Tax the rich, feed the poor/
‘Til there are no rich no more.

Ten Years After’s “I’d Love to Change the World” might be one of the first social change songs we’ve talked about on this list. This is a big one. Ten Years After sees themselves as the modern day Robin Hood…kind of. They want to tax the rich and feed the poor, they support the environment, they see racial injustice that needs to be rectified and they think war is out of hand.

Ten Years After have a lot of beliefs similar to the social democrats. The difference is that they’d “like to change the world, but I don’t know what to do… So I leave it up to you.”  Well I suppose we need idea people as well as the doers.

The cool thing about this song is that it discusses a serious subject but it still rocks. Traditionally folk music has been where most protest songs have occurred. I love folk music, but not everyone does. We need more songs like this in rock and pop.

It is amazing how similar the message that people were fighting for 50 years ago is still something we are fighting for today. This would be an appropriate campaign song for a Bernie Sanders campaign.

I’d Love to Change the World Lyrics

Everywhere is freaks and hairies,
Dykes and fairies, tell me where is sanity.
Tax the rich, feed the poor,
‘Til there are no rich no more.

I’d love to change the world-
But I don’t know what to do,
So I’ll leave it up to you.

Population keeps on breeding,
Nation bleeding, still more feeding economy.
Life is funny, skies are sunny,
Bees make honey, who needs money, Monopoly.

I’d love to change the world-
But I don’t know what to do,
So I’ll leave it up to you.

World pollution, there’s no solution,
Institution, electrocution.
Just black and white, rich or poor,
Them and us, stop the war.

I’d love to change the world-
But I don’t know what to do,
So I’ll leave it up to you.

Songwriters: Alvin Lee

It’s been a long, a long time coming/
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.

In popular music in the 60s, not many singers wrote their own songs. The singer-songwriter was just becoming a thing, but it was primarily on the rock side of music. It certainly wasn’t big in pop or soul. Sam Cooke wrote and sang “A Change is Gonna Come” about civil rights issues that were divisive issues of the day.

For Cooke, they weren’t “issues”, they were things he experienced, like how in this song he writes about getting in a fight while going to a movie downtown. He is hopeful, however, that a change will come.

The movement from songwriters writing all the songs to the performers writing the songs was one of the most important movements in the history of music. Owning the publishing is king. There is something unique about hearing an artist sing their own words about their own experiences.

A Change is Gonna Come Lyrics

I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I’ve been running ev’r since
It’s been a long time, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die
‘Cause I don’t know what’s up there, beyond the sky
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

I go to the movie and I go downtown
Somebody keep tellin’ me don’t hang around
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

Then I go to my brother
And I say brother help me please
But he winds up knockin’ me
Back down on my knees, oh

There have been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long
But now I think I’m able to carry on
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will

Songwriters: Sam Cooke

London calling to the faraway towns/
Now war is declared and battle come down.

In “London Calling”, The Clash reenacts the call made over the BBC during WW2 from the British Government to their citizens. They imagine a new war, or the next war, and they seem to anticipate that it will happen soon.

At the time this was written, London was not the tourist trap and world financial center it is today. There was poverty and fear about nuclear fallout. The Clash were anti-establishment and bringing awareness to their fans was part of their calling.

“London Calling” sounds urgent as if an alarm is going off–predicting the ensuing chaos. The staccato notes on the electric guitar help to create this effect. The Clash was doubly concerned, they lived by the river, and it appeared that the river was vulnerable to attack. Was anyone listing?

The Clash were a big part of the Punk and anti-establishment culture that dominated English music in the early eighties. Note the intensity and urgency of the lyrics and the sound. This is quintessential 80s punk.

London Calling Lyrics

London calling to the faraway towns,
Now war is declared and battle come down.
London calling to the underworld,
Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls.
London calling, now don’t look to us,
Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust.
London calling, see we ain’t got no swing,
Except for the ring of the truncheon thing.

The ice age is coming, the sun’s zooming in,
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin.
Engines stop running, but I have no fear,
‘Cause London is drowning…
I live by the river.

London calling to the imitation zone,
Forget it, brother, you can go it alone.
London calling to the zombies of death,
Quit holding out and draw another breath.
London calling and I don’t want to shout,
But while we were talking, I saw you nodding out.
London calling, see we ain’t got no high,
Except for that one with the yellowy eye.

The ice age is coming, the sun’s zooming in,
Engines stop running, the wheat is growing thin.
A nuclear era, but I have no fear,
‘Cause London is drowning.
I, I live by the river.

The ice age is coming, the sun’s zooming in,
Engines stop running, the wheat is growing thin.
A nuclear era, but I have no fear,
‘Cause London is drowning.
I, I live by the river.
Now get this…

London calling, yes, I was there, too,
And you know what they said? Well, some of it was true.
London calling at the top of the dial,
And after all this, won’t you give me a smile?
I never felt so much alike, alike, alike, alike.

Songwriters: Joe Strummer / Mick Jones / Paul Simonon / Topper Headon