ONCE a week I am asked if there is a playlist to accompany my social history books on soul music, but this week a National reader posed a more specific question – what soul music would I recommend to get you through the election.

It was a great question that set my mind racing, so I set out all the major issues that are coursing through the veins of the election thus far. I tried to avoid too many songs known to be civil rights anthems and find ones from different tendencies within soul music that spoke eloquently of issues, emotions and raging injustices. So here is my personal Top 10 to get you to the polling booths in the right frame of mind. It’s a countdown, so here goes:

10. Yes We Can Can – The Pointer Sisters (Blue Thumb, 1973)

“Yes We Can” was one of Obama’s great election slogan’s communicating hope for change and is a recurring title within soul music. I’ve gone for the fashionable Pointer Sisters from Oakland California and a funky party tune with a double entendre. There is an earlier song called simply Yes We Can by Lee Dorsey but this particular play on what was to become a presidential catch phrase is a song with a smile. It’s a great manifesto pledge that invites you to enjoy the tempo of social progress.

09. Impeach the President – The Honeydrippers (Alaga, 1973)

As impeachment hearings circle round Donald Trump and his malign presidency, what better way to defend the privatisation of public health than this street-funk classic. Recorded at the time of Richard Nixon’s impeachment, the chugging and persuasive beat has been resurrected by hip DJs to comment on Trump. Potus was in the UK this week denying he was interested in a trade deal that included opening up the NHS and claiming he didn’t know Prince Andrew. Aye Right, said a chorus of Scots to the beat.

08. That’s Whiskey Talkin – Ronnie Forte (TARX, 1966)

I recommend you support our national drinks industry especially the small distilleries, micro-breweries and new gin brands that are extending Scotland’s reputation as an innovative place for food and drink manufacturing. But take care, don’t overdo the firewater until all the seats have been declared. This roughhouse R&B shouter will be your guide to what we hope will be a great night.

07. Independent Woman – Jan Jones (Day-Wood, 1980)

A modern northern soul favourite aimed at the Women for Indy posse. This single is out of Cleveland, Ohio, but it could be a tribute to Nicola Sturgeon’s success in televised debates, Joanna Cherry’s legal dominance of the Stop Brexit campaign or Dr Phillipa Whiteford’s informed defence of the NHS. A must for women who have been chapping doors throughout Scotland in the freezing cold.

06. Let’s Vote – Nuri (Tryon Park, 1980)

The title says it all. This early hip-hop record out of Teaneck, New Jersey is all about getting the vote out. One of the major concerns after the elections of 2017 is that a low turnout would be damaging to the SNP and so stall the wider independence movement. It’s simple if they come out – we win.

Do anything you can do to get them out. If it’s a housing scheme in Leven where Stephen Gethins needs the votes in what will be a tight contest in North East Fife then do what you can cajole them, drive them or hold their hands on the way – just get the vote out.

05. I Can Feel The Ice Melting – The Parliaments (Revilot, 1967)

One of the true geniuses of soul music George Clinton, leader of the Parliament/Funkadelic collective recorded this brilliant mid-tempo song in Detroit. It could have been the soundtrack to Channel 4’s Climate Emergency Debate when Boris Johnson failed to show and was replaced by a block of melting ice.

The greasy politician hinted that a successful Conservative government would tame Channel 4’s licence, but a subsequent complaint to Ofcom was rejected. The ice continues to melt.

04. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Gil Scott-Heron (Flying Dutchmen, 1974)

The original, spoken word version of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised was released in 1970 on Gil Scott-Heron’s debut album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. The song is a satire on media and consumerism and the extent to which social messages are chewed up in a world of adverts, jingles and retail promotions.

Were it re-imagined today it would be about the BBC and impartiality, and about Instagram, the web and shopping on Amazon. Originally a track from Scott-Heron’s debut jazz-poetry album it was recorded in uptown Manhattan at a time when his connections with Scotland were entirely unknown. His father had been spotted playing for an African-American football club, the Chicago Maroons, when Celtic were on a pre-season tour of America and Canada. He later moved to Glasgow between 1951-53 to play for Celtic and then Third Lanark.

03. Fight The Power – Public Enemy (Def Jam, 1989)

No list would be complete without Public Enemy. Chuck D has already come out as a Yes supporter but this classic rages against power in all its forms. If it’s all a bit shouty you could go back to the original inspiration from a 1975 record by The Isley Brothers, Fight the Power. The message is the same, the tonality very different.

02. A Change is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke

In October 1963, Sam Cooke wrote his civil-rights anthem A Change is Gonna Come after he was arrested and jailed for refusing to leave a whites-only Holiday Inn in Shreveport, Louisiana after the hotel management refused to honour a reservation because of his race.

In the altercation that followed, Cooke was arrested along with his wife, Barbara and two others for disturbing the peace.

Enraged by the way he was treated Cooke penned a song that demanded change. It may seem like cultural appropriation mentioning one of the greatest civil rights songs of all timein the context of a General Election, but is has been taken up by progressive movements around the world and it’s much better than We Shall Overcome, so chill.

01. I Have No Choice – Johnnie Mae Mathews (Big Hit, 1967)

Now here’s a huge surprise a song you almost certainly don’t know – yet. This is one of the greatest and most intelligent soul songs ever.

Recorded in Detroit by a remarkable woman called Johnnie Mae Mathews, it was released on a small under-funded label and then sold locally out of the back of the singer’s car.

It tells the story of a woman trapped in an abusive relationship who believes she has no choice but simply to tolerate her circumstances.

As the song develops, she comes to realise she has unrealised power and turns the tables on her man – “it’s time for you to go I said so long.” A great feminist song but seen in the context of national self-determination it’s a song that Detroit has gifted to Scotland. Play it 40 times before you vote – it’s our anthem.

Stuart Cosgrove is the author of The Soul Trilogy – Detroit 67: The Year That Changed Soul, Memphis 68: the Tragedy of Southern Soul and Harlem 69: The Future of Soul (All Published by Polygon)