Freedom Highway

22/06/2022

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

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/neither-just-nor-wise

01/06/2022

A playlist of politically meaningful songs performed mostly a ca****la 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

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/the-poor-shall-wear-the-crown

A playlist of politically meaningful songs performed mostly a ca****la by vocal ensembles.

26/05/2022

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

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/this-kind-of-thing-still-lives-today

For his 81st birthday, we listen to politically meaningful songs written by Bob Dylan, as performed by other artists.

19/05/2022

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

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/much-concerned-but-not-involved

A playlist of politically meaningful songs, including several from Stevie Wonder who turned 72 last week.

05/05/2022

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

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/it-has-always-been-around-2

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

28/04/2022

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

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/i-wonder-about-this-freedom

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.

21/04/2022

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

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/many-thousand-gone

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 c...

14/04/2022

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 K*K, 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

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/alive-as-you-or-me

Paul Robeson was a widely celebrated singer (among many other vocations) and a fiercely outspoken revolutionary. We learn about his sustained commitment in the face of resistance, in between recordings of his extraordinary voice.

07/04/2022

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 8 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 Co*******ng 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
https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/til-were-dealing-with-the-fact

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.

31/03/2022

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

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/no-freedom-without-peace

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.

24/03/2022

Trouble You Can't Hide

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
N**i | Chumbawamba | Showbusiness (Live) | 1995

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/73185-2

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 practi...

17/03/2022

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
Wh**ey 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

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/people-you-know-its-true

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.

09/03/2022

On International Women's Day, Rakel Stammer joins as co-host to examine various ways that women have been embraced by mainstream culture within the past few decades and question whether these movements constitute genuine feminism, alongside a playlist of topical songs.
No / Billy Nomates / S/T / 2020
Daddy’s L’il Girl / Bikini Kill / Revolution Girl Style Now / 1991
Sparrow / Big Thief / Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You / 2022
Abort The System / Poison Girls / Songs of Praise / 1985
Mother / IDES /Brutalism / 2017

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/abort-the-system

On International Women's Day, co-host Rakel Stammer joins to examine various ways that women have been embraced by mainstream culture within the past few decades and question whether these movements constitute genuine feminism, alongside a playlist of topical songs.

02/03/2022

A playlist of songs related to some of the themes at play in the unfolding war in Ukraine, from corrupt war profiteers, to the US/Russian arms race built upon mass poverty, to the grave danger of nuclear war.

Let Us Begin (What Are We Making Weapons For) / John Denver / Live At Cedar Rapids 12/10/87
The War Racket (Unplugged) / Buffy Sainte-Marie / Medicine Songs / 2017
Masters Of War / The Staple Singers / This Little Light / 1964
I Come And Stand At Every Door / Pete Seeger / 1962
Nuclear War / Sun Ra Arkestra / Live in Nickelsdorf 1984
They’ve Got a Bomb - John Peel Session 28/3/79 / Crass / Stations of the Crass / 2020
No Nuclear War / Peter Tosh / No Nuclear War / 1987

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/fight-war-not-wars

A playlist of songs related to some of the themes at play in the unfolding war in Ukraine.

24/02/2022

Following up last week's episode we listen to more songs drawn from the website OurSubversiveVoice.com, featuring British protest music composed in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

The World Turned Upside Down / Leon Rosselson / That’s Not The Way It’s Got To Be / 1975
Jerusalem Revisited / Coope Boyes & Simpson / What We Sing Is What We Are / 1999
Europe is Lost / Kate Tempest / Let Them Eat Chaos / 2016
Wildfires / SAULT / Untitled (Black Is) / 2020
Handsworth Revolution / Steel Pulse / Handsworth Revolution / 1978
Smash the Social Contract / Cornelius Cardew / We Only Want The Earth: The Peoples' Liberation Music Tapes: 1973-78 / 1979
March of the Workers / Darren Hayman / Chants For Socialists / 2015
Song of the Lower Classes / Martin Carthy / Out of the Cut / 1994

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/the-mask-is-ripped-away

Following up last week's episode we listen to more songs drawn from the website OurSubversiveVoice.com, featuring British protest music composed in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

17/02/2022

We listen to a playlist selected from songs listed on OurSubversiveVoice.com. As described on the website: "‘Our Subversive Voice: The History and Politics of the English Protest Song’ is a two-year research project… investigating the use of song to register protest through the ages, from 1600 to 2020... We are interpreting ‘English’ loosely (and contentiously) as meaning either written by an English national, or having a particular bearing or influence upon specifically English political culture... For us, each protest song need to be understood as part of a specific political and musical moment, mediated by multiple processes and possibilities. This subtler story is essential to understanding why and when musicians have intervened and continue to intervene in politics, and the form taken by these interventions."

A Place Called England / Maggie Holland / Getting There / 1999
The Digger’s Song / Windborne / Song of the Times / 2017
Hard Times of Old England / Steeleye Span / All Around My Hat / 1975
England's Dreaming / Cornershop / Hold On It Hurts / 1994
Effects of Slavery / Macka B / Global Messenger / 2000
Gimme Hope Jo'anna / Eddy Grant / File Under Rock / 1988
Copycat Crime / Alexander D Great / 2014
The Hydrogen Bomb / Mighty Terror / 1954
Run Powell Run / Laurel Aitken / 1969
Don't Back the Front / Desperate Bicycles / The Medium Was Tedium / 1977
The Hand-Loom Weavers’ Lament / Harry Boardman / Deep Lancashire: Songs, Ballads and Verse from the Industrial North West of England / 1968

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/common-wealth-and-common-ground

We listen to a playlist selected from songs listed on OurSubversiveVoice.com.

10/02/2022

An eclectic playlist of political songs mostly speaking to issues of housing as well as worker exploitation, connecting the struggles of early 20th century laborers to the contemporary conditions of the working class.

Grid / Public Enemy, Cypress Hill, George Clinton / What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down? / 2020
We Live Here / Bob Vylan / 2020
Bad Housing Blues / Josh White / Southern Exposure (An Album of Jim Crow Blues) / 1941
High Rise Tenements / Serious Bizness / For Your Immediate Attention! / 1982
Howdy High-Rise / Croy and the Boys / Howdy High-Rise / 2019
Poverty Knocks / Vulcan’s Hammer / True Hearts and Sound Bottoms / 1973
Fulfilment Centre / Richard Dawson / 2020 / 2019
The Workers Song / The Longest Johns, Seth Lakeman / Smoke & Oakum / 2022
Preacher and the Slave (Pie in the Sky) / Shannon Murray / Hallalujah! I’m A Bum / 2006
Preacher and the Slave / Socialists / 2012-2019 / 2021
I Hate The Capitalist System / John Paul Wright / Run Over By A Train / 2021
Owning Class Hero / Sue Jeffers / Owning Class Hero / 2019

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/killing-yourself-to-survive

An eclectic playlist of political songs mostly speaking to issues of housing as well as worker exploitation, connecting the struggles of early 20th century laborers to the contemporary conditions of the working class.

03/02/2022

In 1940, Alan Lomax, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger assembled a book titled Hard Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People, consisting of roughly 200 songs thats Lomax had documented in his nationwide travels during the Great Depression as director of Library of Congress' Archive of American Folk Song. Pulling some of the most overtly political songs from this collection, which was finally published in 1967, we listen to various recordings spanning the past nine decades.

Unemployment Stomp / Big Bill Broonzy / 1938
I Ain’t Got No Home / Bob Dylan / A Tribute To Woody Guthrie / 1972
The Commonwealth of Toil / Mat Callahan, Yvonne Moore / Working-Class Heroes: A History of Struggle In Song / 2019
I Am A Union Woman / Rosalie Sorrels / The Long Memory / 1996
I Don’t Want Your Millions / Barbara Dane / I Hate The Capitalist System / 1973
Looking For That New Deal Now / Darryl Holter, Ani DiFranco / Radio Songs / 2015
Don’t Take Away My P.W.A. / Jimmie Gordon / Jimmie Gordon Vol 1 (1934-1936)
Do Re Mi / Ry Cooder / S/T / 1970
Union Maid / Old Crow Medicine Show / Big Iron World / 2006
Bourgeois Blues / Lead Belly / 1939
Mama Don’t ‘Low No Bush-Wahs Hanging Around Here / Mat Callahan, Yvonne Moore / Working-Class Heroes: A History of Struggle In Song / 2019
Mister Congressman / Sis Cunningham / Broadside Ballads, Vol 9: Sundown / 1976
Why Do You Stand There In The Rain? / Sarah Ogan Gunning / Girl of Constant Sorrow / 1965

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/play-together-if-we-want-to-win

In 1940, Alan Lomax, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger assembled a book titled Hard Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People. We listen to some of the most overtly political songs from this collection.

27/01/2022

Good Cause Eviction is a bill that has recently been signed into law in several cities throughout the Hudson Valley and beyond, including just this week in Kingston, protecting tenants from predatory rent increases and unfair evictions at the whim of the owner of their home. However despite the recent expiration of the statewide pandemic eviction moratorium, the law has yet to pass county or statewide, facing opposition from the real estate industry and the politicians they sponsor. We listen to a playlist of songs dealing with the longstanding struggle for adequate housing.

Defending Our Homes / Rory Mcleod / Travelling Home / 1992
You Can’t Just Take Our Homes Away / Karrie Potter / We Won’t Move: Songs of the Tenants Movement / 1983
Ballad of the Landlord / Ray Kamalay / We Won’t Move: Songs of the Tenants Movement / 1983
Talking Tenant Blue / Mike Rawson, Rob Rosenthal / We Won’t Move: Songs of the Tenants Movement / 1983
Talking Rent / Pat Foster, Dick Weissman / Documentary Talking Blues / 1957
Greedy Landlord / Stan Kelly & Leon Rosselson / Essential British Folk Music / 2014
Landlord and Tenant / Max Romeo / 1969
Oh! Oh! Oh! Those Landlords! / Irving Kaufman / 1919
Pity The Downtrodden Landlord / Bob Hill (Fred Hellerman) / 1950
It’s Moving Day / Charlie Poole with the North Carolina Ramblers / 1930
Housing Song / RI Raging Grannie / Working In Harmony for Home and Hearth / 2008

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/to-speed-the-time-thats-coming

We listen to a playlist of songs dealing with the longstanding struggle for adequate housing.

20/01/2022

In honor of Martin Luther King day, we listen to songs inspired by and associated with him and his work, as well as his own words calling for a true revolution of values to overcome the three evils of society he identified as racism, materialism and militarism, in a speech he delivered in 1967 less than a year before he was assassinated.

Happy Birthday / Stevie Wonder / Hotter Than July / 1980
We Shall Overcome / The Staple Singers / Freedom Highway / 1965
Ballad of Martin Luther King / Brother Kirk, Pete Seeger / Pete Seeger & Brother Kirk Visit Sesame Street / 1974
Everybody’s Got A Right To Live / Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick, Jimmy Collier / Everybody’s Got A Right To Live / 1968
We’re Gonna Walk The Streets of Washington / Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick, Jimmy Collier / Everybody’s Got A Right To Live / 1968
If I Can Help Somebody / Mahalia Jackson / 1964
MLK Song / Mavis Staples / Livin’ On A High Note / 2016

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/a-true-revolution-of-values

In honor of Martin Luther King day, we listen to songs inspired by and associated with him and his work, as well as his own words

17/01/2022

Within the diverse world of protest songs, there is the distinct approach of satire: the use of sarcasm or irony to expose the absurdity of the subject at hand. We listen to satirical songs which use this kind of humor to cut to the core of hypocritical political identities, blind nationalism and historical revisionism.

Love Me, I’m A Liberal / Phil Ochs / The Best of the Rest: Rare and Unreleased Recordings / 1964
Love Me, I’m A Liberal / Jello Biafra, Mojo Nixon / Prairie Home Invasion / 1994
The World Isn’t Fair / Randy Newman / Bad Love / 1999
The Great Nations of Europe / Randy Newman / Bad Love / 1999
With God On Our Side / Odetta / Odetta Sings Dylan / 1965
Yankee Doodle / Peggy Seeger & Ewan MacColl / Folkways Record of Contemporary Songs / 1973
What A Friend We Have In Congress / Pete Seeger / The Complete Bowdoin College Concert / 1960
I Wonder Who’s Kissinger Now / Dave Lippman / Singing CIA Agent George Shrub Live in Manhattan Kansas / 2004
Save The Rich / Garfunkel and Oates / Slippery When Moist / 2012
No Banker Left Behind / Ry Cooder / Pull Up Some Dust and Sit / 2011
My Daddy Is a Left-Wing Intellectual / Alex Glasgow / Songs of Alex Glasgow Vol 1 & 2 / 1995
Battle Hymn Of The New Socialist Party / Leon Rosselson / Guess What They’re Selling At The Happiness Counter / 1992
Your Friendly, Liberal, Neighborhood Ku Klux Klan / The Mitchell Trio / Voices Of Dawn / 1965
The Sound Of Protest (Has Begun To Pay) / The Mitchell Trio / Voices Of Dawn / 1965

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/love-me-im-a-liberal

Within the diverse world of protest songs, there is the distinct approach of satire: the use of sarcasm or irony to expose the absurdity of the subject at hand. We listen to satirical songs which use this kind of humor to cut to the core of hypocritical political identities, blind nationalism and hi...

17/01/2022

A playlist of politically radical voices in recorded music from the 70s, 80s and today.

Silent Majority / Eugene McDaniels / Outlaw / 1970
When Will We Be Paid / The Staple Singers / We’ll Get Over / 1970
Kapital / The Souljazz Orchestra / Manifesto / 2008
Do They Owe Us A Living? / Crass / The Feeding Of The 5000 / 1978
Class War / The Dils / 1977
Rank And File / Rank And File / S/T / 1984
Go Get Organized! / Redskins / Neither Washington Nor Moscow / 1986
Do They Owe Us A Living? / Croy and the Boys / Of Course They Do / 2021
Pay Gap / Margo Price / All American Made / 2017
World To Live In / Roy Bailey / Coda / 2013
Spirits of the Revolution / Larry Estridge / Broadside Ballads, Vol. 7 / 1973

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/your-strength-is-their-strength

A playlist of politically radical voices in recorded music from the 70s, 80s and today.

29/12/2021

On the final episode of the year we listen to a playlist of some of the best protest songs from 2021.

The Activist / Ceramic Dog / Hope / 2021
You Can’t Fight Corruption With Corruption / Femi Kuti / Stop The Hate / 2021
Class War - How Much / She Drew The Gun / Behave Myself / 2021
Black Myself / Amethyst Kiah / Wary + Strange / 2021
White Parents / Shungudzo / I’m not a mother, but i have children / 2021
I Pity The Country / Leanne Betasamosake Simpson / Theory Of Ice / 2021
Field Negus / Sons of Kemet, Joshua Idehen / Black To The Future / 2021
Bread and Roses / Frankie Armstrong / Cats of Coven Lawn / 2021
Pay People Money To Stay At Home / Geoff Berner / 2021
Take Off Your Tin Foil Hat / JP Harris / 2021
How Can Anybody Be Okay With This / Chris Pierce / American Silence / 2021

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/all-the-people-every-day

On the final episode of the year we listen to a playlist of some of the best protest songs from 2021.

22/12/2021

Listen to the new episode of Freedom Highway in the Radio Kingston archive. For the occasion of his 64th birthday on December 20th, we listen to a dozen Billy Bragg songs - originals, adaptations of traditional workers' songs, and a couple of covers. Over the course of four decades, Bragg has released over a dozen original albums squarely at the intersection of music and politics, most commonly in opposition to the neoliberal politics in his native England as crafted by the government of Margaret Thatcher.

I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night / Billy Bragg / The Internationale / 1990
Ideology / Talking With The Taxman About Poetry / Billy Bragg / 1986
Between The Wars / Billy Bragg / Brewing Up With Billy Bragg / 1984
Waiting For The Great Leap Forward / Billy Bragg / Workers Playtime / 1988
A Pict Song / Billy Bragg / William Bloke / 1996
Which Side Are You On / Billy Bragg / Brewing Up With Billy Bragg / 1984
There Is Power In A Union / Billy Bragg / Talking With The Taxman About Poetry / 1986
The Red Flag / Billy Bragg / The Internationale / 1990
The Internationale / Billy Bragg / The Internationale / 1990
North Sea Bubble - Demo / Billy Bragg / Don’t Try This At Home / 1991
England, Half English / Billy Bragg / England, Half English / 2002
Chile Your Waters Run Red Through Soweto / Billy Bragg / The Internationale / 1990

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/freedom-highway/episodes/but-for-the-helping-hand

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