Best/Worst politically-motivated songs
 

The discussion on the Dixie Chicks made me think of all the politically-motivated music out there. No clue how to define politically-motivated other than I know it when I hear it.

Politically-motivated music I like:
Abraham, Martin, & John by Dion
Beds are Burning by Midnight Oil
Bloody Sunday and In the Name of Love by U2
For What its Worth by Buffalo Springfield
Zombie by Cranberries


Politically-motivated music that makes me want to remove my eardrums with a fork:
What the World Needs Now is Love by frankly I have no idea and don't want to know.

Oh my, slamming Burt Bacharaat is akin to heresy in my books ... What the World Needs Now is my most esteemed guilty pleasure -along with Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head!

Nice work Barbara. Very good topic.

Politically motivated songs I like (I dislike the message in most of these songs but I find the tunes catchy):
Franco Unamerican- NOFX (they have a bunch more, but I like this one the most)
All you can eat- Ben Folds
Let them Eat War- Bad Religion
My Own Country- Pennywise
Imagine and Fiddle and the Drum- A Perfect Circle
Hail to the Thief- Radiohead
Singin' in Vietnam Talkin' Blues- Johnny Cash

Politically motivated songs I don't like:
Imagine- John Lennon
I'm sure there are others, but I have a special animosity toward hippy music.

Yeah, how come right-wing conservatives don't make any good music, anyway?

I don't like Imagine either. I can't even say why...I just plain don't.

Right wing conservatives are too busy earning money, creating capital, making jobs to be engaged in anything as frivolous as art. ;)

Dude, I've never even heard of a single song in your like list. In fact, the only group on your list I've ever heard of is Johnny Cash (I guess he's not technically a "group").

I dislike "Imagine" as well. Actually, I like the tune but it's the message I don't like. The world that John Lennon pines for in "Imagine" is a world I certainly don't want to live in.

I imagine the pentultimate conservative political song is The Rainbow Connection by Kermit thee Frog.

Great great song. I also happen to quite like Imagine in all it's cheeseball glory.

I just couldn't ever get into Ohio by Crosby Stills and Nash

I probably don't have the best musical tastes. My formative years were in the 90's.

If you grew up in the 80's, perhaps you've heard of these politically motivated songs:

2 Minutes to Midnight: Iron Maiden
99 Luftballoons: Some German singer, I don't know her name
London Calling: The Clash
God Save the Queen/Anarchy in the UK: Sex Pistols
Fortunate Son: Credence Clearwater Revival
Paint it Black: Rolling Stones

The 2nd to last song? ;)

Now Mr. Y, Paint It, Black is one of the greatest songs of all time. however I fail to see what it has to do with either politics or the 1980s? I thought it was a song about depression. Please enlighten?

Maybe it's not politically motivated. My first memory of the song was as the opening theme of a late '80's television drama called "Tour of Duty." (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092468/)
The show was about a platoon in Vietnam and I've always associated it with Vietnam.

I was just saying that if he grew up in the 80's, he may remember the song. Sorry for breaking your thread discussion rules.

Nina sang 99 Red Balloons. It's much easier to understand the English version.

I rarely like the lyrics to most every song that is political. It's a shame that political messages have to ruin an otherwise good song.

Perhaps Seattle Ute is on to something by listening to nothing but "classical"?

I figured that's what you were thinking of. If I remember right, the show was rather short-lived. My brother was quite a fan of it.

I actually went to the Rolling Stones concert for the specific purpose of seeing them perform Paint It Black. And then they didn't. They sang every other song including the absurdly accurate If You Start Me Up [I'll Never Stop]. But no Paint It Black. And they wouldn't give me my money back either. The meanies.

Great show... even BETTER song!

I love that song.

OK - now you're starting to get into my genre. I've definitely heard the 99 red balloons song, Fortunate Son, and Paint it Black. In the 80s I was pretty much a Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, and The Beatles guy with some occasional Van Halen, AC/DC, and Aerosmith thrown in for variety.

Unfortunately, it's always been pretty hard for me to pick out the lyrics of songs. Even if I could, I probably wouldn't be able to tell whether they are politically motivated or not.

Two best songs mentioned in this thread are Imagine and Paint it Black. Both great songs. Paint it Black one of the best ever.

Oh come on. That's a good one.

Great topic. I need to give it some thought.

Right off the top of my head, my favorite politcal song is Fortunate Son by CCR.

LOVE that song. I also love Imagine (though I can't figure out what he is imagining).

That is a great song.

Oh, and I thought of another really awful one. In the year 2525.

He's imagining how wonderful the world would be without religion.

Do the songs have to actually mention political things to qualify? Because I have always subscribed to the theory that the best anti-war music from the Viet Nam era was pretty much anything by Hendrix, even though he never actually mentioned the war in the songs.

Nobody included Falco's "Cowboys & Indians"? Sheesh!

"Cowboys . . . Cowboys and Indians
Russia and the U.S.A."


Also, I agree that "Paint It, Black" is one of the best songs ever.

I also love Buffalo Springfield's For What its Worth.

Cool song from one of my favorite albums as a youth: Sting Hope the Russians love their children too.

Yes, Russians is a very good song. Sting's protest of nuclear arms through music was a good example of how to do it. Today's musicians could learn that singing, rather than screaming into a microphone at a concert, is a more effective way to get the message out to everyone, rather than just those who agree with them.

Now you're quoting my genre. For the most part, I have no idea what you people are spouting off about. I feel like the mental midget I am.

Thanks for coming done to a pedestrian level for a moment.

Most everything by Rage Against the Machine.
Marvin Gaye "What's Going on and Mercy, Mercy Me"

Are two of my favorites.

My least favorite political song is "Sweet Home Alabama" which sides with George Wallace and Richard Nixon. I still hate this song even though it causes my wife and daughter to dissolve into tears because they miss Bama so bad.

Coincidentally, they were playing this song at the Y today while I was exercising. Now there's a pick-me-up song to jumpstart your workout.

There is nothing wrong with a little Zager & Evans. Interesting story behind the song. The guys wrote it, recorded it and paid for a pressing without any contract. They sold it in bars in Nebraska and it became very popular locally. They then started sending it around to DJs. A station in Odessa Texas (where I briefly lived and was a DJ, I might add) played it and it was again popular and was then picked up by a record company and eventually promoted nationally where it did pretty well. Its national success cames years after it was first written and recorded. This also explains the very poor quality of the recording, I have always assumed.

One of my favorites artists is Steve Earle. He has some pretty strong political leanings, not all of which I agree with. But he is an outstanding songwriter. He has a couple of songs about death row/capital punishment that are quite good:

Over Yonder
Billy Austin (live version is best)

He has as song about Condoleeza Rice called Condi, Condi that is a lot of fun.

One of my favorite Steve Earle tunes with political overtone is called Warrior. It loses something without the music, but here are the lyrics:

This is the best time of the day—the dawn
The final cleansing breath unsullied yet
By acrid fume or death’s cacophony
The rank refuse of unchained ambition
And pray, deny me not but know me now,
Your faithful retainer stands resolute
To serve his liege lord without recompense
Perchance to fall and perish namelessly
No flag-draped bier or muffled drum to set
The cadence for a final dress parade
But it was not always thus—remember?
Once you worshipped me and named me a god
In many tongues and made offering lest
I exact too terrible a tribute

Take heed for I am weary, ancient
And decrepit now and my time grows short
There are no honorable frays to join

Only mean death dealt out in dibs and dabs
Or horror unleashed from across oceans
Assail me not with noble policy
For I care not at all for platitude
And surrender such tedious detail
To greater minds than mine and nimbler tongues
Singular in their purpose and resolve
And presuming to speak for everyman

Oh, for another time, a distant field
And there a mortal warrior’s lonely grave
But duty charges me remain until
The end the last battle of the last war
Until that ‘morrow render unto me
That which is mine my stipend well deserved
The fairest flower of your progeny
Your sons, your daughters your hopes and your dreams
The cruel consequence of your conceit

"Russians" - Sting

For those that remember...

"In Europe and America, there's a feeling growing of hysteria..."

...never could quite figure out if I liked this song or not. Mostly not.

Mostly not for me, too. Just seemed a bit too pretentious.

How does America rhyme with hysteria?

I don't think I could ever overlook such a poetic misstep and approve that song. :)

Well, if you can't be AT the "Y"...might as well go excercise IN a Y. ;-)

Yeah, Barbara. When you say "the Y" we think BYU.

Here's 99 luftballons

Don't forget "Sweet Home Alabama." Not completely political, but it has lines.