Playlist: Talkin’ Bout a Revolution

This is shaping up to be quite a time, kids. Quite a time. Basically The Occupy Movement has shown us we’ve got enough people on our side to win this thing if we all just mobilize properly. Therefore it’s important to be as militantly committed to your politics at all times, so that we can mind control the government into getting their shit together. This music will help keep you in a state of constant Occupation.

Career Opportunities – The Clash (1977)
Revolution – The Beatles (1968)
Stars and Stripes of Corruption – The Dead Kennedys (1985)
Grandmaster Flash – The Message (1982)
Let’s Get Together – The Youngbloods (1969)
Power to the People – John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band (1971)
Hammer and a Nail – The Indigo Girls (1991)
American Idiot – Green Day/Broadway Cast Recording (2009)
Changes – Tupac (1992)
Which Side Are You On? – Natalie Merchant (cover, originally written in 1931)
The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Bob Dylan (1964)
Redemption Song – Bob Marley (1980)
Freedom 90 – George Michael (1990)
Rebel Girl – Bikini Kill (1992)
If the Kids are United – Sham 69 (1978)
What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye (1971)
Uprising – Muse (2009)
Talkin’ Bout a Revolution – Tracy Champman (1988)

listen at 8tracks or here:

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Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

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42 Comments

  8. “with my own two hands” — ben harper. one of my personal faves, always helps me get out of bed and get a hammer & nail :)

  9. Pretty much anything by The King Blues should be here. The Schemers, The Scroungers and The Rats seems appropriate. Also, anything by Frank Turner. Also, Juggernauts by Enter Shikari. Also, all the proper punk music ever.

    I have a lot of political music-based feelings.

  11. Sour Patch Kids – Asher Roth
    Seriously one of his better songs, after I Love College you’d never know he has a brain, but this is actually really angry and wonderfully revolutionary. And also DC or Nothing by Wale, even though that’s half just about how badass DC is.

  13. The Beatles were certainly ahead of their time, but not THAT much. Revolution came out in 1968.

    Also, I third the call for some Billy Bragg.

  15. And how bout:

    – Raining in paradise – Manu Chao
    – Tweak on your nipple – Faithless
    – Seven Nation Army – Flaming Lips
    – Amerika – Ramstein
    – Twist in my sobriety – Pet Shop Boys and Liza Minnelli
    – CIA Man – Sun city girls
    – Hasta siempre – Nathalie Cardone’s version is nice
    – Virtual insanity – Jamiroquai
    – Design for life – Manic street preachers
    – Mis-shapes – Pulp
    – 1969 – Sisters of Mercy
    – Toxicity – System Of A Down

  18. I think this is the first playlist I’ve ever seen that includes the Beatles, the Dead Kennedys, Bikini Kill, and Marvin Gaye. I APPROVE.

    Also, fun story about Rebel Girl; Rebel Girl helped me realize I am totally gaymosexual because I was all, “mm, cool girls! I want to kiss them! They taste like revolution!” and then I thought, “hmm, that was kind of a gay thing to think” and then I thought, “fuck it. I am so gayyy.” THANKS BIKINI KILL.

    I would also like to add this song (“Asskickatron” by Fagatron) – http://fuckyeahqueercore.tumblr.com/post/6225324496

    • You just made me laugh out loud in the middle of an osteology class! I got lots of weird looks but don’t care because your comment is priceless and almost exactly how I finally admitted I’m gay!! Scissor bump :)

  19. “children of the revolution” by t.rex
    “g.r.i.n.d.” by asher roth
    “march of the pigs” by nine inch nails
    “tomorrow belongs to us” by the casualties

    and pretty much anything by rage against the machine.

  21. Nooooo please American Jesus nevar use the Ron Paul Revolution image.

    That said, my revolution songs would be “The Queen is Dead” by The Smiths and “Search and Destroy” by Iggy and the Stooges.

  22. let’s not shit ourselves (to love and be loved) by bright eyes. he pretty much has a song for everything.

    “Well, ABC, NBC, CBS bullshit
    They give us fact or fiction, I guess an even split
    And each new act of war is tonight’s entertainment
    We’re still the pawns in their game
    As they take eye for an eye, until no one can see
    We must stumble blindly forward, repeating history
    Well I guess we all fit into your slogan in that fast food marquee
    Red-blooded, white skinned, oh and the blues
    Oh, and the blues, I got the blues, that’s me!”

  23. Through the dust bowl, through the debt
    Grandma was a Suffragette
    Blacklisted for her publication
    Blacklisted for my generation
    Go, go, go.

    Go by the Indigo Girls

  25. Life During Wartime – Pinhead Gunpowder
    I Want to Conquer the World – Bad Religion
    You Are (The Government) – Bad Religion
    Persistence – Big Rig
    Cool This Madness Down – Common Rider
    Merry May Folk – Emerald Rose (it’s a different kind of revolution)
    Peace Now – Gaia Consort
    Through the Roof ‘N’ Underground – Gogol Bordello
    Immigrant Punk – Gogol Bordello
    Minority – Green Day
    Static Age – Green Day
    Know Your Enemy – Green Day
    Fuck You – Lily Allen
    SONGS – Morning Musume
    The Meaning of Life – The Offspring
    Unity – Operation Ivy
    Gonna Find You – Operation Ivy
    Freeze Up – Operation Ivy
    Room Without a Window – Operation Ivy
    Freedom Is – Pinhead Gunpowder
    I Wanna – Pinhead Gunpowder
    Battle for the Sun – Placebo
    Spite & Malice – Placebo
    Power of Equality – Red Hot Chili Peppers
    Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down – The Toasters

  28. The Coup’s “5 million ways to kill a CEO” or “Fat Cats, Bigga Fish” or really pretty much anything by them.

    Bonus: Boots Riley has been to Occupy Oakland!

    Also “The Ghost of Tom Joad” by Bruce Springsteen or RATM’s cover!

    Also also, I would add Bob Marley’s song “Small Axe”

    “If you are the big tree, let me tell you that
    We are the small axe, sharp and ready
    Ready to cut you down (well sharp)
    To cut you down”

  29. Oh geez, I can’t believe I forgot:

    Pretty much every Rage Against The Machine song ever is appropriate here.

  30. Is it only me who remembers Jefferson Airplane & friends, like:

    “Flowers of the Night” on “Baron von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun” (1973)
    “Mau Mau (Amerikon)” on “Blows against the Empire¨ (1970)
    “War Movie” on “Bark” (1971)
    “Volunteers” on “Volunteers” (1969)

    Also:
    “Prologue”/“Someday”/”Liberation” by/on “The Chicago Transit Authority” (1968/69)

  32. Bob Marley – Get Up Stand Up

    You can fool some people sometimes,
    But you can’t fool all the people all the time.
    So now we see the light,
    We gonna stand up for our rights!

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