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"Our ability to make change is always here. We just have to believe it."
Those words, delivered by singer and poet Patti Smith early in "Get Up, Stand Up: The Story of Pop and Protest," illustrate the essential message of the winning two-hour documentary tracing popular music as a means of political expression. Narrated by Chuck D, leader of the pioneering political hip-hop group Public Enemy, "Get Up, Stand Up" provides a remarkably full history of protest music through film clips, live performances and interviews.
It shows the origin of socially conscious folk music through the words of union organizer Joe Hill, who said, "A pamphlet, no matter how good, is never read more than once, but a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over." It dissects the music that spurred the civil-rights movement with the harsh sentiment of Billie Holiday's 1939 recording of "Strange Fruit," accompanied by images of lynchings of black Americans. And it shows how the protest songs like Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" and spirituals like "We Shall Overcome" were grounded in a desire to uplift the working-class and downtrodden.
"Overnight, when we heard 'Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud' by James Brown, we turned from 'colored' to 'black,' and black was beautiful," said Chuck D about the impact a song can have on one community.
The first hour of "Get Up, Stand Up" is devoted to historical research, showcasing everyone from Paul Robeson to Pete Seeger to Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley, whose song gives the show its title. Protest music is tracked from its early days to the Vietnam era, when such songs became pop hits thanks to people like Bob Dylan and songs like "The Times They Are A-Changin' " and "Blowin' in the Wind."
Rock critic Charles Shaar Murray, reflecting on Dylan and protest music's ascendancy in the '60s, said "Suddenly, politics became something which, as a thinking pop fan, you were supposed to know about."
The second hour of "Get Up, Stand Up" isn't as enthralling, focusing more on activist musicians and philanthropic events like Live Aid, Farm Aid and Amnesty International's '80s-era tours protesting apartheid.
The most engaging element here is a mini-debate about Bono, lead singer of U2, and his constant glad-handing of political leaders of all stripes. Bono offers a compelling argument about the need to be in the room with the Big Boys to effect change in the world. But it's hard not to sympathize with musicians out carrying placards and getting tear-gassed at the G-8 Summit in Italy, as members of the British band Chumbawumba were, when they accuse Bono of being a self-aggrandizing sell-out. Bono acknowledges their point, but says their more idealist route of protest doesn't get much done.
"I've gone past the point where it's enough to dream, to imagine - that old John Lennon idea, 'Imagine,' " Bono said. "Now, I want to get out and do."
"Get Up, Stand Up" is strong enough that it just might inspire you to do the same.Review
"Get Up, Stand Up: The Story of Pop and Protest"
WHEN: Wednesday at 8 p.m. on KUED Channel 7.
RUNNING TIME: Two hours.
BOTTOM LINE: This history of music as a means of protest is a valuable lesson on popular art's relationship with politics.