7 Songs That Will Get You Through Inauguration Day
It’s January 20th, 2017. Today is the day in American politics where the future of the country feels more uncertain than ever for a majority of its citizens. No one really knows how the the current year is going to pan out, let alone the next four. What is certain is this: people are scared, people are angry, and people are desperate for a change.
Here are, in no particular order, the 7 Songs That Will Get You Through Inauguration Day:
“The Times They Are A-Changin” – Bon Dylan
Kicking the list off with a classic, Bob Dylan‘s anthemic tune of vigilance and awareness rings as hard and true as it did back in 1964, the year of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. With lyricism promoting action over complacency, it becomes the backtrack of the day where many civil rights, specifically those of LGBTQIA, minorities, women, immigrants and natural-born citizens, are in jeopardy of being suppressed.
“Know Your Enemy” – Rage Against The Machine
Keeping active, the ever furious and socially conscious Rage Against The Machine is a group that has never shied away from its defiance of the powers-that-be. Truthfully, any song in their discography would be perfect for this list. But “Know Your Enemy,” with its allusion to police brutality and repetitious “All of which are American Dreams” outro that follows one of Tom Morello‘s more iconic killswitch-infectious solos, is the prime choice of rage-fueled rebellion packed into five minutes that never stop to take a breather.
“2 + 2 = 5” – Radiohead
Maybe it’s due to Hail to The Thief being their most political album or the inclusion of lines such as “January has April’s showers” that lands Radiohead‘s ripping track of false facts and fear-induced isolationism on this list. Come to think of it, given the climate of false news, media biases and straight-up denouncement of truth that have been plaguing politics well before the incoming Trump administration, it’d be hard to imagine Thom Yorke not chanting “I try to sing along/But the music’s all wrong/’Cause I’m not” as a warning to the collective American psyche of how heavily it’s been misinformed due to opinions taking place of facts, a caution about protecting journalistic integrity, which has already been put in jeopardy of censorship.
“HiiiPower” – Kendric Lamar
Kendrick Lamar has always been vocal concerning the importance of social consciousness and cultural awareness in America; it’s one of his biggest appeals. So when he opens a track with “The sky’s falling, the wind is calling/Stand for something or die in the morning,” rest assured that hard truths are going to be thrown à la Muhammad Ali‘s “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” velocity. Kendrick’s Section.80 closer is an anthem of cultural integrity in the face of oppression and despair. It’s a message that has been tried and true since before the birth of hip hop and rings ever stronger in the time of growing racial divide fostered by the incumbent POTUS.
“Bury Our Friends” – Sleater-Kinney
Along with the prospect of losing access to health care services and fighting for gender equality, women’s rights have become one of the tentpole issues of the 2016 election. Add on the failed campaign and post-election silence of Hillary Clinton, and it’s easy to see why the majority of women in the U.S. are not only upset at the outcome but have become relentless in exposing the political corruption currently unfolding. In the capable hands of Sleater-Kinney, “Bury Our Friends” is a fist-pumping feminist anthem of resilience and intolerance of bigotry and patriarchal demand over control of the female body, highlighting imperfections in the guises of fatigue and physical damage yet never once sounding or feeling weak or complacent. In the words of Desmond Tutu, “The world needs a revolution led by women.” “Bury Our Friends” is a foreshadowing of how possible that truth can be.
“My Shot” – Hamilton: The Original Broadway Cast
It’s hard to make a list like this without including one of the prominent and popular pieces of pop culture in the past decade: Hamilton. Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s merge of hip hop hooks and Broadway musical leanings has proven to be one of the most accessible showcase of showtunes in recent memory, finding its way through performance in the White House during the Obama Administration. Take into the account the story of an immigrant surpassing expectation to succeed against all odds during a time of promised walls across borders, and suddenly the line between art and life become much blurrier than ever before. Miranda’s chorus of Alexander Hamilton refusing to give up and “throw away [his] shot” transcends beyond the stage and into the lives of the American Collective, “Young, scrappy and hungry” to fight for something better than what it has been handed.
“Change Gonna Come” – Sam Cooke Otis Redding
Now you’re probably thinking “How could you NOT put the Sam Cooke rendition here?”
Given how Cooke’s classic became a positive anthem for the former POTUS’ campaign and driving force behind his administration’s message, it would be counterproductive to tie it to the end of his governance. In Otis Redding‘s rendition of the Cooke classic, the opening orchestration is stripped back, slowed down, and at times it wears a dreary swagger in its tone, the solo trumpet in the first few seconds swelling less with hope and leaning instead towards a sense of mourning. Redding dresses that previous hope for change in dimmer colors, falling off-track with his vocal stylings and, in doing so, revealing a more vulnerable sensibility than its predecessor. That being said, the only way to go from here is up: as Redding belts his way into the chorus with the horns blaring from behind you can’t help but feel that hope, the very same one which Cooke reverberated years before and the same hope the last eight years were built upon, is still possible. It diminishes only to shine brighter than ever before.