Lesson

What were the top 5 protest songs and what was the meaning behind them? 

Lesson Plan

Ella Reidway 

 

Objectives:

• Students will understand how the time period inspired songwriting

• Students will understand why protest songwriters felt it was necessary to create protest songs 

• Students will learn how to analyze a song

 

Hook: Listen to “Ohio”, “Fortunate Son”, “The Times they are a-changing” 5 minutes 

• Ask the class to discuss what similarities and differences they find in all three songs

Go over the anti-war movement 3 minutes 

• Ask the class what they already know about the antiwar movement 

• Google slide

  • The Movement set up an example for how to speak up against the government even on subjects like war.

  • It was filled with young protesters of all different races and genders  

  • The protesters wanted to challenge the establishment because they felt like it was time for a new way of thinking. 

  • Their goal was to break out of the “cookie cutter” mold of the 50s to convey that this war was unnecessary and caused more harm than good.

Discuss “Ohio” 4 Minutes 

• Watch a video on the Ken State Shooting

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odoqR5YGRPQ

• CSNY goal with the song and their role as protest singers 

  • Google slides

  • When Neil Young heard about the Kent State Massacre and saw dead bodies of the young protesters he became enraged

  • The song “Ohio” represented their anger as well as the anger of other anti-war protesters

  • “‘Ohio’ is both one of Neil Young and CSNYs harder rock songs. You can hear the anger in Young’s voice. This was the end of an age of protest songs in American rock music” (“#268 Ohio”)

 

• Have an open discussion Analyzing the lyrics as a class applying the background 

 

Discuss “Fortunate Son” 5 Minutes 

• Discuss the perspective of the young soldiers in Vietnam 

  • Google Slides

  • A lot of the people being drafted into the war were under the age of 18

  • 61% of the men who died in the war were under the age of 21

  • Since the voting age was 21, a lot of the people drafted weren’t able to vote on the war

  • Poor men were more likely to be drafted because they were less likely to be skilled in other jobs. 

  • Only 23% were part of the upper class in the draft (“The Draft”). 

Creedence Clearwater Revival goal with the song and their role as protest singers 

• Google slides 

• They wanted to oppose the war while supporting the troops

• “It's one of those protest songs that is opposed to war but supportive of troops. Songwriter John Fogerty was protesting the fact that certain individuals were receiving preferential treatment by then-president Richard Nixon, who allowed them to avoid the draft” (Baker).

• They knew that the war was not going in the right direction and spoke out against it 

• Have an open discussion Analyzing the lyrics as a class applying the background 

 

Discuss “The times they are a-changing” 5 Minutes 

• Briefly go over the political side of the anti-war protests 

  • Google slide 

  • The song was only released a week after JFK’s death

  • After Kennedy’s death there was a rush back to war

  • Many government officials weren’t listening to the protesters voices and continued with the war

  • The protests were fueled with an “anti-establishment mood”(Rodnitzky).

 

• Bob Dylan's goal with the song and their role as protest singers 

  • Google slides 

  • Bob Dylan is known to be one of the most influential protest singers of all time (Baker). 

  • He knew that this type of music is what the people wanted to hear. 

  • It was also written close to when the Civil Rights act got passed

  • “The Times They are a Changin” is part of a larger album the he wrote full of protest music.

 

• Have an open discussion Analyzing the lyrics as a class applying the background 

 

Ending activity 10 minutes 

• Splitting the class in half and giving one half Masters of War (Bob Dylan) and the other half Eve of Destruction (Barry McGuire) and they have to analyze the song then share 

 

Materials:

 

Songs: 

“The Times They Are A-Changing” (Bob Dylan)

“Ohio” (CSNY)

“Masters of War” (Bob Dylan)

“Fortunate Son” (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

“Eve of Destruction” (Barry McGuire)

 

Bibliography 

“#268 Ohio- Neil Young: Meaning, Lyrics, Interpretations.” Top 500 Greatest Rock Songs of All-Time, 17 July 2021, Accessed Jan. 23, 2022. 

Baker, CJ. “The Protest Movement: The 10 Best Political Protest Songs of the '60s.” Spinditty, Spinditty, 8 May 2012, Accessed Jan. 19, 2022. 

“Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire - Songfacts.” Song Meanings at Songfacts, Accessed Jan. 23, 2022. 

Fateman, Johanna. "The Protest Reformation: In the 1960s, Youth Counterculture Spawned Christian Rock." Bookforum, vol. 18, no. 1, Apr, 2011. ProQuest, Accessed Jan. 19, 2022.

Greene, Andy. “Readers' Poll: The 10 Best Protest Songs of All Time.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 25 June 2018, Accessed Jan. 19, 2022. 

“Kent State Shooting.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 8 Sept. 2017, Accessed Jan. 23, 2022. 

Kelly, John. "Delivering a Radical Broadside Bringing the Words of Protest Songs to the Street was the Radical Aim of the 1960s Underground Magazine, Broadside - Now Listen to the Album: [CITY EDITION]." Irish Times, Nov 11, 2000, pp. 63. ProQuest, Accessed Jan. 19, 2022. 

Rodnitzky, Jerome L. "The Sixties between the Microgrooves: Using Folk and Protest Music.." Popular Music and Society, 1999. ProQuest, Accessed Jan. 19, 2022.

“The Draft Is Not the Great Equalizer.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 11 May 1982, Accessed Feb 1, 2021 .