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dougw
Citizen
Username: Dougw
Post Number: 832
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 7:03 pm: | 
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From National Review
1. “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” by The Who.
The conservative movement is full of disillusioned revolutionaries; this could be their theme song, an oath that swears off naïve idealism once and for all. “There’s nothing in the streets / Looks any different to me / And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye. . . . Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.” The instantly recognizable synthesizer intro, Pete Townshend’s ringing guitar, Keith Moon’s pounding drums, and Roger Daltrey’s wailing vocals make this one of the most explosive rock anthems ever recorded — the best number by a big band, and a classic for conservatives.
2. “Taxman,” by The Beatles.
A George Harrison masterpiece with a famous guitar riff (which was actually played by Paul McCartney): “If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street / If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat / If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat / If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.” The song closes with a humorous jab at death taxes: “Now my advice for those who die / Declare the pennies on your eyes.”
3. “Sympathy for the Devil,” by The Rolling Stones.
Don’t be misled by the title; this song is The Screwtape Letters of rock. The devil is a tempter who leans hard on moral relativism — he will try to make you think that “every cop is a criminal / And all the sinners saints.” What’s more, he is the sinister inspiration for the cruelties of Bolshevism: “I stuck around St. Petersburg / When I saw it was a time for a change / Killed the czar and his ministers / Anastasia screamed in vain.”
4. “Sweet Home Alabama,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
A tribute to the region of America that liberals love to loathe, taking a shot at Neil Young’s Canadian arrogance along the way: “A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow.”
5. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” by The Beach Boys.
Pro-abstinence and pro-marriage: “Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true / Baby then there wouldn’t be a single thing we couldn’t do / We could be married / And then we’d be happy.”
6. “Gloria,” by U2.
Just because a rock song is about faith doesn’t mean that it’s conservative. But what about a rock song that’s about faith and whose chorus is in Latin? That’s beautifully reactionary: “Gloria / In te domine / Gloria / Exultate.”
7. “Revolution,” by The Beatles.
“You say you want a revolution / Well you know / We all want to change the world . . . Don’t you know you can count me out?” What’s more, Communism isn’t even cool: “If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao / You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow.” (Someone tell the Che Guevara crowd.)
8. “Bodies,” by The Sex Pistols.
Violent and vulgar, but also a searing anti-abortion anthem by the quintessential punk band: “It’s not an animal / It’s an abortion.”
9. “Don’t Tread on Me,” by Metallica.
A head-banging tribute to the doctrine of peace through strength, written in response to the first Gulf War: “So be it / Threaten no more / To secure peace is to prepare for war.”
10. “20th Century Man,” by The Kinks.
“You keep all your smart modern writers / Give me William Shakespeare / You keep all your smart modern painters / I’ll take Rembrandt, Titian, da Vinci, and Gainsborough. . . . I was born in a welfare state / Ruled by bureaucracy / Controlled by civil servants / And people dressed in grey / Got no privacy got no liberty / ’Cause the 20th-century people / Took it all away from me.”
11. “The Trees,” by Rush. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
Before there was Rush Limbaugh, there was Rush, a Canadian band whose lyrics are often libertarian. What happens in a forest when equal rights become equal outcomes? “The trees are all kept equal / By hatchet, axe, and saw.”
12. “Neighborhood Bully,” by Bob Dylan. ; buy CD on Amazon.com A pro-Israel song released in 1983, two years after the bombing of Iraq’s nuclear reactor, this ironic number could be a theme song for the Bush Doctrine: “He destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad / The bombs were meant for him / He was supposed to feel bad / He’s the neighborhood bully.”
13. “My City Was Gone,” by The Pretenders. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
Virtually every conservative knows the bass line, which supplies the theme music for Limbaugh’s radio show. But the lyrics also display a Jane Jacobs sensibility against central planning and a conservative’s dissatisfaction with rapid change: “I went back to Ohio / But my pretty countryside / Had been paved down the middle / By a government that had no pride.”
14. “Right Here, Right Now,” by Jesus Jones. buy CD on Amazon.com
The words are vague, but they’re also about the fall of Communism and the end of the Cold War: “I was alive and I waited for this. . . . Watching the world wake up from history.”
15. “I Fought the Law,” by The Crickets. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
The original law-and-order classic, made famous in 1965 by The Bobby Fuller Four and covered by just about everyone since then.
16. “Get Over It,” by The Eagles. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
Against the culture of grievance: “The big, bad world doesn’t owe you a thing.” There’s also this nice line: “I’d like to find your inner child and kick its little •••.”
17. “Stay Together for the Kids,” by Blink 182. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
A eulogy for family values by an alt-rock band whose members were raised in a generation without enough of them: “So here’s your holiday / Hope you enjoy it this time / You gave it all away. . . . It’s not right.”
18. “Cult of Personality,” by Living Colour. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
A hard-rocking critique of state power, whacking Mussolini, Stalin, and even JFK: “I exploit you, still you love me / I tell you one and one makes three / I’m the cult of personality.”
19. “Kicks,” by Paul Revere and the Raiders. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
An anti-drug song that is also anti-utopian: “Well, you think you’re gonna find yourself a little piece of paradise / But it ain’t happened yet, so girl you better think twice.”
20. “Rock the Casbah,” by The Clash. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
After 9/11, American radio stations were urged not to play this 1982 song, one of the biggest hits by a seminal punk band, because it was seen as too provocative. Meanwhile, British Forces Broadcasting Service (the radio station for British troops serving in Iraq) has said that this is one of its most requested tunes.
21. “Heroes,” by David Bowie. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
A Cold War love song about a man and a woman divided by the Berlin Wall. No moral equivalence here: “I can remember / Standing / By the wall / And the guns / Shot above our heads / And we kissed / As though nothing could fall / And the shame / Was on the other side / Oh we can beat them / For ever and ever.”
22. “Red Barchetta,” by Rush. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
In a time of “the Motor Law,” presumably legislated by green extremists, the singer describes family reunion and the thrill of driving a fast car — an act that is his “weekly crime.”
23. “Brick,” by Ben Folds Five. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
Written from the perspective of a man who takes his young girlfriend to an abortion clinic, this song describes the emotional scars of “reproductive freedom”: “Now she’s feeling more alone / Than she ever has before. . . . As weeks went by / It showed that she was not fine.”
24. “Der Kommissar,” by After the Fire. buy CD on Amazon.com
On the misery of East German life: “Don’t turn around, uh-oh / Der Kommissar’s in town, uh-oh / He’s got the power / And you’re so weak / And your frustration / Will not let you speak.” Also a hit song for Falco, who wrote it.
25. “The Battle of Evermore,” by Led Zeppelin. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
The lyrics are straight out of Robert Plant’s Middle Earth period — there are lines about “ring wraiths” and “magic runes” — but for a song released in 1971, it’s hard to miss the Cold War metaphor: “The tyrant’s face is red.”
26. “Capitalism,” by Oingo Boingo. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
“There’s nothing wrong with Capitalism / There’s nothing wrong with free enterprise. . . . You’re just a middle class, socialist brat / From a suburban family and you never really had to work.”
27. “Obvious Song,” by Joe Jackson. buy CD on Amazon.com
For property rights and economic development, and against liberal hypocrisy: “There was a man in the jungle / Trying to make ends meet / Found himself one day with an axe in his hand / When a voice said ‘Buddy can you spare that tree / We gotta save the world — starting with your land’ / It was a rock ’n’ roll millionaire from the USA / Doing three to the gallon in a big white car / And he sang and he sang ’til he polluted the air / And he blew a lot of smoke from a Cuban cigar.”
28. “Janie’s Got a Gun,” by Aerosmith. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
How the right to bear arms can protect women from sexual predators: “What did her daddy do? / It’s Janie’s last I.O.U. / She had to take him down easy / And put a bullet in his brain / She said ’cause nobody believes me / The man was such a sleaze / He ain’t never gonna be the same.”
29. “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” by Iron Maiden. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
A heavy-metal classic inspired by a literary classic. How many other rock songs quote directly from Samuel Taylor Coleridge?
30. “You Can’t Be Too Strong,” by Graham Parker. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
Although it’s not explicitly pro-life, this tune describes the horror of abortion with bracing honesty: “Did they tear it out with talons of steel, and give you a shot so that you wouldn’t feel?”
31. “Small Town,” by John Mellencamp. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
A Burkean rocker: “No, I cannot forget where it is that I come from / I cannot forget the people who love me.”
32. “Keep Your Hands to Yourself,” by The Georgia Satellites. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
An outstanding vocal performance, with lyrics that affirm old-time sexual mores: “She said no huggy, no kissy until I get a wedding vow.”
33. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” by The Rolling Stones. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
You can “[go] down to the demonstration” and vent your frustration, but you must understand that there’s no such thing as a perfect society — there are merely decent and free ones.
34. “Godzilla,” by Blue öyster Cult. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
A 1977 classic about a big green monster — and more: “History shows again and again / How nature points up the folly of men.”
35. “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
Written as an anti–Vietnam War song, this tune nevertheless is pessimistic about activism and takes a dim view of both Communism and liberalism: “Five-year plans and new deals, wrapped in golden chains . . .”
36. “Government Cheese,” by The Rainmakers. buy CD on Amazon.com
A protest song against the welfare state by a Kansas City band that deserved more success than it got. The first line: “Give a man a free house and he’ll bust out the windows.”
37. “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” by The Band. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
Despite its sins, the American South always has been about more than racism — this song captures its pride and tradition.
38. “I Can’t Drive 55,” by Sammy Hagar. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
A rocker’s objection to the nanny state. (See also Hagar’s pro-America song “VOA.”)
39. “Property Line,” by The Marshall Tucker Band. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
The secret to happiness, according to these southern-rock heavyweights, is life, liberty, and property: “Well my idea of a good time / Is walkin’ my property line / And knowin’ the mud on my boots is mine.”
40. “Wake Up Little Susie,” by The Everly Brothers. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
A smash hit in 1957, back when high-school social pressures were rather different from what they have become: “We fell asleep, our goose is cooked, our reputation is shot.”
41. “The Icicle Melts,” by The Cranberries. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
A pro-life tune sung by Irish warbler Dolores O’Riordan: “I don’t know what’s happening to people today / When a child, he was taken away . . . ’Cause nine months is too long.”
42. “Everybody’s a Victim,” by The Proclaimers. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
Best known for their smash hit “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” this Scottish band also recorded a catchy song about the problem of suspending moral judgment: “It doesn’t matter what I do / You have to say it’s all right . . . Everybody’s a victim / We’re becoming like the USA.”
43. “Wonderful,” by Everclear. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
A child’s take on divorce: “I don’t wanna hear you say / That I will understand someday / No, no, no, no / I don’t wanna hear you say / You both have grown in a different way / No, no, no, no / I don’t wanna meet your friends / And I don’t wanna start over again / I just want my life to be the same / Just like it used to be.”
44. “Two Sisters,” by The Kinks. buy CD on Amazon.com
Why the “drudgery of being wed” is more rewarding than bohemian life.
45. “Taxman, Mr. Thief,” by Cheap Trick. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
An anti-tax protest song: “You work hard, you went hungry / Now the taxman is out to get you. . . . He hates you, he loves money.”
46. “Wind of Change,” by The Scorpions. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
A German hard-rock group’s optimistic power ballad about the end of the Cold War and national reunification: “The world is closing in / Did you ever think / That we could be so close, like brothers / The future’s in the air / I can feel it everywhere / Blowing with the wind of change.”
47. “One,” by Creed. ; buy CD on Amazon.com Against racial preferences: “Society blind by color / Why hold down one to raise another / Discrimination now on both sides / Seeds of hate blossom further.”
48. “Why Don’t You Get a Job,” by The Offspring. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
The lyrics aren’t exactly Shakespearean, but they’re refreshingly blunt and they capture a motive force behind welfare reform.
49. “Abortion,” by Kid Rock. buy CD on Amazon.com
A plaintive song sung by a man who confronts his unborn child’s abortion: “I know your brothers and your sister and your mother too / Man I wish you could see them too.”
50. “Stand By Your Man,” by Tammy Wynette. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
Hillary trashed it — isn’t that enough? If you’re worried that Wynette’s original is too country, then check out the cover version by Motörhead. |
llama
Citizen
Username: Llama
Post Number: 787
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 10:00 pm: |
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I would bet that almost all of them have liberal views now. |
tom
Citizen
Username: Tom
Post Number: 5018
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 11:06 pm: |
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another pathetic, grasping attempts by conservatives to pretend they're about something other than money and power. |
Dr. Winston O'Boogie
Citizen
Username: Casey
Post Number: 2141
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 11:08 pm: |
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this list proves once again that the cons are seriously irony-deficient |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9624
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 11:22 pm: |
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I see they dropped Born in the USA.
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tom
Citizen
Username: Tom
Post Number: 5020
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 11:30 pm: |
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Imagine if liberals tried to come up with the top 50 liberal country and western songs. That's what this is like. |
Ukealalio
Citizen
Username: Ukealalio
Post Number: 2563
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 1:29 am: |
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They can have Skynrd, Kid Rock and Creed, the rest is just pathetic grasping at straw.
If you doubt Skynrd, just read Al Kooper's great book about the music biz. Most of this band were a bunch of violent, racist, morons (they did however come up with a bunch a good tunes but then again so did Wagner). |
Foj
Citizen
Username: Foger
Post Number: 1443
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 1:32 am: |
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And the one in the rear burnt his draft card.
Who did that song? Was that Johnny Cash? You know the one I am talking about?
Country & Western was liberal until the Conservatives bought it, and turned it into American Idol. LOL. |
3ringale
Citizen
Username: Threeringale
Post Number: 220
Registered: 1-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 8:16 pm: |
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Rock music is incapable of conveying a conservative perspective on anything, and so, apparently, is National Review. Rock music is, for the most part, trite, idiotic and obscene. The best study available is Robert Pattison, The Triumph of Vulgarity: Rock Music in the Mirror of Romanticism, Oxford, 1987.
Cheers |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 9628
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 9:24 pm: |
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What would that make someone who writes about "trite, idiotic and obscene music"? |
ML
Supporter
Username: Ml1
Post Number: 3022
Registered: 5-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 9:28 pm: |
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I know -- it's only trite, idiotic, and obscene -- but I like it.
like it, yes I do. |
ina
Citizen
Username: Ina
Post Number: 365
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 4:12 am: |
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My virtual boyfriend, therudepundit, has a couple of pithy points:
Because to come up with fifty songs, the readers and editors of the National Review had to neglect, almost entirely, the politics and lifestyles of nearly every single one of the music acts on the list, like, say U2, the Clash, and the Sex Pistols, just for kicks, or noted cross-dressing androgyne David Bowie. They had to twist the meaning of lyrics so that vague references to "freedom" all of a sudden became calls to a modified libertarianism (you know, no taxes, but also no ****ing). |
3ringale
Citizen
Username: Threeringale
Post Number: 221
Registered: 1-2006
| | Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 9:14 am: |
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Dave,
If you read Pattison, and you should, you will see that he is a fan of sorts. The parallels with the Romantic poets are there for those who have eyes to see. In my opinion, Rock music can't support the weight given to it by its' detractors or supporters, be they "conservative" editors at National Review or a paunchy, pony-tailed, balding Woodstock veteran prattling about the "voice of a generation". A handful of pleasant ditties, suitable as background music for a burger and beer bash such as the one I will be attending this afternoon. Wasn't it Chuck Berry who summed up rock as three great chords and ten great songs? He ought to know.
Cheers |
Andrew Zorn
Citizen
Username: Andrewzorn
Post Number: 199
Registered: 1-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 2:19 pm: |
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What, no "Penny Lane"? |
Hoops
Citizen
Username: Hoops
Post Number: 1387
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 2:40 pm: |
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Lyrics -
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 are flown in the next 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
Though I know that the hypnotized never lie
Do ya?
There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Are now parting 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
Let me get this straight - this is a conservative song?
if revolution and change is conservative then I guess conservative revolution is not an oxymorons |
Ily
Citizen
Username: Ily
Post Number: 245
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 5:02 pm: |
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Pete's reaction to writing the #1 conservative song:
http://www.petetownshend.co.uk/diary/display.cfm?id=285&zone=diary
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Lydia
Supporter
Username: Lydial
Post Number: 1912
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 9:51 pm: |
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Ily -
thanks for the link - this list of so-called conservative songs is so bizarre, it brings to mind when Reagan wanted to use "little pink houses" as a rallying cry for the right.
I don't have time and I don't want to parse the list song by song - but "Wake up Little Susie"??
It's a song about high school kids making out, probably doing "it" and falling asleep in a car.
I absolutely can't figure out why that song made the conservative list - I think it was even banned back in the day.
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The Notorious S.L.K.
Citizen
Username: Scrotisloknows
Post Number: 1528
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 9:57 pm: |
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Yeah, all those banning conservatives....
I wonder what Tipper Gore and the rest of her PMRC crew would say about this list?
-SLK |
sbenois
Supporter
Username: Sbenois
Post Number: 15088
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 10:02 pm: |
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Actually, Won't Get Fooled Again and Revolution are both very ambiguous songs in terms of political beliefs.
I am particularly amused by the fact that the lyrics to Revolution in the article above are misquoted. While Lennon does sing "don't you know that you can count me out", he also sings quietly the word in a split second later.
I'm surprised that they didn't use some of the lyrics from the Beatles' unreleased "No Pakistanis" song which later evolved into Get Back
don't dig no Pakistanis taking all the peoples' jobs!
Get Back!
Get Back
Get Back to where you once belonged |
Albatross
Citizen
Username: Albatross
Post Number: 844
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 10:05 pm: |
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Now that the ugly truth is revealed, I will be deleting all of these songs from my digital music library. I am considering putting the artists on my personal blacklist. I will only listen to music that subliminally supports the international Communist conspiracy.
No, seriously, after Hoops' post I can't stop listening to The Who. |
themp
Supporter
Username: Themp
Post Number: 2971
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 11:45 am: |
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How about "Guilty of Being White" by Minor Threat? |
themp
Supporter
Username: Themp
Post Number: 2972
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 12:00 pm: |
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Naked Raygun - Peacemaker
Dead Kennedys - California Uber Alles
I am Governor Jerry Brown
My aura smiles
And never frowns
Soon I will be president...
The Fall - Pay you Rates
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The Notorious S.L.K.
Citizen
Username: Scrotisloknows
Post Number: 1535
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 12:38 pm: |
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Or "Public Assistance" by Agnostic Front? |
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 3269
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 12:40 pm: |
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Joe Jackson - Obvious Song |
themp
Supporter
Username: Themp
Post Number: 2973
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2006 - 1:03 pm: |
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http://www.wsbtv.com/news/9293414/detail.html |
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