Download PDF file of Everybody’s Got a Right to Live!
This song was written for The March on Washington in 1968. It was originally directed at the way racism resulted in poverty. Both the original words and the simplified words are included on the PDF. It’s a great song when you have a bunch of people who don’t know many songs. The words are simple and the tune is easy to learn in a call and response way.
Download PDF of We Shall Not Be Moved
We Shall Not Be Moved was adapted by the labor movement in the 1930s and in the 1950s and ’60s was sung in Civil Rights movement. It originates from, I shall not be moved, an African-American slave spiritual, hymn, and protest song dating to the early 19th century. It was likely sung originally at revivalist camp-meetings as a slave jubilee. [Information from Wikipedia]
I like this version of Mavis Staples singing We Shall Not Be Moved because it has an actual video of Mavis singing and also includes her telling a great story about singing this in the late 1950s in the Civil Rights movement.
However, this recording of Mavis singing We Shall Not Be Moved may be better, musically.
Download PDF of Somebody’s Hurting My Brother with harmony parts
Somebody’s Hurting My Brother is a wonderful call and response song by Yara Allen* that needs a good strong leader. The response is simple enough for just about anybody, but there are lots of possibilities for more experienced singers to harmonize and add interesting clapping or other percussion rhythms. We The downloadable PDF version has a suggested harmony for the response in four parts.
Yara Allen teaching, Somebody’s Hurting My Brother
*Yara Allen is a singer, songwriter, poet, and musician, and a native of Rocky Mount, NC. She is also the Director of Theomusicology and Cultural Arts with Repairers of the Breach (Goldsboro, NC) and Co-Director of Theomusicology and Movement Arts with the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
Download PDF of We are Singing for Democracy
Download PDF of Siyahamba with full harmony and words in English, Spanish and Zulu
Siyahamba is a song from South Africa. Here, Ellen Oak and Laura Beck have rewritten the English words to fit the need of this moment. The downloadable PDF has the original version in English, Spanish and Zulu, as well as the version with “We are Singing for Democracy.”
Here are the Original words in all three languages:
Original Zulu:
Siyahamba ekukhanyeni kwenkos.
Siyahamba ekukhanyeni kwenkos (repeat)
CHORUS
Siyahamba, ‘hamba. Siyahamba, (ooh) ‘hamba
Siyahamba ekukhanyeni kwenkos.
English:
We are marching in the light of God, we are marching in the light of God. (repeat)
CHORUS
We are marching, marching, we are marching, (ooh) marching,
We are marching in the light of God.
Spanish:
Marcharemos en la luz de Dios, Marcharemos en la luz de Dios.
Marcharemos, ’remos, Marcheremos, (Uuu), ’remos,
Marcharemos en la luz de Dios.
Listen to the harmony on this MP3 file…
Here is the Mwamba Children’s Choir singing Siyahamba
Download the PDF of Pay Me My Money Down
This song will really get people dancing and clapping! Bring a tambourine! If you are lucky enough to have a band that has some experience with New Orleans jazz, they can go to town. I love Bruce Springsteen’s recording of this. You can listen (and see) it on the YouTube link below. The downloadable PDF has some simple ideas for harmonization.
I thought I heard the President say,
Pay me my money down,
“Social Security’s here to stay.”
Pay me my money down!
Well, Elon Musk with his chain saw,
Pay me my money down,
He stole my money and he broke the law,
Pay me my money down!
They cut off U-S-A-I-D,
Pay me my money down,
Now Donald says, “That ain’t on me!”
Pay me my money down
And the ICE-man took me from my street,
Pay me my money down,
El Salvodor jails got no bed sheet,
Pay me my money down.
If you tell Donald Trump his word ain’t law,
Pay me my money down,
He’ll throw his dinner up on the wall,
Pay me my money down.
When Donald Trump is finally out,
Pay me my money down,
I’ll spend my money and I’ll sing and shout,
Pay me my money down.
Bruce Springsteen and his band singing Pay Me My Money Down
Download PDF of Don’t You Want to Vote
Download MuseScore file of Don’t you Want to Vote?
This is fun, short and really adaptable.
Come on, come on, come on
Don’t you want to vote?
Come on, come on, come on
Don’t you want to vote?
Come on, come on, come on
Don’t you want to vote?
Yes, I want to vote!
Have you registered somebody?
Don’t you want to vote…
Will you meet me at the polling place!
Don’t you want to vote…
Go and raise your voices!
Don’t you want to vote…
Download PDF of Mi unica bandera.
This song cries out for percussion! It’s pretty simple, like all great dance music. In fact, it makes you want to dance in the streets. I would use it the way marching bands use a cadence in the percussion section: as a lively, dancing filler between other songs. It needs a charismatic leader to really bring people in.
The Peace Poets are a collective of artists that celebrate, examine and advocate for life through music and poetry. Their style emphasizes lyricism, rhythm and authenticity. They hail from the Bronx and have been rocking the mic since 2005.
Translation of the Spanish words:
Listen, my people, we bring the power. Freedom is my only flag.
Translation of English words:
¡Arriba, pueblo mío, cóndores míos, águilas mías! Ningún ser humano será jamás ilegal.
Download PDF file of I am not afraid
Download MuseScore file of I am not afraid
This is a great song to sing at a march or any action where people might get arrested, ICE is present, there is danger from hecklers, or at any action that is focused on the danger we are all in because of Trump and the forces of Authoritarianism. It’s a simple melody and one that can be enhanced by clapping and other percussion, and by improvised harmonization.
Here is a YouTube video that was made at at The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival Theomusicology and Movement Arts Gathering in Raleigh, NC February 2018.
Download PDF of Ain’t gon’ let nobody turn me ’round
Download MuseScore transcription of Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me ’round
This is a classic protest song that was used in the fight for integration starting in the 1950s and ’60s, but going back much farther. It is worthwhile, when organizing music for rallies, to vary the mood and tempo of the songs. This song, which, often sung in a “happy-clappy,” summer camp style, can be very powerful and dignified when sung to a slower tempo. The version in the video below by Sweet Honey in the Rock illustrates what I mean.
Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me round, Lord,
Turn me round, turn me round,
Ain’t gonna let nobody, turn me round,
I just keep on a-walkin’, keep on a-talkin’,
Marching up on freedom land.
…Jailhouse,
…Fire hose,
…Segregation,
…no dogs, Lord,
…No War, Lord,
…Intolerance,
…Oppression,
(Other words ad lib.)
…no ICE-man
…Soldiers
…Steve Miller
etc.
Link to YouTube Video by Sweet Honey in the Rock
