“Stevie Wonder makes these beautiful cakes: some people eat the frosting, others eat the middle and there’s so much meaning layered in there. To write a song called Happy Birthday, which he must have known would be used as a celebration song for millions of people, and hide a message of unity in there was genius.
It’s no secret that this was a song about Martin Luther King, his death and people coming together to stop things like that from happening again. I think it’s a celebratory song with a protest edge.
There’s a lyric where he asked why can’t we have a day where we just celebrate peace? That’s the biggest protest song you can ever have. It’s an amazing way to make a song enlightening and fill you up with a positive feeling.
I think just because it’s a protest song it doesn’t have to have some sort of dogma attached, it can be more useful as a way to give people the energy to get out there and be heard. People get fed up with oppression and I think protest music can be fantastical and lead people to rethink, reposition and organize themselves.”
Check back on the Guardian’s Resistance Now for the next playlist suggestion next Monday.
