The Sound of Resistance

Lyrics in English:

It’s hard to be a real human being
Truly difficult, my dear Yosl Ber
It’s hard to be a real human being
Truly difficult, my dear Yosl Ber

You’re supposed to give grandmothers respect
Rather than throw them out of their homes
You’re not supposed to murder any children
You can’t even blind them

You can’t make and spread
Plague, and the chains of hunger
You’re not allowed to destroy a hospital
Not even just one!

Sometimes it’s hard to remain (behave like) humans
Especially when we are miserable and suffering
But there’s only one choice, my dear boy
If you don’t wish to be a swine

Yosl Ber
Serves in the military
Yosl, Yosl, Yosl Ber
Serves in the military

Words by @Geoffberner@zeroes.ca with Annie Cohen, music by Geoff Berner. Berner is a Jewish Canadian protest singer who places himself somewhere between folk, punk, and klezmer.

Yosl Ber is a man serving in the military in an old Yiddish song (cover version here) by Itzik Manger. Lyrics with translation are available here. In the current context, it's hard not to think of Yosl Ber as a person recruited to the IDF as part of Israel's mandatory military service.

Wikipedia

Woody Guthrie was never too vague about his stance on fascism, starting with the famous phrase "This Machine Kills Fascists" written on his guitars.

"All You Fascists Bound To Lose" is a song that takes this bluntness to a lyrical level, to the point where it hardly needs any introduction.

I’m gonna tell you fascists
You may be surprised
The people in this world
Are getting organized
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose

Race hatred cannot stop us
This one thing we know
Your poll tax and Jim Crow
And greed has got to go
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose.

All of you fascists bound to lose:
I said, all of you fascists bound to lose:
Yes sir, all of you fascists bound to lose:
You’re bound to lose! You fascists:
Bound to lose!

People of every color
Marching side to side
Marching ‘cross these fields
Where a million fascists dies
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose!

I’m going into this battle
And take my union gun
We’ll end this world of slavery
Before this battle’s won
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose!

What's pretty cool about All You Fascists is that Guthrie's BBC recording was lost for a really long time, so we thought we were just left with his lyrics. When Billy Bragg teamed up with Wilco to put music to unreleased Guthrie songs in the late 90s, nobody knew that the Guthrie recording still existed. The Wilco/Bragg version of the song is therefore recorded not as a cover, but as a completely original composition by musicians who had not had a chance to listen to Guthrie's original.

Black man got a lotta problems
But they don't mind trowin' a brick White people go to school Where they teach you how to be thick

White Riot is the first single released by the Clash, and pretty much seems to set the agenda of the band. They find that while everything is going to shit, white folks have been dumbed down and pacified to a point where they are completely harmless to the ruling elites.

All the power's in the hands
Of the people rich enough to buy it While we walk the streets
Too chicken to even try it

At the time Joe Strummer saw little hope in the white population:

Everybody's doing
Just what they're told to
And nobody wants
To go to jail

He wants a "white riot - a riot of my own". It's a call for white folks to join black people in the fight against the powers that be, and to rise up against injustice instead of being so god-damn complacent.

Are you taking over
Or are you taking orders?
Are you going backwards
Or are you going forwards?

Released in March '77, a couple of months before Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen, White Riot could be seen to mark the beginning of the UK wave of punk music, which was influenced by the New York scene and later caused a second British invasion (or a "phony Beatlemania", as the Clash themselves later coined it) in the US. The studio version of White Riot ends with the following appeal to the listener:

Hey, you, standing in line
Are we gonna sign an agreement?

Considering the influence of the punk movement in the years that followed, it's fair to say that many audience members were, in fact, ready to sign on. It might be time we renew the terms.

Here's Rage Against the Machine doing the song justice.

In the occasion of the first presidency of Donald Trump, the ever-wonderful Marc Ribot put together an album of resistance songs, featuring a wide variety of artists. One of these artists is long-time Ribot collaborator Tom Waits, who sang Ribot's English translation of the classic Italian partisan song Bella Ciao.

Borrowing its melody from an old worker's song, Bella Ciao—goodbye beautiful—is narrated by a partisan who believes he is dying. He makes his final request to be buried in the mountain underneath a beautiful flower, so that the people pasing by can enjoy the beautiful sight of the flower of the partisan.

Ribot translates the lyrics pretty precisely, but his composition is significantly less upbeat than what many people often associate with Bella Ciao.

I think it's a beautiful testament to the willingness to give everything to create a better world for those who follow.

Muse has a special place in my heart for their anthemic-style and spot on lyrics. This song is about rising up against the system and fighting back.

This song reminds me of the users out there just trying to bring us down and take our spirit. Don't let them! Set boundaries and keep the wolves away.

This song is about facing poverty and the abuse of corporations. It motivates me to keep going forward and strive for a better future.

This song is about struggles and hardship. It reminds me of the challenges many people face and that I must never forget the individual.

Great song when you're feeling alone and down! Sometimes you have to be your own advocate. Sometimes change starts with you.

This song pumps me up and reminds me that despite the issues we face, we shouldn't give up and conform to the expectations of the oppressors.