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ALL ARTICLES, Resistance Tunes March 26, 2020

At A Time Of Great Threat: Tom Waits Presents “Bella Ciao” (Goodbye Beautiful)

  Bella Ciao! (“Goodbye Beautiful”) originated in the north of Italy in the late 19th century. It was sung by the mondina women, seasonal rice paddy workers, to protest against the harsh working conditions. It was adopted as an anthem by the Italian Resistance, fighting again the Fascists, in World War II. It is sung in many versions around the world as a hymn of freedom. ***** This is the flower of the partisan bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao This is the flower of the partisan who died for freedom This is the flower of the partisan who died…

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ALL ARTICLES, Resistance Tunes March 23, 2020

Chino Valley USD Students Spread Hope During School Closures Due to COVID-19

  Chino Valley Unified School District (3/17/20) School closures throughout the nation have halted highly-anticipated campus events and activities with hundreds of thousands of students practicing social distancing at home. While the annual Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) Choral Festival—originally scheduled for Wednesday, March 18—has been cancelled, our Chino Hills HS Chamber Singers demonstrated resilience by recording their individual a cappella portion of Over the Rainbow in their separate homes, and through technology were able to appear together as a family again. Their harmonious performance was shared online for the CVUSD community with the goal of spreading hope and…

ALL ARTICLES, Resist!, Resistance Tunes, Right Wing Religion February 13, 2020

Listen To This! Indiana Pastor’s Beautiful Song To Trump’s Evangelicals Calls Out Their Betrayal Of Christian Teachings

New Mexico carved angel. You said to love the lost So I’m loving you now You said to speak the truth So I’m calling you out Why don’t you live the words That you put in my mouth May love overcome and justice roll down “A poignant, unexpected protest has also come from one Daniel Deitrich, an Indiana pastor who grew up in an evangelical community and farm town in Michigan, was “taught to take the words of Jesus seriously – Love God, love your neighbor, feed the hungry, fight against injustice…love, peace, kindness, gentleness,” and is “deeply saddened” by the loyalty…

ALL ARTICLES, Media Hits & Misses, Resist!, Resistance Tunes December 5, 2019

Resistance Radio: The Man Who Laughed At al-Qaeda

By Mike Thomson Assignment / BBC (11/28/19) Raed Fares, founder of Syria’s legendary Radio Fresh FM, was mowed down by unknown gunmen as he left his studios in rebel-held Idlib in November 2018. The death of the man who fought hatred with humour and laughed in the faces of President Assad, ISIS and al-Qaeda, sent shockwaves way beyond his troubled homeland. When ordered by Islamist extremists to stop broadcasting music he had replied with bird song and clucking chickens. On being told to take his female presenters off air, he put their voices through software to make them sound like…

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ALL ARTICLES, Resist!, Resistance Tunes November 18, 2019

Musician Bobi Wine Taking Courageous Stand Against Brutal Ugandan Dictator Museveni

Morning Edition / WBUR (1/15/19) NPR’s Scott Simon reconnects with Ugandan musician and activist Bobi Wine, who continues to protest President Yoweri Museveni’s rule. Wine is now planning to run against him in 2021. Link To 6-Minute Audio Kasukali Keeko ? By H.E Bobi Wine: Link To 3+-Minute Video   UGANDA ZUKUKA BY HE.BOBI WINE & NUBIAN LI: 4+-Minute Video

ALL ARTICLES, American Fascism, History They Don't Want You To Know, Resist!, Resistance Tunes August 22, 2019

Canadian Broadcasting Archives: Pete Seeger On Being Blacklisted In 1950’s America

CBC (7/10/13) In this clip from 1965, folk singer and activist Pete Seeger talks about being black listed for “un-American activities” and his refusal to answer questions that violated his Constitutional Rights. Link to 4+-Minute Video Here’s The Song Seeger Offered To Sing At His Trail — “Wasn’t That A Time”: Link to 3+-Minute Video ***** The Story Behind “Forever Young” By Pete Seeger   Amnesty International USA (3/14/12) Mini-documentary about the recording of the song “Forever Young” by Pete Seeger featured on the album “Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International”.  Link…

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ALL ARTICLES, Resistance Tunes August 8, 2019

There Is Hope For Life: The Story Of Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’

“He carried the world on his shoulder.” BBC (8/7/19) “If you’ve never heard of Bob Marley then you must be living under a rock.” — Neville Garrick, Bob Marley’s Art Director and friend. At the time he wrote ‘Redemption Song’, circa 1979, Bob Marley had been diagnosed with the cancer in his toe that later took his life. It is considered one of his greatest works and continues to inspire generations of Marley fans across the world. For Grammy Award Winning artist John Legend, it’s become an anthem for addressing the criminal justice system of America. ‘Musicians without Borders’ practitioner…

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ALL ARTICLES, History They Don't Want You To Know, Resist!, Resistance Tunes February 21, 2019

The Story Behind One Of The Iconic Protest Songs

By Danny Hajek Morning Edition / NPR (2/20/19) It was February 1967, and 18-year-old Marine private first class Bill Ehrhart was days away from leaving for Vietnam. He had just enjoyed his last weekend off-base, and his friends had offered to drive him back to Camp Pendleton, Calif., before sunrise. “It was goodbye civilian world, next stop Vietnam,” says Ehrhart, now a writer and poet. “These were not friendly neighborhood cops in a blue uniform. These were patrolmen with helmets and great big jackboots and billy clubs. It was kind of a scary scene in the midst of all that…

ALL ARTICLES, Democrats, Resistance Tunes February 11, 2019

Love Me, I’m A Liberal

  By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (2/11/19) As we see over and over again, well-intentioned mainstream liberals have rubbery spines. Yes, they want change … but not too much change. Sure they want to see more healthcare, but ‘Medicare 4 All’? Um, well, we can’t ask for that, the insrance companies will never go along with something that radical. Besides, they caution, the republicans would never let us have that so we need to be “practical”, “cautious” and settle for “incremental improvements” … and to hell with those who still won’t have access to healthcare after all that….

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ALL ARTICLES, Resist!, Resistance Tunes January 14, 2019

The Politics Of Truth In The Relentless Rap Of ‘Immortal Technique’

By Maggie Freleng Latino USA (1/13/19) Felipe Coronel, aka Immortal Technique, is a legendary underground hip-hop artist, known for his skills on the mic as well as his raw, highly political lyrics. His family immigrated to Harlem from Peru when he was a toddler to escape armed conflict and economic instability in Peru. He grew up in Harlem during the 80s and 90s during a time that was notoriously rough in New York City. Technique says because of the way he grew up, he harbored a lot of rage and eventually, that rage led him to prison. He was incarcerated…

ALL ARTICLES, History They Don't Want You To Know, Resist!, Resistance Tunes July 5, 2018

No Time For Weakness: A Song In Honor Or Civil Rights Hero Rep. John Lewis

  By Abby Zimet Common Dreams (6/27/18) We were pretty well done in even before the Kennedy news; after it, we went seeking solace. A few hours earlier, the indefatigable John Lewis, who has lived his principles through fire and brimstone, sent out a flare. “Do not get lost in a sea of despair,” he wrote. “Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” Last month in a commencement speech…

ALL ARTICLES, History They Don't Want You To Know, Resistance Tunes June 28, 2018

“The King” Director Eugene Jarecki: Elvis Presley’s Rise & Fall Is A Metaphor For America Today

  Our democracy has been hijacked by capitalism. Democracy Now! (6/25/18) To understand America in the age of Trump, prize-winning documentary filmmaker Eugene Jarecki says to look no further than the checkered history of Elvis Presley. Jarecki’s new documentary “The King” opens in New York City this week. It follows the filmmaker as he drives Elvis Presley’s 1963 Rolls Royce across the United States in an attempt to understand what has happened to America in the age of Trump. “The American dream … wasn’t for anybody if you weren’t a white man,” Jarecki said. “We got here because this nation…

ALL ARTICLES, Resist!, Resistance Tunes June 25, 2018

Bruce Springsteen Slams Trump’s Blasphemous Border Child Kidnap Program

  American rock musician and working class bard Bruce Springsteen has been playing to sold-out crowds on Broadway for the past eight months. Given the brutal ICE and Border Patrol child kidnapping program along the southwest border, Springsteen went off script last Tuesday to send out a message to America. The singer suggests ‘senior’ government figures blasphemed by suggesting they had some kind of moral — even Biblical — duty to break up families:   “I never believed that people come to my shows, or rock shows to be told anything. But I do believe that they come to be…

ALL ARTICLES, Resist!, Resistance Tunes May 3, 2018

Folksinging Activist Pete Seeger Was Born 99 Years Ago Today

  “And there’s a wonderful parable in the New Testament: The sower scatters seeds. Some seeds fall in the pathway and get stamped on, and they don’t grow. Some fall on the rocks, and they don’t grow. But some seeds fall on fallow ground, and they grow and multiply a thousandfold. Who knows where some good little thing that you’ve done may bring results years later that you never dreamed of?” — Pete Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014)

ALL ARTICLES, History They Don't Want You To Know, Resistance Tunes December 14, 2017

As Republicans Gear Up To Gut Social Security To Fund Massive Tax Cuts For The Wealthy, Here’s What Life Was Like Before Earned Benefits

Red House Records Boise Song Talk (10/14/12) Rosalie Sorrels reads the chapter “Social Security” from her mother Nancy Stringfellow’s memoir, “Report from Grimes Creek after a Hard Winter”. This is an excerpt from the full interview with Rosalie Sorrels and James Coberly Smith in the Boise Song Talk series. Link to 6-Minute Video Rosalie Sorrels Talks About Health Insurance & Death: 6-Minute Video

ALL ARTICLES, Resistance Tunes July 3, 2017

Neil Young Releases Resistance Anthem For Our Fourth Of July

Stand up for what you believe, Resist the powers that be. Preserve the land and seas For the Children of destiny.   By Mary Papenfuss The HuffPost (7/1/17) Just in time for the Fourth of July Canadian rocker Neil Young has released a surprise patriotic “resistance” anthem and music video, urging listeners to “stand up for what you believe, resist the powers that be.” The video for “Children of Destiny” (“preserve the land and save the seas for the children of destiny”) intersperses scenes of idyllic American summers with picnics, flags, fighter jets and Fourth of July parades with stunning photos…

ALL ARTICLES, Resistance Tunes, Trumpenstan June 22, 2017

Todd Rundgren’s ‘Tin Foil Hat’ Song A Timely Highlight

From Todd Rundgren’s new album “White Knight”, with back-up from 70’s peers Joe Walsh, Daryl Hall and Donald Fagen. The album includes a smooth Donald Trump parody “Tin Foil Hat”, co-written with Fagen, which Rolling Stone describes as a “a timely highlight”. He’s coming down the escalator With a girl from east of here He wants to make the country greater We’ve got nothing left to fear Because the man in the tin foil hat Is sitting on the throne tonight It kinda feels like coup de tat But it’s gonna be great, tremendous, amazing and all that ‘Cause the…

ALL ARTICLES, Resistance Tunes January 19, 2017

An Anthem Of Defiance: A Call To Resist

 “I will face the man in the tallest tower.” The Commoner Call (1/20/17) Music has the power to heal and move and if ever there was a time for inspiring protest anthems this is it. Check out this new protest song, “I’m Gonna Walk It With You” by Brian Claflin and Ellie Grace. The rousing lyrics and singing style have echoes of traditional gospel protest yet the lyrics are powerfully crafted for the current crisis. “I will face the man in the tallest tower.” Indeed! Link to 3-Minute Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8boCrXOp9M Pre-release single available for download: http://www.claflinandgrace.com