January 30, 2026 • 11 mins
On this week's mini episode Steve Baltin responds to what is happening on the world by talking about the power of music to inspire and educate. Part history lesson, part motivational speech, he has a lot to say about the power and importance of protest music!
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, it's Steve Balton and how's it going today? Do
you know? This week is Grammy Week, so it's an
insane week in LA and I was going to talk
about that, and I will talk for a second about
the Resonator Awards, which does tie into this, which I
went to last night. My friend Emily Luzar's event. Absolutely phenomenal,
(00:27):
probably my favorite event in Grammy Week now. And the
reason that ties into what I want to talk about
is because it's such a powerful event where Emily and
the organization we are moving the needle supports women in
production and engineering. And you can see from the turnout
and not just the turnout, but I mean the vibe
(00:49):
was so great and so many people were there to
support and at what other freaking Grammy event can I
just casually jump in to Dave Growl, John May, Joni Mitchell,
Linda Perry and they're just out and about in the
crowd talking to people. It was great to catch up
with all of them who I've known for years, except
(01:09):
for Joni, of course I've only met once. But a
wonderful vibe, great feel, and they're there because it's supporting
and what I want to talk about this week is
protest music because I was going to talk about the Grammys.
I mean, and just like last year when the Grammys
(01:31):
were overshadowed by the LA fires, in light of what's
happening in the world at this moment in Minneapolis and
all over, I think the Grammys it kind of becomes
who really gives a shit? You know, No offense to
all the wonderful nominees or my friend Harvey Mason or
any of those people, because it is a great night,
(01:54):
but right now, you know, it's interesting. A couple of
weeks ago, I did an interview for The Times with
the great jazz singer Samara Joy and Deanie Bridgewater, and
I asked them what song they would want to do
together at the Grammys, and they mentioned Samara mentioned Nina Simone.
I wish I knew how it would feel to be free,
(02:16):
and at the time we joked about it. Now at
this point, I've been lobbying online to get the Grammys
to put that on, because what a powerful moment that
would be at this point to have two powerhouse singers
in the jazz world up there, twenty five and our
twenty six and seventy five, by the way, bringing together
(02:37):
two generations to talk about what it would feel like
to be free in this fucked up climate. And it's
an a kind song like so many of the great
protest songs. And speaking of great protest songs, of course,
the best protest writer at this point in time, Bruce Springsteen,
(02:58):
just released a powerful song this morning called This is
Wednesday Morning, by the way, called the Streets of Minneapolis.
It is a brilliant song. It's authentic, it's heartfelt, it's true,
it feels real, it feels very much like what you
would want to say about the situation, and it's interesting
(03:18):
for me. I've always loved protest music. I grew up
in the eighties when, of course you had songs like
Tears for Fears Everybody wants to Rule the World Peter
Gabriel Bigo, which probably is in all honesty, the most
effective protest song of all time, because that changed the
fucking world. It was because of Bicoh and the spot
and Steve van zandt of the EA Street Band and
(03:40):
his Son's City and the spotlight that they put on
South Africa. Sorry that apartheid was eventually ended. So yes,
protest music can legitimately change the world. And of course,
if you go back to the sixties, you know, which
is considered the heyday for protest music. Then you have
the songs like Eve of Destruction, all the Dylan songs, War,
(04:05):
all of these things, the Doors Unknown Soldier that are
considered important in ending the war, and then of course
the greatest protest album of all time far No Choice,
Marvin Gaye, What's going on? You know? But you go
back even further, I mean, protest music has been profound
since for over a century. You go back to Billie Holidays,
(04:27):
Strange Fruit, you go back to all the great needs
among songs like Mississippi Goddamn, you know, and all of
these songs have such a profound effect. And more recently,
of course you have Kendrick, you have Beyonce doing this.
And it's interesting because you have a ton of great
new artists Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo du Alipa who are
(04:49):
effectively trying to change the world, but they're doing it
with social media. And it's funny because I've talked about
this with a lot of artists. Back in twenty twenty,
leading up to the election, I did a podcast called
People Have the Power for everybody from Phoebe Bridgers to
Jon bon Jovi to run the Jewels to Sheppard Berry
(05:09):
to John Densmore pick their favorite protest songs of all time.
Of course a ton of votes for public Enemy, Fight
the Power, Waits against the Machine, killing in the Name
of and then going back to you know, older songs
like phil Oaks and one thing everybody agrees on, it's
(05:32):
a bitch to write a great protest song. There have
been so many great ones, but there have been some
terrible ones as well, you know, And so for these
young artists who are using their social media platforms which
have hundreds of millions of followers, it's just as effective,
if not more so. What makes great protest song, as
(05:54):
I was saying before we talking about Springsteen, it has
to be authentic, It has to be honest, it has
to be it has to make you feel inspired, like
Patty Smith's people have the power. Every time I see
her do that song live, when you walk out of
the venue, you feel like you could change the like
you can change the world. You know. To me, the
(06:15):
two greatest protest writers of all time, and of course
dealing with like right there with them, but for me personally,
I've always favored John Lennon because I think that what
he did that was so effective was he made the personal.
I mean, he made the political so personal. You look
at a song like Working Classierra, for example, that whole
(06:37):
Plastic Go No Band album. It's amazing, but that song
in particular, or you look at a song like God,
which mean, I effect may not feel like a protest song,
but it is protesting everything in the world except for
him and Yoko, you know. And that's a very powerful statement.
(06:58):
And of course he had more obvious ones like power
to the people, instakarma, things of that nature. And then
I ask people all the time, if you're playing an
all star concert you benefit like for example, the MSc
commons ERTs, you know, any of those types of things,
live aid live a any of those, what's the song
(07:19):
that you would end with? And it's amazing how often,
and not surprising, Bob Marley comes up. A lot of
people get up, stand up. I would go redemt song.
It's such an iconic, powerful song. It's so simple in
its way, but it's just like and again, to me,
the best writing is simple. It's just like cool here,
(07:42):
this is what we have to say We're gonna change
the fucking world and then move on, you know, And
I think these songs do that. And I think that
in for example, going back to Grammy's This Week, if
you have Samara and Dedi twenty six and seventy five
singing this power powerful song and now of cour use,
you know why appring Springsteen on there. Music has to
(08:06):
make a statement. Music does change the world. It can
make a difference. People may say it doesn't, but again
it can highlight things. What it does is it elicits
responses from people that then puts pressure on things. Again,
go back to apartheid in the eighties. Without Peter Gabriel,
(08:26):
without Steve ben Zan, apartheid probably doesn't end when it did,
but because of them drawing so much attention to it,
what happened was artists started to boycott South Africa and
they just were losing too much money. So yes, music
maybe doesn't directly change it, but it inspires people, and
(08:48):
people when they're inspired, can change the world. So I
call the Grammys and everybody to go out and find
that protest music to make that statement, and more importantly,
to inspire people to change the fucking world. Because the
world right now is fucked and the only way it's
going to change is with people calling on it to
(09:09):
do so. So, I mean, there's so much great protest
music out there. As I said, I would go Nina Simon,
I would go Billy Holliday, Marvin Gaye. What's going on is,
like I said with that question, the greatest protest album
of all time. That whole album is brilliant start to finish.
There's a reasons often Picture is the best album of
all time. I can go on and on and on,
(09:34):
but you know, at the end of the day, all
that matters is that you get inspired, that you make change.
And there's so many artists who can help you do that,
from Springsteen to Tom Morella, to Joan Vaez to Patty
Smith to Kendrick Today to Rage Against the Machine to
Public Enemy. And it doesn't matter what side of music
(09:55):
you listen to. There's great music out there that tells
the power fuck off and that we want to make change.
I cannot forget Jackson Brown, who's one of my favorite
songwriters of all time. There's brilliant Tom Waite's anti war songs.
There's so much great music out there. Go out find it.
Listen to it, get inspired and do all you can.
(10:18):
And to all the young artists who are speaking or
are speaking out on social media, thank you and great
and you are making a difference because you're inspiring people
and more importantly, you're educating people that things can't change
and what they need to be done. I hope you
get the message, which is, go out, find the music
(10:40):
that inspires you, that educates you, and make a fucking difference.
Thanks
Hey, it's Steve Balton and how's it going today? Do
you know? This week is Grammy Week, so it's an
insane week in LA and I was going to talk
about that, and I will talk for a second about
the Resonator Awards, which does tie into this, which I
went to last night. My friend Emily Luzar's event. Absolutely phenomenal,
(00:27):
probably my favorite event in Grammy Week now. And the
reason that ties into what I want to talk about
is because it's such a powerful event where Emily and
the organization we are moving the needle supports women in
production and engineering. And you can see from the turnout
and not just the turnout, but I mean the vibe
(00:49):
was so great and so many people were there to
support and at what other freaking Grammy event can I
just casually jump in to Dave Growl, John May, Joni Mitchell,
Linda Perry and they're just out and about in the
crowd talking to people. It was great to catch up
with all of them who I've known for years, except
(01:09):
for Joni, of course I've only met once. But a
wonderful vibe, great feel, and they're there because it's supporting
and what I want to talk about this week is
protest music because I was going to talk about the Grammys.
I mean, and just like last year when the Grammys
(01:31):
were overshadowed by the LA fires, in light of what's
happening in the world at this moment in Minneapolis and
all over, I think the Grammys it kind of becomes
who really gives a shit? You know, No offense to
all the wonderful nominees or my friend Harvey Mason or
any of those people, because it is a great night,
(01:54):
but right now, you know, it's interesting. A couple of
weeks ago, I did an interview for The Times with
the great jazz singer Samara Joy and Deanie Bridgewater, and
I asked them what song they would want to do
together at the Grammys, and they mentioned Samara mentioned Nina Simone.
I wish I knew how it would feel to be free,
(02:16):
and at the time we joked about it. Now at
this point, I've been lobbying online to get the Grammys
to put that on, because what a powerful moment that
would be at this point to have two powerhouse singers
in the jazz world up there, twenty five and our
twenty six and seventy five, by the way, bringing together
(02:37):
two generations to talk about what it would feel like
to be free in this fucked up climate. And it's
an a kind song like so many of the great
protest songs. And speaking of great protest songs, of course,
the best protest writer at this point in time, Bruce Springsteen,
(02:58):
just released a powerful song this morning called This is
Wednesday Morning, by the way, called the Streets of Minneapolis.
It is a brilliant song. It's authentic, it's heartfelt, it's true,
it feels real, it feels very much like what you
would want to say about the situation, and it's interesting
(03:18):
for me. I've always loved protest music. I grew up
in the eighties when, of course you had songs like
Tears for Fears Everybody wants to Rule the World Peter
Gabriel Bigo, which probably is in all honesty, the most
effective protest song of all time, because that changed the
fucking world. It was because of Bicoh and the spot
and Steve van zandt of the EA Street Band and
(03:40):
his Son's City and the spotlight that they put on
South Africa. Sorry that apartheid was eventually ended. So yes,
protest music can legitimately change the world. And of course,
if you go back to the sixties, you know, which
is considered the heyday for protest music. Then you have
the songs like Eve of Destruction, all the Dylan songs, War,
(04:05):
all of these things, the Doors Unknown Soldier that are
considered important in ending the war, and then of course
the greatest protest album of all time far No Choice,
Marvin Gaye, What's going on? You know? But you go
back even further, I mean, protest music has been profound
since for over a century. You go back to Billie Holidays,
(04:27):
Strange Fruit, you go back to all the great needs
among songs like Mississippi Goddamn, you know, and all of
these songs have such a profound effect. And more recently,
of course you have Kendrick, you have Beyonce doing this.
And it's interesting because you have a ton of great
new artists Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo du Alipa who are
(04:49):
effectively trying to change the world, but they're doing it
with social media. And it's funny because I've talked about
this with a lot of artists. Back in twenty twenty,
leading up to the election, I did a podcast called
People Have the Power for everybody from Phoebe Bridgers to
Jon bon Jovi to run the Jewels to Sheppard Berry
(05:09):
to John Densmore pick their favorite protest songs of all time.
Of course a ton of votes for public Enemy, Fight
the Power, Waits against the Machine, killing in the Name
of and then going back to you know, older songs
like phil Oaks and one thing everybody agrees on, it's
(05:32):
a bitch to write a great protest song. There have
been so many great ones, but there have been some
terrible ones as well, you know, And so for these
young artists who are using their social media platforms which
have hundreds of millions of followers, it's just as effective,
if not more so. What makes great protest song, as
(05:54):
I was saying before we talking about Springsteen, it has
to be authentic, It has to be honest, it has
to be it has to make you feel inspired, like
Patty Smith's people have the power. Every time I see
her do that song live, when you walk out of
the venue, you feel like you could change the like
you can change the world. You know. To me, the
(06:15):
two greatest protest writers of all time, and of course
dealing with like right there with them, but for me personally,
I've always favored John Lennon because I think that what
he did that was so effective was he made the personal.
I mean, he made the political so personal. You look
at a song like Working Classierra, for example, that whole
(06:37):
Plastic Go No Band album. It's amazing, but that song
in particular, or you look at a song like God,
which mean, I effect may not feel like a protest song,
but it is protesting everything in the world except for
him and Yoko, you know. And that's a very powerful statement.
(06:58):
And of course he had more obvious ones like power
to the people, instakarma, things of that nature. And then
I ask people all the time, if you're playing an
all star concert you benefit like for example, the MSc
commons ERTs, you know, any of those types of things,
live aid live a any of those, what's the song
(07:19):
that you would end with? And it's amazing how often,
and not surprising, Bob Marley comes up. A lot of
people get up, stand up. I would go redemt song.
It's such an iconic, powerful song. It's so simple in
its way, but it's just like and again, to me,
the best writing is simple. It's just like cool here,
(07:42):
this is what we have to say We're gonna change
the fucking world and then move on, you know, And
I think these songs do that. And I think that
in for example, going back to Grammy's This Week, if
you have Samara and Dedi twenty six and seventy five
singing this power powerful song and now of cour use,
you know why appring Springsteen on there. Music has to
(08:06):
make a statement. Music does change the world. It can
make a difference. People may say it doesn't, but again
it can highlight things. What it does is it elicits
responses from people that then puts pressure on things. Again,
go back to apartheid in the eighties. Without Peter Gabriel,
(08:26):
without Steve ben Zan, apartheid probably doesn't end when it did,
but because of them drawing so much attention to it,
what happened was artists started to boycott South Africa and
they just were losing too much money. So yes, music
maybe doesn't directly change it, but it inspires people, and
(08:48):
people when they're inspired, can change the world. So I
call the Grammys and everybody to go out and find
that protest music to make that statement, and more importantly,
to inspire people to change the fucking world. Because the
world right now is fucked and the only way it's
going to change is with people calling on it to
(09:09):
do so. So, I mean, there's so much great protest
music out there. As I said, I would go Nina Simon,
I would go Billy Holliday, Marvin Gaye. What's going on is,
like I said with that question, the greatest protest album
of all time. That whole album is brilliant start to finish.
There's a reasons often Picture is the best album of
all time. I can go on and on and on,
(09:34):
but you know, at the end of the day, all
that matters is that you get inspired, that you make change.
And there's so many artists who can help you do that,
from Springsteen to Tom Morella, to Joan Vaez to Patty
Smith to Kendrick Today to Rage Against the Machine to
Public Enemy. And it doesn't matter what side of music
(09:55):
you listen to. There's great music out there that tells
the power fuck off and that we want to make change.
I cannot forget Jackson Brown, who's one of my favorite
songwriters of all time. There's brilliant Tom Waite's anti war songs.
There's so much great music out there. Go out find it.
Listen to it, get inspired and do all you can.
(10:18):
And to all the young artists who are speaking or
are speaking out on social media, thank you and great
and you are making a difference because you're inspiring people
and more importantly, you're educating people that things can't change
and what they need to be done. I hope you
get the message, which is, go out, find the music
(10:40):
that inspires you, that educates you, and make a fucking difference.
Thanks
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