The version at the link above is on the class website. If you'd rather read it online, you can find it here: The Little Red Songbook at Archive.org.
The Little Red Song Book to Fan the Flames of Discontent is just what the title suggests: a book of songs. I don't expect you to read it cover to cover. But what I'd like to have you do is look at the table of contents, Read through it and select ten songs which seem most interesting to you, and go find them. What I'd like to have you do next is send me an e-mail with the names and page numbers of those songs. Finally, I'd like you to see if you can find at least five of them online (Youtube would be a good place, but there are other resources as well) and post the URLs in your Resources folder.
Read, in Weissman,
Chapter 5. Protest Songs as a Tool for Social Change. pp. 171-204 (The Effects of the Blacklist on Political Music)
For example you might find the song "Banks of Marble" interesting. Lo and behold. Pete Seeger's version is available.
There are nineteen sections in the reading assignment for today, most of them are quite short, but each section names songs and performing groups. Some of them we've already met--like Huddy Ledbetter (Leadbelly) and we'll see again the crossover between protest songs and slave songs, the blues music, and gospel. Sometimes all that changes is are the words--new ones set to old tunes.
I want you to read the whole section--with the long weekend that shouldn't be problematic. Then I'd like you to investigate more deeply about ten of them--doing what we've done before. See what you can find on the about the songs, topic, singer(s) associated with them and add those to your resource folder. Remember to add "details"--in some cases these might be lyrics, or biographical information, or just what listening to the song did for you.
Click on the image above to find out more about Joe Hill (a Swedish Immigrant) who became a famous song writer and labor organizer. The website is not in English, but if you use the Google Chrome Browser, you can have the page translated. There are links to several Joe Hill Songs,on the website, so I don't have to add any more to this website.
I've mentioned that there are more options than YouTube. Here is one you may find very useful. Click the Picture to Reach it.
There are eighteen sections in the reading assignment for today, most of them are quite short, but each section names songs and performing groups. and we'll see again the crossover between protest songs and slave songs, the blues music, and gospel. Sometimes all that changes is are the words--new ones set to old tunes.
I want you to read the whole section-- Then I'd like you to investigate more deeply about eight of them--doing what we've done before. See what you can find on the about the songs, topic, singer(s) associated with them and add those to your resource folder. Remember to add "details"--in some cases these might be lyrics, or biographical information, or just what listening to the song did for you. (Look Familiar?) It is a (slightly) revised version of Tuesday's assignment.
