Earlier this year, Tom Morello's Nightwatchman released Union Town, an EP inspired by last winter's protests against Scott Walker, Wisconsin's right-wing governor. Walker is now polling lower than genital warts, but Morello's still swinging: "Save the hammer for the Man," he advises on his newest, which includes Rage-style agit-metal and a folk rocker where Iraq soldiers take out their commanders. But Guthrie-esque romanticism bumps up against uncertainty: On "God Help Us All," he sings, "We're wanderin' with no future and no hope," well aware there are harder winters to come.

Listen to "Black Spartacus Heart Attack Machine":

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“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.