As much a penetrating and painful lesson in American history as it is a fantastic set of vintage , documents a very different dimension of antiwar protest music -- 's classic aside, the mainstream antiwar canon comprises songs written and performed almost entirely by white folkies ( , etc.), but the African-American response was just as potent and provocative, with an underlying sense of hopelessness and disenfranchisement that speaks volumes about the mindset of the black counterculture as war raged not only in Southeast Asia but also in places like Detroit and Watts. Ranging from the gritty of ( ) to the sweet - ), the set spans not only musical styles but also varying shades of polemical intensity -- some cuts are confrontational and direct, others elegiac and allegorical, but all burn with the emotional honesty and complexity that are the hallmarks of music at its finest. Other highlights include 's ' and ~ Jason Ankeny