Singer and activist Julie Felix talks about her protest songs of the sixties and the evolution of her songwriting.
American born, British based singer Julie Felix is in Ireland performing a tour of her latest music. Not only a singer, she has had a lot to say throughout a career campaigning on many issues of social injustice.
Julie Felix came to prominence as the resident singer on the BBC programme 'The Frost Report' in the1960s. She was also associated with protest singers and many of her songs were famous for championing various humanitarian causes.
Her songwriting has evolved since those days as a protester although she still performs many of those songs live.
In the sixties, it was the role of the artist to sort of be the scout, to sort of make a lot of noise about the injustices and the problems that were confronting people.
Julie Felix believes that now, the responsibility to be the voice of protest has been largely assumed by lawyers and journalists who she describes as "the engineers of society".
In the sixties, protesters were criticising everything that was wrong in society. Julie Felix is more optimistic about the seventies and says there has been a shift to investigating the motives for these injustices and conflicts.
We’re re-investigating the motivation of the individual and I think we’re on the brink of a kind of spiritual revival in so far as the good guy should win only for the right reasons.
At one time, Julie Felix was highly critical of America but is optimistic about the country's future.
As a single mother, Julie Felix praises the work of the Irish organisation ‘Cherish’ which works to help and encourage single mothers.
This episode of ‘Last House’ was broadcast on 6 July 1976. The presenters is Tom McGurk.
