I did the same thing! I'm rather fond of those collections. I need to pick up the Emmylou Harris one.

I think the protest version is "Why isn't Elvis Costello Making Out with Heather Alayne Right the F NOW!"

That was the title I was looking for.

Alicia- I usually do look on most of them to see if they were influenced by the people I think they were. I totally wanted to see a Texas jump blues guy like Lightnin Hopkins on Ray Charles's.

More Gang of Four needed, I think.

I'd take "Clampdown" by the Clash.

I find Mary Black's version of "My Youngest Son Came Home Today" utterly hearbreaking.

When I saw Elvis C. live, he did this cover that had lyrics like "Everyone talks about justice, but I don't think they know what it means" or WTTE.

Any ideas what this might be? (This was about 13 years ago so I don't remember much of it.)

Everybody's Crying Mercy - by Mose Allison. It's on Kojak Variety, EC's 2nd album of covers.

Non-sequitor, if only because I keep meaning to tell people about it and then forgetting.

The karaoke place I go to on a regular basis got a boatload of new songs (yay!). Among those songs is "Sand and Water" by Beth Nielsen Chapman. A great song to sing if you want to make the entire bar weep like babies.

I'm tempted to sing it sometime, just to be a total buzzkill.

Carry on with the protest songs.

Thanks bicyclops.

eta:

Carry on with the protest songs.

Like a wayward son?

I heard a good review of a blues movie -- well, a movie of a blues concert called something like "Lightning in a Bottle" this morning. Has anyone here seen it?

(Also, they reviewed the John Lennon Acoustic album which sounds like fun.)

Don't you cry no more, tommyrot.

Everybody's Crying Mercy - by Mose Allison. It's on Kojak Variety, EC's 2nd album of covers.

Bonnie Raitt also has a nice version on one of her early, pre-success albumns. It's a damn fine song.

More Gang of Four needed, I think.

You probably didn't notice the ten minutes when I had "This heaven gives me migraine" as my tagline the other day before I switched to the Fiery Furnaces. I only realized on Monday that this song is specifically (rather than generally) about Bush.

"We Got Back The Plague" - Fiery Furnaces
That easy-going man of blood
Mucking out in the McLennan county mud
If you're hoping he won't, well of course then he must
Driving his truck through the McLennan county dust

I read in my book on Sunday afternoon
So it's easy to think the end's coming soon
But though sometimes the signs from heaven are vague
Early November we got back the plague

While beautiful Laura's sweeping the porch
He's teleconferencing up his operation torch
And I don't care if he bombs Babylon to hell
Except for he's building Babylon here as well

Waking up in Cedar Rapids asking for allies
Praising his leeches and looking for likewise
Down in St. Charles local talent he hawks
Smirking and sowing the winds as he talks

In Northern Virginia on their excursions
L.U.V. in with all their diversions
Horns for hounds and spurs for horses
Release the committed 72-hour task forces

Bentonville and Dallas with gasoline douse
Then back to Crawford going over to the firehouse
Behind the curtains not turning much of a trick
Sicking ourselves to make ourselves sick

That easy-going man of blood
Mucking out in the McLennan county mud
If you're hoping he won't, well of course then he must
Digging us down under the McLennan county dust.

Other great protest songs:

• "Christmastime in Washington" - Steve Earle
• "I Ain't Got No Home," "Deportees," and "Pretty Boy Floyd" (amongst many, many others) - Woody Guthrie
• Just about anything by the Minutemen, but especially "Political Song For Michael Jackson To Sing," "Working Men Are Pissed," and "This Ain't No Picnic"
• "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down" - Ramones
• most Gang of Four, but "Not Great Men" kicks major ass
• much of the Mekons, but maybe "Shanty" and "Heaven and Back" are speaking to me above others right now
• "Reuters" - Wire