Various Artists - Rock Trump Out, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 (2015-2020)

I posted some similar to this a couple of weeks ago. But this is not the same! Previously, I posted two volumes of this "Rock Trump Out" compilation. Since then, I've found a bunch more songs (nine, to be precise), enough to make a third volume, after some reorganizing. But each album covers a different time period, so some of the new songs are on the first and second volumes. Many of the songs on the third volume are new, but not all of them. Thus, I strongly suggest you download all three volumes.

For the rest of my comments here, I'm using the same comments I posted in the earlier version, with a minimum of changes to reflect what's new with this version.

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I'm a very politically progressive person. I'm trying hard to keep this blog focused just on the music. But with the critically important November 2020 presidential election coming up, I don't think I'll be able to keep entirely quiet about politics. Needless to say, I hope you all vote for Joe Biden! As Bernie Sanders put it recently, "This is not just an election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. This is an election between Donald Trump and democracy."

I've put together a collection of songs that combines my political feelings with my love of music. All the songs are either about Trump or at least they're Trump adjacent, addressing the dire situation the country is in due to the Trump presidency. I found so many songs that I've made three albums out of them that are about an hour long each. But, and this is key, these are all GOOD songs that stand on their own musically. I culled them down from a larger bunch based both on topic relevance and musical quality. So if you're feeling frustrated about the Trump presidency and want something to help motivate you to work for his defeat while also entertaining you, this is for you.

Whereas if you're a Trump supporter, you're probably going to skip this. If you post pro-Trump comments here, be warned I'm likely to delete them. Sorry. This is not a place for heated political arguments. If you're not into this, then please move on.

Also, there are NO song parodies here. A lot of those are entertaining, but that's an entirely different thing. All the songs here are serious, and a majority of them are done by big name musicians. 

I've split the songs into three albums. The first album's songs were all released between 2015 and 2017. The second album's songs date from 2018 until 2020. The third album's songs all come from 2020. A couple of them were released only a few days ago as I write this. Within each album, I worked with a friend to sort the songs in a way that hopefully makes for a good musical flow.

In order for a song to be included, it had to be one that I liked. I'm not really a fan of rap or hip hop, so there's very little of that here, even though there have been some big anti-Trump songs in those genres. There are a couple that are rap influenced, especially the ones by the Prophets of Rage (made up of members of Public Enemy and Rage Against the Machine) and Janelle Monae. Still, if someone else put this together, they probably would have included more.

The title is "Rock Trump Out." The idea there is that we can rock while we kick Trump out on election day. The word "rock" is intentional because my musical tastes are based in classic rock, and I want these to be rocking albums. So I excluded some good anti-Trump songs that were good but too folky, too country, etc... to fit. I did include some soul and funk songs and the like, since those fit the upbeat mood.

I've looked around the Internet, and I haven't seen anyone else put a collection together like this, at least not that I could find. I'm sure there are some really good songs that fit the theme that I missed. If you know of any, please let me know and I may well add them in.

If you're someone who wants Trump voted out, please spread this to your friends and family and beyond. It's something that can lift spirits in these difficult times.

I'm almost done with my comments here, but I have a couple of interesting notes about a few songs. Believe it or not, the words to "Old Man Trump" were written by the famous folksinger Woody Guthrie, before he died in the 1960s! In his later years, he lived in an apartment building owned by Donald's father Fred Trump, who not surprisingly was a racist asshole like his son. It's interesting to note that Guthrie complained about the Trump family's bias against black people even back then!

The song "Fergus Laing" by Richard Thompson is another interesting case. Thompson wrote it about Trump before Trump began his run for president, and released it on album the same week Trump's campaign began! It seems Thompson must have been one step ahead of everyone else.

I edited two songs down simply because I thought they were too long. The two are "Can't Put It in the Hands of Fate" by Stevie Wonder and "Going Down to Sing in Texas" by Iris DeMent. I cut the Wonder song from almost seven minutes down to five minutes. I cut the DeMent song from well over nine minutes down to five minutes. For the Wonder song, a lot of what I cut was just repetitive stuff. For the DeMent one, I had to cut out a bunch of verses, She sang about all sorts of things. I tried to keep the focus on Trump and cut the verses that were less related to him.

By the way, this is an example of a song that may not appear to have anything to do about Trump at first glance. (Thompson has confirmed in interviews that it is.) Many of the other songs are like that, where they're more subtle. But if you listen closely, the relevance will sink in. The two Sheryl Crow songs are good examples of that. They just sound like really catchy pop songs until you pay attention to the lyrics with Trump in mind.

I debated whether or not to include a song by Barbra freaking Streisand! Who knew she would ever release a pointed protest song about Trump? It doesn't fit the rocking theme, and I'm not a Streisand fan at all. But in the end it was too good and too relevant to leave out. I'm very surprised to say that.

There are all sorts of really great songs here, too many for me to single out by name. But I'd be curious to hear which ones you like the most or the least.

Normally, I would make different blog posts for the three albums that make up this project. But I've only made one post to make it easy for you to share the whole thing with others if you want to. Note though that there are three zip file links below, not one, so click on all three. I've made covers for the three albums too.

UPDATE: On June 30, 2023, I added a song I'd previously missed, "Dump That Trump," by Rick Estrin and the Nightcats.

VOLUME 1:

01 That's What Makes Us Great (Bruce Springsteen & Joe Grushecky)
02 Old Man Trump (Ryan Harvey, Ani DiFranco & Tom Morello)
03 Justice (Dumpstaphunk with Trombone Shorty)
04 Hail to the Chief (Prophets of Rage)
05 The Perilous Night (Drive-By Truckers)
06 Make America Great Again (Pussy Riot)
07 Just How Low (Robert Cray)
08 Tin Foil Hat (Todd Rundgren with Donald Fagen)
09 Million Dollar Loan (Death Cab for Cutie)
10 Season of Change (Stone Foundation with Bettye LaVette)
11 Make This World (Lee Fields & the Expressions)
12 Can't You Tell (Aimee Mann)
13 Ode to the Donald [A Song for Donald Trump] (David Clayton-Thomas)
14 Is This the Life We Really Want (Roger Waters)
15 Fergus Laing (Richard Thompson)

VOLUME 2:

01 March March (Chicks)
02 Two Steps Forward (Kirk Fletcher)
03 Above the Law (O'Jays)
04 Shame (Tedeschi Trucks Band)
05 [Keep Mar-a-Lago But] I Want America Back (Eric Hirshberg)
06 Man without a Soul (Lucinda Williams)
07 What the Hell (Elvin Bishop & Charlie Musselwhite)
08 Hung Out to Dry (Hoodoo Gurus)
09 Despite Repeated Warnings (Paul McCartney)
10 Wouldn't Want to Be like You (Sheryl Crow with Annie Clark)
11 Can't Deny Me (Pearl Jam)
12 What's He Gonna Say Today (Eric Bibb)
13 The Right to Live in Peace [El Derecho de Vivir en Paz] (Roger Waters)
14 Don't Lie to Me (Barbra Streisand)

VOLUME 3:

01 This Man (Robert Cray)
02 The Revolution Starts Now (Ann Wilson)
03 Can't Put It in the Hands of Fate [Edit] (Stevie Wonder with Rapsody, Cordae, Chika & Busta Rhymes)
04 Turntables (Janelle Monae)
05 Commander in Chief (Demi Lovato)
06 Hands Off (Joan Osborne)
07 Stick That in Your Country Song (Eric Church)
08 Going Down to Sing in Texas [Edit] (Iris DeMent)
09 Do or Die (Ani DiFranco)
10 In the End (Sheryl Crow)
11 Vote That Fucker Out (Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby)
12 The President [2020 Version] (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 Lookin' for a Leader 2020 (Neil Young)
14 Dump That Trump (Rick Estrin & the Nightcats).

VOLUME 1 LINK:

https://www.upload.ee/files/15252337/RockTrmpOutVolum1_2015-2017_atse.zip.html

VOLUME 2 LINK:

https://www.upload.ee/files/15250720/RockTrmpOutVolum2_2018-2020_atse.zip.html

VOLUME 3 LINK:

https://www.upload.ee/files/15389834/RockTrmpOutVolum3_2020_atse.zip.html

I couldn't decide what to do for the album cover art. Then I had the idea to do a Google image search for the phrase "Kick Trump Out." I found a poster with that phrase in big letters made by someone named 4personnen. So I took that and changed "Kick" to "Rock," as well as adding more text at the bottom. I also changed the colors, with a different basic color for each volume.