M.U.S.I.C

Musicians Undermining Social Injustice Creatively

by Leo Hartshorn

As one who has been an artist and a musician, I have been inspired by musicians who have used their gifts to communicate messages of peace and social justice, as well as to support similar causes through their funds and public influence.

Music is a unique and powerful form of communication, able to bridge language, culture, and nationality. People who would not necessarily listen to a political or prophetic speech may listen to a melody and rhythm laced with words about ecology (Marvin Gaye), war (Bob Dylan), racism (Bob Marley), or worker's rights (Joan Baez).

In this series of ink drawings I want to connect images of musicians with a social conscience with their quotes or song lyrics. Some of these musicians will be more familiar than others. Reading about their social awareness and political activism will enrich one's understanding of their music. This is not an endorsement of the lifestyles of some of these musicians, but an acknowledgement that God can work through all of us as broken vessels to creatively envision, proclaim, and create a more just and peaceable world.

Click on each image to download a high resolution version suitable for printing.

		Joni Mitchell, Canadian singer, songwriter, artist Lyrics from "Big Yellow Taxi"- (download poster)		"Don't it always seem to go/ that you don't know what you've got till it's gone/ They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."
		Victor Jara, Chilean theatre director, poet, folk singer, songwriter, and political activist, Lyrics from Vientos Del Pueblo (Winds of the People)- (download poster)		"De nuevo quieren manchar/ Mi patria con sangre obrera/Los que hablan de libertad/Y tienen las manos negras/Los que quieren dividir/A la madre de sus hijos/Y quieren reconstruir/La cruz que arrastrara Cristo/Translation- Once more they want to stain/my country with workers' blood/those who talk of liberty/yet have blackened hands,/those who want to separate the mother from her children/and reconstruct the cross Christ carried."
		Tracy Chapman, ontemporary Americansinger-songwriter,Lyric from "All that you have is your soul" (download poster)		"Don't be tempted by the shiny apple/ Don't you eat from the bitter fruit/ Hunger only for a taste of justice/ Hunger only for a word of truth/ 'Cause all that you have is your soul."
		Woodie Guthrie, American folk musician and songwriter (download poster)		"This Land is Your Land: In the squares of the city/In the shadow of a steeple/By the relief office/ I'd seen my people/As they stood there hungry/I stood there asking/Is this land made for you and me?"
		Mercedes Sosa, Argentine singer, political activist, defender of human rights (download poster)		"Solo le pido a Dios/ Que el dolor no me sea indiferente/ Que la reseca muerte no me encuentre/ Vacio y solo sin haber hecho lo suficiente; I only ask of God/ not to be indifferent to people's pain/ that dry death not find me/empty, alone, and not having done enough."
		Bob Dylan,poet, singer, songwriter, Lyrics from "Masters of War" (download poster)		"Come you masters of war/ You that build the big guns/ You that build the death planes/ You that build all the bombs/ You that hide behind walls/ You that hide behind desks/ I just want you to know/ I can see through your masks"
		Bernice Reagon Johnson & Sweet Honey in the Rock, Lyrics from "In This Land" (download poster)		"I wanna know. Why am I hungry? Why am I homeless? Why in this land? Why am I naked? Why am I shaking? I don't understand, I don't understand..."
		Bono, singer for U2, song writer, social activist / Lyrics from "Peace on Earth" (download poster)		"Jesus can you take the time/ To throw a drowning man a line/ Peace on Earth/ To tell the ones who hear no sound/ Whose sons are living in the ground /Peace on Earth"
		Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers, folk group in forefront of peace and civil rights movements / Lyric from "El Salvador" (download poster)		"They'll continue training troops in the USA/And watch the nuns that got away/And teach the military bands to play South of the Border/And kill the people to set them free/Who put this price on their liberty?/Don't you think it's time to leave El Salvador?"
		John Lennon, John Lennon, rock guitarist, songwriter, peace activist, member of the Beatles / Lyric from "Imagine" (download poster)		"Imagine all the people/Living life in Peace/You may say I'm a dreamer/But I'm not the only one/ I hope someday you'll join us/And the world will be as one."
		Billie Holiday, jazz vocalist / Lyric from "Strange Fruit" (download poster)		"Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees."
		Carlos Santana, Mexican guitarist and co-founder of Milagro Foundation (download poster)		"The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace."
		Bob Marley, Jamaican reggae musician, Rastafarian activist/ Lyric from "War" (download poster)		"Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war. Me say war."
		Joan Baez, folk singer, social activist/ Lyric from "Joe Hill" (download poster)		"From San Diego up to Maine, in every mine and mill, where working-men defend their rights, it's there you find Joe Hill, its there you find Joe Hill!"