Dylan and all …
Gather ‘round all you Christians and God-fearing men/
Gather ‘round all you righteous who never do sin/
Come hear me my good folks from near and from far/
Come hear me you hypocrites who pray … and make war.
Ah, you say that they kill for evil and might/
And so you must kill them for goodness and right/
But when dust has settled, it still must be said/
All the losers on both sides are still … just as dead.
You go to your churches and pray for the Reds/
Then you go out and you cut off their heads/
You know God is with you and you’ll surely win/
All you pious damned hypocrites … and God-fearing men.
Gather ‘round all you Christians and God-fearing men/
Gather ‘round all you righteous who never do sin/
Come hear me my good folks from near and from far/
Come hear me you hypocrites who pray … and make war.
The more things change, the more they stay the same …
