You forgot
The devil is evil - must be conservative.
40 years ago some people at NR had a sense of humor - now they all seem to be idiots.
In Sympathy For The Devil, Lucifer says, “I shouted out ‘who killed the Kennedys,’ when after all it was you and me.” If that’s a conservative anthem, there’s something to those conspiracy theories after all.
The Godzilla quote from BOC, “History shows again and again, how nature points up the folly of man,” is breathing fire on war-hawks and greed-heads, not liberals.
George Harrison’s Taxman takes swipes at “Mr. Wilson” and “Mr. Heath.” Were those guys lefties?
“Mr. Wilson” was former British Prime Minister, Harold Lewis, who was a lefty. “Mr. Heath”, was his political rival, Sir Edward Heath, the leader of the conservative party who ultimately defeated him in the Prime Ministerial election of 1970. From this site:
So Harrison was not singling out one party but slamming both of them equally. I think it goes without saying that the Beatles were no right wingers.
This is a joke, right?
“Won’t Get Fooled Again” is the #1 conservative anthem? Won’t Get FREAKIN’ Fooled Again??!? The most kickass “FUCK YOU AUTHORITY” song ever???
If that’s what conservative has become, let me shoot myself right now, please. :rolleyes:
If you substitute ‘libertarian’ for ‘conservative’, the list makes significantly more sense. “Taxman” works fine as a libertarian protest song. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” does as well. And while it’s a real stretch to claim that the “Motor Law” is a radical green law in “Red Barchetta”, it doesn’t matter from a libertarian standpoint. The song is clearly about the quest for freedom against an oppressive state.
In general, there is roughly zero support for conservatism in rock and roll. There is, however, a strong anti-authoritarian streak, and there are a number of overtly libertarian bands (Rush, Oingo Boingo). Add to that the anarchists in Punk, and you can make a pretty good list of libertarian songs. Not that this list is it, however. He really stretches on some of those songs.
And on quite a few, he’s simply wrong. “Sweet Home Alabama”, for example, is not a redneck manifesto. And Lynyrd Skynyrd was just as liberal in outlook as Neil Young (listen to ‘Things Goin’ On’).
Some of them may not be conservative, but they are anti-communist or even anti-liberal. “Revolution” is anti-violence, but it’s also anti-communist (“And if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow.”) This was a slap at campus radicals who thought it was chic to be communist - England was full of them at the time.
This is quite true. Probably less true for the U.S. at the time, although there were a few.
However, not at any time in the 60s were the Maoists representative of or even accepted by the larger leftist body of American collegians. (I doubt this was true for British collegians either.) In both countries there was a long history of being liberal and anti-Communist.
You could be against the war in Vietnam without being Maoist or pro-communist. Lumping the two together was a smear widely practiced by the right at that time, however, and it is disturbing to see the practice continued today when everybody should know better. That’s the insidious ugliness behind this list. It has nothing to do with libertarianism and everything to do with ancient libels about liberalism.
Most of your post seems right to me except the above. In fact, in saying the quoted line is “a slap at campus radicals”, aren’t you saying that it isn’t specifically anti-communist? One could easily (though not without violating the rhyme scheme) substitute “Ronny R” or “Maggie T” for “Chairman Mao” and have an anti-conservative stance (assuming a time-frame adjustment and either Reagan or Thatcher are accepted as examples of conservativism).
A couple of my favorite bloggers were all over this last week, including Amanda from Pandagon and The Rude Pundit (warning: contains strong language, and an interpretation of “Sweet Home Alabama” that I don’t agree with.)
Simply put, most of it ranges from “reaching” to “really reaching” to “batshit insane”. I mean, who does the author think Daltrey is referring to when he says, “and the morals that they worship will be gone”?
Not to mention that one of the few songs on the list that you might call conservative–“Stand By Your Man”–is most definitely not a rock song. I mean, if you’re going there, why not “God Bless the USA”? It’s more rock than “Stand By Your Man”, unless you define “rock” as “that which doesn’t suck”.
Seems pretty obvious to me.
I’m hugely amused by the inclusion of “Sweet Home Alabama.” There are two choices:
- The song is racist as hell, or
- The song is a bitter commentary on the state of the south.
And the conservatives want to embrace that? And the defense one of the doofuses had was that it was a celebration of southern culture. bangs head on desk
I’m a former conservative. Someone tell me if these people were always this stupid and I was too blind to see it.
Nothing by Charlie Daniels?? I know a lot of his early work is tainted by drug references.
In America from Million Mile Reflections is just full of wonderful faux conservative patriotic platitudes.
Janey’s gotta gun parodies into Chaney’s gotta gun a little to easily.
I don’t think it’s any more racist than, say, Randy Newman’s “Rednecks”.
I think this quote from Dr. J’s Rude Pundit link pretty much sums up the problem with the list:
There are a handful of acts on the list who could be argued as vaguely conservative in their politics. Rush has an individualistic, libertarian streak. At one time, they were fans of Ayn Rand and Rand’s “Objectivist” philosophy in fuse many of Neil Peart’s lyrics (see “Anthem” for instance), but they also criticized religious moralism (see side one of “2112”) and their libertarianism extended as far as singing the praises of marijuana (“A Passage to Bangkok”).
James Hetfield of Metallica is a self-described conservative (and a gun nut), but the rest of the band claims to be “ultra-liberal.” Hetfield writes the lyrics, though, so his political leanings come through a little bit.
Kid Rock has publicly supported GWB, attended Republican events and (IIRC) performed at the 2001 Presidential Innaugaration.
Some of the other choices are ridiculous beyond measure, though. The Clash? The Pretenders? U2? Give me a break.
From the John Miller page:
I suppose this explains some of the choices. I was unaware that “skepticism of government” was/has been a traditional “conservative” value. I wonder if the majority of those who consider themselves conservative would agree?
I would say that “skepticism of government” is a part of traditional conservatism (thing of conservative complaints about “big government” and promises to "starve the beast) - but it’s not hard to find it on the left, either. After all, the radicals of the '60s (perhaps once they’re all dead we’ll stop hearing conservatives whine about them) couldn’t exactly be described as pro-establishment. Obviously in the United States today opposition to the government couldn’t be further from the ideals preached by the right. But then, it’s probably not fair to call the Republican Party “conservative” at this point.
Campus radicals at the time were split into lots of factions, one of the Maoist (though moreso in England, I expect.) So this Revolution is far more likely a slap at the more radical faction, not a slap at the left in general.
I am too, and I think they’re getting stupider - especially because their acquisition of power is not creating the conservative paradise they expected. Kind of what Pete Townshend was talking about, but they’re too blind to see who the boss is today.
Well, yes, that’s seems right to me. I was just illustrating how silly the entire interpretation was, taking it back to the original intent of the NR article.
I was reading the comments on one of the blogs that was linked to, and some people mentioned how it would be funny if they put Political Science by Randy Newman on there. Here’s a link to an mp3 of it done by Glen Phillips: http://www.comebackdownload.com/mp3s/boston/glen2003-11-13t25.mp3
One or two of the choices make sense. The rest of them miss the point entirely. I particularly love them including “Wake Up, Little Susie”! I was too young to live in a world like that (thank G-d). The idea that being out late with your girlfriend destroys her reputation (or yours) is just completely laughable. Great song, world’s dumbest lyrics.
I’m too young to know for sure, but I’m not sure how laughable it was when the song was written. I think it is one of the greatest rock tragedy songs ever written - with music to match.
I actually looked for it in the list, but hadn’t noticed it. That NR thinks this is somehow supporting their kinds of morals is laughable.