Why one earth did David Crosby compare a Pink song to CSNY’s best protest anthems?
In the modern age of pop music, protest music gets put on the side more often than not.
Pop musicians were the voice of the people once upon a time, but many artists are too afraid to speak their minds in song, for fear of alienating their fanbase. But David Crosby always had time to give credit to artists who stood up for their beliefs.
Back in the 1960s, Crosby was one of the main power players of protest music when working with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. They never sought to be a strictly political outfit by any stretch of the imagination, but their determination in speaking their mind on songs like ‘Ohio’ spoke volumes. They were going to give a voice to those who couldn’t speak for themselves, and they weren’t about to apologise for it, either.
And it’s not like the voice of revolution ever went anywhere. Sure, the idea of people protesting with acoustic guitars did sound a little bit dated by the 1980s, but that only left the music worldwide open for people to turn their voices up louder. Bono sounded absolutely pissed off when singing ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ behind The Edge’s guitar parts, and once the 1990s brought everything back to basics, hearing Tom Morello’s brutal riffs over Zack de la Rocha’s screams in Rage Against the Machine made everyone take a look at what was going on around them.
But something started to change once America went to war in the 2000s. 9/11 had cast a dark shadow over everyone, but as soon as President George Bush waged war on Iraq, bands like The Chicks had to worry about getting completely excommunicated from music if they dared to have a different opinion than the rest of the nation. Green Day and System of a Down were able to thrive in their respective pockets of the scene, but Crosby was blown away by what Pink was able to do.
Compared to every other pop artist, Pink certainly wasn’t the most rebellious person in the world, but for Crosby, hearing her sing a song like ‘Dear Mr President’ was really gutsy, saying, “If you listen to the radio now you won’t hear any protest music. This song of Pink’s is a strong anti-war statement, a strong anti-George Bush statement. People are still writing them but they’re mostly being excluded from the mainstream. This song by Pink is a rare thing: a mainstream pop song that’s also a protest song.”
It was a little tense back then, but even Crosby hadn’t lost his touch when it came to protest music, either. Young had already written ‘Let’s Impeach the President’ before he reformed the supergroup again, but hearing their harmonies over Young’s words about the leader of the free world is exactly what the world needed to hear. Yes, Bush may have done some nice things, but choosing to go to war was something that had to be taken seriously.
And ever since, protest music has seemed to be thriving a lot more. Not all of it may get played on the radio all the time, but throughout the 2010s, fans were still looking to hear people that had a take on the horrors that came with those in power, like Childish Gambino’s look at the country on ‘This is America’ or Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Alright’ getting turned into a Black Lives Matter anthem.
Many may be playing with fire when they decide to take a stand on hot-button issues, but Crosby was never going to rest by rolling over and refusing to speak his mind. In his head, music was an outlet for people to say what they’re afraid to talk about, and regardless of political ideology, Crosby could recognise when someone was writing from their heart first.
