Songs for the Post-Election World, Part II
How will we get through the harebrained plans of Trump and his cabinet for dismantling everything that...well, just plain everything? Sing! Part II of my survival playlist for the next 4 years.
So here we are. Just a few weeks away from Trump V. 2.0. If his cabinet choices are approved we’ll have a Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services who thinks synthetic chemicals “raining down on our children” are turning kids transgender, plus pasturized milk isn’t a thing1; a pair of billionare doofuses who want to shitcan hardworking people who provide vital services save billions of dollars by eliminating civil service and federal govenment positions via their new Department of Government Efficiency2; and an Education Secretary whose main qualification is donating tens of millions worth of scratch to the Trump campaign.3 What could possibly go wrong?4
Here’s Part II of my personal soundtrack to amp up what’s needed for the second Trump administration minefield. These songs are rooted in my firm belief that America will continue to thrive, come what may. We are driven forward by our collective might. As with Part I, I’m attributing these entries to artist and not composer (exceptions noted for when artist is also composer). You’ll see I’ve put both title and sample lyrics in italics so I don’t confuse you with endless quotation marks.
One more brief note before we dive into Part II. Though my playlist is comprehensive, I still had to keep it to a manageable length. Hence, some glaring holes in both Parts I and II. The three songs listed below, which didn’t make the final cut, are the ones readers most often asked about re: their exclusion.
Born in the U.S.A. (Bruce Springsteen): The chorus is catchy, but it’s mistakenly considered a proud declaration of being an American. If you listen Springsteen’s song in its entirety, it’s obvious that his “born in the U.S.A.” refrain is a bitter irony. Those six syllables are belted out at a lot of campaign events for candidates of both parties, a rallying cry of national pride. Too bad they all get it wrong. Watch the concert documentary Springsteen on Broadway (available on Netflix) for Springsteen’s heartfelt reinvention of Born in the U.S.A., a version much different than what you know from the eponymous 1984 album.
Joe Hill (Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, many others): I love this song and its message. Joe Hill came close to making the final list, but given its singular focus on one man with a history that needed detailed explanation, I just couldn’t justify its inclusion. Regardless, listen to Joe Hill, and often. Don’t mourn. Organize.
God Bless America (Irving Berlin, popularized by Kate Smith): See the entry on Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land, below.
And now Part II of Songs for the Post-Election World. Remember, music hath charms to soothe the savage beast, even when times seem bleak. We’re not going back.
People Get Ready (Curtis Mayfield) Like Bruce Springsteen’s Land of Hope and Dreams from Part I, Curtis Mayfield makes effective metaphorical use of a train taking us to a place bigger than ourselves. The lyrics and melody echo the uplifting ideas inherent to African American church hymns, an influence on the song that Mayfield readily acknowledges. Many covers of People Get Ready, including renditions by Al Green, Aretha Franklin, Eva Cassidy, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Bob Dylan, and a duet from Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck. But Mayfield’s version is my favorite. He understands the song from the inside out. Sample lyric: People get ready / For the train to Jordan / Picking up passengers / From coast to coast / Faith is the key / Open the doors and board them
Ragged Old Flag (Johnny Cash): Johnny Cash wrote this spoken-word song in 1974. It was his response to the growing cynicism of Americans in the wake of the Watergate scandal and the unending conflict in Vietnam. Ragged Old Flag is a story told to the narrator by an old man explaining his pride in the threadbare American flag waving in a town square. The Stars and Stripes, the man explains, has endured bloody combat, from the Civil War, to World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, and more. It’s survived corrupt politicians, and misguided protestors who’ve burned the flag in public displays. Cash’s message is simple, direct, and uplifting. We survive pessimistic times. America continues to thrive. Our national pride is embodied by the enduring strength of the American flag. Sample lyric: She's been burned, dishonored, denied and refused / And the government for which she stands / Is scandalized throughout out the land / And she's gettin' thread bare, and she's wearing thin / But she's in good shape for the shape she's in / 'Cause she's been through the fire before / And I believe she can take a whole lot more.
The Rising (Bruce Springsteen) In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack, Springsteen tried to make sense of the inexplicable. The result was his twelfth studio album The Rising, Springsteen’s personal reflection of our communal pain. The title track is told in the voice of of a firefighter ascending into the burning Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Springsteen mixes Biblical allusions with the lasting thoughts of a man determined to battle the impossible while yearning for his family, knowing full well that he might never see his wife and children again. A beautiful elegy for so much. Sample lyrics: Left the house this morning / Bells were ringing and filled the air / I was wearing the cross of my calling / On wheels of fire, I come rolling down here
Rockin’ in the Free World (Neil Young) Young wrote this politically-themed powerhouse in the late 1980s, after his band’s tour of the Soviet Union was canceled. Guitarist Frank “Pancho” Sampedro told Young, “I guess we’re just gonna have to keep on rockin’ in the free world.” Young embraced thisoffhand remark, turning it into acid commentary on the hypocrisies of then-President George H. W. Bush, the dispair of poverty in America, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini declaring that the United States as “The Great Satan,” and the looming specter of the Gulf War. Young attacks political and social disorder head on, using a kickass chorus to reaffirm our collective resilience in the face of adversity. Young objected when Trump used the song at campaign rallies in 2016 and 2020. Lawsuits were filed, though ultimately dropped. More recently, Young supported the 2024 DNC using Rockin’ in the Free World to introduce Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz. Sample lyric: There’s a warning sign on the road ahead / There’s a lot of people saying we’d be better off dead / Don’t feel like Satan, but I am to them / So I try to forget it any way I can / keep on rockin’ in the free world
Solidarity Forever (Pete Seeger): Like The Internationale, Solidarity Forever was adopted by the IWW as a working class anthem. IWW member Ralph Chapin borrowed the tune of The Battle Hymn Republic and John Brown’s Body, combining the music with lyrics written in 1915.5 Since then it’s become the song for labor unions around the world. Solidarity Forever has plenty of cover versions. Pete Seeger’s joyful rendition is the best of the lot. Sample lyric: In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold / Greater than the might of armies, multiplied a thousand-fold / We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old / For the union makes us strong.
Son of an American (The So So Glos) On April 25, 2013 I was in the audience for a taping of “Late Show with David Letterman.” The announced musical guest was The So So Glos, to which I said “who?” Then they hit the stage. I was hooked from the first guitar lick. These boys had bonafide punk chops. After the show, I spoke outside the theater with one band member, giving him the ultimate compliment: “I felt like I was back in college at a Ramones show.” He appreciated that. The So So Glos machine gun blast of guitar, bass, and drums push amplifiers to the limit. They are the godchildren of The Ramones. This song is as American as the punk sounds blaring from CBGBs in the 1970s. Sample lyric: I tried and tried but I can't hide / What I am as an American / And all the kids overseas / Can't never know freedom like me / ‘cause I’m the son of an American
The Star Spangled Banner (Take Your Pick) We all know our National Anthem. So many great covers, so little Substack bandwidth. Everyone’s got their favorite rendition. For me, the best is a trifecta of Marvin Gaye’s soulful6 interpretation at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game, Jennifer Hudson’s heartfelt performance at Super Bowl XXLI in 2009, and Jimi Hendrix at the 1969 Woodstock festival, combining the traditional melody with “Taps,” bombs, and helicopters, all infused through his acid rock guitar. No need for a sample lyric on this one.
Stop Your Sobbing (The Pretenders). Yeah, just about everyone I know feels devastated by the Trump victory, his cabinet choices that are united in divisiveness, and what may ensue with a vengance. Cut the waterworks. The 1964 song Stop Your Sobbing by British band The Kinks got a energizing reboot by Kinks’ superfan Chrissie Hynde and her band The Pretenders on their 1979 debut album.7 I’m using Stop Your Sobbing as a call to action. Quit boohooing. Let’s end our post-election pity party, and do something, goddammit! Sample lyric: It is time for you to laugh instead of crying / Yes, it's time for you to laugh, so keep on trying / There's one thing you gotta do / To make me still want you / Gotta stop sobbing now (Gotta stop sobbing now) / Yeah, yeah, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it
Talkin’ Bout a Revolution (Tracy Chapman) When she was 16-years-old, Tracy Chapman received a scholarship to attend private academy in Connecticut. Having grown up in a working class neighborhood, Chapman grew fustrated that her peers had no interest in anything other than themselves and their elite backgrounds. In response, she wrote Talkin’ Bout a Revolution. Seven years later the track was part of her self-titled 1988 debut album Tracy Chapman. Talkin’ Bout a Revolution evokes Woody Guthrie at his best, uplifiting the forgotten in our fight for a better America. Sample lyric: Don’t you know, were talkin’ about a revolution that sounds (like a whisper) / Poor people gonna rise up, and get their share / Poor people gonna rise up, and take what’s theirs
The House I Live In (Frank Sinatra): You could easily write off this 1945 Frank Sinatra song as a corny relic of a time gone by. I disagree. The House I Live In celebrates American democracy in all of its diversity. The lyrics are deceptively simple, but the sentiments run deep. Sinatra loved the song. He sang it at galas for Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan. As Sinatra told many a concert audience, “It's a song about this great big, wonderful, imperfect country. I say imperfect because if it were perfect it wouldn't be any fun trying to fix it, trying to make it work better. My country is personal to me because my father who wasn't born here, rest his soul, he made sure that I was born here. And he used to to tell me when I was a kid that America was a land of dreams and a dream land. Well, I don't know if our country fulfilled all of his dreams while he was alive, but…it sure fulfills all of my dreams (The House I Live In is) a song about a place we call home, probably the greatest nation ever to be put on this earth.”
The House I Live In has a remarkable and ironic pedigree. The lyrics are by Abel Meeropol (using the pseudonym “Lewis Allan), who also wrote Strange Fruit, an anti lynching song made famous by Billie Holiday.8 Music was by Earl Robinson, who also wrote Ballad for Americans, Joe Hill, and The Lonesome Train, a cantata based on the life and death of Abraham Lincoln. Despite Robinson’s patriotic songs, much loved by singers and audiences, he was blacklisted during the 1950s because of his years-past membership in the American Communist Party.
The House I Live In became the basis of a 1945 short film of the same title Recipient of an honorary Academy Award, it was directed by Mervyn LeRoy, a versitile movie man. His filmography is filled with classics of within different genres: Little Ceasar, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Golddiggers of 1933, Waterloo Bridge, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Little Women, Mr. Roberts, The Bad Seed, and Gypsy. He also produced The Wizard of Oz. Albert Maltz wrote the screenplay. Like Robinson, Maltz was a victim of the Hollywood blacklist. He was a member of the Hollywood Ten, the group of producers, writers, and directors who refused to answer questions posed by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (better known as HUAC). The Hollywood Ten used the Constitution as their defense, citing the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and freedom of association. The Constitution be damned: Maltz and his colleagues served prison time for refusing to knuckle under. Irony abounds.
The premise of The House I Live In has Sinatra taking a break from recording his new album. He goes out for a smoke in an alley behind the studio, where he sees a group of kids are beating up another boy. After breaking up the fight, Sinatra learns that the victim is being attacked because he’s Jewish. “Now hold on,” he says to the bullies. “I see what you mean. You must be a bunch of those Nazi Werwolves I've been readin' about.” The kids object to Sinatra’s insult, declaring that their fathers fought Nazis in WWII. Sinatra points out that blood plasma donated by the Jewish kid’s parents might have saved the lives of the bullies’ fathers when they were wounded in combat. After hearing Sinatra’s tender rendition of The House I Live In, the boys have a better understanding of real American values. So do we. Sample lyric: What is America to me / A name, a map, or a flag I see / A certain word, democracy / What is America to me
This Land is Your Land ( Woody Guthrie) We know it as the great American singalong, but Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land is much more than a stock summer camp ditty. This is Guthrie’s musical reponse to Irving Berlin’s God Bless America, which Guthrie hated. He was of the firm opinion that Berlin’s song was far from the reality most Americans faced in the midst of the Great Depression. When you dig deep into the lyrics of This Land Is Your Land, you’ll discover a much more radical song than the version you learned as a kid.
So many great covers, but my two favorites are by Neil Young, and a duet by Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen. The Young version is from his album Americana, a terrific reworking of such eclectic classics as Clementine, Tom Dule, and Get a Job. With This Land is Your Land, Young skips the traditional first verse. He opens with the familiar chorus, then rips into the lesser-known second verse: As I went walking, I saw a sign there / And on the sign it said "No Trespassing" / But on the other side it didn't say nothing / That side was made for you and me.
The Seeger-Springsteen rendition was performed on January 18, 2009 as part of the concert “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial.” Seeger, another victim of 1950s blacklisting, was at the forefront of many great causes: labor, civil rights, environmentalism, protests of the Vietnam war, and lots more. He paid an enormous price for his decades of activism. Performing This Land is Your Land for the first African American president-elect must have felt like an affirmation of his life’s work for the almost 90-year-old Seeger, a vindication for past wrongs—to both Seeger and the nation. No need for sample lyrics. You know the song.
The Times They Are-a Changin’ (Bob Dylan) Dylan’s call to action during the civil rights era resonates as we stand on the brink of Trump 2.0. Nothing I can add will do justice to this song.9 Sample lyric: The line it is drawn / The curse it is cast / The slow one now / Will later be fast / As the present now / Will later be past / The order is rapidly fadin'
We Shall Overcome (Pete Seeger): Long associated with the Civil Rights movement, We Shall Overcome morphed into a standard for any kind of protest. My only quibble: I’d change “we shall overcome someday” to “we shall overcome today.” That semantic adjustment turns the song into a call to action, rather than a longing for something that may be.10 We Shall Overcome is forever connected with Pete Seeger, who recorded the song many times, both in concert and in studio. Two other powerful interruptions come from Mahalia Jackson and Bruce Springsteen. There’s also a rip roaring cover by the Boston-based Irish punk band The Dropkick Murphys. They pile drive We Shall Overcome into a defiant war cry, saluting the song’s past but with eyes steeled on the future. Sample lyric: The truth shall make us free / the truth shall make us free / The truth shall make us free someday / Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe / The truth shall make us free someday.
We Take Care of Our Own (Bruce Springsteen): Springsteen’s upbeat rocker reinforces what we all know: good intentions aren’t enough. Only when we look out for one another and help each other, Americans can do anything. Sample lyric: Where's the promise, from sea to shining sea / Wherever this flag is flown / ….we take care of our own
What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong): A signature number for Louis Armstrong, What a Wonderful World emphasizes the beauty that can be found in everyday things. All we have to do is look. Said Armstrong of the song: “Seems to me, it ain’t the world that’s so bad but what we’re doin’ to it. And all I’m saying is, see, what a wonderful world it would be if only we’d give it a chance. Love baby, love. That’s the secret, yeah. If lots more of us loved each other, we’d solve lots more problems. And then this world would be a gassuh.” Armstrong’s gravelly voice is a perfect match for What a Wonderful World. Plenty of cover versions, but my favorite (after Armstrong) is by Joey Ramone, who delivers with a sincerity that gives the words a certain poignancy. You read that right. Sample lyrics: The colors of the rainbow / So pretty in the sky / Are also on the faces / Of people going by / I see friends shaking hands/ Saying, "How do you do?" / They're really saying / I love you
(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding? (Elvis Costello, Stephen Colbert, Feist, Toby Keith, John Legend, and Willie Nelson): The diverse lineup covering this version of Elvis Costello’s song really brings out the ideas within the lyrics. We’ve got musicians and a comedian, crossing racial, generational, and political lines in a sweet call for coming together, regardless of our differences. The verses reflect troubled times. The refrain provides a balm. A perfect song for this moment, originally performed by the supergroup on the 2008 Comedy Central special A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! Sample lyric: And as I walk on through troubled times / My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes / So where are the strong, and who are the trusted? / And where is the harmony, sweet harmony?
Wrecking Ball (Bruce Springsteen): Let’s close the playlist with this hard rocker by Springsteen and the E Street Band. Wrecking Ball was written as celebration of Giants Stadium when plans were announced to tear down the landmark Rutherford, New Jersey arena.11 The stadium was home for the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets12, plus a venue for talents like U2, The Grateful Dead, Sting, Peter Gabriel, The Steve Miller Band, The Beach Boys, Carlos Santana, and Pope John Paul II.
After the stadium finally came down in 2010. Springsteen repurposed the song into something better. It turned into a defiant stand for Americans exploited by corporate greed, corrupt government, and social standings. Wrecking Ball is the title track for the 2012 album, one bursting with songs demanding change. “Wrecking Ball was a shot of anger at the injustice that continues on and has widened with deregulation, dysfunctional regulatory agencies, and capitalism gone wild at the expense of hardworking Americans,” Springsteen wrote in his 2016 memoir Born to Run. Sample lyric: So if you’ve got the guts mister / Yeah, if you got the balls / If you think it’s your time / Then step to the line / And bring on your wrecking ball
Story Links:
Part I of the playlist, Songs A - M
Bruce Springsteen explains the genesis of Born in the USA at his one-man Broadway show.
The story behind Joe Hill at The Society for the Study of Labour History (UK organization)
How Neil Young wrote Rocking in the Free World
You can’t see me enthralled in the audience but here’s The So So Glos giving their all to Son of an American on Late Night with David Letterman
The romance between Chrissie Hyde and Ray Davies that was kicked off by Stop Your Sobbing
Watch The House I Live In on YouTube
The story behind This Land is Your Land on The Kennedy Center website
Watch Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen perform This Land is Your Land at “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial” on YouTube
The story of We Shall Overcome on The Kennedy Center website
The Dropkick Murphys salute Civil Rights pioneers with their cover of We Shall Overcome on YouTube
The story of What a Wonderful World at The Louis Armstrong House Museum
Let’s build up the soundtrack. Add your songs for the post-election world to the list on The Typewriter’s Collage Comment Section.
Thanks for reading The Typewriter's Collage. Connect with me on Bluesky, Threads, and Instagram at the handle @RealArnieB. I’m on LinkedIn and Facebook under my real name. While you’re at it, click your mouse or trackpad over to my website, www.arniebernstein.com. No more Twitter: I’ve joined the eXodus and made my eXit.
And because you made it this far, here’s your bonus content:
No one could write or belt out a patriotic tune like George M. Cohan. Here’s Jimmy Cagney as Cohan in the biopic Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), giving his best hoofing and singing in the production number—as though it could be anything else— Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Plus a worm ate part of his brain and he left a dead bear cub in Central Park as a joke, Also claims he became a better student after shooting up heroin. Looks RFK Jr. does believe in vaccinations after all.
The Department of Government Efficency is also known as DOGE, which—by sheer coincidence, I’m sure—sounds a lot like the cryptocurrency Dogecoin Trump’s pal Musk is all keen on. I don’t know about you, but as far as I’m concerned, any monetary system that uses the prefix “crypto” in its name has all the makings of a Ponzi scheme.
Also, she was a “performer” on the World Wrestling Entertainment circuit, with specialties in getting flung around by hulks amped up on steroids, and slapping her adult children as a source of enjoyment for the audience. Also also, did you know that former-and-soon-to-be-again President Trump is a member of the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame? I dare you to google it.
Insert own apocalyptic joke here.
Chapin later decried use of Solidarityy Forever by corporatized big unions, writing: “All of us deeply resent seeing a song that was uniquely our own used as a singing commercial for the soft-boiled type of post-Wagner Act industrial unionism that uses million-dollar slush funds to persuade their congressional office boys to do chores for them."
Dare I say “sexy?”
Ray Davies, who composed the song for The Kinks, was knocked out by The Pretenders cover of “Stop Your Sobbing.” Chrissie Hynde, a Kinks devotee since childhood, got the ultimate fangirl experience when she and Davies fell passionately in love. The affair lasted a year before their breakup, but the relationship produced a daughter in 1983.
When Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed after being found guilty of expionage, Meeropol and his wife Anne adopted the Rosenbergs’ sons Michael and Robert.
But if a songwriter gets the Nobel Prize for Literature, I would choose Leonard Cohen, whom I consider far superior to Dylan in every respect.
That said, the fifth verse is We are not afraid / we are not afraid / we are not afraid today.
Fun fact: urban legend claims that after Jimmy Hoffa disappeared, his body was sealed up in cement and buried beneath Giants Stadium during its construction.
In Jersey? Go figure.