Thought of this one last night, and assumed someone would have already nominated it for one of the best political songs: The Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter"
Great call, Exapno.
Country Joe and the Fish I’m-A-Fixin-To-Die-Rag is definitely in the top ten.
And it’s one, two, three what are we fight for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn.
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it’s five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates.
There ain’t no time to wonder why?
Whippee! We’re all gonna die.
A favorite: Iris Dement’s Wasteland of the Free–a song with its very own website.
Another: Steve Earle’s Christmas in Washington.
(Can’t come up with the “worst” right now.)
I own two copies of that movie. One of them, on DVD, has that song, and several other scenes missing from the VHS. Some of those scenes set up running jokes that were just totally spoiled in the VHS, too; for example, near the end of the movie, Adams is despairing about getting the Declaration passed, since the South is refusing to endorse anything condemning slavery, and he goes up to the bell tower and talks to his wife (who is not actually there, it’s a metaphorical representation of a letter, I think). She had previously written a letter to him naming a bunch of his bad qualities, and he lists them in turn, while she protests that she didn’t mean them; finally, he comes to ‘pig-headed’, and she says “You’ve got me there, John; I must admit you are pig-headed.” Which is amusing, but much more enjoyable if you’ve seen the scene in the beginning which has the same thing but with his disparagements of her. Apparently Nixon made them remove Cool, Cool, Considerate Men because it was too insulting to the Republican Party, and having seen it, I agree that it’s quite subtly done. Looking at the lyrics, you would suspect that maybe it’s making fun of them, but there’s nothing explicit; watching it in the context of the rest of the movie makes it quite clear.
Also, why the hell does Firefox think movie, favor, labor, and other such words…aren’t? I’ve checked my dictionary, and it is American English.
Another one in the “best” category: Nena’s “99 Luftballons”.
I’ve got both the extended DVD release and the old VHS version as well, Captain Carrot, though I confess I only learned about all that stuff this year when… was it A&E or Bravo?.. ran the extended version and gave commentary explaining the differences for July 4th.
[one of the] best: “Back in the USSR” – The Beatles. Musically, of course, it totally rocks (and that’s Macca on drums!), but thematically it’s that rare bird… a (diffusely political, and implicitly right-wing) number that uses wit and irreverence rather than haranging or didacticism to mock the Soviet Union and remind us, including lefty critics of the Establishment, that things could be a lot worse…
worst: “Here Comes President Kill Again” – XTC. This clunker simply fails on every level. Even most die-hard XTC fans hate it.
Two great political/war songs that come to mind:
Masters of War - Bob Dylan
Marker in the Sand - Pearl Jam
I’ve always been a fan of Primus’s Too many puppies.
Best:
Revolution by the Beatles
Mississippi G*damn by Nina Simone
Worst
Imagine by John Lennon
For good political songs, I’m surprised that this far into the thread no one’s brought up Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up.”
If we’re going to consider “Imagine” a political song, then we have to include Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Crystal Blue Persuasion”, which is better musically (even if the lyrics are just as mimsyish as Lennon’s):
*Look over yonder, what do you see
The sun is a-rising yeah most definitely
A new day is coming, people are changing
Ain’t it beautiful, crystal blue persuasion
Crystal blue persuasion oh yeah, it’s a new vibration
Crystal blue persuasion, crystal blue persuasion*
This song appears on the same album as arguably the worst psychedelic pop song ever written - “I Am A Tangerine”:
Hello banana
I am a tangerine
The singer pauses here to wonder if he is having a dream, but on further reflection doesn’t think so, although his head is spinning. :smack:
Best not yet named (or at least I haven’t seen them):
“Holiday in Cambodia,” The Dead Kennedys
“Pineapple Face,” Lard
“No Man’s Land (Green Fields of France),” Eric Bogle
“Sunday Bloody Sunday,” U2
“Fortunate Son,” CCR
“The White Man’s Got a God Complex,” The Last Poets
“Hurricane,” Bob Dylan
“War Pigs,” Black Sabbath
Heh, just thought of one I love that isn’t up here:
“Like a Song…” by U2, from the War album.
It’s probably my favorite song of theirs anymore. My sister and I had a bunch of their albums but I never really sat down and listened through their earlier stuff until about a year or two ago, and that whole album really blew me away. As much as I love “New Year’s Day” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” I can’t believe “Like a Song…” never got onto the radio. In my humble opinion, it’s harder and more rocking than Sunday, and the lyrics are more powerful than New Year’s.
I’m gonna give some love to The Black Eyed Peas, Where’s The Love.
You Haven’t Done Nothing has already been mentioned but I’ll mention it again.
If the personal really is political, then RATM’s version of I Could Just Kill A Man would cover my political feelings ever since Bush Two Take Two: Electric Boogaloo.*
Simplistic but you can dance to it-- Edwin Starr’s War
And Big Yellow Taxi is a nice song.
*To clarify before the SS comes knocking at my door-- I don’t want to literally kill anyone.
Some overloooked gems:
Best - “We’ll Get Over” (the Staple Singers), “Volunteers of America” (Jefferson Airplane), “My Mother, the War” (10,000 Maniacs), “What’s So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love and Understanding?” (Elvis Costello), “Chicago” (Stephen Stills), “Handsome Johnny” (traditional I think, but Richie Havens does a great version) and “Born In the USA” (which most people think is a chest-thumping "America right-or-wrong anthem, but if you actually listen to the words…)
Worst - “One Tin Soldier” (I can’t believe I’m the first person to mention it.)
“You Will be Waiting” by Barenaked Ladies is basically a love song from Canada to Quebec.
Politically anachronistic as it is, “The Internationale” remains a song to stir the blood in any language.
I love that song as well though many people seem to think that its a celebration of being American rather then what it actually is.
The WW2 Nazi song We are marching against England always went down a storm when ever we sang it in a Bavarian pub,not a dry eye in the house and we’d get bought drinks all night.
(on)Ascension Day(When we rise) by Third World War,an anarchist rock song about revolution in Britain.
You wont get me I’m part of the Union by the Strawbs,which came out at the time when politically motivated strikes came close to bringing the U.K. to its knees.(Early seventies as I recall)
And we’re all off to Dublin(Later versions Belfast)in the Green, traditional,Irish Republican song borrowed from the Protestants in the early 20th C.
My Town by some bloke that I’m ashamed to say that I cant remember his name,about the troubles in (London)Derry(take your pick)at the time considered to be an indicment of British soldiers being in Northern Ireland by the Republican community but the artist has since said that it was a lament about ALL of the violence,by all parties.
Personally I consider the original explanation to be the true one.
I prefer Ochs " I Aint a marching any more"
“Its always the old who lead us to the war
Its always the young to fall
Look at all we’ve done with a saber and a gun
Tell me is it worth it all”