SOUNDS LIKE A REVOLUTION
59MIN DOCUMENTARY
Transcript
LOGO
Deltatime logo animation
SUPER
Deltatime Production Presents
SUPER
A film by Summer Love and Jane Michener
TEXT/INT
Pete Seeger
What's so dangerous about a song?
TEXT/INT
Pete Seeger
Throughout my life I've seen the rulers try and control what kind of music the people hear.
(crowd cheering in background)
Let the play! Let them play!
It will make them feel angry when we want them to be passive. It will keep people from fighting when we want them to fight.
TEXT/Crowd
Let them play! Let them play!
TEXT/INT
Steve Earle
If you're only armed with a guitar, you know a guitar's what you fight with.
TEXT/Crowd
Let them play! Let them play!
TEXT/INT
Michael Franti
The role of the artist today is to enrage,
enlighten and inspire.
TEXT/Crowd
Let them play! Let them play!
TEXT/INT
Boots Riley
Music is the battle cry; music is the collective warning that...
We're coming...
Lookout.
TEXT/Crowd
Let them play! Let them play!
Narrator
When a single voice joins another
and then many others
TEXT/Crowd
Let them play! Let them play!
Narrator
It sounds strong. It sounds united.
TEXT/Crowd
Let them play! Let the play!
Narrator
It Sounds Like a Revolution
(cheering)
Anti-Flag
At the top of your lungs please help us sing:
Die For your Government
(Subtitles)
You’ve gotta die, gotta die, gotta die for your government? Die for your country? That’s shit!
You’ve gotta die, gotta die for your government? Die for your country ? That’s shit!
Crowd Chanting
Free Speech! Free Speech! Free speech! Free speech!
Crowd Chanting
Yes we can! Yes we can!
SUPER MICHAEl FRANTI
Michael Franti and Spearhead
There's ah...a movement that's taking place where people are saying that we feel that the human interests, and the natural interests, and the spiritual interest of the planet need to begin to take a priority over the corporate interests, the military interests, and the materialistic interest of the planet.
Narrator
Movements for change are never about 1 person, 1 idea, or 1 political party. They arise from a deep well of unrest among many.
SUPER ANI DIFRANCO
Singer/Songwriter
It's been a...a...profound political crisis
that has brought us to this... growing momentum.
Narrator
As the new millennium dawned, the world began
to experience a climate of escalating instability and fear.
SUPER STEVE EARLE
Singer/Songwriter
People are feeling like this is, this is
a really critical era that we're living in and um, and um, they've decided that however it turns out that they're, that, they can't live with being silent, you know, during this period
in our history.
Michael Franti
As artists in this time, we really have an obligation to, you know, 20 years from now when our kids say, "you know,"..."well what do you do in that time? "I say, "Hey I was there doing something."
Narrator
Across the musical spectrum artists are urging
a new generation to fight for change.
SUPER JUSTIN SANE
Anti-Flag
But I do believe that music changes the world, I believe that it inspires, artists inspire people to make great change.
SUPER DAVID CROSBY
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
It's been around for thousands of years and that's for us to be.... Troubadours, carrying the news from 1 town to another, Ah...Town Criers, it's 11 o'clock and all's well, it's 11:30 and things are not so damn good.
LYRICS
I never thought about the universe
it made me feel small,
never thought about the
problems of this planet at all
Global warming and radioactive sites,
imperialistic wrongs and animal rights, NO.
Fat Mike
My band did a lot of shows in Florida
in 2000 before the election. And we just did the normal NOFX show, drunk having a good time.
SUPER FAT MIKE
NOFX
Had I said something like, "You kids have to vote. This is an important election, make sure you do, make sure you register and make sure your vote counts". If I would have said that, you know, with our... I don't know, 40 or 50,000 fans in Florida that would have been the difference.
LYRICS
I never looked around,
never second guessed
then I read some Howard Zimm
now I'm always depressed.
And now I can't sleep
from years of apathy
all because I read
a little Noam Chomsky
I'm eating vegetation cause
of "Fast Food Nation"
I'm wearing comfortable shoes
cause of globalization
I'm watching Michael Moore
expose the awful truth
I'm listening to
Public Enemy and Reagan Youth.
Fat Mike
01:04:59:12 But I never voted before the 2000 election and... that's how I...I can relate to kids now
because I know they don't think their vote matters. And it's really easy to be apathetic and say, "Huh, it doesn't matter. I don't care", but, in order to be patriotic you have to care and know what's going on and ah...try to change things. You can't just go by the status quo and accept...how things are. You have to try
and make 'em better
LYRICS
I don't want to be another
I don't care-ican
What are we gonna do Franco,
Franco Un-American.
SUPER BRIAN BAKER
Bad Religion
We're talking about a type of music
that exists as social commentary, you know,
this is not, ah...this is not party music.
this is...what people are thinking. And they're writing it out, and yelling it into a microphone.
SUPER JUSTIN SANE
Anti-Flag
This song is about the idea that dropping bombs on people's heads does not solve the world's problems. It is about the idea, that endless war, does not stop war.
LYRICS
One trillion dollars,
could buy a lot of bling.
SUPER ONE TRILLION DOLLAR$
Anti-Flag
One trillion dollars,
could buy most anything.
One trillion dollars,
buying bullets,
buying guns.
One trillion dollars,
in the hands of
killers, thugs
Woooaah.
Woooah. Woooah.
Justin Sane
I grew up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, I was the youngest of 9 kids, obviously my parents were catholic. Um...My dad was from Ireland; a lot of the Irish traditional music are songs about injustice, and songs about human rights.
And that was certainly something that I picked up as a very young kid, these songs talking about poor people living through the injustice of capitalism.
LYRICS
Yeah, yeah.
Fuck them all,
Until the sun
burns from the sky.
Until the sun
burns so bright,
This world is no more!
The sun burns from the sky,
And all the people
are just dust
on the ground.
Justin Sane
I can remember very, very young watching a war movie and thinking that it totally kicked ass.
And I remember my Dad walking in and saying to me, "Don't you ever join any man's army",
and I'll never forget that.
LYRICS
Fuck the world,
fuck them all.
SUPER TOM MORELLO
Streetsweeper/The Nightwatchman
This is a country that was founded on revolution. And that spirit of ah, of that rebelling against oppressive authority, being able to stand up and say, "You know what? This just isn't right,"..."And I'm going to do something about it."
TEXT PARIS
SUPER BREAK THE GRIP OF SHAME
LYRICS
With a raised fist
I resist
I don't burn, so don't you
dare riff or step to me, §
I'm strong and
black and proud §
And for the bulls---
I ain't down. §
Life in the city's
already rough enough §
without some young
sucka runnin up §
You don't know me,
so don't step. §
I roll to the right
and then bust your lip. §
TEXT PARIS
I do know that...a lot of my political activism
or, or awareness-
SUPER
PARIS
Musician/Producer
I'm not gonna necessarily even
call myself an activist-but a lot of my political and social awareness was raised by... music. There was a definite cause and effect relationship between what I was exposed to and how I ended up. Well...that's a scary thought when I think of what people today are being provided and what they are exposed to. How are they gonna end up?
You know, it's like, okay, when I grow out of...tattoos and a mouthful of gold and you know, dancing with champagne poolside, when I grow out of that bullshit, you know, what is there going to be to feed my mind?
LYRICS
Remember back when good rap
was just a cool dance hit
even though it
wasn't saying s---.
Well them days is gone.
I don't play that.
Pick the punk and I'll
say like wack
Stick with the sick
style for the serious,
Hip Hop lovers can't
get enough of this.
This is a call
and a plea for unity,
Black is back
uplift and be free
Keep pushin ,
our movement moves on...
So strong...
Now.
Paris
If the lion's share of Hip Hop culture represents misogyny, represents violence, unnecessary violence, represents...debauchery, then yeah, I'll be on the periphery. It's cool. Because I know that there's a certain segment of people that I'm reaching that are receptive to what I do. You know that, that, that yearn for more in their music than the bullshit that's being offered them.
SUPER NATALIE PA’APA’A
Blue King Brown
I would not define myself as a protest singer,
I don't think, um...that gives enough explanation about the style and... you know,
what we're about because the word protest
automatically gives the vibe of conflict or...
that sort of energy around it where it's not
necessarily about that it could be about just raising awareness or sharing, you know, some...a message, you know,on a spiritual level, you know, so... it's not always a protest.
LYRICS
In that moment of truth
there must come a decision
to sit back and hide or
grab hold of this vision
If we don't, then
we're never going to fly
How could you know,
if you're never gonna try
There's no reason to doubt,
when we're willing to listen
If we screw up this earth,
we shall not be forgiven
Leaders joke,
but we're running out of time
Still they don't
want to step up to this line
Natalie Pa’apa’a
It's not just the hippies singing about, you know, the struggle or the fight, there's artists from all genres singing about it and so, it, it, it...definitely tran-it goes way beyond just the word protest music.
LYRICS
We want freedom of speech
(cheering)
But we all talking
at the same time
I, I, I, I, I say,
I say we say want peace
(cheering)
But nobody wants to
change their own mind.
I don't want to
change my own mind.
Let me hear you all
put your hands together
So it goes on and on
and on and on and on
(clapping, cheering)
And it goes on and on
and on and on and on.
Let me hear you all
And it goes on and on
and on and on it goes.
Michael Franti
The main thing that's shaped me politically
that, ah...I was given up for adoption...... at birth. The reason I was given up for adoption is because my mother is white and my father is black and...they never married and my mom felt like her family was too racist to be able to embrace me coming into their world. That led me to lookout side of my family, to create a structure, you know, of friends and coaches and teachers and other parents and from that, um...I grew this affinity with others who were the underdog. So my political views have always been ones that, that speak out for those who don't have a voice.
(clapping to guitar)
SUPER ROB BOWMAN, PhD
Ethnomusicologist
We have probably more politicized artists in the 21st century than we had in the 1960's, there is an incredible amount of grassroots activity by artists who are willing to make statements that suggest that they find problems with the way the world is currently operating and being run. The problem is...many of those artists, are on small labels, many of those artistsdo not get radio play, except on college stations, uh... many of those artists don't have great distribution so the majority of those recordings reach virtually no one.
Rob Bowman
In the 1960's, you had artists with major label contracts who wrote material, and performed material that was...conscious raising. You've got major labels, all promoting records that had...um...dissident voices speaking alternative viewpoints.
Narrator
From Detroit to Montgomery, Odetta's song, "O'Freedom" gave strength and hope to the Civil Rights Movement. While Pete Seeger's "We Shall Over Come", led the march on Washington.
Narrator
A few years later, Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction" articulated a generation's anger over the war and the draft.
SUPER WAYNE KRAMER
MC5
This was a time in America where there was an agreement amongst all young people Um...that the direction the country was going in was terribly, terribly wrong.
1,2,3,4..we don't want your fucking war.
Narrator
By 1970, students across the country were clashing regularly with police. Violence erupted at Kent State on May 4th. 4 students were shot dead. Neil Young captured the moment forever with his song, OHIO.
SUPER DAVID CROSBY
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
We were at a friend's house, he had that magazine, I guess it was Life with that picture of the girl kneeling over the dead kid on the ground and the pool of blood and her looking up at you with that expression of why.
David Crosby
Neil and I looked at it, he picked up his guitar and, ah... started writing.
He wrote it right in front of me. I called Nash...and I said, "Nash we need a studio now." He said, "Well I can get one in a couple of days." I said, "Nash, we need a studio tonight," ..."Now."
He got Stephen and we met at the studio. Recorded it. Put 'find the cost of freedom' on the back of it, and we had it out in a week. On the streets, on the radio, in a week.
The reaction was pretty strong, cuz I mean, we were...It was a pretty strong song, it named names and pointed fingers. You know, "Tin soldiers and Nixon coming." And it was...powerful how we did it. We were...enraged.
(ambulance siren)