One of the first antiwar songs I can remember is from the old “Billy Jack” movie called “One Tin Soldier.” It was kinda simplistic, but still powerful. Is it possible that Maureen McGovern or someone like that sang that song?
“One Tin Soldier” was the one-hit of a group called Coven; the lead singer was named Jinx Dawson. The song and movie are cringe-inducing now, but when I was eleven years old it really seemed relevant and Right On!
Yeah, I did think something looked odd about that. 
THe Great Mandela Peter, Paul, and Mary
Believe it of not. I was staioned in Jorea in 1972-73. The Armed Forces Korea Network used to play “One Tin Soldier” darn near every morning. And the Movie Theatre at the Soeul post showed MAS*H at least three times.
“Lather” was the nickname of the Airplane’s drummer at the time it was recorded. It was '69, he just turned 30, Grace was pushing it herself, and in the countercultural milieu they were living in, at 30 years old, everyone was washed up. Essentially, the song is Slick’s winking nod to the fact that you can only get away with the hippie lifestyle for only so long before you inevitably have to grow up.
As for Jefferson Airplane war protest songs:
We Can Be Together
Volunteers
Wooden Ships (cowritten by Paul Kantner & David Crosby, recorded by both their bands)
Crown of Creation
Let’s Get Together (recorded by the Airplane three years before the Youngbloods)
Uncle Sam Blues (actually, a Jorma /Hot Tuna staple, but performed by the Airplane proper at Woodstock)
House at Pooneil Corners (the BEST Apocalyptic rock & roll gloom & doom dirge EVER IMHO – forget all the goth/punk/death metal bands, this beats them all)
It isn’t exactly a song, but “Kinky Sex Makes the World Go Round” by the Dead Kennedys always brings a smile.
Protest Song by Neil Innes
An oldie but goodie, from all the way back in the American Civil War (popular on both sides): "The Vacant Chair ".
It’s effective because it isn’t polemical or even simplistic, with nothing about being right or wrong; it just describes the pain the family lives with after losing a son. Like any song, it loses something without the music, but here goes:
(bolding mine)
As a fellow Paxton fan, I think you mean “The Willing Conscript”.
A few more of his:
Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation
We Didn’t Know
What Did You Learn in School Today?
And a non-war but bitter protest song:
I’d second “The Empty Chair”, and also, from the Civil War, “Tenting on the Old Campground” It also doesn’t deal with the rightness or wrongness of the cause that’s fighting, but just an overwhelming weariness for a war that’s gone on too long and left too many people dead:
“ninety nine red baloons” by Nena
“It’s all over and I’m standing pretty
in this dust that was a city”
I slap each of you on the wrist for neglecting to so much as mention John Lennon’s Imagine after so many views and posts. BAD DOPERS! BAD!!!
I can’t believe no one has mentioned the wonderful Where Have All the Flowers Gone?.
And I nominate the subtle, obscure, and powerful The Reluctant Cannibal by Flanders and Swann.
I second John Lennon’s “Imagine”, which I just heard for the first time today. (I’m 16, cut me some slack.) I’m really surprised that no one’s metioned the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” or “Street Fighting Man.” I also nominate “Why Can’t We Be Friends” by War. Here’s a link you may be interested in, it’s a poll of this question: http://www.keno.org/polls/poll_results.asp?PollNumber=56&PollCategory=Rock-N-Roll&PollType=Weekly
A vote for “Sam Stone” by John Prine.
Plus a couple more Bob Marley:
“Buffalo Soldier”
“War” (the Haile Selassie speech)
Uh, fourth post in the thread.
Thank you MisterThystor for the Tom Paxton link.
Another from Phil Ochs: (I declare) The War Is Over.
Once I get done going through Cafe Society, I will start a thread on Marches: Actual, Oddball and lfilk.
On each three albums from 1985 - 1987 R.E.M. featured a song about American injustice against Central and South America. These were “Green Grow the Rushes”, “The Flowers of Guatemala”*, and “Welcome to the Occupation.” These songs are real eye-openers for someone who didn’t know about American’s hundred years of oppression of Latin American, and gives a real impetus to read more history.
I also like Thievery Corporation’s “The State of the Union”, from their latest LP The Richest Man in Babylon (though it’s the only decent track on the album).
UnuMondo
- The album that it’s on, Lifes Rich Pageant is a boldly political album. It isn’t aggressively anti-American like so much of the publicly visible protest movement, but instead it calls all Americans to rediscover idealism and reinvent the country into one of perfect equality and tolerance, mending our history of native American killing, slaveholding, and overthrow of democratically elected governments.
all excellent choices, and while simon and garfunkel has been mentioned a couple of times, i can’t belive no one has mentioned ** silent night/7 o’clock **. this song to this day makes me tear up. it’s so simple. simon and garfunkel sing a gorgeous version of silent night accompanied only by a piano, but the genius is that then the listener hears a newscaster reporting the evening news throughout the singing. i’m not sure i can properly describe it and do it justice. all i can suggest is that you go out and pick up a copy of parsley sage rosemary and time or hit your favorite p2p client and get a copy. you won’t be disappointed, tho you might be a little teary-eyed by the end
also, check out the entire s&g album “wednesday morning 3 am.” the whole album is incredible and very anti-war
Yo, check the fifth post!
I submit: Fragile by Sting.
“If blood would flow,
When flesh and steel are one
Drying in the color of the evening sun
Tomorrow’s rain would wash the stains away,
But something in our minds will always stay.
Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetime’s argument
That nothing comes from violence,
And nothing ever could.
For all us born beneath an angry star,
Lest we forget how fragile we are.”