To mark May Day on Monday – a date synonymous with public demonstrations – we're counting down the 20 greatest protest songs of all time.
From Marvin Gaye's soul classic 'What's Going On?' to Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit', we present 20 anthems that rage against racism, war, society and, of course, the machine.
Other acts included are The Beatles, John Lennon, Guns N' Roses, Kate Bush, Black Sabbath, U2, Rage Against The Machine, The Rolling Stones and Neil Young.
Check out the full top 20 below:
May Day Special: The 20 Greatest Protest Songs
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20. Guns N' Roses: 'Civil War' - Born from an instrumental Slash and Duff McKagan used to play in sound-check, the 1993 Guns N' Roses song took on a life of its own when Axl Rose wrote lyrics around it. Essentially a homage to Vietnam style protest songs, 'Civil War' mentions both John F Kennedy's assassination and Martin Luther King whilst playing with the dual meaning of the word 'civil' in Civil War by asking "What's so civil about war anyway?".
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~ by theumpteenthtimes 5/1/2010 Report
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