On this music Monday, it’s time for “Turntable,” where our favorite in-house music connoisseurs join GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to share what they’ve been listening to.
This week’s guest was Henry Santoro, GBH News anchor and New England Music Hall of Famer. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.
Arun Rath: Henry’s been celebrated for his “inspiration, contribution and commitment to artistry, music and the excellence of the New England music scene.” That’s a good description, Henry.
Henry Santoro: [chuckles] You’re too kind, Arun.
Rath: No, not at all! Couldn’t be kinder because I am super excited to have you on because there’s nobody whose playlist I want to get access to more than yours. Whenever we talk about music, it’s always something interesting and exciting. And today, your theme is protest songs, yeah?
Santoro: It is, and the reason being that in November, when our current president was elected, I started wondering: Where are the protest songs of today? You know, where’s Fleet Foxes, Jason Isbell, Rhiannon Giddens, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers — I mean, where is boygenius? I mean, bands that could really create some incredible protest songs through their music and their art, and it’s not happening anymore.
It’s not like it was back during the Vietnam War days and the Nixon era. Protest songs were — I mean, they were a dime a dozen, but they were also really great protest songs. And there’s a lot of them that do hold up today.
Rath: Yeah, I’ve heard people talking about today being like 1968, but we don’t have the music.
Santoro: Yeah, we don’t have those tunes to turn to. The names that I just mentioned — why aren’t they using their art and their voice to help people stand up to what’s going on in the world right now? Because there is war, there is unsettledness — the tariffs and everything else that we’re dealing with, the prisoners that are now in El Salvador that shouldn’t be prisoners at all, some of them.
Rath: So, let’s talk about the music that is on your playlist. What is song number one we have here?
Santoro: Song number one is from 1966. It’s Buffalo Springfield, which was the band before Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. The song is called “What It’s Worth,” written by Stephen Stills. Neil Young was also in the band Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills.
The song emanated from the 1966 Sunset Strip curfew riots. Now, these were known as the “hippie riots” because it was a clash between young kids who were trying to make a difference and the police who didn’t want them to make a difference.
The lyrics of the song ended up having a huge impact when they were adopted by the anti-war movement. The song became a universal anthem of human rights that expanded well beyond the era’s demographics and still holds up today, decades later.
[“For What It’s Worth” — Buffalo Springfield]
Santoro: It fits perfectly with today, doesn’t it?
Rath: Yeah. You know, it’s funny, Henry — just personally, I remember listening to this song in 1986 and thinking almost that same feeling: Because people weren’t really protesting much in 1986, and feeling dissatisfied listening to this music.
Santoro: Well, you know, four years after that song came out, in 1970, Neil Young wrote the song “Ohio,” based on the 1970 Kent State Massacre. That was when the National Guard Unit opened fire on students who were protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. It resulted in the death of four students in Ohio.
We can credit Stephen Stills and Neil Young — and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young — with coming up with some powerful, powerful protest songs. People are going to be singing that song all day. They’re going to be cursing me because that’s going to be an earworm.
Rath: It definitely is. But yeah, I learned as a young person about Kent State because of that Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song.
Santoro: Exactly. A lot of us did.
Rath: What do you have up next?
Santoro: Up next is The Wailers — later to become Bob Marley and the Wailers. Marley was inspired to write this particular song, “Get Up, Stand Up,” based on his trips to Haiti and seeing what was happening in his native Jamaica.
Even if you don’t identify with Bob Marley’s political or religious ideology, the sentiments of an anthem like “Get Up, Stand Up” are universal. It’s throughout the world that we can deal with these oppressive forces that need to be stood up against.
And we’re seeing it — we’re seeing it in Russia. We’re seeing it in Ukraine. We’re seeing it in Gaza, in Israel. We’re seeing it here in the United States. It’s “Get Up, Stand Up,” by Bob Marley and the Wailers.
[“Get Up, Stand Up” — The Wailers]
Santoro: 1973 was when that song was released.
Rath: Right, and that was The Wailers, still with Peter Tosh in the band, right? He went on to also have some great protest music.
Santoro: Yeah. I saw them at “Concerts on the Common,” when you could get in for $2.50.
Rath: Back in the day when you could actually wear out records — I pretty much wore out that one. But I didn’t know anything about the Haiti connection and inspiration for that.
Santoro: It was. It was a trip that Marley had taken to Haiti, and the poverty was just everywhere. It totally jumped out at him, and that’s where “Get Up, Stand Up” came from.
Rath: So, let’s go to your final selection for today. Now, we’re jumping forward a couple of decades, yeah?
Santoro: We are. We’re heading now to 2007. The song is called “Paper Planes,” and the artist is M.I.A. People will know this song as soon as we start playing it.
Now, the initial motivation behind this song was the challenges that M.I.A. was facing as she was trying to secure a U.S. work visa. Sound familiar? She viewed her ethnicity as part of the issue. She was briefly on the U.S. Homeland Security Risk List back in 2006 for her political lyrics.
She also takes on the issues of racial profiling, addresses the wrongful stereotypes that people have of immigrants, and the effective use of gunshots and cash registers in the song makes for a really powerful statement about greed and gun violence. So, M.I.A. totally delivered with this song, “Paper Planes,” from 2007.
[“Paper Planes” — M.I.A.]
Rath: I love this, Henry. I love M.I.A. It’s funny — all the politics in the world get wrapped up neatly. I got to introduce her once at a concert in New York, and sitting next to me in the audience was Salman Rushdie.
Santoro: That is so great. Well, she is such a force to be reckoned with. I mean, she — as you just said — sums it all up in this one song, and it’s “Paper Planes” from 2007. And, again, it stands up to this very day.
