# Willie Nelson just wrote the greatest protest song ever **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 1, 2004, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089 "2004-01-01T08:01:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/61 "2004-01-02T14:40:58Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Metacom (quoting Pearl Jam)_ > **Born on third, thinks he got a triple** That’s a fine line there… a _damn_ fine line. Spot on. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/62 "2004-01-02T15:37:02Z")
For pure, uncompromising venomous, spitting hatred, it’s difficult to beat Elvis Costello’s note to Margaret Thatcher. God, it really was possible to hate that woman like no other politician in my experience: [Tramp The Dirt Down](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/e/elvis-costello/47487.html) \*\* Well I hope I don’t die too soon I pray the Lord my soul to save Oh I’ll be a good boy, I’m trying so hard to behave Because there’s one thing I know, I’d like to live long enough to savour That’s when they finally put you in the ground I’ll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down\*\* It’s irrational I know, but how I still hate that woman with every fibre in my body . . . btw, isn’t it handy that all the Best. Ever. Protest Songs. are written in English by Americans and Brits . . . ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/63 "2004-01-02T15:59:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > \*\*Still, he called Bush a liar. He gets major points for that. \*\* _Whatever_. What a bunch of fucking crap. It was a completely generic indictment of politicians and the shallowness of modernity. If that was a particular denouncement of GWB, Willie sure did a piss-poor job of specifiying it. ---
**Author:** ![county](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce7236/32.png) [@county](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/county)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/64 "2004-01-02T16:02:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ElvisL1ves \* > \*\*Sure it’s a Pit thread - the song exists because it’s an anti-Bush protest, not because of its intrinsic artistic merit. \*\* Oh, I think it goes a bit farther than that. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/65 "2004-01-02T16:04:34Z")
Well, you have to understand, **nuero** , that Willy is a Texan, a people known for subtlety and sly innuendo. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/66 "2004-01-02T16:07:01Z")
**London\_Calling** , never heard that song – but in high school, we Americans used to listen to [Maggie](http://www.punkrock.szm.sk/EXPLOITED002.htm), by the Exploited, with the following chorus: > [@](#): > > Maggie! Maggie you cunt! > Maggie! Maggie you cunt! > Maggie! Maggie you cunt! > Maggie Maggie Maggie Maggie – you fucking cunt! Guess some folks didn’t like her very much. Those of you who don’t like country music still ought to give a listen to some Willie Nelson – until I heard some of his stuff, I thought I hated country music, too. IMO _Teatro_ is his best work (or at least the best I’ve heard – I’m no connoisseur, sadly). On New Year’s Eve I saw the strangest protest performance I’ve yet seen: a local burlesque troupe did a get-out-the-vote, Bush-is-evil show, complete with nurse uniforms and pasties. Daniel Daniel ---
**Author:** ![county](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce7236/32.png) [@county](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/county)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/67 "2004-01-02T16:10:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by London\_Calling \* > \*\*btw, isn’t it handy that all the Best. Ever. Protest Songs. are written in English by Americans and Brits . . . \*\* Yeah and they are usually about “stopping” wars and stuff like that. Wonder why we don’t have any protest songs about “Lets go to War and Kill Saddam” or “Hey, Baby, you don’t need an Abortion” ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/68 "2004-01-02T17:02:20Z")
\*\* Left Hand of Dorkness\*\* - I can appreciate the sentiment even if the delivery seems to be slightly deficient in nuance. I suppose this isn’t the place to ask, but what the hell was [Ruby, don’t take your love to town](http://www.songlyrics.com/song-lyrics/Kenny_Rogers/Miscellaneous/Ruby_Don_t_Take_Your_Love_To_Town/138220.html) all about . . . he couldn’t get it up, she was horny and he wanted to shoot her for going into town to get laid ? They don’t write chirpy pop songs like that no more, on sirree. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/69 "2004-01-02T18:00:58Z")
I must have been wooshed or summut. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by London\_Calling \* > > > [@](#): > > > > _Originally posted by Kal_ > > So, you’re a Mellencamp fan then ? > > - to his wife, **Washte**. Huh? I didn’t post that. I posted: > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Kal_ > So, you’re a not Mellencamp fan then? - to **LifeOnWry** , who wasn’t my wife last time I checked. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/70 "2004-01-02T18:03:14Z")
It wasn’t that he couldn’t get it up AFAIK, but that he knew “it’s hard to love a man whose legs are bent and paralyzed”. If Ruby loved him, she’d find a way anyway, but instead she’d rather just use him and his disability check as a meal ticket while ignoring his, um, needs and gratifying her own with a less-worthy man. That may not be enough cause for murder, but it seems like cause for hatred. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/71 "2004-01-02T18:12:07Z")
[http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/masters.html](http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/masters.html) Time for this one to be reissued. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/72 "2004-01-02T18:12:15Z")
You missed a nuance there, sport. It wasn’t he who “started that crazy Asian war”, he’s a disabled combat vet with a slut-Fonda wife, who’s probably headed to town to give it up to some granola-munching hippie who… Wait a tick! Ruby? Ruby? No, never mind… Note to furriners: Willy is by no stretch of the imagination reponsible for this, nor any other of the abominations committed by Tony Orlando and Dumb. Thier indictment is pending. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/73 "2004-01-02T18:19:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by county \* > \*\*Yeah and they are usually about “stopping” wars and stuff like that. Wonder why we don’t have any protest songs about “Lets go to War and Kill Saddam”… \*\* Darryl Worley’s “Have You Forgotten?” He wants us to go to Iraq and get the “ones behind bin Laden” :smack: :rolleyes: :smack: :rolleyes: :smack: :rolleyes: :smack: :rolleyes: :smack: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/74 "2004-01-02T19:37:34Z")
Referring to the general public as sheep has totally jumped the shark. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/75 "2004-01-02T20:12:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by edwino \* > \*\*The best protest song EVAR!!1! is _The Band Played Waltzing Matilda_. Don’t argue, because I am **the** authority. \*\* I wouldn’t both because you told me not to and because you may be right. ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/76 "2004-01-02T20:13:41Z")
What a great Cafe Society thread ! I need to add my nominations “Masters of War” by Bob Dylan (although I see **plnner** has beat me to it, I think it merits mentioning again!) “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” by Bruce Cockburn ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/77 "2004-01-02T20:14:48Z")
Though [My Country 'Tis of thy People You’re Dying](http://www.creative-native.com/lyrics/mycountry.htm) by Buffy Sainte-Marie is a contender. ---
**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/78 "2004-01-02T23:01:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by county \* > \*\*Yeah and they are usually about “stopping” wars and stuff like that. Wonder why we don’t have any protest songs about “Lets go to War and Kill Saddam” or “Hey, Baby, you don’t need an Abortion” \*\* I suggest you go back to the OP and click the link to the article. Look it up again for yourself. It Says: “Now, I haven’t played it for Toby (Keith) yet,” Nelson said with a laugh. Although the two are close friends, the sentiments of “What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth” are the polar opposite of Keith’s angry-American anthem “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” with its call to arms. “Toby wrote that song in reaction to 9/11, which was a totally different thing than watching U.S. soldiers die in Iraq,” Nelson said. “Toby’s said he’s not a Republican or a Democrat; he’s a Christian. So we’re coming from the same place.” Country music is full of “other side” protest songs. Don’t you remember “Oakie from Muscogee?” (It was recorded by Haggard over 30 years ago). OK, maybe not a good example, that song was somewhat tongue in cheek. Surely the Toby Kieth song was sung in more seriousness. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/79 "2004-01-02T23:21:53Z")
_Okie from Muskogee_ was tongue-in-cheek? Well, maybe, but it sure escaped me at the time. Best protest music ever? Jimi Hendrix solo intermingling aircraft, machine guns. bombs and horror. Made my hair stand on end. _Guernica_ on guitar. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089/80 "2004-01-03T01:14:11Z")
Like so much else in life,… The answer is _Blowin’ in the Wind_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/willie-nelson-just-wrote-the-greatest-protest-song-ever/222089.md?page=5)