This Is A Rebel Song

For my birthday, Tom & Ivory have very kindly given me a copy of Dorian Lynskey's 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs. It's already become bedtime reading for me, and it's great to see Lynskey expertly dissecting and expounding on the history of some of my favourite songs. For the most part it sticks to the 20th and 21st centuries, specifically charting the relationship between pop and protest, though there is room in the appendix to mention earlier rebel songs such as The Cutty Wren (the anthem of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt), and Poverty Knock (the cry for reform of 19th century mill workers).

But from Billie Holiday to The Clash, from Woody Guthrie to The Levellers, from Jimmy Cliff to Green Day and from Stevie Wonder to Plan B, the hero is always the music and the people who wrote it, inspiring anger and defiance across whole generations.