Radical Musicians?

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Which musicians are (or were) known for their "radical" (or at least out-of-the-mainstream) politics? I'm especially wondering about those who insert their politics into their music. The politics don't have to be radical by today's standards, only by the standards of the time in which they were writing.

― Nathan, Thursday, 22 March 2007 01:33 (eighteen years ago)

Lots of musicians have left-wing politics (and many others right-wing). Now I'm sure there ws an ILM thread on this but the search has gone Kaput..

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 22 March 2007 10:14 (eighteen years ago)

Ludwig van Beethoven

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 10:18 (eighteen years ago)

HI DERE GLORIOUS PROLETARIAN REVOLUTIONARIES

http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/picturesofmusic/images/Cardew.jpg

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 22 March 2007 10:52 (eighteen years ago)

The Clash
Manic Street Preachers
Billy Bragg

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 22 March 2007 11:13 (eighteen years ago)

Dead Kennedys

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 22 March 2007 11:14 (eighteen years ago)

Luigi Nono

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 11:15 (eighteen years ago)

The Coup - they're communist, I think.

― Tuomas, Thursday, 22 March 2007 11:25 (eighteen years ago)

Dick Gaughan

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 11:26 (eighteen years ago)

Henry Cow
Area
Stormy Six

― Marco Damiani, Thursday, 22 March 2007 13:13 (eighteen years ago)

Art Bears, obviously

the final effect wasn't always pretty though

― Marco Damiani, Thursday, 22 March 2007 13:13 (eighteen years ago)

Robert Wyatt, obv.

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 13:15 (eighteen years ago)

Sheffield's top Trotskyist Derek Bailey.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 22 March 2007 13:15 (eighteen years ago)

bands like Death In June or Skrewdriver should be considered "radical"?

― Marco Damiani, Thursday, 22 March 2007 13:17 (eighteen years ago)

Being English and Trotskyist sounds almost like an oxymoron.

― Marco Damiani, Thursday, 22 March 2007 13:18 (eighteen years ago)

Hans Eisler mit Brecht ist my favorite.

― bendy, Thursday, 22 March 2007 14:03 (eighteen years ago)

McCarthy n Stereolab

― sexyDancer, Thursday, 22 March 2007 14:12 (eighteen years ago)

Phil Ochs

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 14:12 (eighteen years ago)

In addition to the above, lest we forget the likes of (not all good)

Anti-Flag
Propagandhi
International (Noise) Conspiracy
Rage Against the Machine (obviously)
The Pop Group
Woody Guthrie
Cecil Taylor

Off the dome. Back in my Marxist days I made a mixtape titled "Leftist Tunes" that was all anarchist or Marxist or black power stuff.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 22 March 2007 15:00 (eighteen years ago)

Floh de Cologne
Ton Steine Scherben
Lokomotiv Kreuzberg

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 15:02 (eighteen years ago)

curtis mayfield -- curtis

― np, Thursday, 22 March 2007 15:59 (eighteen years ago)

Alec Empire, anyone?

― unfished business, Thursday, 22 March 2007 16:00 (eighteen years ago)

All the bands in this book:

http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/photos/the_day_the_country_died_book.jpg

― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 22 March 2007 16:57 (eighteen years ago)

Admittedly, most of the bands in that book stretch the definition of musician.

― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 22 March 2007 16:58 (eighteen years ago)

AMM

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:00 (eighteen years ago)

Fela Kuti
Eugene McDaniels

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:03 (eighteen years ago)

Public Enemy
Ice Cube (once upon a time)
Paris
Digable Planets

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:03 (eighteen years ago)

Last Poets

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:05 (eighteen years ago)

Charlie Haden

― Rock Hardy, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:05 (eighteen years ago)

Hans Werner Henze

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:07 (eighteen years ago)

Victor Jara

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:11 (eighteen years ago)

Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:12 (eighteen years ago)

MC5

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:12 (eighteen years ago)

Hamish Henderson (songwriter really)
The Wolftones

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:13 (eighteen years ago)

Minor Threat
the Minutemen

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:15 (eighteen years ago)

The Fugs

Does repurposing dated revolutionary theory as twinkling angel-blather count? If so, Stereolab.

― Pye Poudre, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:23 (eighteen years ago)

"Hans Werner Henze"

Really?

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:28 (eighteen years ago)

About as Marxist as it's possible to be!

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:28 (eighteen years ago)

From what I've heard, Cornelius Cardew was quite political.

― mehlt, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:33 (eighteen years ago)

Gang of Four
Gil Scot Heron
Last Poets

― filthy dylan, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:34 (eighteen years ago)

That's why he's up near the top of the thread

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:34 (eighteen years ago)

(xpost)

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:35 (eighteen years ago)

ha! Just remembered the Henze thread now - no recommendations came out of that..

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:37 (eighteen years ago)

Louis Andriessen

― Tom D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:39 (eighteen years ago)

More composers: Frederic Rzewski, Michael Finnissy, Richard Barrett on the left (his NO! piece might've been the only tangeniantly related war piece that ws any cop at all).

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:42 (eighteen years ago)

Leftist composer Gordon Downie playing the left/right wing game as a response to John Adams' piece on 9/11.

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:46 (eighteen years ago)

Plastic People of The Universe.

― mike a, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:49 (eighteen years ago)

MinorThreat
Propagandhi
Rage

― anthony, Thursday, 22 March 2007 17:54 (eighteen years ago)

I couldn't tell you what's going on lyrically, but at least one of the Les Rallizes Denudes members was involved in a Japanese Red Army plane hijacking.

― city worker, Thursday, 22 March 2007 18:07 (eighteen years ago)

Minor Threat weren't all that radical, though. Embrace/Fugazi/Evens, definitely.

― mike a, Thursday, 22 March 2007 19:08 (eighteen years ago)

I'm not all that fond of the word "radical", but no one has mentioned Pete Seeger or Archie Shepp yet.

Elaine Brown, one-time leader of the Black Panthers, is also a pianist and singer/songwriter, and put out a couple of LPs on a Motown subsidiary, back in Berry Gordy's hop-on-the-black-power-bandwagon days.

― mark 0, Thursday, 22 March 2007 22:48 (eighteen years ago)

And then there's Nina Simone, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln....

― mark 0, Thursday, 22 March 2007 22:51 (eighteen years ago)

I was gonna mention Max Roach, but IIRC he's considerably less radical than most of those we're listing (Archie, Anti-Flag, etc).

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 22 March 2007 22:54 (eighteen years ago)

Green Day (lol)

― Drooone, Thursday, 22 March 2007 22:56 (eighteen years ago)

Early-60's Max was Shepp minus the explicit Marxism; he was Pan-African and leftist before America had even had a chance to warm up to Martin Luther King.

― mark 0, Thursday, 22 March 2007 22:59 (eighteen years ago)

Uh, xpost.

― mark 0, Thursday, 22 March 2007 22:59 (eighteen years ago)

OMFG, how could we forget ... CONSOLIDATED?

also, lest we forget:

http://www.play-sound.net/weblog/img/2pac.jpg

(or at least his Black Panther mother was)

― Eisbaer, Thursday, 22 March 2007 23:16 (eighteen years ago)

Early-60's Max was Shepp minus the explicit Marxism; he was Pan-African and leftist before America had even had a chance to warm up to Martin Luther King.

mark 0 on Thursday, March 22, 2007 5:59 PM

Come to think of it, "We Insist!" was crazy fuckin radical in its context; I tend to see it through this integrationist lens these days, and the integrationists aren't who come to mind when I think "radical."

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 22 March 2007 23:20 (eighteen years ago)

SCRITTI POLITTI YA FUCKS

― max, Thursday, 22 March 2007 23:20 (eighteen years ago)

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