50 Most Conservative Songs of All Time

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invisible Pole
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50 Most Conservative Songs of All Time

Post by invisible Pole »

You thought rock songs could not be conservative ?
Well, look at all the names and songs below.
Here's the top 50 conservative songs of all time, according to National Review.
The list includes tracks by .... Bob Dylan, Sex Pistols and The Clash, so enjoy !!

More here : http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Nz ... RjYTk4YjE=

"Won't Get Fooled Again" - The Who
"Taxman" - The Beatles
"Sympathy For The Devil" - The Rolling Stones
"Sweet Home Alabama" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
"Wouldn't It Be Nice" - The Beach Boys
"Gloria" - U2
"Revolution" - The Beatles
"Bodies" - Sex Pistols
"Don't Tread On Me" - Metallica
"20th Century Man" - The Kinks
"The Trees" - Rush
"Neighborhood Bully" - Bob Dylan
"My City Was Gone" - The Pretenders
"Right Here, Right Now" - Jesus Jones
"I Fought The Law" - The Crickets
"Get Over It" - The Eagles
"Stay Together For The Kids" – Blink-182
"Cult Of Personality" - Living Colour
"Kicks" - Paul Revere And The Raiders
"Rock The Casbah" - The Clash
"Heroes" - David Bowie
"Red Barchetta" - Rush
"Brick" - Ben Folds Five
"Der Kommissar" - After The Fire
"The Battle Of Evermore" - Led Zeppelin
"Capitalism" - Oingo Boingo
"Obvious Song" - Joe Jackson
"Janie's Got A Gun" - Aerosmith
"Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" - Iron Maiden
"You Can't Be Too Strong" - Graham Parker
"Small Town" - John Mellencamp
"Keep Your Hands To Yourself" - The Georgia Satellites
"You Can't Always Get What You Want" - The Rolling Stones
"Godzilla" - Blue Oyster Cult
"Who'll Stop The Rain" - Creedence Clearwater Revival
"Government Cheese" - The Rainmakers
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" - The Band
"I Can't Drive 55" - Sammy Hagar
"Property Line" - The Marshall Tucker Band
"Wake Up Little Susie" - The Everly Brothers
"The Icicle Melts" - The Cranberries
"Everybody's A Victim" - The Proclaimers
"Wonderful" - Everclear
"Two Sisters" - The Kinks
"Taxman, Mr. Thief" - Cheap Trick
"Wind Of Change" - Scorpions
"One" - Creed
"Why Don't You Get A Job" - The Offspring
"Abortion" - Kid Rock
"Stand By Your Man" - Tammy Wynette
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Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Horseshit! Some of these are just ridiculous! "Wake Up Little Susie"??? FFS!
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Post by martinfoyle »

Some interesting choices, many songs I've never heard of, probably for a good reason. I pray I never get to hear the Kid Rock track.
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Post by Mechanical Grace »

Who Shot Sam? wrote:Horseshit! Some of these are just ridiculous! "Wake Up Little Susie"??? FFS!
Come on now, did you miss that verse where, before falling asleep in the theater, the feller and Susie almost DO IT, but then decide to exchange promise rings instead?
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Post by Mike Boom »

??
Conservative in what way?

Sounds like a lame excuse to make a list.

"Wont Get Fooled Again" sticks it to the man , man!
And so does "Taxman" man.
echos myron like a siren
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
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Who Shot Sam?
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Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Mechanical Grace wrote:
Who Shot Sam? wrote:Horseshit! Some of these are just ridiculous! "Wake Up Little Susie"??? FFS!
Come on now, did you miss that verse where, before falling asleep in the theater, the feller and Susie almost DO IT, but then decide to exchange promise rings instead?
:D

He was supposed to have her back by 10 but takes her home at 4AM instead! Some conservative!
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Post by miss buenos aires »

Maybe they are calling it conservative because it's W's favorite song? (I don't remember where I heard this, but I swear I did!)

I would say "Won't Get Fooled Again" is definitely conservative, though. They're saying, "What's the point of revolution?"
We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do ya?

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

There's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the party on the left
Is now the party on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
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Post by Fishfinger king »

I disagree.
They are saying they can't tell the difference between the Labour Govt. of the late 60s and the Tories who preceded them.
Plus ca change...........
Can't you see I'm trying to change this water to wine
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Post by Mike Boom »

I dont think its saying "whats the point" in revolution so much as recognising the fact that todays rebels are tomorrows bosses, with specific aim being taken at the hippies of the sixties conterculture who are now the heads of the corporate world and who of course, now say they never inhaled.
I think its saying seldom if ever is there a "true" revolution that results in real change.

I dont think that thats a conservative viewpoint at all, quite the opposite.
echos myron like a siren
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
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Post by Extreme Honey »

Really? Well maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with the overall theme in Who's Next, which is more of an interpersonal album. Maybe the song is about something to do with Pete Townshend himself. Maybe.
Preacher was a talkin' there's a sermon he gave,
He said every man's conscience is vile and depraved,
You cannot depend on it to be your guide
When it's you who must keep it satisfied
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Post by double dutchess »

Well, I think "Sweet Home Alabama" is an appropriate pick. I heard somewhere that it is a tribute to George "Segregation forever!" Wallace.
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Post by bobster »

Well, "The Night they Drove Ol' Dixie Down" is clearly a plea for a serious re-think of the Emancipation Proclamation.

But, seroiusly, a couple of these songs at least are more or less conservative, "Bodies" and "You Can't Be Too Strong" are more or less anti-abortion, but made by guys who are, I think I'm safe in saying, wouldn't want to identify themselves with the National Review crowd. And I don't know Danny Elfman's politics these days, but he certainly did have a Reaganite streak back in the eighties, but I don't the particular song. ("Only a Lad", a big L.A. radio hit, was definitely pro death penalty, for murderous juveniles.)

I think it's absurd to call "Won't Get Fooled Again" conservative -- it's deeply radical, or maybe just sensibly skeptical, but it's definitely not rightwing. In fact, it's say, basically, "watch out, today's liberator can be tomorrow's oppressor". Now, that is what happened in Cuba, but does my realization of that fact make me a conservative. Of course not. The fact that some people to this day, cut Castro slack despite being a dictator and serial human rights abuser just shows that the inability to admit that you've been wrong is not limited to the modern conservative movement, that they have perfected the tendency.

"Cult of Personality" is a similar across-the-board warning. In fact, in contemporary American politics, liberals with personalities never seem to get anywhere, so I claim that one for the "liberals."

The point is, I think, that even a died-in-the-wool bleeding heart liberal like myself can wind up sounding kind of conservative, especially when I find some lefties that happen to require some correction. And conservatives with brains can sound the same way too, if they are independent enough to know when those who are the right side of the spectrum have gone too far. But this doesn't happen as often in song (I'm pretty sure Merle Haggard has done this however, -- El Vez keeps reminding me!).
http://www.forwardtoyesterday.com -- Where "hopelessly dated" is a compliment!
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Post by johnfoyle »

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/musi ... 624195.ece

In tune with the left: Let's hear it for agit rock!
Can a three-minute pop song be a political statement? Last Saturday we reported that the US magazine 'National Review' had published its conservative top 50. Now it's time for rock and pop's most liberal lyrics

Published: 03 June 2006

Meera Syal: "Big Yellow Taxi" - Joni Mitchell

"I love Joni Mitchell's songs, like that one that goes, 'You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.' It was way ahead of its time, talking about issues like the environment and conservation."

Will Self: "Shipbuilding" - Robert Wyatt

A beautiful song, 'Shipbuilding', and its lyrics are poignant, linking the death of heavy industry in Britain with the rise of arms manufacture. It's an old protest song against the Falklands War, but it's a really beautiful song."


Nitin Sawhney: "What's Going On?" - Marvin Gaye


"My favourite one is 'What's Going On?' by Marvin Gaye. Whenever I hear it I remember the lyrics and sing along, and the words always seem to be so relevant to what's going on at any time, and they manage to be ironic and edgy. It's so cool since it has this laid-back summer feel to it, and yet it touches deep feelings. I only have to hear the title to think of the war in Iraq. It seems like a protest song in sheep's clothing, and that's good because I don't like the idea that I'm being preached at. On top of all that, the man is just a genius and his voice is just incredible."

Piers Morgan

"I'm pretty liberal generally except when it comes to music, when I become all right wing... and then I only have to think of the words 'Billy' and 'Bragg', and its enough to make my stomach turn. Aerosmith and Metallica are much more my kind of thing."

Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty: "I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free"

"It's an old slave song, and because it's anonymous I think that adds to the mystique. My husband and I used to sing it to my son as a lullaby to send him to sleep, and he still likes to sing it. It's not bogged down in any one campaign, but carries a simple political message - a cry for freedom. It's great musically too, and that's why there have been so many versions done. It used to be the theme tune to Barry Norman's film show - that was a jazzed up version, and I loved that, but the Lighthouse Family did it as a more easy listening version, which wasn't so me."

Alice Cooper: "The Times They Are A-Changin'" - Bob Dylan

My favourite protest/liberal pop song is 'The Times They Are A-Changin'' by Bob Dylan. Dylan had such authority that when he said something, he really made it stick and people listened. He's the true poet laureate of America. 'Eve of Destruction', recorded by Barry McGuire, is also a great song but I can never decide if it's meant to be a comedy or not, although now it sounds pretty humourous. I hate protest songs that are one-sided and shallow - in fact there's a couple out now, although I won't mention any names - that I loathe.

Dinos Chapman: "California Uber Alles" - The Dead Kennedys


This is a great one because it's a good rabble rouser!"

Ruth Padel: "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" - Pete Seegar

"My favourite is, 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone?' Just because I like the tune, I like the question, and well, I like flowers."

Jack Fowler: Publisher, National Review: "The Big Rock Candy Mountain," - Harry McClintock.

"Written in 1928, it's known as the 'hobo's anthem', but "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" is really the liberal anthem. The lyrics from the final verse [below] say it all - handouts and the dole are the rule, criminals run free. The only jurisprudence: 'They hung the jerk that invented work.' This song is a hymn to criminality, sloth, alcoholism, fantasising ('there's a lake of stew and some whiskey too, you can paddle all around it in a big canoe'), and irresponsibility. Could anything be less liberal?

"In the Big Rock Candy Mountain,
The jails are made of tin.
You can slip right out again,
As soon as they put you in.
There ain't no short-handled shovels,
No axes, saws nor picks,
I'm bound to stay
Where you sleep all day,
Where they hung the jerk
That invented work,
In the Big Rock Candy Mountain."

Kathy Lette: Author of How to Kill Your Husband - and Other Handy Household Hints: "I Will Survive" - Gloria Gaynor; "I Am Woman" - Helen Ready

"My favourite protest songs are two female anthems. 'I Will Survive', as it's all about a woman learning to stand on her own two stilettoes. It's a war cry for all those women whose talents have lain doormat for years. And, of course Helen Ready's 'I Am Woman' - a front row forward feminist song encouraging women to be treated as equals, instead of sequels. Both songs make women feel that they don't have to wait for some knight in shining Armani to make them happy."

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: "Everyone's Gone to War" - Marina Balet

"This war has woken up some new talent. Narina Pallot's powerful song, 'Everyone's Gone to War' is one of my favourites. She's British, beautiful and I see her as a sort of modern day Joni Mitchell, and well, Joni Mitchell's album Blue is my favourite of all time. Her song was recently chosen by Radio 1 as its 'pick of the week', and I think she is waking up new audiences, and awakening young people - who have been asleep - to the horrors of this war, and doing it at the right time."

Paul Ress: Editor, Q Magazine: "Masters Of War" - Bob Dylan; "Eton Rifles" - The Jam; "A New England" - Billy Bragg; "Spanish Bombs" - The Clash; "Johnny 99" - Bruce Springsteen

"Each one is: performed with the sort of passion that makes veins pop; written from a sense of rage, but crucially underplays it; first and foremost, a great song. And as a result, each is unforgettable."

Stuart Maconie. Radio presenter: "We Are All Bourgeois Now!" - McCarthy

"My favourite left-wing song is this 1980s track. The Manic Street Preachers did an absolutely brilliant cover of it. I love it because, as an old-school Marxist, I don't like the old 'Isn't war so bad?' type songs, and it's a great anti-Thatcher song that puts the emphasis firmly back on the issue of class. It dispels the myth that you can just pull your laces up and get on with it."



Kate Mosse: "Shipbuilding" - Robert Wyatt

(Writer Kate Mosse presents BBC FOUR's Readers and Writers Roadshow.)

"My favourites are 'Shipbuilding' (which is anti-Falklands), 'Dance with Me' by Janis Ian (an anti-Vietnam song) and 'Le Deserter' by Boris Vian, plus obviously 'Free Nelson Mandela' by The Specials. I chose these because they're all anti war songs, and they put into words what we were all feeling. I especially like Robert Wyatt's 'Shipbuilding', because it was about normal people working to make war machines, and how normal peoples' lives were changing because of the war in the Falkland Islands. It's a really beautiful, very quiet protest song.

Philip Pullman


"I don't like songs for their political messages, I like them for their tunes!"

Interviews by Joss Garman

Readers' choices

David Young, Wellingborough: "Wasted Life" - Stiff Little Fingers, 1979


"'Wasted Life' is not just a no-nonsense song about the futility of the terrorist violence in Northern Ireland. It describes the situation facing young people exposed to the systematic attempts by both sides to indoctrinate them and recruit them to the paramilitary conflict. The song's principles are about individuals standing up to blind ideology."

Jason Parkes, Worcestershire: "Everything Counts" - Depeche Mode, 1983

"This was a Top 10 hit in 1983, the year Thatcher was re-elected. Martin Gore sort of became a Smash Hits version of Gang of Four, offering up songs about famine, the workplace and universal revolution. Ironically this would be the song the masses sang along to when they broke big in the US in the late 1980s, its message probably lost on many ... Money isn't everything."

Paul Bexon: "Heartland" - The The, 1986


"Matt Johnson, the writer, is totally disillusioned with Thatcherism, then at its zenith. 'This is the land where nothing changes, the land of red buses and blue-blooded babies, where pensioners are raped and the hearts are being cut from the welfare state.' The Thatcher/Reagan relationship also comes under the spotlight: 'This is the 51st state of the USA'. Some things change but never alter!"

Jimmy Eden: "Into the Valley" - The Skids, 1978

"The liberalism of this track lies in its open mockery of the war system; 27 years on, it certainly has a contemporary relevance - not bad for a group generally considered to be nothing more than New Wave foot soldiers!"

Andrew Byrne: "Repeal of the Licensing Laws" - The Pogues, 1984

"Sometimes a song doesn't need actual words to spout its liberal credibility. In the mid-1980s, the prevailing UK licensing laws saw pubs close in mid-afternoon: clearly an affront to such a bon viveur as Shane MacGowan. The Pogues recorded this punk-meets-Irish-ceilidh romp in protest. A frantic instrumental punctuated only by a blood- curdling scream from MacGowan, it 'articulates' perfectly how unjust these laws were. They were repealed."

Dominic Trundle: "Know Your Enemy" - Rage Against The Machine


"'Yes I know my enemies/ They're the teachers who taught me to fight me/ Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission/ Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite/ All of which are American dreams' - an awesome anthem. Zach De La Rocha, the lead singer, snarls the lines, his voice carries a great deal of emotion, anger, frustration and hatred for a society he sees as corrupt and morally degraded."

Jon Guest, Ipswich: "Never Went to Church" - The Streets

"Mike Skinner starts the song with 'Two great European narcotics, Alcohol and Christianity'. On hearing this I think Britain's favourite rapper/poet (?!) has come over all Marxist."

Ian Birchall, London N9: "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" - Country Joe and the Fish

"This anti-war song sounds great on the record and just as good when sung on a demonstration. Funny and deadly serious at the same time - something the droning Dylan never managed. And if you replace 'give a damn ... Vietnam" with "give a fuck ... Iraq' it's absolutely up-to-date, even though it's 40 years old."

Keith Dyke, Towcester: "You're Wondering Now" - The Specials

"Not a liberal anthem but a lament for the passing of the great era of post-war progressivism. The Specials berate the British electorate for voting in the Thatcher government: 'You're wondering how you will pay for the way you did behave.' In retrospect, it turns out to be especially prescient. We have got what we deserved."

And just to show that nothing is beyond interpretation...

David Ross: "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" Middle of the Road, 1971

"A thinly disguised attack on the far-right regimes which then held sway in southern Europe and South America. The first and second verses were a clear condemnation of the tactics of arrest and detention without trial typical of these regimes."
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Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.petetownshend.co.uk/diary/di ... zone=diary

Pete Townshend writes -


27 May 2006


Won't Get Judged Again


Won't Get Fooled Again has been listed in the UK Independent Newspaper as the number one song with - as I understand it - the political message most often misunderstood - in this case the message is said to be 'conservative', a word that may mean different things in the UK and USA.

Of course the song has no party-allied political message at all. It is not precisely a song that decries revolution - it suggests that we will indeed fight in the streets - but that revolution, like all action can have results we cannot predict. Don't expect to see what you expect to see. Expect nothing and you might gain everything.

The song was meant to let politicians and revolutionaries alike know that what lay in the centre of my life was not for sale, and could not be co-opted into any obvious cause.

This was everything to do with what I believe to be the power of music and congregation and nothing to do with what any individual might do to use the language of modern rock and pop to express their privately held views. I suppose the 'universal' themes behind rock, that I have always espoused, can emerge over time looking vacuous, unspecific, vague and dilletantish. But despite its looseness, and its decadence, rock has lasted a lifetime, and still seems to prevail as the impudent portal for the naive complaints of the hopeful young.

From 1971 - when I wrote Won't Get Fooled Again - to 1985, there was a transition in me from refusal to be co-opted by activists, to a refusal to be judged by people I found jaded and compliant in Thatcher's Britain. Peter Gabriel and I spoke often on the phone about work we were doing with David Astor, Neville Vincent, Donald Woods and Lord Goodman to raise money to help spring Nelson Mandela from gaol in South Africa. We realized quickly that what we were doing was buying guns for the ANC, an organisation that some on the far right believed were no better than the IRA. Nelson was sprung, so everything turned out well. But when in the mid-nineties, one of the very last IRA bombs went off in a theatre in London close to where my musical of Tommy was about to open, I decided my karma had come around full circle.

Not all action to change the world has to be trumpeted from the rooftops by Bono editing the Independent newspaper (though it was a fantastic and audacious stunt equal to Lord Matthew Evans giving me an editorial chair at Faber and Faber in 1985), or from the scaffolding of a rock festival. Roger Daltrey does indeed play rock 'n' roll with Richard "Dirty" Desmond (who owns some big newspapers among other things), but he himself gets down and dirty visiting hospitals where the teenage cancer victims for whom they raise money struggle to survive. He holds them, laughs with them, and gives them hope. This is One-to-One stuff of the kind that I find I am incapable. I can meet and speak with survivors of sexual abuse, drug abuse and the victims of all kinds of domestic violence, but I have what I now know is a quite common problem with those who might suddenly die on me in a hospital, clinic or hospice.

I am just a song-writer. The actions I carry out are my own, and are usually private until some digger-after-dirt questions my methods. What I write is interpreted, first of all by Roger Daltrey. Won't Get Fooled Again - then - was a song that pleaded '….leave me alone with my family to live my life, so I can work for change in my own way….'. But when Roger Daltrey screamed as though his heart was being torn out in the closing moments of the song, it became something more to so many people. And I must live with that. In the film Summer of Sam the song is used to portray white-boy 'street' idiocy; a kind of fascist absurdity, men swinging their arms over air-guitars and smashing up furniture. Spike Lee told my manager that '…he deeply understood Who music….'. What he understood was what he himself - like so many others - had made it. He saw an outrage and frustration, even a judgment or empty indictment in the song that wasn't there. What is there is a prayer.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------



http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/06/03/191923.php

A Dozen Rock Songs for Conservatives
June 03, 2006
Al Barger

John J Miller published an article a few days ago at National Review listing the top 50 "conservative" rock songs. It's been quite the talk of the net, getting responses from, among others, Pete Townshend himself- author of the #1 song on this list, "Won't Get Fooled Again." Lots of folks on the 'net have been talking it up, down, and sideways. This includes particularly brother Blogritic Pete Blackwell. Indeed, it's been so popular that Miller himself took another bite of the apple.

I've avoided jumping on this because I'm real skeptical of the general idea of sticking ideological tags on art. For one thing, it's an invitation to hijack the artist's intentions. For example, I was most sympathetic to Bruce Springsteen's displeasure with the Reagan re-election team glomming onto "Born in the USA." Lots of Miller's choices are REALLY reaching, such as "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by the Beach Boys — as if marriage and family are only of interest to right-wingers. Likewise, labeling religious themes as inherently "conservative" definitely seems like cheating.

Most of all though, even when they're not misappropriation, attaching ideological labels to songs tends to reduce the meaning, grinding down the complexities of a work of art 'til they lose the beauty of the melody. I can see how Miller got "conservative" out of "Won't Get Fooled Again," but Townshend's response is pretty much making my point. Miller was dumbing it down till there was not much left of the larger spiritual thrust of the Who song.

So I don't believe in this whole type of thing very much- but I'm going to get in on some of it anyway. I can't help myself. I love music lists. Rand knows I've written enough of them. They're fun. Plus, they might reasonably be good at provoking some consideration of the actual meaning of an abstract word like "conservative."

To minimize the damage to propriety though, I'm going to slightly re-frame this humble addition to the Miller list. I certainly will not claim that any of these artists are "conservatives." Rather than distort the artist's intent, I'll bring this in from the consumer side. I won't even say that these songs are conservative. Rather, here are a dozen rock songs that might likely have special appeal to "conservatives" as I understand the term, regardless of the intent of the creators.

"The Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Song" by the Flaming Lips
Let's start with the most recent song that comes to mind, from the Flaming Lips. The central "yeah, yeah, yeah" chorus of this song strongly puts me in mind of the Kelly brothers singing informative songs on the SNL Weekend Update — which is cool, cause they're actually fairly musical.

Anyway, there's a broader point, but the lyrics express not a skepticism of the particular people in power, but in ANYBODY having power. "It's a very dangerous thing to do exactly what you want/Because you cannot know yourself or what you'd really do/
With all your power"

"Money and Corruption/I'm Your Man" by the Kinks

I could well enough make a whole list of "conservative" songs by Ray Davies. He was famously swimming against the hip tide even during the sixties, with the whole Village Green Preservation Society album, for starters. Per his titles, it might be better to call him a conservationist or preservationist. Plus, you could reasonably argue that his opposition to land developers and such is really left-wing environmentalism — though it's a lot more than that as it comes from Davies.

But calling Ray Davies a "conservative" would be just the kind of dumbing down that I'm objecting to, reducing the kinks of his thinking to an ideological label that doesn't represent his thinking. For one thing, Ray Davies' work has often been informed by a distinctly Marxist class consciousness.

The conflict becomes most clear in this centerpiece cut from the criminally underappreciated Preservation, Act I. This is one of the greatest songs and recordings of their distinguished career, in which he lays out the kinks in the form of an extended composition. It's like Ray's saying that he WANTS to be a good Marxist revolutionary — but he knows the bad places that will lead.

The "money and corruption" part is a rousing rock song, the rabble crying out in the streets while "crooked politicians betray the working man, pocketing the profits and treating us like sheep." But then it becomes an entirely different tune halfway through in a different voice, as a man of the people rises up to lead them with a swelling vocal chorus of the proletariat backing his campaign plan. "I'm your man. I'll work out a five year plan." Thank God. But soon enough he's talking about nationalizing the wealthy companies "and all the directors will be answerable to me." This isn't an argument for free markets over socialism, but again an underlying distrust of giving ANYONE power. But to my thinking, that's the more important principle.

"Brown Sugar" by the Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones were never anybody's idea of good liberals. They have famously been described as the guys who show up at the protest rally to pick up chicks. Still, one might understandably be puzzled that I would pick this tale of decadent S&M in the slavehouse as a "conservative" sentiment.

I can't speak for Mick Jagger, but to me the truly transgressive element of this is not anything to do with sex. I take this as an extremely aggressive rejection of white guilt, and the liberal guilt-driven racial politics emerging that way about the time they were recording the song. Reinforcing that general idea, consider Jagger's famously non-conciliatory response when Jesse Jackson bitched about the supposed racism of the song "Some Girls." "F**k him if he can't take a joke."

"America, F**k Yeah" from Team America

Yes, there is irony in the aggressive nationalism of the Team America theme song. It's parody and satire, and specifically includes such bad things such as slavery. But the real irony of it - and the key to understanding the whole movie - is that this song is essentially sincere. The Americans might to some extent be arrogant "dicks," but they are in fact the good guys on whom the world depends. Again with similar caveats, understand that the country song "Freedom Isn't Free" is likewise basically sincere, however many loop-de-loops they jump through getting there.

"America" by Prince

Prince has never particularly expressed any clear political philosophy, but he's one cat in particular that I would especially never, ever want in a position of power. He's got a strong authoritarian streak that should not be trusted with power. He may be the greatest one musician in the rock era, but when he sings "If you want to play with me, you better learn the rules," well never mind. No, I'm not that interested in playing.

His religious and spiritual mystical stuff often comes across to me as proclaiming a divine kingly mandate to rule. For example, the perfectly good song "Still Would Stand All Time" has stuck in my craw since it came out many years ago. "No one man will be ruler, therefore love must rule us all." Hmm. Exactly WHO is going to get the divine mandate to define "love"? Who better to trust with such a duty than the one who loves so much that he'd sing "I Would Die 4U" - which sounds to me like a straight up guilt-trip power play. Emotional fascism, as per the famous discarded Elvis Costello album title.

But "America" from Around the World in a Day has an odd and uniquely right-wing patriotic flavor. "Communism is just a word/But if the government turns over, it'll be the only word that's heard." But most distinctly right-wing is the curious accusatory attack on the patriotism of public school teachers in the extro. "Teacher, why won't Jimmy pledge allegiance?"

"I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door, and I'll Get It Myself)" by James Brown

I'd be particularly loathe to presume to say that James Brown is "conservative," but at least this particular song undeniably flies in the face of the demanding "welfare rights" rhetoric of the era when it was recorded, or the scattershot crazed rhetoric more common today proclaiming that anyone who doesn't believe in appropriate annual increases in welfare spending is a Nazi. Then again, I could imagine a liberal trying to argue that "opening up the door" would mean affirmative action programs and such.

It's not exactly my idea of "conservative," but if you wanted a less clearly positive JB sentiment that might be described as rightwing you could throw in the highly enthusiastic 13 minute celebration of brutal corporal punishment "Papa Don't Take No Mess." Some days it almost sounds like demonic possession. "When we did wrong, Papa beat the HELL out of us. HIT ME!"

"Long Haired Country Boy" by Charlie Daniels

The whole tone of the song is distinctly opposed to believing in government, preachers, or anybody else solving problems for the narrator or society. It particularly came to mind coupled with the JB "I don't want nobody to give me nothing" theme. In this case, the key line of chorus is "I ain't asking nobody for nothing if I can't get it on my own."

"Get Over It" by OK Go

It's not any kind of statement on public policy, but the cutting power chords of my favorite song of 2002 are an absolutely brutal rebuke to the whole culture of helpless victimhood that is a large part of the justification for modern leftists.

"(Nothing But) Flowers" by the Talking Heads
This beautiful and gentle funk from the underappreciated Naked album is the dis-ease of a good, conscientious liberal. David Byrne has been thankfully discreet about his voting habits and such, but this fantasy of returning to nature is a liberal's despairing lament. He WANTS to believe in unpaving Joni Mitchell's parking lots from the "Big Yellow Taxi" and returning to paradise. But the whole song is built on his angst of knowing how utterly untenable that perfect idealistic liberal environmentalist paradise is. "I can't get used to this lifestyle." He WANTS to believe in all that stuff, but he knows better.

"The Hold Up" by David Bromberg
This old fave was co-written by George Harrison, though I don't know of him ever recording it. It's a groovy little Mexican fiesta of an anti-tax song where tax collectors and bandits are pretty much the same thing. As the banditos express it, "Tax time is coming, give alms to the poor, or I'll put a bullet right through your best liver."

"If 6 Was 9" by Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix wouldn't have made much of a Republican (HA!), but the whole thrust of this classic blast is a denial of liberal social responsibilities, or any idea of being his brother's keeper. It's the anti-"He Ain't Heavy." "Fall mountains, just don't fall on me." Not his problem. You could argue that this is a bad, antisocial sentiment — "selfishness." But it sure ain't some liberal goody two-shoes crap.

"Look at All Those Idiots" by Montgomery Burns and Waylon Smithers
Let us conclude this list with the ruling evil arch-conservative of television land, J. Montgomery Burns from The Simpsons. This is from The Simpsons Sing the Blues, which had the massive hit single "Do the Bartman." But as a right wingnut, I was of course immediately and forevermore taken with Burns totally appropriate and effective factory produced funk, particularly Smithers kickass guitar solo.

Obviously one would have to take any sentiments coming out of Burns' mouth with some idea of ironic artistic distance to get at what exactly the creators might have meant. Burns is the root of all evil. But the true beauty of the Burns character is that as evil as he is, he's very often got an undeniable point. Homer Simpson and the general lot of American workers that he represents DESERVE Burns in spades. Poor downtrodden workers my butt.

Burns is an effective devil's advocate, and there's a strong ring of truth to his complaints against lazy, thieving workers who "never give a thought to honest work for honest pay.
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Who Shot Sam?
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Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Thought this was clever, from Salon.com's "Audiofile":

The top 10 liberal anthems of all time!

John J. Miller at the National Review recently put together a list of the "Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs of All Time." Needless to say, some of the choices seemed more the product of Miller's analytical desperation and tin ear rather than anything inherent to the song. (The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" as an argument against moral relativism?) The Who's Pete Townshend has even spoken out against his song "Won't Get Fooled Again" landing at No. 1. (You can see what other suggestions readers of War Room had for the list here.)

In the spirit of Miller's list, here are 10 seemingly conservative or innocuous songs that, with a little creativity, can be made to yield liberal or, dare we say it, even subversive messages:

1. Toby Keith, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)"
A scathing, ironic indictment of conservatives' use of symbolic language and the violent aftermath (also note the progressive assignation of democracy as a female entity): "Man, it's gonna be hell/ When you hear Momma Freedom start ringin' her bell."

2. Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Red, White and Blue"
The veteran Southern rockers offer a rebuke to upper-bracket tax breaks: "My Daddy worked hard, and so have I/ Paid our taxes and gave our lives to serve this great country/ So what are they complaining about?"

3. Merle Haggard, "Okie From Muskogee"
Haggard sympathizes with the plight of liberals forced underground by restrictive social mores: "We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee/ We don't take our trips on LSD/ We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street/ We like livin' right, and bein' free."

4. The Knack, "My Sharona"
A mainstay on the president's iPod, this song offers a provocative inquiry into the psychological state of the sexually deviant: "Is it just destiny, destiny?/ Or is it just a game in my mind, Sharona?/ Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind/ Always get it up for the touch of the younger kind."

5. Metallica, "Don't Tread on Me"
Deciphering conservative doublespeak: "So be it/ Threaten no more/ To secure peace is to prepare for war."

6. Barry Sadler, "The Ballad of the Green Beret"
Contrasting the integrity and bravery of the troops with that of those who send them to war: "Fighting soldiers from the sky/ Fearless men who jump and die/ Men who mean just what they say/ The brave men of the Green Beret."

7. Jimmie Rodgers, "T for Texas"
A comment on red state inhospitality: "I'd rather drink your muddy water/ Sleep down in a hollow log/ Than to be in Atlanta, Georgia/ Treated like a dirty dog."

8. Grand Funk Railroad, "We're an American Band"
The "American" temperament as essentially communal and hedonistic: "We're an American band/ We're coming to your town/ We'll help you party it down/ We're an American band."

9. Lee Greenwood, "God Bless the USA"
A sad look back at pre-Patriot Act America: "I'd thank my lucky stars, to be livin' here today/ 'Cause the flag still stands for freedom, and they can't take that away."

10. George Michael, "Freedom"
Realpolitik as currently practiced -- think WMD: "All we have to do now/ Is take these lies/ And make them true somehow."
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Post by Copenhagen Fan »

Won't Get Fooled Again is not conservative at all. In my eyes it's more about disolusion and anger at being fucked over by both sides of the political spectrum. If you recal the "incident" at Woodstock where Pete booted Abby Hoffman off the stage, then you'll understand Pete's gig. He's not going to be used by pseudo political wacko messias. He's not hopping on the bandwagon. The song's message is to think for yourself!!!!!!!!!! If that's a conservative thought then so be it. Refer also to Tommy. Same type of gig. The messiah rises to the top based on a banal gift of playing pinball, and becomes a power hungry creep. Maybe another of Pete's motivations is based on the fact that he is a rockstar and people started looking to him for leadership. His spin is that this is a bit rediculous, as who is he to tell us what to do? Dylan has also struggled with this shit. The voice of a generation. WGFA is calls for politcal apathy. It's not conservative. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" pretty much sums up the American political situation. The same old shit packaged in different ways to FOOL ya!........................
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Post by invisible Pole »

Wasn't "Won't Get Fooled Again" the song that Townshend refused to be used by Michael Moore in his (so-called) documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 ?
There was a "nice" exchange of comments between the two, as far as I recall.
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Post by noiseradio »

"Won't Get Fooled Again" is jaded, deeply cynical, and (I think) terribly realistic. I think it says that if real change would come they'd be happy, but that they doubt all the change has done anything. The radicals from before will simply replace the status quo. "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss." I don't think it's conservative or liberal. It's equally dismissive of both teams as useless windbags. And may I just add, amen.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
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Post by BlueChair »

I agree with noise and Cope about "Won't Get Fooled Again." It's like an anthem for the apathetic... no wonder the grunge generation likes that song so much.
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