How to sum up 2020? Stressful? Uncertain? Hard? If you’re like some ACLU staffers, one note of help came quite literally from listening to music. For a special year-end holiday episode, we asked a few staffers to tell us which song provided the service of escape or inspiration or just comfort. 

It’s been a long year so we hope you enjoy a momentary departure from our usual talk of the latest civil rights and civil liberties battles in service of the songs that got us through this year. 

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MOLLY KAPLAN
[00:00:04] From the ACLU, this is At Liberty. I’m Molly Kaplan, your host.

How to sum up 2020? Uncertain? Stressful? Hard? If you’re like some ACLU staffers, one note of help came, quite literally, from listening to music. This episode, we asked a few staffers to tell us which song provided the service of escape or inspiration or just pure comfort.

It’s been a long year so we hope you enjoy a momentary departure from our usual talk of the latest civil rights and civil liberties battles in service of the songs that got us through this year.

So without further ado, I present to you our 2020 songs of the year.

MOLLY
[00:00:53] Emerson, hello.

EMERSON SYKES
Molly Kaplan, how are you doing?

MOLLY
Hello. Can you introduce yourself and say what you do here at the ACLU?

EMERSON
[00:01:02] My name is Emerson Sykes. I'm a staff attorney at the ACLU. And your former host.

MOLLY
I'm excited to have you here and to have it be on a topic that is fun, I’ll say.

EMERSON
Earth-shattering, weighty.

MOLLY
Yeah, all of the above. Can you tell us what your song of 2020 is and who did the song?

EMERSON
[00:01:25] The song is Magic In The Air, and it's by a group from Ivory Coast named Magic System.

EXCERPT OF MAGIC IN THE AIR BY MAGIC SYSTEM:
Feel the magic in the air
Allez, allez, allez
Levez les mains en l'air
Allez, allez, allez

MOLLY
I think this song, by the way, should come with an enormous warning, because if you listen to this song, as I might have done last night, as you're trying to go to bed, you will not go to bed. I got about four hours of sleep last night because I was like, “Oh, let me just--”, you know, I was doing like podcast research.

EMERSON
That’s the best kind of research.

MOLLY
Yeah, exactly. I was already sleepy and I put this thing on. My heart started racing. I wanted to get up. I want to dance around. And I didn't go to sleep until like 3:00 in the morning. So I want to thank you for the introduction to the song, but also I hate you a little bit for it.

EMERSON
[00:02:19] It's a dangerous song. It's a dangerous song. And my wife and I have a three-year-old and a six-year-old, and we have to actually be careful about when we play this song. You know, the reason why I had to pick this song was that, you know, with the Spotify Wrapped or whatever? This was definitely top three of the year. It got us through the pandemic and at different times it's been each of their favorite songs, my three-year-old and my six-year-old, but they love the song so much and they dance and jump and scream and, you know, just wail out every time it comes on that we can't play it if it's not time to just, like, lose your whatnot. You know, like if we're trying to get them to do something and the song comes on, all bets are off and it's just Magic in the Air time.

MOLLY
So how did it get you through the pandemic?

EMERSON
It's like the party. It's so-- The story of the song is that it was basically-- it became the theme song for the France 2018 World Cup team. Right? So it's like this upbeat song. It's a dance song, but it's also like associated with people celebrating the World Cup win in the streets, which seems so far away and so trivial in some ways, but also like a pure joy and like exuberance and like people hugging and dancing in the streets that I think that image-- You know, we have our quarantine dance mix and this is number one or two on the list. And it's just, you know, it really is a transporting song, I think.

MOLLY
[00:03:51] It really is. When I first listened to it earlier in the day, not at bed time, I was totally riled up. And then I got really depressed because I kept watching the music video and then thinking about soccer. And I know nothing about soccer. The only thing I know about soccer is the World Cup. And my association has nothing to do with the sport at all. My association is people spilling out of bars and being so joyful or so sad for these teams that a lot of people don't necessarily know that well. But you get so wrapped up in the community spirit. I got sort of sad. So I definitely relate to the soccer connection, even though I am not, as you are, a soccer fan.
EMERSON
[00:04:31] I'm a huge soccer fan-- Megan Rapinoe-- And there--

MOLLY
Former guest.

EMERSON
Listeners to the podcast might remember the Megan Rapinoe episode. If you haven't heard it, it's the best moment of my life other than, of course--

MOLLY
The birth of your children.

EMERSON
My children and other family. And all that sort of stuff. Yeah. No, it's an exuberant song. It brings back memories of World Cup and that type of joy. But it also has another level, because it's a song by an Ivorian group and it also has a guest appearance by a dude-- I actually can’t remember where he’s from.

MOLLY
Chawki. He’s from Morocco.

EMERSON
He’s from Morocco, right. But it became the France team's anthem, right, and the French team has for a long time been sort of a symbol of both patriotism but also multiculturalism in France, because so many of the players are African. Their parents are African. Most of them were born in France, but some of them weren't. Some of them were born in Senegal. They were born in Mali or Guadeloupe or wherever it is. And so the team is this beautiful mosaic of different cultures. And the fact that the team was represented by this song that was actually by these African artists was also a big deal because it's like it's a techno song. It's a dance song. But it's also like definitely like an African song.

MOLLY
Emerson, thank you so much. Thank you for introducing me to the song. I now know not to listen to it before I go to bed or to play it for any children or future children who might need to go to bed themselves. But it's an amazing song.

EMERSON
It is. And I'm glad you enjoyed it. Peace and love. I love you.

EXCERPT OF MAGIC IN THE AIR BY MAGIC SYSTEM:
Feel the magic in the air
Allez, allez, allez
Levez les mains en l'air
Allez, allez, allez

MOLLY MCGRATH
My name is Molly McGrath. Pronouns are she/her. I work in the ACLU’s National Political Advocacy Department and I work on our voting rights campaigns.

MOLLY KAPLAN
Molly, what is your 2020 song?

MOLLY MCGRATH
So my 2020 song is Shine a Light by the Rolling Stones.

EXCERPT OF SHINE A LIGHT BY THE ROLLING STONES:
May the good Lord shine a light on you
Make every song your favorite tune
May the good Lord shine a light on you
Warm like the evening sun

MOLLY KAPLAN
[00:06:45] And why is that your 2020 song?

MOLLY MCGRATH
So this song spoke to me this year for a few reasons. On the first level, it's really a big dose of nostalgia for me. Any time that we would drive to my grandparents house or my dad would pick me up, you know, from basketball practice or we'd go to our cabin, I'd sit in the front with him, and as the rule was in our car, driver controls the radio. A rule I'm sure many listeners grew up with. It was always classic rock. And so any time I hear the Stones or classic rock, I think of where I was sometimes, hearing the song with my dad and asking him, “What does the song mean? Where-- how old were you when this came out? What was happening in the country at the time?” And so all classic rock is just really nostalgic to me in that way, and that's something that in this time, I definitely need a dose of.

And then on the second level, it's just what-- that chorus and sending a little light to people this year. Thinking of where we are as a country and individually, we've been under some of the worst civil rights abuses in the last four years. We saw our country is having a reckoning with racial justice, long overdue, but incredibly painful. And we have COVID. We have people separated from their loved ones. We have people with substance abuse, and addiction, who are struggling and going through relapse and really difficult times right now. And so thinking about all of this together, it's just-- it's overwhelming, I think, for a lot of us. And so during the day when I think about this or someone who needs that light and just thinking about sending some positive energy to them and really that, you know, a reminder that we're not-- you know, people aren’t alone in going through this.

MOLLY KAPLAN
[00:08:34] And you mentioned the addiction. I didn't realize that this song was written in part for Brian Jones, one of the founders of Rolling Stones who died really young. He was twenty-seven.

MOLLY MCGRATH

Really young. Yeah, like that rockstar age of twenty-seven.

MOLLY KAPLAN
Yeah. And I guess it's not clear, but there might have been drugs and alcohol involved in his death and that Mick Jagger wrote this song a year after his death.

MOLLY MCGRATH
[00:03:47] Yeah. And it also said-- it looks like the lyrics may have changed from what it was originally, what the lyrics were originally about in Brian Jones as a band mate and having, you know, having addiction and then also after he passed and then changing it to shine a light. So I've read a few different interviews and what the original lyrics were and the original intent and then in his passing and what that looked like.

MOLLY KAPLAN
I read something that it could also have something to do with, like shining a light was on his life, but also on his hopes for where Brian Jones was at the time, like shining a light, you know, sort of hoping that the higher force shines a light on wherever Brian Jones is. And I didn't know if that also resonated because so many people have died. I mean, this has been devastating.

MOLLY MCGRATH
Yeah. Right? Like a may you be in a place where this light is on you where every song is your favorite tune and that this is a place of peace and joy, which is, I think, a place a lot of people have not been in this year.

MOLLY KAPLAN
[00:10:00] Yeah, yeah. It's a beautiful song, Molly, thank you so much for sharing it.

EXCERPT OF SHINE A LIGHT BY THE ROLLING STONES:
May the good Lord shine a light on you
Make every song your favorite tune
May the good Lord shine a light on you
Warm like the evening sun

GILLIAN THOMAS
I'm Gillian Thomas. I'm a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Women's Rights Project.

MOLLY
And can you tell me what your 2020 song is today?

GILLIAN
It's Sharon Jones and the DAP Kings’ This Land Is Your Land.

EXCERPT OF THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND BY SHARON JONES & THE DAP KINGS:
Well, on the back side, you know it said nothin'
So it must be, that side was made for you and me, yeah

MOLLY
And why is this song emblematic of 2020 or speaks to your experience?

GILLIAN
Well, Sharon Jones and the DAP Kings is always my go-to for just about any mood. I've been to so many of her live shows and it's just always so cathartic. She was such an incredible performer. I felt like I was seeing the female James Brown any time I saw her perform. And she sadly died about four years ago, I think.

MOLLY
[00:11:05] Which is doubly sad because she had a late start to her career.

GILLIAN
That's frankly one reason that she sort of resonates for me in this year, just thinking about everything that's happened to women workers during this horrific pandemic crisis because she was a front line worker, you know. She--

Well, first of all, she tried to be a singer early in her youth and was just told, as she said in many, many interviews, just told over and over, “you're too dark, you're too short, you’re too fat.”

And so she just became a wedding singer and then pursued other jobs, including being a corrections officer and a sanitation worker.

And then she sort of stumbled into working with the DAP Kings first, I think, as a backup singer, and then as the lead. I mean, the reason that the song resonates so much is that obviously it's an incredible, timeless anthem about equality or at least aspirations for equality in our nation, no matter where you live and where you're from. But her rendition of it is so-- there are different colors to it.

It's sort of dirge-like and solemn. But it's also -- it has such power and force and determination behind it too.

It has such grit and defiance in it.

MOLLY
What I love about songs and particularly is expressed in this one is that artists of every generation can give new life to the same sounds and to the same musical notes. And I think that's such a powerful thing, especially thinking about creativity and life and death in 2020. I feel like art and music in particular is the source of life. And even though we're not seeing a lot of music in person, most of us, it still carries. I think that's a powerful thing.

GILLIAN
[00:12:58] I mean, I think music certainly has gotten me through 2020. And from what I see among my friends and colleagues and Twitter and, you know, all of the dance parties that have been springing up as a way for people to quote unquote gather during this time, I mean, I absolutely agree with you. I think it's the same, frankly, unifying force that food has. And we can't really be gathering around tables physically. But there have been so many zoom dinners and things, and I think that it comes from the same place. But in terms of just being able to express so much, that's inexpressible in this horrific year that we've been through it, it really is incredibly therapeutic.

MOLLY
Yeah. Gillian, thank you so much. Happy happy Friday to you. Happy New Year.

GILLIAN
Thank you so much.

EXCERPT OF THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND BY SHARON JONES & THE DAP KINGS:
Well, on the back side, you know it said nothin'
So it must be, that side was made for you and me, yeah

TYLER RICHARD
[00:13:50] My name is Tyler Richard. I use he/him pronouns and I'm a communications strategist and I mostly work on our LGBTQ portfolio.

MOLLY
And Tyler, what is your 2020 song?

TYLER
So I spent way too much time thinking about this, which is very on brand for me and I selected Make Them Hear You from the musical Ragtime.

EXCERPT OF MAKE THEM HEAR YOU FROM RAGTIME:
And say to those who blame us
For the way we chose to fight,
That sometimes there are battles
That are more than black or white

Most of my songs that were most played were actually from musicals, which is not in any way surprising at all. And I picked this one as my anthem because it's a song that I have for years listened to, when I'm angry and want to funnel my anger in some sort of direction and feel like there's hope at some way, shape or form at the end of the tunnel. So -- I mixed like three metaphors there. Sorry. But it's really a song that I think reminds me, like, why we fight and why we struggle.

MOLLY
Can you tell us for those who haven't seen Ragtime, what's happening in the musical when Make Them Hear You is performed.

TYLER
[00:15:06] Sure. So Ragtime is a musical from the late 90s based on a much earlier book that looks at the 19-teens leading into the First World War. And it is about immigrants. It's about race relations. It's about class, all of those things. And it's based on actual historical events. So this particular song is when Coalhouse Walker, a black man who was terrorized by police, when he kind of gives up and goes to face a trial for fighting back against police brutality and other forms of oppression. So it's him in some ways, putting his trust in the justice system and also in the people who are going to raise their voices in support of him, as well as other black people and immigrants and others who want the promise of America but feel like it has been denied to them.

MOLLY
And is this a song that you have known or has been lurking in your head for a long time, and it took on new meaning and new resonance in 2020?

TYLER
[00:16:15] Oh, so yes and no. It's definitely a song that's been in my library for a while. It's definitely a song that I have relied upon during other moments in my life. I think what was so useful about it for this year in some ways is like with each wave it felt relevant.

And I think that's one of the reasons in some ways why it's not the song that I play the most, because I play it when there's a moment where it feels like it fits. So like when people were saying the government needs to do more about COVID and that wasn't happening. Particularly like when that started, it started to be so clear that that was impacting black and brown communities. And that was part of why government at different stages wasn't listening. And then there was the very clear racial justice moment around the murder of George Floyd and the protests that we saw around that. And then we saw people fighting for their right to vote and to make their voices heard at the ballot box.

And one of the things I really love about the song is it very quickly, including in the section that our listeners just heard, it very quickly talks about different kinds of protests, different ways of making your voice heard. And I like that utility of it. I like that it doesn't say, “Here is the path to justice.” It says that the path to justice is whatever you do to make your voice heard.

MOLLY
How do you make your voice heard?

TYLER
Bad tweets occasionally. This is a really good question. I mean, I think, so my undergrad is in musical theater performance and for a long time like a handful of years performance was how I centered my ideas of activism. And I think that's still a really important part of activism for many, many people. I think that I eventually became drawn to things that worked in our governmental systems a little bit more. And I think that’s just because it ended up being a blend of different kinds of nerdities for me, like I love the storytelling aspect of my work. I also love the strategy aspect of the work. And I think that the best activism theater doesn’t have that much strategy attached to it. I think that it's much purer and I really appreciate that. And I found myself not wanting to let things be pure in that way. And I was trying to add strategy that wasn't a good fit to it. So I think that for me, it really is finding things that are a blend of the two. And I think that's why I love doing comms work for the ACLU for about a decade now. Like, it just -- it ties so many things I love together.

MOLLY
[00:19:03] Well, maybe the strategy of those of songs like that is exactly that, that it motivates people all around who are experiencing it to do in whatever lane they are in the work that they need to do to get the change that they want to see happen.

EXCERPT OF MAKE THEM HEAR YOU FROM RAGTIME:
And say to those who blame us
For the way we chose to fight,
That sometimes there are battles
That are more than black or white

JASON WILLIAMSON
[00:19:31] My name is Jason Williamson, deputy director of our Criminal Law Reform Project at the National Office in New York City.

MOLLY
And can you tell me what your 2020 song of the year is?

JASON
Absolutely. And it was no contest. My inspiration for 2020 is a song called Blessed by Buju Banton

EXCERPT OF BLESSED BY BUJU BANTON:
Tell dem seh we bless
Tell dem we bless, tell dem we bless, tell dem we bless
Tell dem we bless, tell dem we bless, tell dem we bless
Tell dem seh we still have life we nuh stress
God light shine on we on our quest

MOLLY
And why is this your 2020 song?

JASON
[00:20:06]Several reasons. One, I am a person of faith, and I believe strongly that everything that happens to us happens for some reason and that there is some higher purpose for us to take from it. And as many challenges as we've been faced with in 2020 and, you know, some of the hopelessness that folks have expressed, I think this song just kind of reminded me that even in the midst of all of the chaos and and destruction and disappointment and fear, that God is still with us and that there are better days ahead.

MOLLY
And can you tell us the story of the song?

JASON
Sure. So, you know, one of the other reasons that it really resonates with me, particularly given the work that I do, is that one, Buju Banton is one of my favorite artists and has been for a very long time. Two, this album, that album that this song appears on, is his first album since returning from prison. He spent almost 10 years in federal prison in the United States on what many believe were trumped up drug charges and was just released and deported back to Jamaica in late-2018. So it also feels like a kind of a triumphant moment for him in particular to be talking about how God has blessed him, even amidst not just everything that happened in 2020, but his own personal struggles and tribulations. So it's really a song pointing out all the ways in which he and his family are still blessed despite all the circumstances.

MOLLY
Have there been moments where you purposely turned this song on and was like, “I need a little bit of blessed, I need a little bit of Buju Banton”?

JASON
There have been many moments at home, in the car, and I've forced my family to also adopt this as our family song for 2020. So, this is our go to when things get tough.

This is, yes, about Buju in the way that I just described but also sends the message that, you know, all of us have the power to bless another person and to bring joy to other folks. And it's also just a reminder that whatever you may be going through, there's someone who may be going through something much worse and much more difficult. And so, you know, we should keep it in perspective and understand, that again, even when it feels like the walls are closing in on you and things are not going your way, that, there are gifts out there for you to take advantage of and gifts that you have to provide to other people.

MOLLY
[00:22:52] And it's interesting because it sounds like in some ways the theme of the song gave you something that you then have to bring to your work, which is really demanding, I'm assuming, as a father, as a husband, but also as a lawyer. And it's sort of cool to think about how the art itself is this small gift that gets passed on and keeps seeding you gifts.

JASON
No question about it.

MOLLY
Thank you so much, Jason. Thank you. Grateful also to have been introduced to this song and really loved it.

JASON
Thanks, Molly. I appreciate it.

MOLLY
[00:23:21] Thank you so much.

EXCERPT OF BLESSED BY BUJU BANTON:
Tell dem seh we bless
Tell dem we bless, tell dem we bless, tell dem we bless
Tell dem we bless, tell dem we bless, tell dem we bless
Tell dem seh we still have life we nuh stress
God light shine on we on our quest

MOLLY
[00:23:34] I'm Molly Kaplan, I am the multimedia director at the ACLU, and I also host this podcast and I want to tell you about my 2020 song. I should preface this by saying I know nothing about music. I tried playing violin as a kid and as I recall, the teacher quit me before I even had the chance to quit. But I do feel music. It's a very out-of-mind experience. And I had a really strong feeling, experience or reaction to this song, Old LP.

EXCERPT OF OLD LP BY THAT DOG:
Take your time
There is no rush
I'll be fine
I know that I'll adjust
I'm going to miss you
I'm going to miss you so much

[00:24:20] It just puts me in a very particular place of sort of being happy and sad at the same time, like a bittersweetness that really felt like it summed up this year for me. The song was inspired by an Old LP of jazz musician Charlie Haden, who's also the dad of one of the vocalists in the song. And the recording was played at his funeral. He died some years ago and it inspired one of the other vocalists in the band to write this song. It's about his death. It's about not being ready to accept his death, but it's also a recognition of his still being there through this like raspy, unpolished, crackly, beautiful LP recording. And it's sort of like his legacy and his presence through his art, his memory are just as strong and in competition in the song as the loss and the passing. But with all of this sort of competing sadness and joy and and really like the full gamut of what it experience is, what living is, I do feel like there was a triumph, like in the end, the piece that was affirming of life and breath and legacy and art and coming together, it sort of felt like it won to me. And the winning happened in that big chorus, which I could just listen to, like I want to lick it. It's so good where those three voices come together. And if there's, like, such bigness to those voices into the orchestra behind them and it's such a beautiful harmony. And at its triumph to me, it's it's the part that lived on is maybe bigger than all that was lost. They say, I can hear you breathe. I can see you in front of me.

[00:26:07] And, you know, this year I got married, a friend married me and my now husband. It happened on a sidewalk after work. We were all in masks. And Paul, my husband, and I were really sweaty because we were running late and we just booked the last few blocks and hadn't really thought through how sweaty that would make us. And I held a bouquet that my friend's son got me. And it was from the market down the street. It was a beautiful, delicate bouquet, you know. But it was still wrapped in, like, the paper. I just held it like that. But it was small and quiet. It was sort of triumphant. You know, it wasn't what we signed up for originally, certainly. It definitely wasn't what we'd foreseen. And we sent our families this photo after that my other friend took who was there walking his dog. And it was of me and Paul. And in the photo, our hands are clasped and raised above us like we've almost won some kind of race. And in some ways I felt like we had won a race and that we all have this year. We ran a really, really long and hard race. Um. But we won, we made it, and that's my song, Happy New Year, everybody.

EXCERPT OF OLD LP BY THAT DOG:
Take your time
There is no rush
I'll be fine
I know that I'll adjust
I'm going to miss you
I'm going to miss you so much

MOLLY
Thank you so much for listening. We’ll be back to tackling the civil rights and civil liberties battles before us when we come back to you in 2021. So if you enjoy these conversations, subscribe to At Liberty wherever you get your podcasts and rate and review the show. We really appreciate the feedback. Until next year, stay strong.