Not really an anthem, but Pete Townshend’s Psycoderelict ends with the main character lamenting,
“Gridlife” was a vision, a real vision. Not a fiction, not a fairy tale, a glimpse of the future. Today, twenty years later, the apocalypse it foresaw is nearer. But, whatever you read in the newspapers, we still don’t have any alternative reality. It’s all games now: all lies and deceit. What happened to the truth? What happened to the dream? What happened to all that lovely hippie shit?
Speaking of Woody, I haven’t seen this mentioned yet.
Not being American I may not fully understand it’s cultural significance, but to me it seems to fit.
j
Maybe a little Fugazi…
A couple of non-Engolish language songs:
The first is “I Don’t Have Another Country”, written originally as a patriotic left-wing song, but adopted by protestors on the left, the right and oddly, Nancy Pelosi. Written by Ehud Manor, this is the original recording by Corinne Allal:
The second is “A Song for Peace”, which despite being written for and performed by a military entertainment troupe, has become THE anthem of the Israeli peace movement:
(Both clips have English translations of their lyrics in their comments)
Not exactly what the OP is looking for, but I’d suggest “F.T.A.” It’s a movie, actually, from 1972, when the Vietnam War was raging. But segments of the movie are held together by a bouncy little ditty called either “Free The Army” or “Fuck The Army”, depending on whatever the singers want to sing; hence “F.T.A.”. The movie lasted about a week before being withdrawn from theatres.
I’ve seen the movie–it appeared in the usual Sunday afternoon monster movie slot on a local station that must have been starved for content that day back in 1977 or so. But the song reappears through the show, which really has no plot; it’s a series of skits and sketches, joined together by the song, like I said. Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland star. Anyway, here’s the trailer, with the song sprinkled in throughout:
Yes, this one. The original version.
Wait, I have a classic one that inexplicably hasn’t been posted. It’s not radical, but definitely counts as an important counterculture anthem. I also has a beautiful melody:
ETA: fun fact: my father, who was born in 1935, never had any hippie affiliations whatsoever and doesn’t know squat about pop and rock music, loves this song. I know it because he always hums along when it comes on the radio, and though he’s a good singer (he sang for almost 70 years in a choir), he doesn’t do this with any other song. He also barely knows a word of English and only knows that it’s about San Francisco.
Another Phil Ochs. Outside of a Small Circle of Friends. An “anthem” mocking apathy, not “getting involved.”
BTW that superb piano is played by classical pianist Lincoln Mayorga.
At the very least, anthem adjacent…
“Come on, people, now,
Smile on your brother,
Everybody get together,
Try and love another, right now.”
IMO Jefferson Airplane did it better.
And while we are talking Airplane
To quote Pete in one of his songs,
“Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.”
What, you guys think that only dudes write protest songs? Throw a dart at a list of Ani DiFranco’s songs, and you’ll be pretty much guaranteed to hit one that skewers some sacred cow. Like abortion:
Or guns:
Police violence:
Sexual abuse:
Voter suppression:
I could go on. The woman is our generation’s Woody Guthrie.
Earache My Eye by Alice Bowie. So counterculture it’s counter-counterculture.
Go with it
While it doesn’t make me want to tear anything down,
Here’s a glam rock counterculture anthem.
hell 90 percent of their output can be considered counterculture but this is one of their fastest songs
and here’s one of the few directly political ramones songs
Like the others, the Fish Cheer (Feel Like I’m Fixing to Die) first comes to mind. Alice’s Restaurant is way up there but the refrain by itself doesn’t convey the sense of the story behind it. There are also the songs with secret subversive lyrics like “Louie Louie”.
That would explain it all right.
I think Masters of War and War Pigs are two of the best “in your face” antiwar songs. I know Ozzy has done Masters of War, but to my knowledge Dylan has never done War Pigs.