I’ve recently realised that – as I moved away from my fundamentalist Christian upbringing – my values were reshaped in large part by the songs I loved to sing from my musical heroes – from both folk and rock traditions. And that’s not to say I’ve lived by them.
Here are some of those songs:
- Nina Simone singing “I wish I knew how it would feel to be free“
- Pete Seeger singing “Somos El Barco – We are the boat” with HARP
- Woody Guthrie’s “Deportees” sung by Joan Baez & Bob Dylan
- John Lennon’s “Imagine“
- Carole King singing “Way Over Yonder“
- The African National Anthem “Nkosi Sikele Afrika”
- “Mothers Daughters Wives” (performed by Bri-anne Swan)
- Ry Cooder’s “How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?“