Radio Times feature, issue 7-13 March 1987
Rebel Yell was a four-part radio documentary series, first broadcast in March 1987 on BBC Radio One in which John Peel looks at popular protest music over the last 50 years. The series was broadcast in 4 episodes:
Ramblers, Gamblers and Railroad Bums[]
Episode 1 takes in the early pioneers such as Woody Guthrie through to Bob Dylan.
- Bob Dylan: Masters Of War
- Gene Autry: The Death Of Mother Jones
- Ramblin' Jack Elliott: 1913 Massacre
- Pete Seeger: Eight Hour Day
- Evening Breezes Sextet: The Coal Loading Machine
- Uncle Dave Macon: All In Down And Out Blues
- Blind Andy: Hello World Song (Don't You Go 'Way)
- Ernest Stoneman: All I've Got's Gone
- Dave McCarn: Poor Man, Rich Man
- Tiger: Workers' Appeal
- James Butch Cage & Willie Thomas: Kill That Ni**** Dead
- Memphis Minnie: Hustlin' Woman Blues
- Billie Holiday: Strange Fruit
- Big Bill Broonzy: I Wonder When I'll Be Called A Man
- Woody Guthrie: Vigilante Man
- Pete Seeger: We Shall Not Be Moved
- Bob Dylan: Song To Woody
- Noel Coward: There Are Bad Times Around The Corner
Hippies, Dropouts and More[]
Episode 2 has John Peel looking at protest music and related forms in the late 60s and early 70s.
- Bob Dylan: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
- Phil Ochs: Talking Cuban Crisis
- Barry McGuire: Eve Of Destruction
- Barry McGuire: The Sins Of A Family
- Country Joe & The Fish: The Fish Cheer & I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag
- Phil Ochs: Draft Dodger Rag
- Sgt. Barry Sadler: The Ballad Of The Green Berets
- C-Company Featuring Terry Nelson: The Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley
- Merle Haggard: Okie From Muskogee
- Delia Gartrell: See What You Done, Done Hymn No. 9
- Tan Nam: Wrest Back Power To The People
- Phil Ochs: Here's To The State Of Mississippi
- Freedom Singers: Governor Wallace
- Bob Dylan: The Lonesome Of Hattie Carroll
- Marvin Gaye: Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
- Bob Marley: Concrete Jungle
- Wings: Give Ireland Back To The Irish
- John Lennon & Yoko Ono: The Luck Of The Irish
- Wolfe Tones: The Men Behind The Wire
- John Lennon: Imagine
Punks, Rastas and Ranters[]
Episode 3 has Peel looking at the protest songs by punk and reggae artists between the late 70's and early 80's.
- Sex Pistols: Holidays In The Sun
- Capital Letters: Unemployed
- Mike Pickering: Steel Mill Blues
- Sugar Minott: No Vacancy
- Joolz: Denise
- Attila The Stockbroker: Contributory Negligence
- Jam: Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
- Stiff Little Fingers: Suspect Device
- Angelic Upstarts: Police Oppression
- Linton Kwesi Johnson: Sonny's Lettah (Anti Sus Poem)
- Michael Smith: Mi Feel It
- Specials: Ghost Town
- Slits: New Town
- Clash: Capitol Radio
- John Cooper Clarke: Beasley Street
- Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five: The Message
Out! Out! Out![]
Episode 4 has John Peel concluding his survey of protest music from social commentary in the popular song of today and the recent past.
- File cuts in below
- Billy Bragg: Between The Wars
- Misty In Roots: Own Them Control Them
- Tex Payer, Jr.: Buy American
- Breeze: Aid Travels With A Bomb
- Jackson Browne: Lives In The Balance
- Insane: El Salvador
- Latin Quarter: Burn Again
- Marta Lopez: Corrido De La Huelga
- Big Boy Henry: Mr. President
- Specials: Nelson Mandela
- Mighty Sparrow: Invade South Africa
- Dick Gaughan: Think Again
- Rebecca Johnson: The Silos Song
- Enemy Within: Strike
- Eve Bland: Coal Not Dole
- Mal Finch: Here We Go (For The Women Of The Working Class)
- Prince: Sign O' The Times
- Style Council: Right To Go
- Larks: Maggie Maggie Maggie
File[]
- Name
- 1) Rebel Yell 1 patched 0818.mp3
- 2) Rebel Yell 2 0819.mp3
- 3a) Rebel Yell 3.mp3
- 3b) J P Rebel Yell pt 3 incomplete 1987.mp3
- 4) J P Rebel Yell pt 4.mp3
- Length
- 1) 1:01:30 (Rebel Yell_1_patched_0818)
- 2) 1:00:15 (Rebel Yell_2_0819)
- 3a) 0:47:08 (Rebel Yell_3) (incomplete)
- 3b) 0:29:04 (to Angelic Upstarts)
- 4) 0:53:42 (incomplete)
- Other
- 1-3) Thanks to Chris J Brady
- 3b, 4) Thanks to Tim
- Available