Not only do the lyrics to ‘Killing in the Name of’ cleverly portray the sad nature of institutional racism and police brutality — which is sadly fitting to the recent string of events in South Africa — but its feisty guitar riffs actually make you want to get up and fucking do something about it. As you might know, it has enough force to turn Mary Poppins into a riot girl, so make sure breakable valuables near to you are safe. Or don’t, and show people how angry you are.
 
 
 
‘For What It’s Worth’ – Buffalo Springfield

‘For What It’s Worth’ may have later been associated as a protest song against events such as the Vietnam War, but was in fact written by Stephen Stills in memory of an incident less severe but nonetheless disturbing. In November 1966 some sour residents and business owners called for a pre-school-like curfew for club-goers as early as 10pm on the Sunset Strip in LA, which is home to the loud and legendary Whiskey a Go Go. A protest was organised by fun-loving rock ‘n’ rollers almost in a wink of an eye, resulting in about a 1000 demonstrators — among them Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda — shouting for the right to party. Three weeks after on 5 December, 1966, Stills was musing about the event and came up with the lyrics,

‘There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong’.

 
 
 
‘Imagine’ – John Lennon

Although often accused of naive dreaming-of-utopia, ‘Imagine’ remains one of the most widespread peace anthems. So before we attempt to shoot off a load of cynicism, it’s worth giving wishful thinking a try — it’s generally more satisfying and, although its guarantee for success isn’t bullet proof, it normally gets you further than a fit of negativity can. After all, there’s a reason why the lyrics

‘You, you may say
I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will live as one’

have outlived their author on coffee cups, posters and sugar wrapping. Let’s stay inspired and maybe one day the naive dream will become a miraculous reality.
 
 
 
‘Oxgam/Baxabene Oxamu’ – Miriam Makeba

Miriam ‘Mama Africa’ Makeba or aka the epitome and role model of human rights activism can’t go unmentioned in South Africa after a day that celebrates equality. She got the world to bow in front of her with a tears-of-compassion-and-admiration inducing power that sprung to the fore every time she stepped into public. As a true citizen of the world holding nine different passports throughout her life, she stood up for South Africa and the world, encouraging a humane togetherness with her incredible never-give-up spirit.
 
 
 
‘Zombie’ – The Cranberries

The fact that this song is often heard in a pub/party/puke environment with drunken self-proclaimed heroes sing-shouting ‘zooombieee’ into a smoked-up room, makes it hard to believe that it actually deals with a sourly sad topic. It was written in 1993 in memory of Jonathan Ball and Tim Parry, who were killed in an IRA bombing in Warrington.
 
 
 
‘W.M.A.’ – Pearl Jam

‘W.M.A.’ stands for ‘White Male American’ and deals with the sad reality of police racism. Eddie Vedder said the following about the creation of the song:

‘I think I’d probably stayed at the rehearsal studio the night before and it had been a couple of days since I had a shower and I’ve got my old shoes on and I don’t look too great, a little grunge on my teeth or whatever. And I’m sitting there with this guy who’s of a darker colour than me, and along come these cops, they run around with their bikes trying to look cool. So here they come, they’re heading straight for us. And they just ignored me and [started] hassling him. Compared to me, this guy looks as respectable as f–k. But they started hassling him, and that just blew me the f–k away. So I started hassling them and one thing led to another… I was just really wound up by it. I had all this f–king energy rushing through me. I was mad. Really f–king angry. I got back to the studio and the guys had been working on this thing and I just went straight in and did the vocals, and that was the song.’
 
 
 
‘Raise your Hand’ – Janis Joplin

‘Raise Your Hand’ may not be specifically about human rights because it could just as well apply to a niggly narky little child wanting an ice cream, but pays tribute to the worth of self nonetheless. Originally performed by Eddie Floyd, it became a part of Janis Joplin’s concert repertoire. And who would be more suitable to sing this serenade of self-confidence than the all-powerful and ever-inspiring songstress of the ’60s? So whatever it is,

‘You’d better get up,
Now do you understand,
And raise you hand!’

If the above has got you into the get-up-and-protest mood you should go and do just that: stand up for humanity in harmony. In case, however, you need further motivation, here are some more songs that we found equally important yet didn’t include because of space issues:

‘One Tin Soldier’ – The Original Caste

‘Politik Kills’ – Manu Chao

‘Streets of London’ – Ralph McTell

‘Blowin’ in the Wind’- Bob Dylan

‘Get Up, Stand Up’ – Bob Marley

‘Talkin ’bout a Revolution’ – Tracy Chapman

‘Revolution’ – The Beatles
 
 
Words: Christine Hogg

When I first learnt of my upcoming interview with Stephen, I literally ran around the office shouting silly words that no one could understand. I was delighted at the prospect of sharing words with someone whose effect on today’s music industry has been so profound. He has produced some of the world’s top acts and brought them countless sales… and at 51 he isn’t finished yet.

He has the distinction of having co-written with Morrissey, produced five albums with britpop giants Blur, recorded The Zutons, Babyshambles, Pete Doherty and Graham Coxon… and he has just finished working on The Cranberries’ new album Roses. Well, if they get a record or distribution deal. Yes, you read correctly: The Cranberries cannot get signed. This is why I contacted Stephen. A band like The Cranberries with millions of record sales spanning over two decades cannot get a label to sign them? The Cranberries were overplayed at my 14th birthday braai, but we are through the Looking Glass: the music industry as we know it is on the brink of collapse and no one knows what the future will hold for the stalwarts of the past. Music is free and all around you, if you’re willing to brave the shoals at Piratebay.

Has the arrival of the internet benefited or hindered the industry?
Well, the downloading of illegal music is a major, major problem. Yes there is loads of free music on the internet, but it could be Bob the builder and plumber making music at night. And it’s crap… you know what I mean? Yet it still has equal billing with something that is good.

I don’t think the internet has been great for music. It has just made a huge haystack that you have to pick your way through.

Are major labels a thing of the past? And if so, what’s next?
The people making lots of money over the last few years are the internet service providers. They sell their broadband on how fast it is to download this and download that, but they are handling stolen goods and they have not really conducted themselves in the right way. Imagine how much money the internet service providers are getting now by putting broadband in millions of homes, but do they invest a penny back into the talent whose goods they are helping to hand off? No, not a penny. People think that the record labels are the baddies but they aren’t. Record companies invest in acts, one or two out of ten of which make any money. But at least when they made money , they then went out and found and developed new acts. The internet service providers don’t do that – they just fill their coffers. We need governments to come out and say: ‘Enough! Copyright means something, the goods of artists mean something… and have got to be protected’. When they know a pirate site is being set up, be it Limewire or whatever, they should get off their arses and close these sites down straight away. And sue the guys that run them.

They do close them down, but the sites just change their URL and carry on going. So what can actually be done? How do you control something like this?
I know it is very difficult, but they don’t close them down quickly enough. We have to educate the youngsters. Most youngsters believe that bands have a fantastic lifestyle and make a lot of money off touring.

Sure they might make a little bit of money, but musicians can’t live on bread and water.

And what about the people that work in the recording industry? Bands are now using their records as calling cards. They’re giving them away, and that’s great, but how are they going to pay the recording studios? How you going to pay the engineer and the producer? I mean, I make my money off album sales and if I do all that work, and then bands just give it away just to promote their tour… that doesn’t help me, now does it?

With your trade becoming less sustainable, the quality of recording is going to get worse and worse?
Well everyone thinks they’re a producer now. You have a garage band at home and you start putting a few loops together and all of a sudden you think you’re a producer. The whole thing about making records has been demystified. I mean Cenzo Townsend used to be my engineer and he used to work alongside me. He went off and made a name for himself mixing for the likes of Snow Patrol, but he despairs. You should see the stuff that’s brought in now for him to mix. You can tell it hasn’t been produced properly. No decisions have been made along the line about what should go where. He just gets handed this huge pro-tools file by the artist or the label with a ‘Hey, sort this out’.
For the full audio conversation between one small seed’s Ryan Eyden and Stephen, log on to onesmallseed.com where you can get a chance to hear a bit more about the state of the music industry, which new bands to watch out for, Morrisey, the Oasis/Blur rivalry and Pete Doherty’s infamous problems.

Read the rest of issue 23:

Click here to view our #FlashBack selection for October.

Click here to view all our #Flashbacks.