Give me some songs that deal with social justice. (Not Just Rap)

Originally Posted by mace40

Bruce Springsteen - Johnny 99 (Really, anything from the Boss. My favorite is the Nebraska album, but you may want to try his Greatest Hits.)

Almost anything from Bob Dylan is going to be chock full of sociopolitical commentary, and the same is true of Johnny Cash, especially earlier in their careers.

Neil Young does really good political commentary, and he's a born Canadian, naturalized American, so he comes with a bit of an outsider's perspective. Try his stuff with Crosby, Stills and Nash (CSN&Y) as well, especially 'Ohio'.

Of course, if you're going to listen to CSN&Y, you'll run into some Buffalo Springfield as well... 'For What It's Worth' is a classic.

John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band album is a political statement in and of itself, but the same can be said of a lot of his later Beatles work, as well as almost everything he did after the Beatles.

Leonard Cohen is also a sociopolitical commentator. I would recommend just going with his Greatest Hits, but make sure you get the 2-disc.

Some of Morrissey's stuff with the Smiths was sociopolitical in nature (Meat is Murder in particular), but he started speaking his mind more on the post-Smiths stuff.

Craig Finn (of the Hold Steady and Lifter Puller)'s work is very concerned with inner-city drug culture and the youth in and around it.

And of course, Tom Waits speaks for the gutter-driven Americans who cannot afford a collar. Try Heartattack & Vine (song, but the album is superb), and if you can tolerate his voice (pretty abrasive) you'll quickly become a fan of one of America's greatest living songwriters.

Most of this is singer-songwriter stuff or pretty classic (or classic-influenced) guitar-driven rock n' roll, but of course you can always look at good punk rock for social commentary (the Dead Kennedys, Agent Orange, Social Distortion (especially check out 'Don't Drag Me Down', one of my favorite songs of all time), Black Flag, Anti-Flag, etc.)

Hope this helps.

EDIT: No project like this is complete without Springsteen's 'Ghost of Tom Joad', whether it's his original or Rage Against the Machine's cover. Both are gold... and I kinda like the Rage one better.

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Originally Posted by buggz05

Woody Guthrie started it all.

There's an RnB singer who died in the 70's, I can't remember his name. He's one of my favorites. Not Gaye..

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