2nd, 1985 - The first Hummer rolls off the assembly line. "Hummer" is about these monstrosities. Read more...
11th, 2002 - US military transports first prisoners to new concentration camp and torture facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "Guantanamo Bay" is about that. "After We Torture Our Prisoners" is also directly relevant. Read more...
17th, 1991 - 43 days and nights of the most intensive bombing campaign ever undertaken against a country (up until that time) begins. Hundreds of thousands of people are killed, and the country is blanketed with tons of "depleted uranium" dust, causing an eight-fold increase in the cancer rate in Iraq. Over a decade of crippling sanctions kill hundreds of thousands more. "Song for Basra" and "My Daughter" are about life in Iraq under the sanctions/bombing regime of the 1990's. "DU" is about the children dying of radiation sickness. "Contras, Kings and Generals" is about Clinton's massive 1998 bombing of Iraq. Read more...
20th, 2001 - Tens of thousands line Pennsylvania Avenue to protest the inauguration of GW Bush. Good anniversary for songs about Bush such as "Moron" or "I Have Seen the Enemy".
29th, 2006 - Top NASA climate scientist James Hansen goes public with government efforts to censor research findings that climate change is a big problem that needs to be addressed immediately. "CO2" is about that. Other songs related closely to the theme would include "Here at the End of the World", "Before the Oil Wells Ran Dry". Read more...
3rd, 1787 - The last battle of Shays' Rebellion at the Springfield Armory. “Berkshire Hills” is about that. Read more...
4th, 1998 - Bill Gates visits Belgium, whereupon radical Belgian pastry aficionados deliver him his just desserts, in the form of a pie in the face. "Song for the BBB" is a tribute to the notorious Biotic Baking Brigade. Other songs related to Mr. Gates include "After The Revolution." Read more...
4th, 2000 - Massive protests begin in Bolivia against the government, Bechtel, and the privatization of the country's water. Government is ultimately forced to scrap the deal with Bechtel. "The Commons" is about that struggle as well as others. Read more...
14th Valentine's Day - Good day for love songs such as "Behind the Barricades,"Mi Amor", "Life Is Beautiful", "Times Gone By," "Hot Tub Song", "Mama's Royal Cafe", "Jewel of Bucharest", "Song for My Broken Heart" "The Polyamory Song", “Travelodge”, “World of Broken Dreams,” “Land of the Midnight Sun,” "Every Minute of the Day" or “Now That You're Gone.”
15th, 2003 - On this day over ten million people gathered in hundreds of cities around the world to form the biggest single day of protest in world history, against the impending US war against Iraq. I sang "Resistance" at the one in New York City, but "Trafalgar Square" is about the toppling of the Bush statue in London that day.
20th, 2003 - Professor Sami Al-Arian is arrested and held for years on secret evidence. In an interview with him that I read he talked about his grandmother, a Palestinian refugee from the 1948 Naqba. I wrote "The Key" very loosely about his grandmother. "Strike A Blow Against the Empire" is also partly about him. Other good songs in honor of Dr. Al-Arian would be "I Wanna Go Home" or "Occupation." Read more...
25th, 1999 - Three activists sentenced to six months in jail apiece for the crime of throwing a pie in the face of Mayor Willie Brown, just before Brown was announcing his new policy to criminalize the homeless. "Song for the BBB" is an ode to the pie-throwers. Read more...
26th, 1974 - Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford and their Nazi war efforts revealed in Senate report. "Henry Ford Was A Fascist" is about the fact that, like W's grandpa Irving Bush, Henry Ford was a fascist.
4th, 1944 - The beautiful city of Berlin is carpetbombed by US and British warplanes, killing an estimated 50,000 people, mostly women and children. "Berlin" is about that. Read more...
8th International Women's Day - Good day for songs about radical women. Some such songs include "Song for Boxcar Betty" and "The Death of Rachel Corrie". Read more...
10th, 1993 - Dr. David Gunn murdered by an anti-abortion extremist. "In the Name of God" is about the murder of Dr. George Tiller and other doctors. Read more...
10th, 2006 - The biggest protest in the history of Chicago to date, an estimated half million people protest legislation being put forward in Congress that would make being an immigrant a felony. March 10th was the first in a series of the biggest protests the US ever saw, around immigrant/worker's rights. "No One Is Illegal" is a song I wrote in 2000 or thereabouts, which could just as easily have been written about this bill being considered in Congress in 2006. "Guanajuato" is about a Mexican corn farmer who dies trying to cross the border. "Saint Patrick Battalion" is about the Irish men who joined the Mexican Army during the 1846 US invasion of Mexico. Read more...
12th, 1996 - The Helms-Burton "Trading With the Enemy" Act passed in Congress, further tightening the decades-long US trade embargo against Cuba. "Trading With the Enemy" is about that. Read more...
12th, 2002 - Department of Homeland Security announces infamous color-coded terrorism warning system. "The Next Attack." Read more...
16th, 1968 - 500 unarmed women, children and men are massacred by US troops in the village of My Lai, Vietnam. Before the last few survivors were about to be killed by US soldiers, Hugh Thompson and his helicopter crews arrived on the scene and took a stand, preventing the last few people from being murdered. "Song for Hugh Thompson" is about that day. (He died in 2006, and his friends played the song at his funeral.) Read more...
16th, 2003 - 23-year-old Evergreen College student is murdered by an Israeli State terrorist driving a bulldozer, as she's trying to protect a Palestinian doctor's home from being demolished. "The Death of Rachel Corrie" is about that. Read more...
17th Saint Patrick's Day - "Saint Patrick Battalion" is a song about the group of Irish-American draftees sent to invade Mexico in 1846 who deserted from the US Army and joined the Mexican Army, forming the Mexican Army's only foreign legion, known in Spanish as the San Patricios. Read more...
18, 2003 - US invades Iraq again, initiating the most brutal and deadly phase of the US war against the Iraqi people begun 13 years before. Incidentally, they actually officially dubbed the invasion Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL) for several hours before they realized their acronomic mistake. "Operation Iraqi Liberation" is about that. Other OIL-related songs include "Who Would Jesus Bomb," "Falluja," "After We Torture Our Prisoners" and "The War Is Over." Read more...
21st, 1960 - Sharpeville Massacre. 69 unarmed Blacks, many of them children, killed by South African apartheid regime. "Glory and Fame" is partially about that. Read more...
24th, 1999 - US/NATO bombing of Belgrade begins. "Terror In The Skies" is about that. "DU" is about the children dying of depleted uranium poisoning in the former Yugoslavia and everywhere else the US has bombed in recent years. "Ballad of a Cluster Bomb" is about children there dying from unexploded ordnance. Good day for other anti-war songs such as "Four Blank Slates.” Read more...
30th, 1981 - The great butcher of Nicaragua (and a lot of other places), Ronald Reagan, is shot by someone who should have used a higher-caliber weapon. "I Have Seen the Enemy" is a fine song to play to commemorate that bittersweet day. Read more...
1st, 2006 - New Haven, Connecticut finishes it's process of de-industrialization with the closing of the Winchester factory. Like most other once-great capitals of industry, New Haven is now a capital of unemployment and poverty. A lot like nearby Danbury, Connecticut, once the world capital of the hat-making industry. "Used To Be A City" is about Danbury. Read more...
2nd, 1870 Victoria Woodhull, feminist, socialist and free love advocate, becomes first woman to campaign for President of the U.S. "The Polyamory Song" is a good one for celebrating advocates of free love. Read more...
3rd, 2002 - Israeli "Defense" Forces invade the West Bank city of Jenin, killing scores of innocent civilians and completely destroying a large section of the city. "Jenin" is about that. Read more... 4th, 1967 - Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his "Beyond Vietnam" speech in which he condemns the war in Vietnam and alienates himself from the powers-that-be in the US. MLK is assassinated on the same day one year later. "Who Would Jesus Bomb" might be a good song for the occasion. Read more... 4th, 2004 - Casey Sheehan, Cindy Sheehan's son, is killed in Iraq. "Song for Cindy Sheehan is about Cindy and her son. Read more... 7th, 2009 - Gay marriage is legalized in the state of Vermont. "I Know A Man" is about that. Read more... 9th, 2003 - After US tanks killed several journalists in Baghdad on the same day, including Spanish cameraman Jose Couso, Spanish journalists walked out during a press conference with the pro-war Spanish prime minister, leaving their notebooks, pens, and cameras on the floor. "Spanish Journalist Strike" is about that event. "Read more... 10th, 2006 - Massive coordinated immigrant/workers' rights protests throughout the United States. I sang "Saint Patrick Battalion" at the rally in Houston. Other good songs for the occasion would include "No One Is Illegal" and "Guanajuato." "Read more... 11th, 2002 - Leaders of Venezuela's rightwing elite, backed by the CIA and the State Department, briefly overthrows President Hugo Chavez, who comes back to power a couple days later. "Read more... 14th, 1986 - Reagan bombs Libya. "From Kabul to Khartoum" makes reference to this war crime among other historical events. "Read more... 16th, 2000 - Tens of thousands of people blockade meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, DC. "Shut Them Down" is what we were trying to do there, with partial success. "Paul Wolfowitz" is about the man who later was appointed by Bush to head the World Bank. Read more... 19th, 1776 - First shot fired in the American Revolution. "Berkshire Hills" is about the citizens' rebellion led by Revolutionary War veterans in western Massachusetts known as Shays' Rebellion. Read more... 19th, 1943 - Surviving residents of the Warsaw ghetto, the self-described "walking dead", form the Jewish Fighting Organization and launch the most spectacular urban rebellion in the history of the planet, fighting the Nazis for four weeks, ultimately leaving every building in the ghetto completely destroyed. "I Remember Warsaw" is about that. Read more... 19th, 1995 - A disgruntled Gulf War veteran bombs the Oklahoma City federal building, killing hundreds. "Face of Victory" is about another disgruntled veteran, which makes reference to this. "Halliburton Boardroom Massacre" is another song about a disgruntled veteran. Read more... 20th 4/20 - Don't forget to smoke a joint and play "Cannabis Cafe"! Read more... 22nd* Earth Day - A good day to play environmental songs such as "More Gardens Song," "We Just Want the World", "The Alligator Song", "Here at the End of the World", "Beyond the Mall," "Everything Looks the Same,” "Before the Oil Wells Ran Dry," "Age of Oil," "Song for the Earth Liberation Front," "Burn It Down," "East Tennessee," "New Orleans" and others... Read more... 25th, 1846 - Beginning of the Mexican-American war, resulting in the annexation of most of Mexico by the United States. "Saint Patrick Battalion" is about the Irish-Americans who deserted from the US Army and joined the Mexican Army. Read more... 28th, 2004 - Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal hits the papers. "After We Torture Our Prisoners" is about that. Read more... 29th, 2003 - Thirteen unarmed demonstrators killed by US troops in Falluja after someone throws a stone. One verse of "Strike A Blow Against the Empire" is about that. So is "Falluja." Read more...
1st International Workers Day - Around the world this is the big day to commemorate the class war that's been raging on planet Earth for the past few thousand years. Good day for songs about the class war and for anthemic resistance-type songs generally. Some of these include "Crashing Down," "After The Revolution," "Minimum Wage Strike", "Shut Them Down," "Glory and Fame," "Song for Boxcar Betty," "Resistance," "Strike A Blow Against the Empire," "Battle of Blair Mountain," "Song for the Eureka Stockade," "Song for Ginger Goodwin,” "The Commons" and "No One Is Illegal." Read more...
1st, 1993 - My dear friend and housemate, Eric Mark, was killed in the midst of a gang war when we out one night to the Mission District of San Francisco, California. "Song for Eric" and "All the Ghosts That Walk This Earth" are about Eric.
2nd, 2003 - Bush gives his famous "mission accomplished" speech on top of an aircraft carrier. "The War Is Over" is about that speech. Read more...
9th, 1800 - John Brown, militant abolitionist, is born in Torrington, Connecticut. "John Brown" is about this great man. Read more...
14th* Mother's Day - Originally initiated by anti-war mothers like Julia Ward Howe, Mother's Day is a good day for songs about anti-war mothers. "Song for Cindy Sheehan is about one particular mother. Read more...
14th, 1948 - Date of "Israeli Independence," known to Palestinians as the Naqba or the Catastrophe, when most of Palestine was taken from the Palestinians by force, never to be given back. "The Key" is about an old woman who wishes she could return to her hometown inside '48. "I Wanna Go Home," "Return," Occupation and "In One World" are more songs about the right of refugees to return home, to the territory now known as Israel. Read more...
17th, 2004 - Gay marriage is legalized in the state of Massachusetts. "I Know A Man" is about that. Read more...
20th, 1998 - Not satisfied with destroying only 3,000 Kurdish villages and killing countless thousands of people in northern ("Turkish") Kurdistan, 50,000 Turkish troops invade southern ("Iraqi") Kurdistan. "<Good Kurds, Bad Kurds" is about the US's amazing double-standard with concern to the Kurdish people. Read more...
22nd, 1903 - After invading Cuba and installing a puppet dictatorship, the US signs a treaty with the newly-installed Cuban government ceding Guantanamo Bay to the US military. "Guantanamo Bay" is about that. Read more...
24th, 1990 - Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney's car is bombed during a visit to Oakland, California. Judi is permanently maimed and paralyzed and dies a few years later, doing a whole lot of kick-ass organizing in the mean time. Eventually Darryl Cherney and Judi's estate win lawsuit against FBI for covering up and losing evidence in the case. The perpetrator is still at large. "Judi Bari" is about Judi (based on Earl Robinson's song, "Joe Hill"). Read more...
26th, 2004 - Glen Sebastian Burns and Atif Rafay were wrongfully convicted of the murders of Tariq, Sultana and Basma Rafay. "Atif and Sebastian is about their case. Read more...
29th* Memorial Day - A good day for mourning dead soldiers and war and imperialism in general. "Four Blank Slates" is about the eerie phenomenon of setting out extra slates in war memorials for the next wars that haven't happened yet. "Song for Cindy Sheehan is about Cindy and her son Casey, who died in Iraq. "Face of Victory" and "Halliburton Boardroom Massacre" are songs about various veterans returning home from the war. "Who Will Tell the People" and "What If You Knew" are also related. Read more...
31st, 1880 - League of American Wheelmen forms; first US national bicycle society. Good day to play "Trading With the Enemy" is about the most bicycle-riding society in the world, Cuba. Read more...
31st, 2009 - Dr. George Tiller is murdered while at church one Sunday morning by an anti-abortion extremist. "In the Name of God" is about the murder of Dr. Tiller. Read more...
1st, 2005 - Paul Wolfowitz is appointed to head the World Bank. "Paul Wolfowitz" is a song about this prominent neocon. Read more...
4th, 1989 - Tiananmen Massacre. Hundreds of Chinese students and workers are killed by the Chinese "People's Liberation Army". "Glory and Fame" is partially about that. Read more...
5th, 1967 - Beginning of the Six Day War, leading to the ongoing bloody occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip by Israel. "Occupation" is about that. Read more...
7th, 1954 - The CIA overthrows the democratically-elected government of Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala for trying to buy unused land from the United Fruit Company at market rates and give it to starving, landless peasants. "From Kabul to Khartoum" refers to this tragic event that led to decades of genocide against the Guatemalan people. Read more...
9th, 1993 - US officials admit that veterans of the Gulf War were suffering from a mysterious illness. "DU" is about that. Other related songs include "Halliburton Boardroom Massacre," "Face of Victory" and "Who Will Tell the People." Read more...
11th, 2001 - Jeffrey “Free” Luers becomes another American political prisoner as he is given a 23-year prison sentence for the crime of damaging a few SUV's at an SUV dealership, a political act that should make the Nuremberg Tribunal proud. "Free" is about him. Read more...
16th, 2003 - Rioting begins in the impoverished post-industrial city of Benton Harbor, Michigan, after yet another police murder of a young Black man, one of several such murders in Benton Harbor in recent years. "Benton Harbor" is about the riots. Read more...
21st, 2000 - Jeffrey Skilling, former top Enron official, hit with a pie during a visit to California. Here's to the pastry uprising! "Song for the BBB". Other Enron-related songs include "Hang A Flag in the Window". Read more...
25th, 1950 - The Korean War begins, leading to the deaths of millions of Koreans and hundreds of thousands of Chinese by the US military. "Korea" is about that. Read more...
26th, 1975 - Shootout on Pine Ridge reservation leaves two FBI agents and one Indian dead. Leonard Peltier is framed for the deaths of the FBI agents. "Pray for the Dead and Fight Like Hell for the Living" and "After The Revolution" are partially about that. Good day to play "Song for Big Mountain" too. Read more...
27th, 2002 - I was turned away from the Canadian border on the way to the G8 protests in Alberta. "Outside Agitator" is about that particular incident. Read more...
1st, 1997 - Cannabis Cafe opens in Vancouver, BC. "Cannabis Cafe" is about that. Viva cannabis! Read more...
3rd, 1982 - Mumia Abu-Jamal is sentenced to death for shooting a Philadelphia cop. "Pray for the Dead and Fight Like Hell for the Living" and "After The Revolution" are partly about that. Read more...
9th, 2005 - No More Deaths volunteers arrested for saving the life of a dehydrated would-be illegal immigrant. "Guanajuato" is a song about one of the many unemployed Mexican corn farmers who have died trying to cross that increasingly militarized border. "No One Is Illegal" is about the concept that borders suck. "They're Building A Wall" is about a different wall, but it might as well be about the one they're builing on the US-Mexico border. Read more...
10th, 1957 - Cindy Sheehan is born. Good occasion to play "Song for Cindy Sheehan." Read more...
11th, 1995 - Heat wave begins in much of the US, killing hundreds of mostly elderly people, including one man who lived in his car in Long Island. "Too Proud to Beg" is about him. Read more...
12th, 2006 - Hezbollah conducts a cross-border raid, killing a number of Israeli soldiers and capturing two. Israel then proceeds to demolish Lebanon. "Lebanon (2006)" is about that. Read more...
14th, 1999 - KPFA employees locked out by Pacifica management, in the course of their efforts to take over the Pacifica network from the progressive movement that started it. I wrote "Who Will Tell the People" in the midst of this struggle. "What If You Knew", "Pirate Radio Song" and "Evening News" would be other good songs for the occasion. Read more...
17th, 1936 - The fascist military generals revolt against the popularly-elected prime minister and the Spanish Civil War begins. "The Last Lincoln Veteran" is about the Americans who participated in the International Brigades that fought fascism in Spain. Read more...
19th, 1723 - Twenty-six pirates publically hanged in Newport, Rhode Island. During the Golden Age of this militant, international mass movement that has been much-villified ever since, represented to this day by the infamous black flag with a skull and bones on it, there were many public hangings of dozens, sometimes hundreds of pirates. "Black Flag Flying" is about the much-maligned pirate movement. Other related songs would include "Pirates of Somalia" and "The Pirate Song (a children's song). Read more...
22nd, 2001 - Italian youth Carlo Giuliani is killed by cops in Genoa, Italy at the G8 protests there. I wrote "Behind the Barricades" for him, just after he was killed. Read more...
26th, 1953 - Moncada Barracks in Cuba stormed by Fidel Castro and friends. Initial efforts weren't successful, but six years later the US-backed dictatorship was overthrown, and the storming of Moncada became the central date for Cuba to celebrate it's revolution. "Trading With the Enemy" is a song about some of the wonders of the Cuban revolution. "Song for Ana Belen Montes" is about a great woman serving a long prison sentence for defending Cuba against US-based terrorists. Read more...
27th, 1918 - British-born labor leader Ginger Goodwin is shot and killed in the mountains of British Columbia for avoiding the draft. "Song for Ginger Goodwin" is about this martyr of the Canadian labor movement. Read more...
30th, 2006 - Close to the ten-year anniversary of the last time the Israeli Air Force massacred dozens of women and children in the holy town of Qana, the IDF does it again. "Lebanon (2006)" is about that. Read more...
31st, 2000 - Police raid puppet warehouse before Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, confiscating a lot of innocent puppets. This was the first volley of Philadelphia's police chief John Timoney, who went on to brutalize many nonviolent protesters both in and out of the jails. Timoney went on to become police chief of Miami and repeated the process there during the FTAA talks a couple years later. "Butcher for Hire" is about him. Read more...
1st, 2003 - The Earth Liberation Front torches a 206-unit condominium under construction in San Diego, California. "Song for the Earth Liberation Front" is an ode to these courageous people taking the law into their own hands. "Burn It Down" is about Rod Coronado's arrest related to a speech he gave in San Diego a few days later. "East Tennessee" is about a similar event in 1968. Read more...
6th, 1945 - In the world's first use of nuclear weapons against a densely populated area, the United States bombs the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing 200,000 people instantly, almost all civilians. "Hiroshima" is about that. Read more...
6th, 1990 - With great pressure from the US, the UN institutes an economic sanctions program against Iraq that UNICEF said was responsible for the deaths of about a half a million children over the course of the Clinton administration. As former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, "the price was worth it". "Song for Basra" and "My Daughter" are about life under Clinton's sanctions/bombing regime during the 1990's in one of Iraq's most devastated cities. Read more...
6th, 2005 - First day of Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas. "Song for Cindy Sheehan is about Casey's mom. Read more...
10th, 1998 - Environmental activists and Mendota Indians occupy sacred land slated for highway construction in Minneapolis and form the Minnehaha Free State. The Free State lasts for 16 months before everybody is arrested and the beautiful place is destroyed. "Morning at Minnehaha" was written about that magical moment in history. "More Gardens Song" and "The Commons" are other songs about reclaiming public space. Read more...
15th, 2005 - Activists with the Mountain Justice Summer campaign arrested and brutalized for trying to stop a rapacious corporation from blowing up Zeb Mountain in east Tennessee. "Hills of Tennessee" is about the Mountain Top Removal mining that these folks were trying to stop. "East Tennessee" is a song about how a local person tried to deal with the mining companies in 1968. Read more...
20th, 1998 - Clinton's military bombs a school near Kabul and a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum. I wrote "From Kabul to Khartoum" in response. Read more...
28th, 2005 - Hurricane Katrina and the Bush Administration team up to hit New Orleans with an astounding combination of global warming, racism, corruption, incompetence and Mother Nature. Thousands are killed and the city is turned into a toxic waste dump. "New Orleans" is about that, as is "Floating Down the River." Read more...
29th, 1786 - The beginning of Shays' Rebellion, the rebellion of farmer-veterans in western Massachusetts that led to the Bill of Rights, among other things. "Berkshire Hills” is about that. Read more...
29th, 1921 - You could pick this date as the peak moment of the mine wars of West Virginia. This was the beginning of a three-day pitched battle between 10,000 union miners and around 10,000 scabs, cops, lawyers and other scum outside of the town of Mingo. "Battle of Blair Mountain" is about that. Read more...
1st 1897 - First subway opens in Boston, Massachusetts. I spent many years busking in the T as a full-time street musician. "T-Stop Cafe" is about that. Read more...
2nd, 1872 - Mikhail Bakunin is expelled from the First International. A fine occasion to play songs about sectarianism on the left such as "Vanguard" and "I'm A Better Anarchist Than You".
6th, 1966 - Star Trek appears on TV for the first time. "Make It So" is a song praising the utopian ideals inherent in Star Trek (particularly Next Generation).
10th, 2001 - Having no idea about what was going to happen the next day, some friends of mine vacationing in Greece take offense at a yacht with a very large American flag on it. "One Night in Greece" is a song about that particular evening's festivities.
11th, 1973 - CIA-backed, SOA-trained fascists within the Chilean military overthrow democratically-elected socialist President Salvador Allende. General Augusto Pinochet and his cronies bomb the presidential palace, La Moneda, with fighter jets and initiate a decades-long brutal dictatorship. "Santiago" is about that. Read more...
11th, 2001 - World Trade Center destroyed. "The Dying Firefighter" is about a NYC firefighter dying in the WTC, who wonders if Afghan firefighters are going to have to die in similar circumstances for this attack. I wrote that near the end of the month. On 9/11 itself I wrote "International Terrorists," some thoughts on who the biggest terrorists are (us). There are many other songs related to this event. "Promised Land" is about 9/11 from the perspective of Mohammed Atta. "Reichstag Fire" is asking questions about parallels to other historical events, and other questions. Read more...
13th, 1847 - US Army seizes Mexico City, forcing Mexico to sign over most of it's territory to the United States. "Saint Patrick Battalion" is about the Irish-American draftees who opposed this war of aggression, deserting from the US Army and joining the Mexican Army. "Guanajuato" and "No One Is Illegal" are songs about these people whom we now call "immigrants". Read more...
13th, 1899 - First person killed by an automobile in the US. "Sixty Thousand More" is about one young man killed in a car accident and the 60,000 or so people in the US who die every year in automobile accidents. Read more...
16th, 1982 - On this date Lebanese Maronite fascists were slaughtering thousands of defenseless Palestinian civilians, almost entirely women and children, in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps outside Beirut, Lebanon. Ariel Sharon and the Israeli military were occupying Lebanon at the time and facilitating the slaughter. My friend's parents and baby brother were killed that day, and "Palestine" is about that. In a less direct way, so is "The Scar Upon Your Face" and "I Wanna Go Home." Lebanon (2006) and "Occupation" are also relevant, among others. Read more...
17th, 1998 - Earth First! activist David "Gypsy" Chain is killed by a logger while trying to protect some of the last remaining old-growth trees on what's left of our beautiful planet. The Death of David Chain" is about that. Read more...
20th, 2001 - Ana Belen Montes is arrested and ultimately given a 25-year prison sentence. For decades she worked tirelessly as a spy for Cuba, preventing US-sponsored acts of terrorism from happening on Cuban soil. She rose to the highest level for Caribbean policy within the US Department of "Defense." "Song for Ana Belen Montes" is a song in appreciation for this brave woman. Read more...
25th, 2008 - Somali Pirates hijack a Ukrainian ship full of tanks and other heavy armaments ostensibly bound for Kenya but thought more likely to be heading towards Sudan. "Pirates of Somalia" is about the exploits of the Somali pirates. Read more...
26th, 2000 - Prague is a virtual ghost town as thousands of anti-capitalists attempt to shut down the meetings of the World Bank and IMF. I sang "Shut Them Down" through a bullhorn there.
28th, 2000 - War criminal Ariel Sharon visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the match that lit the powder keg that became known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada. "Children of Jerusalem" is about that. Read more...
29th, 2004 - The longest-operating pirate radio station in the US, Free Radio Santa Cruz, is raided by the FCC. Soon thereafter they were back on the air. "Pirate Radio Song" is a song I wrote in honor of FRSC and all other pirate radio stations. Other good songs about the importance of seizing the airwaves include "What If You Knew", "Who Will Tell the People" and "Evening News". Read more...
5th, 2002 - California Department of Veterans' Affairs releases study finding that there are 55,000 homeless veterans in California. "When Johnny Came Marching Home" is about a homeless vet, as is "Too Proud to Beg.”
6th, 1976 - Rightwing Cuban terrorists on the CIA payroll bomb a Cuban airliner, killing 73 people. Most of the people involved with this act of mass murder of innocent civilians freely walk the streets of Miami, Florida. "Luis Posada" is about the mastermind of that terrorist act. Clearly if we are to bomb countries that harbor terrorists, as Bush advocates, we should start with ourselves. "Bomb Ourselves" is about that. Read more...
12th Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day - Day we celebrate the great butcher. Good day for Song for Big Mountain. Read more...
15th, 1965 - The first draft card is officially burned. Good anniversary for "
16th, 1859 - John Brown and a small band of other militant abolitionists raid the armory in Harper's Ferry, Virginia. John Brown is about the man. Read more...
21st, 1998 - The Earth Liberation Front burns the newly-expanded Vail ski resort to the ground. "Song for the Earth Liberation Front" is a musical expression of support for the good people of the ELF, as is "Burn It Down." "East Tennessee" is about a similar event in 1968. Read more...
22nd National Day Against Police Brutality - "Benton Harbor" is about that, as is "Miami" and "Butcher for Hire." Read more...
23rd, 1998 - Dr. Barnett Slepian murdered by an anti-abortion extremist. "In the Name of God" is about the murder of Dr. George Tiller and other doctors. Read more...
24th, 2001 - US Congress enacts the USA PATRIOT Act. Faced with some pertinent questions, most notably, "why do they hate us?", clearly the correct response is blind patriotism, and more flags. "Hang A Flag in the Window" is about that. Read more...
27th, 2006 - My friend Brad Will is killed by paramilitaries in Oaxaca City, Mexico, with a camera in his hand, at the APPO barricades. "Brad" is about him. Read more...
31st, 1969 - Wal-Mart is incorporated. Celebrate this historic anniversary by playing "Wal-Mart".
1st, 2000 - Kenneth Lay begins selling his stocks in Enron, one of the world's largest corporations (on paper), which collapses dramatically not long thereafter, resulting in financial disaster for hundreds of thousands of people. "Hang A Flag in the Window" makes reference to the Enron scandal. Read more...
4th, 2000 - My friend and fellow songwriter, Al Grierson died in a flash flood while on his way home from a gig in the Texas hill country that he loved. "Song for Al Grierson" is about him. Read more...
7th* Election Day - A good day for songs about recent corrupt US elections. "Whoever Wins in November" was written prior to the 2004 election. "Election" was written just after it. "IRV" is a song about Instant Runoff Voting, which would be a very good idea.
7th, 1989 - Berlin wall falls. But in other places new, bigger walls are being built. "They're Building A Wall" is about the apartheid wall in Palestine. "No One Is Illegal" and "Guanajuato" are songs about the wall (both literal and symbolic) on the US-Mexico border.
7th, 2003 - Ten-year-old Palestinian boy, Mahmud Al-Qayyed, is killed by the Israeli "Defense" Forces for the crime of catching songbirds in an olive grove too close to the wall. "Song the Songbird Sings" is a song for Mahmud. Read more...
8th, 2004 - The US military invades Falluja again, destroying what was left of that once-beautiful, ancient city. "Falluja" is a song for the Iraqi resistance. Read more...
11th* Veteran's Day - Formerly called Armistice Day, which commemorates the end of the mass slaughter of young men dying for various empires that was World War I. Good day for songs about disgruntled veterans such as "Saint Patrick Battalion," “Berkshire Hills” "Halliburton Boardroom Massacre," "Face of Victory," "Song for Hugh Thompson." Read more...
11th, 1989 - The beginning of FMLN's November Offensive, which nearly overthrew the US-backed Salvadoran government, until the Salvadoran Air Force started indiscriminately bombing civilian neighborhoods in their own capital city, with US-supplied planes and bombs. "Unknown Soldier" is a song about a female guerrilla soldier involved with that offensive who appeared on the cover of the New York Times at the time. Read more...
15th, 2008 - Somali pirates seize an oil tanker with two million barrels of oil in it. "Pirates of Somalia" is about that. Read more...
16th, 1989 - Six Salvadoran Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter were murdered by graduates of the School of the Americas. On or near the anniversary of this massacre thousands of people gather to protest the School of the Assassins in Columbus, Georgia. "Song for the SOA" and "Song for the SOA #2" are about those protests. "Behind That Gate" is about the protests, too, the first time they started searching us on our way into the protest area (totally unconstitutional, but what the heck). "Santiago" is about the SOA graduates who overthrew the government of Chile in 1973. "Luis Posada" and Drink of the Death Squads are about some of the things that SOA graduates do. "Bomb Ourselves" is about the double-standard of harboring a massive terrorist training camp inside the country that is supposedly so hard at work fighting the “war on terror.” a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_for_Security_Cooperation">Read more...
17th, 2000 - Luis Posada Carrilles is arrested in Panama in possession of 200 pounds of explosives. "Luis Posada" is about this rightwing Cuban terrorist who lives in Florida. Read more...
20th, 1945 - Nuremberg trials begin. Living in a country led by outright war criminals, I ask the question, "How Far Is It From Here To Nuremberg?" Read more...
20th, 2003 - Thousands of police in riot gear, backed up by dozens of armored vehicles and helicopters, fire tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray and electro-shock weapons at unarmed protesters during the Free Trade Area of the Americas talks in Miami, Florida. "Miami" is about that. "Butcher for Hire" is about Miami's fascist police chief, John Timoney. Read more...
22nd, 1967 - United Nations Security Council unanimously passes Resolution 242, calling for the right of Palestinians to return home after the Six Day War. It remains unenforced. "They're Building A Wall", "I Wanna Go Home," "The Key," "Occupation," "Return" and "Song the Songbird Sings" are relevant songs for the occasion, among others. Read more...
26th, 2002 - Top Canadian government official calls Bush a "moron." I wrote a song about that incident called "Moron." Read more...
27th* Buy Nothing Day - The day after Thanksgiving, usually the biggest shopping day in the US for "Christmas sales" and all that. Good day for anti-consumerism/anti-sprawl songs such as "Wal-Mart", "Everything Looks the Same", "Beyond the Mall" and "Read more...
30th, 1999 - Tens of thousands of people nonviolently take to the streets of Seattle and partially shut down meetings of the World Trade Organization. "Shut Them Down" was inspired by this moment in history. Read more...
1st, 1937 - In an effort to further criminalize the Mexican population in the US, pot is made illegal. "Deadhead In Prison" is about some of the prisoners of the drug war. "Cannabis Cafe" and "Hot Tub Song" are sort of pot appreciation songs. "Who Will Tell the People" also addresses the drug war. Read more...
2nd 1859 - John Brown is executed. Two years later the Union Army marches into battle singing his praises. John Brown is about this great man. Read more...
3rd, 1854 - Dozens killed, mostly rebel gold diggers, when the British Army lays siege to the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat, Australia. "Song for the Eureka Stockade" is about this rebellion of gold diggers which led to Australia being the first country in the world to get the eight-hour day. Read more...
1st, 2001 - The village of Kama Ado, Afghanistan, is bombed for no reason, killing 115 innocent civilians. "The Village Where Nothing Happened" is about that bombing, based on an article in the Independent by Richard Lloyd Parry. Read more...
6th, 1998 - Social democrat and massively popular leader Hugo Chavez is elected president of the oil-rich nation of Venezuela. The US government mounts a campaign to overthrow him, effective to this day. "Read more...
8th, 2005 - New York University bans Coca-Cola from being sold on their campus due to pressure from student activists who feel that Coke's tendency to hire rightwing paramilitary death squads to kill union organizers in cold blood is a bad thing. "Drink of the Death Squads" is about Coke's policies in Colombia. Read more...
10th, 2004 - Gary Webb, journalist who uncovered the CIA's involvement with importing cocaine into the US and pushing crack on the streets of Los Angeles, was found dead of an apparent suicide. "Who Will Tell the People" is for him and other journalists like him (and also includes a verse about him) as is "What If You Knew." Read more...
12th, 2000 - By a 5-to-4 vote the US Supreme Court selects George W. Bush to be president. "Whoever Wins in November" and "Election" make reference to this. "Moron" and "I Have Seen the Enemy" are affectionate songs about W. Read more...
16th, 2009 - Release date for Jeffrey “Free” Luers, originally sentenced to 22 years in 2000 for doing $40,000 worth of damage to SUVs at an SUV dealership in Eugene, Oregon. "Free" is about him. Read more...
20th, 1989 - US invades Panama, killing thousands of innocent civilians. "From Kabul to Khartoum" refers to this. Read more...
22nd, 1974 - US Congress passes the Navajo Hopi Land Settlement Act. Disguised as an attempt to settle an inter-tribal dispute, Congress acts to relocate 20,000 traditional Dineh (Navajo) people and move them onto radioactive wasteland in order to expand North America's biggest coal mine, prompting decades of resistance, misery, cancer and death. "Song for Big Mountain" is about that. Read more...
25th, 1972 - The Christmas bombing of Hanoi. Many thousand of innocent civilians killed. "Who Would Jesus Bomb" is a good song for the occasion. Read more...
26th, 2004 - Massive tsunami kills hundreds of thousands of people in many Asian countries. "Tsunami" is about that. The tsumani also washes up massive amounts of toxic and nuclear waste illegally dumped off the coast of Somalia by western corporations. "Pirates of Somalia" is a song about the only reason that dumping has at least temporarily been curtailed. Read more...