House Democrats released a package of economic measures late Wednesday that included a $2 billion boost to state unemployment insurance programs, more than $1 billion in nutritional aid, a new paid leave benefit for employees affected by the outbreak, and an increase in federal Medicaid spending, as well as a guarantee of free coronavirus testing.
But that package met a frosty reception from the White House and congressional Republicans,
I have two questions, one musical, one religious. Why are there so few songs attacking political leaders in brutal terms, given that rock n’ roll is supposed to be about sticking it to the man? I can’t think of many at all, aside from some by the Clash.
Now onto the religious question. If so many people in politics are religious, then why don’t they ever talk about avoiding going to hell? As in “I have to vote for this or I am afraid I will go to hell”? That calculation enters my mind all the time, and I’m agnostic. At the very least, on my deathbed, I’d like to receive total consciousness, so I can have that going for me. Why don’t politicians seem to care about things like that?
Speaking of what assholes Senate Republicans are….Give here to the Balloon Juice Senate fund which is split between the eventual Democratic nominees in Maine, Iowa, NC, Arizona, Georgia, and Colorado and….just added Montana! Feel free to split it up however you like. And you can use a burner email, as the kids say, if you don’t want to get too much campaign email. (You can also unsubscribe.)
schrodingers_cat
There are many songs in Indian languages which directly call out the rulers whether they be the British in the colonial era. The Congress under Indira Gandhi or the BJP government now
Salam Kijiye
Salute our masters, who have come to give an accounting of the last 5 years (elections terms are 5 years for members of the Parliament)
Elizabelle
President Gas by the Psychedelic Furs. (One of my favorite bands, and still touring.)
sdhays
This is easy. Since Jesus died for our sins, we can do whatever we want and ask “forgiveness”, and we’re good.
This is not a joke. That’s mainstream Christian doctrine.
Elizabelle
@AnonPhenom: Your link has gone crazy. Can you edit or delete it??
Baud
I think very few voters would like to hear their politicians regularly say they are voting their personal religion. The most you get is on the conservative side where candidates advocate for policies grounded in their social religion.
kc from stl
It’s not really rock and roll, but Eilen Jewell’s The Flood attacks political leaders in pretty brutal terms.
Another Scott
Um, Dead Kennedys – Nazi Punks? (I’m not sure if that’s the title.)
Etc.
They’re monsters. We have to do everything we can to vote them out.
Thanks for this, DougJ, and for all you and the FPers do here.
Cheers,
Scott.
delk
Tramp the Dirt Down by Elvis Costello.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Clean up on aisle 2!
Priorities and perspective:
DougJ
@Elizabelle:
I deleted it
Citizen Alan
Everyone’s afraid of getting “Dixie Chicked.” And Clear Channel stations probably wouldn’t give airtime to any serious protest songs. Although I’m surprised you had to go all the way back to the Clash and skipped over Rage Against the Machine. Which, arguably, was performative leftist BS that never effected any real change, but it did exist.
Marcopolo
If you have Republican Senators call them NOW. Like immediately. Here is the email I just sent to my circle–as Missourians we have two R senators:
The Congressional switchboard number is: (202) 224-3121
Kent
This is a time for scorched earth. Republicans have proven themselves incapable of governing in a crisis. Pelosi and the Dems should not be fucking around and enabling the traditional GOP bullshit like tax cuts. People are not choosing to avoid restaurants and travel BECAUSE THEY LACK MONEY. They are doing it because they are afraid and are told to do those things. Putting a few extra dollars into people’s paychecks isn’t going to bring out a wave of restaurant and travel spending. Not until we get this virus eradicated.
Dems should not even be considering any measures that don’t directly fight the virus. Paid leave, medicare funding, unemployment insurance, they all help people fight or survive the virus. The rest we can deal with later.
Frankensteinbeck
Because religion in American politics is almost exclusively* American evangelical Protestantism. American evangelical Protestantism is a hate cult which centers around an obsession with other people going to Hell while the evangelical is a superior being who should not be questioned by their lessers. The kind of question you’re proposing is not part of their mental toolkit.
*Catholicism has pulled a strange trick of adopting evangelical discourse while pointing evangelicals at hate targets.
DougJ
@delk:
That’s a great one. Have been thinking of making Tramp the Dirt Down a category here to be used whenever an asshole dies.
RandomMonster
NOFX – Idiot Son of an Asshole
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
One thought occured to me recently: what if COVID-19 and the economic effects drive down voter turnout this November?
Elizabelle
@DougJ: And it’s so melodic, for being so bitter. Yea for Elvis Costello. Again.
Neech
Off the top of my head I can think of three songs that are pretty brutal attacks on political leaders:
Bush Killa by Paris
Police State by Agnostic Front, which includes the line “Giuliani, fuck you, die.”
Who Shot Rudy? by Screwball
Elizabelle
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): More vote by mail. I think it could spur voting. People will be desperate to punish Trump and his maladministration.
Have you noted the numbers voting in the primaries? People could not wait to get out there and express themselves with a vote.
The Dangerman
Hey, no fair, I thought this would be about Trump being in the immediate presence of that Brazilian Man who has now tested positive; I figure Trump is right behind the Dude that shot the Pope in having a “Hell Express” ticket.
p.a.
Richard Thompson eviscerated Maggie Thatcher in Mother Knows Best.
Kink’s Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire is pretty good.
But both are 1,2, or 3 generations old.
natem
pretty much the all of Green Day’s American Idiot fit the bill. Not a fan in general of their oeuvre but giving that a listen was quite cathartic back in 2004.
Baud
Punchy
Wasn’t Green Day’s “American Idiot” about the GBush II and the GOP in general?
Puddinhead
Holiday by Green Day is a pretty overt and brutal political protest song.
Ksmiami
The only good Republican is a dead one. They are a danger to America
MCA1
Bloc Party’s “Helicopter” was pretty clearly dragging W. Odd that most of the examples given in the thread so far are from British musicians.
The Moar You Know
I both play and write music and have been since the mid-1980s. The last music I heard that had any attempts to “stick it to the man” would be Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet. Rock got co-opted, man. Bought out because everyone couldn’t wait to sell out. You certainly should have realized that twenty years ago when Zeppelin (what a spectacular metaphor this is) sold “Rock N’ Roll” to Cadillac for a commercial.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Missus is effectively unemployed with zero commissions for probably six months, with strangled commissions after. Last year,150K. This year, she’ll be lucky to break 20.
Renie
We need more of the anti-war songs from the 1960s updated for today. ie., Country Joe and the Fish,
Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs. Creedence Clearwater Revivial, etc. (yes I’m showing my age but most I remember from older siblings playing the songs).
MCA1
@natem: Good call. That’s probably their magnum opus, and they were definitely speaking my anger at the time.
oldster
@delk:
My first thought.
Vtholder
If you’re saved ,had a come to Jesus moment, you have a license to kill. All your sins habe been forgiven….and if you are not one of them, you’re not TRUELY a Christian. That includes almost all protestant( Episcopal, Luth eran, Methodists and Roman catholics)
I am a lazy Episcopalian, was informed of this by a Bob Jones University student teacher. I don’t count as a Christian if not “saved by a personal relationship with Jesus”.
Therefore, their faith in action only extends to few.
narya
ALL of Springsteen’s “Wrecking Ball” disc. Some songs are about the effects on specific people, but a few eviscerate the folks who crashed the economy. And one song has a line that always resonates with me: “The hands that built the country we’re always trying to keep out.” And some of his concerts/live shows make explicit political commentary.
Over time, Wrecking Ball has become my second-favorite Springsteen album (after “Darkness,” which will always have a place in my heart).
Eolirin
King Missile put out a song that was basically just Fuck W over and over again for like 4 minutes straight
divF
Jefferson Airplane, “Volunteers”.
I am not endorsing it, mind you – too much inchoate talk about “revolution”.
schrodingers_cat
Bob Dylan and Neil Diamond also too Dixie Chicks.
SFAW
Black Boys on Mopeds?
ETA: Although there’s only one line explicitly directed at Thatcher
Gin & Tonic
Prophetic?
Well I’m about to get sick
From watchin’ my TV
Been checkin’ out the news
Until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean to say that every day
Is just another rotten mess
And when it’s gonna change, my friend
Is anybody’s guess
So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’
Hopin’ for the best
Even think I’ll go to prayin’
Every time I hear ’em sayin’
That there’s no way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin’ every day
From “Trouble Every Day”, Zappa/Mothers, 1966
Dorothy A. Winsor
NickM
The Day that Margaret Thatcher Dies by Peter Wylie burns with vitriol and rocks, too. It should be repurposed now that the celebrated day has come and gone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcXi-VYy_Yw
MCA1
@Citizen Alan: “Which, arguably, was performative leftist BS that never effected any real change, but it did exist.”
I’m not quite sure what that means. Was it performative bs because it didn’t effect real change? Or because you think Tom Morello didn’t sincerely hold the views he expressed in their lyrics? I mean, they were pretty revolutionary lyrics – was it performative because the band didn’t also lead actual pitchfork parades? I’m not a huge fan of theirs (though I used to have “Know Your Enemy” on a workout playlist) and don’t follow their non-music lives – are they total sellouts or something?
stoned stats
“Take a Bow” by Muse.
The Moar You Know
@sdhays: I would have laughed at your hyperbole, but it’s not hyperbole; it really is mainstream modern Christian doctrine. My wife teaches high school and, as part of their mandatory education on bullying, had lectured her class on treating each other nicely, and a girl stood up and said she didn’t have to as Jesus had already forgiven her and she could do whatever she wanted to whoever she wanted.
I’d have liked to have written that off as an isolated sociopath, but the rest of the class absolutely agreed with her.
My wife left teaching high school last year and is in the junior high system now, and much happier.
Kelly
Vote by mail means paper ballots so it’s a double win.
WereBear
For a song which calls out a syndrome I think of “Dirty Laundry” by Don Henley.
ewrunning
On the first question, can’t do much better than Neil Young’s “Living with War” album response to the Iraq War, especially individual cuts “Shock and Awe” and “Let’s Impeach the President (for Lyin).” I still break my copy out occasionally for nostalgic purposes.
Looking back to my youth, check out Chicago (yes, I know Chicago) and their “A Song for Richard and his Friends.” Never got much airplay, for some strange reason.
Mike J
Dead Kennedys wrote a song specifically attacking Jerry Brown for being a nazi. And then turned around a few years later and made the same song about Reagan.
This was my awakening to how stupid punk political philosophy could be.
Bonzo goes to Bitberg was catchy though.
realbtl
Man of God- Eliza Gilkyson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebcdw-E0PGI
K488
Going way back, the Beatles’ Tax Man, which name-checks both Wilson and Heath, prime ministers of great Britain in the late ’60’s and early ’70s.
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Self-isolating with Sophie Grégoire sounds like a lot of fun.
Just sayin’.
Calouste
The Fletcher Memorial Home by Pink Floyd, and most of The Final Cut album.
dexwood
Randy Newman – Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=randy+newman+mr.+president
L85NJGT
Just watched that fail from last night, and the vibe was very much 5th grade book report, and the class dip shit who didn’t read his material slapping something together before the bell.
Uh…thank you, Donnie……
Randolf Hurts
Politicians In My Eyes by Death is maybe the best.
Also surprised no one has mentioned Rage Against The Machine
Vtholder
@The Moar You Know: Another bible besides KJV are often the bible of choice. Some were versions I’d never heard of. I seldom heard ANY references to The sermon on the mount, which is the basis of Christianity….many gospels of Matthew are not known and their response was,I’ll have to get back with you,when I would quote Matthew 25:31…feeding the hungry.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@trollhattan:
I admit that didn’t occur to me.
VOR
“Talk Talk” from A Perfect Circle attacks politicians who offer Thoughts and Prayers to victims of gun violence. https://youtu.be/-aOyAvbj2Fg
“You’re waiting on miracles, we’re bleeding out”. “While you deliberate, bodies accumulate”. “Sit and talk like Jesus, try walking like Jesus”.
schrodingers_cat
OT:
BTW I did see some of John Oliver’s bit on Modi after getting several recommendations. He was too soft on Modi, he bought into too much of the official hagiography and propaganda, I turned it off after 7 minutes.
Modi has been a career politician and has been member of the RSS since he was 8. Toilets and the gas connections are official propaganda by a practiced liar who has the machinery of the state to perpetuate those lies. I need to see the numbers corroborated by an independent organization before I believe them.
The Dangerman
@Calouste:
Fine album; doesn’t get it’s due.
Going back to Animals (and Pigs):
Hey you, Whitehouse
Ha, ha, charade you are
Whitehouse, FWIW, is not our Whitehouse, but it fits. It was about Mary Whitehouse, who was a Conservative activist in GB.
trollhattan
@Mike J:
“California Uber Alles.” The Kennedys were getting their chops together for “Holiday in Cambodia” which is a poke at kneejerk lefties who were kind of enamored with the Khmer Rouge, until their horrors became more widely known.
It was a weird time, and then suddenly we had ourselves a President Reagan. What a treat.
RandomMonster
Neil Young with the following: “Ohio”, “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World”
chopper
lots of old punk rock stuff that was virulently anti-reagan, but much of it was small-time bands.
Kelly
John Prine, Some Humans Ain’t Human
“Some cowboy from Texas
Starts his own war in Iraq”
kh
Bruce Cockburn – Call It Democracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfcfdt0jcWs
Elizabelle
When does Joe Biden speak? Is there a set time?
L85NJGT
Joe’s up next.
Mike J
@trollhattan: Yeah, but Jerry Brown was never a tankie.
arrieve
@narya: Yes, I love Wrecking Ball.
I just had the most semi-apocalyptic moment in a week full of bad news — I went to the post office at lunch hour and there was no line. No one there.
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Can you imagine Melania’s response if she had to bunker with Donny for two weeks? She’d throw herself out of a window.
L85NJGT
Joe:
https://youtu.be/YLi5QqxdIU4
Elizabelle
Ah. Biden very shortly. WaPost already has a stream ready for it.
Baud
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/12/politics/bernie-sanders-wins-california/index.html
Elizabelle
WaPost front page right now:
Satellite images show Iran building vast burial trenches for virus victims
Adrian Lesher
Some political songs that have been around awhile:
Dylan – Masters of war
CSNY – Ohio
Springsteen – American Skin
NWA – Fuck the police
Public Enemy – Fight the Power
Clash – (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
Nina Simone – Missisippi Goddamn
Pete Seeger – Which side are you on?
A google search of “anti-trump songs” brings up quite a few.
Elizabelle
Audio problems, so a delay until the Biden speech. They’re working on it now.
Adrian Lesher
See also https://studybreaks.com/culture/music/8-best-protest-songs-trump-era/, which includes songs by Janelle Monae, Nipsy Hustle, and Childish Gambino, among others.
Baud
New thread on Biden’s speech.
L85NJGT
@Baud:
His margin is down to 6.6%
AP has it 209-159 with 27 outstanding.
mad citizen
Neil: Ohio
Elvis: Oliver’s Army, and Shipbuilding.
Tom Waits, believe it’s called On the Road to Piece, but it has specific callouts to Mideast leaders and W. But wasn’t timely released, coming out on his 3 disc anthology album.
Believe I read it was Lennon who inserted Mr Wilson and Mr Heath into Taxman.
Love Stevie Wonder’s You Haven’t Done Nuthin’ about tricky Dick. Unfortunately he didn’t put it out until Nixon was leaving office. It has the Jackson 5 singing backup vocals, and Stevies invites them in by name.
Barbara
@Baud: People were talking before Super Tuesday as if Sanders had a good chance of getting all 400+ delegates from California, which would be hard for anyone else to recover from. So while of course it is a victory for Sanders, I think they were hoping that it would be more lopsided.
Baud
@L85NJGT: Thanks. So currently +50 delegates. There was a time when it was thought he would sweep the state. Amazing.
trollhattan
Donny’s Brazilian buddy did some sharing.
Funny, how they both share the same deep concern about this thing.
AnotherBruce
John Lennon “Piggies”
Barbara
@Adrian Lesher: Phil Ochs, I Ain’t Marching Anymore. Which is a really good song.
vj
I think people have already answered this, but it is a favorite topic of mine so I’m answering also. There are many, many songs in this vein. The issue is that these songs, and bands, rarely got any airplay outside of college radio. I’ve been more amazed when a song, or band, slips through. People have mentioned Pink Floyd and that’s a great example of a band who got plenty of airtime with less-political songs and managed to sneak some very political songs into the public consciousness. I still don’t really understand how Rage Against The Machine got as much airtime as they did in the 90’s. That was an amazing fluke.
Here’s one that gets overlooked, and is prescient.
Ramones – Bonzo Goes To Bitburg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-uK0ElBMKE
Jay
Dire Straights, Telegraph Road,
Our modern dystopia:
cckids
Pink’s “Dear Mr President”. It’s a ballad, not a rocker, but pretty brutal still.
Ruckus
@Citizen Alan:
Clear Channel.
The subversive media company that is a bit less obvious than faux news, but who’s entire rationale is conservative bullshit. I had to work with them when I worked in pro sports. One of the reasons I quit that job. Everyone I had to deal with in upper management was an asshole, master class.
trollhattan
@L85NJGT:
For the curious, here’s the CA SoS results page for the Democratic primary. It’s updated daily at 5:00.
There are 1,645,785 unprocessed ballots.
Elizabelle
FWIW, the Dixie Chicks’ new single is Gaslighter. Complete with goosestepping and vintage footage.
They made it sound like a failed personal relationship, but the lyrics fit our gaslighter in chief. A lot.
thruppence
The English Beat, Stand Down Margaret
I see no joy
I see only sorrow
I see no chance of your bright new tomorrow
Stand down Margaret, stand down please…….
L85NJGT
@Barbara:
@Baud:
I believe the idea was to come out of there with a 200+ delegate margin and ride inevitability to the nomination.
Best laid plans….
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Mike J:
Jello Biafra also endorse Bernie in 2016. He and the DK had interesting things to say, but they lacked perspective imo
ewrunning
Just pulled up the lyrics to Chicago’s “A Song for Richard and his Friends” and some of them work pretty well in our present situation. Unfortunately, the song itself is way too long with an extended discordant interlude meant to simulate the sounds of the war in Indochina. Interestingly, the song predates the Watergate burglary, so it was the war that lay behind the song and the “wishing that President Nixon would quit” that was mentioned on the live recorded album track. Here are some of the lyrics.
If you will think now, then you will see
How you can change things
People are waiting, turning away
Tired of killing
Hey now
Will you go away
We’re so tired
Of things that you say
Even though you never said word that would help anyone but yourself
Tomorrow is such a bad dream
Oh, bad dream
If you stay now
It will only get worse
Let us pray now
‘Cause the truth really hurts
Have to be a man so today with your brothers and sisters lay dying
Tomorrow is such a bad dream
Yeah, such a bad dream
Listen
Please be gone
Go away and leave us alone
Bring police
Go away and leave us in peace
Yeah
Please be gone
Go away and leave us alone
Bring police
Go away and leave us in peace
Will you go now
Will you take all your friends
Woah now, If you’d stood like a man
Even though I know that you cannot be blamed all alone for all the sadness you’ve caused
Tomorrow is such a bad dream
Yeah, such a bad dream
Oh yeah, such a bad dream
Dig it
Yutsano
@trollhattan: I could self-isolate with Justin. Just sayin’…
Wapiti
The English Beat: “Whine and Grine/Stand Down Margaret (Thatcher)” (thruppence just id’ed this)
Sleater Kinney: “Combat Rock” (anti Iraq War/Bush II)
Joey Maloney
“When the President Talks to God” by Bright Eyes
vj
Also, anyone aware of this one:
J Church “Ayn Rand is Dead”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hNwJcX5Q1M
L85NJGT
@trollhattan:
At this point it’s academic.
trollhattan
@L85NJGT:
IDK how Wilmer thought he’d dominate a state he lost four years ago, to a girl!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@trollhattan:
And whatever happened to Bolsonaro feeling betrayed by Trump?
Chyron HR
@trollhattan:
But did you see the devastating memes he got from the GRU??
Baud
@L85NJGT: Agree. Just interesting to see how it’s shaking out.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Elizabelle:
So do I.
joel hanes
Why are there so few songs attacking political leaders in brutal terms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOPDzD_P9gg
tokyokie
Mojo Nixon has always done a lot of political protest songs, whether it’s his take on Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land back in the ’80s, or, more recently, Donald Trump Can Suck My Dick. Kind of hard to miss the point of that last one.
Of course, Mojo’s greatest act of political theater was his appearance on Crossfire during the debate about labeling recordings with naughty words in them. Mojo would offer cogent insight into the issue, then wander off onto a Mojo World-type rant. The pro-labeling guest looked completely befuddled, Tom Braden couldn’t stop laughing, and Pat Buchanan had extreme difficulty in calling him, “Mr. Nixon.” Greatest half-hour of TV I’ve ever seen. (See also, Frank Zappa’s congressional testimony on the issue.)
Uncle Cosmo
@K488: And just FTR was one long complaint from George Harrison about the UK’s 95% top-bracket marginal income-tax rate (There’s one for you nineteen for me). Now that’s a rate that’d get ya singing “My Sweet Lord!”
Ruckus
@L85NJGT:
I think you might be giving shit for brains way too much credit. That kid could read. Didn’t, but could. That kid could possibly even think, but didn’t. These are not possibilities with shit for brains.
Ivan X
I wrote my own fucking protest song this year, if you want to call it that. You can dance to it, too.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B19ZbJFHteD/
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Uncle Cosmo:
That song makes George Harrison look greedy. I wish we had a 95% marginal rate here in the US
Joe
Cheney’s Toy (about W) by James McMurtry.
Lazarus (written after watching Nixon’s funeral) by James Keelaghan.
“Lazarus come forth.
There’s part of you we need
to justify within ourselves
the politics of greed.
Knowing that the likes of you
could die and still be mourned.
May our sins be cleansed just as yours were.”
tokyokie
@trollhattan:
Or, more likely, she’d defenestrate her husband.
vj
Propagandhi – Mate ka moris ukun rasik an
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBV5jHVP6TU
anti-Suharto and US backing of Suharto:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/the-indonesia-documents-and-the-us-agenda/543534/
Immanentize
Green Shirt by The Attractions (Elvis C.)
Or better, Oliver’s Army
vj
Mentioned above but video is worth watching:
Pink Floyd – The Fletcher Memorial Home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDDzR2zSgsM
mad citizen
From wikipedia: In 2013, Elvis Costello and the Roots released an answer song (to Shipbuilding) written in the perspective of the other side of the Falklands conflict, called “Cinco Minutos con Vos” (Five Minutes With You”). A duet partly sung in Argentinian Spanish.
How cool.
Another Scott
I was looking at JH coronavirus map last night (it seems to be slashdotted much of the day) and decided to look a little more carefully at China. Outside Hubei there are provinces with 1000-2000 confirmed cases and maybe 1 death. Similarly with South Korea. It’s clear that this disease can be controlled without locking down cities of millions.
But it can only be controlled with extensive testing.
That’s where we’re failing now. There still is not enough testing. I didn’t see Biden’s remarks, but I hope he is doing what he can to light a fire under the testing people to ramp up capacity.
Cheers,
Scott.
Noskilz
Not sure why that seems to be – I can think of lots songs where it’s implicit or incorporated in a general thematic way; just by way of example, Bad Religion’s “American Jesus” seems like a really good snapshot of the some of the things going on then and now, the role of government in such a thing isn’t the focus, presumably because slamming the attitudes involved is. Big Country’s “flame of the west” paints a worrying picture of a demagogue, but also assumes the listener understands why that’s a problem – in its “all go together” role of government in the apocalyptic scenario described is left implicit.
“Land of Confusion” by Genesis seems like an obvious one. Guadalcanal Diary’s “the likes of you” might qualify, as might Fishbone’s “party at ground zero” and World Party’s “ship of fools “ . Maybe Men at Work’s “it’s a mistake” , but that might be more general military-industrial complex themed. The The’s “heartland” seems likes it’s a good fit – it’s about Britain, but quite a bit of it fits here.
There have to be far more out there, though – the snag I kept hitting was I’d think of something and feel like it was an almost, but not quite kind of situation – like the target is often the attitudes that make awful political figures possible – and of course the nagging feeling there are all sorts of things I’m forgetting.
Exregis
The hate in Bombs over Baghdad by John Trudell is palpable. (First Iraq war.)
Bombs over Baghdad, Bombs over Baghdad
Bombs over Baghdad, Dancers of Death
Murder in the air, with the next breath
Macho Queens selling war-makers toys
Raining Destruction, Good Old Boys
Death bringer In Queen George’s Eyes
Read his lips, war-maker lies
Religious Right’s revenging sword
Thou shalt kill in the name of the Lord
The Sheep and the Cattle can’t keep from milling
Some are more than ready some aren’t willing
Volunteering in what they’re not dying for
The Young Republican Guard crying for war
Free speech as free as its thought
Controlled behavior reacts as its taught
Fighting for Peace can’t comprehend
Hate out of love is violent pretense
Bombs Over Baghdad, Bombs Over Baghdad
Bombs Over Baghdad, Bombs Over Baghdad
Vampires drinking blood and oil cocktails
Their violence works it hardly ever fails
When blind man can’t see he believes blind
Blind obedience is the child of mindless minds
New world order is an old world lie
Fighting for peace, see how they die
Dragging in God, as they turn violent
God says nothing, he just remains silent
?BillinGlendaleCA
@AnotherBruce: On the White Album? That’s Harrison.
karensky
Rage Against the Machine: Take the Power Back, Killing in the Name of, Bulls on Parade
CSNY: Let’s Impeach the President
Taken4Granite
The reason you seldom hear songs sticking it to the Man is no mystery. Peter, Paul and Mary had that pegged back in 1968 with “I Dig Rock and Roll Music”:
Brachiator
Lots of great songs. The songs of Gil Scot Heron, Marvin Gaye’s entire album “What’s Going On.”
One of the most fierce political songs is and always will be “Compared to What,” performed by Les McCann and Eddie Harris.
Roberta Flack’s version continues to be quiet fire.
More recent, OutKast Bombs over Baghdad
Shit, a whole fucking chunk of black music in America, from the beginning of time to tomorrow.
Fair Economist
@Elizabelle:
Exactly what they did in “Not Ready to Make Nice”.
Once upon a time, lyrics with strong meanings on multiple levels were considered to be high art.
Brachiator
Weird. An attempt at a post got ate up by the Internet Gods.
Quick attempt at repost of political songs
Gil Scot Heron, Marvin Gaye’s entire album, “What’s Going On.”
The fierce and magnificent “Compared to What,” performed by Les McCann and Eddie Harris, or the quiet fire version by Roberta Flack
Outkast, “Bombs over Baghdad.”
trollhattan
@tokyokie:
I take it she’s been working out, then? ;-)
tokyokie
@trollhattan
I figure she’ll just leave a Bic Mac on the window sill, then, when he’d taken the bait, take a running start at his fat ass.
jc
Musicians attacking politicians: Tim Minchin, Randy Newman, Phil Ochs, Tom Lehrer, Ramones (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg) …
Ella in New Mexico
@Citizen Alan
What, winning only 5 Grammy’s and having a 2x’s Platinum album as a glorious act of “Just Universe Karma” is a bad thing now?
I’d take being Dixiechicked any day. Maybe then I’d end up being able to pay off my student loan debt. :-D
Death Panel Truck
They don’t believe in any of that crap they espouse. If they did, they would never have allowed Trump to be elected president.
Their religious doctrine is C.R.E.A.M.
jc
Stevie Wonder, “You Haven’t Done Nothin”
Lennon, “Just Gimmie Some Truth”
John Revolta
I see Elvis C’s curb-stomp of Thatcher and Randy N’s hit-job on Nixon (“Maybe you’re cheatin’/Maybe you’re lyin’/Maybe you have lost your mind”) have been mentioned. I’d like to add J.B. Lenoir’s “Eisenhower Blues” to the mix, a rare blues that calls out The Man by name.
Sloane Ranger
@sdhays: Probably either dead thread or someone has already pointed this out, but I was taught at Sunday school that God’s forgiveness was dependent upon,
1. Genuine repentance, and
2. Trying not to repeat the sin.
LongHairedWeirdo
Why don’t Republicans think they’re going to hell? You have to understand, Evangelical Jesus didn’t say “you guys – when I was hungry, you fed me; thirsty, you gave me drink; in need of clothing or a roof over my head, you sheltered me; in prison, or sick, you visited me. Come join me in paradise!
“Now, you yobos – you saw me hungry, and said “he ain’t working, so no food stamps! Thirsty, you flipped me off while putting lead in my water; in need of clothing, or a roof over my head, you scorned me as a worthless homeless person; in prison, or sick, and you made sure I understood you didn’t give a damn. You ain’t getting in.”
Nope; Evangelical Jesus didn’t say “Whatsoever you do, to the least of my people, that you do unto me.” It’s easy when you don’t have to care about your source material!
I’m a universalist – I don’t believe a god can be called loving, if they’ll impose eternal torment for failures in a life infinitesimally short by eternity’s standards. But I do hope they at least are forced to confront the evil they did, in most cases, by just looking the other way, when they had the power to act.
Zinsky
Steve Earle skewered Reagan in the song “Snake Oil” and pretty clearly was aiming at George W. Bush in the song “Rich Man’s War”.
Your question about why Christians don’t worry about going to Hell presupposes that this type of person thinks at all…
Shalimar
Lily Allen’s Fuck You, said to be about George W. Bush, is pretty amazing.
LongHairedWeirdo
@Sloane Ranger: Doctrine varies; the fundamentalists I’ve heard speak about this say that Jesus paid all of the price for our sins, and we need only accept his sacrifice and *bam* – all sins forgiven.
The notion that “we are all sinners in the eyes of God” is not used any longer, I’d imagine, because if you believe that, you’re stuck believing “I’m no better than that gay person; we’re both sinners.” That’s no way to forge a political movement!
I was raised Catholic, and we believed that confessing and doing penance would remove the costs of prior sins, but if you couldn’t go to confession, making an act of perfect contrition – repenting because you love God – it will put you in a state of grace sufficient to keep you out of hell, which means you get to heaven, after you hit purgatory (where you pay for any sins not confessed, etc.).
It’s true that most “life religions” – those that intend to have you wanting to change how you live – would have conditions like you mention (sincere repentance and a desire to do better); but it’s vital to remember that, for the most part, evangelicals are *not* participating in a life religion, but a political movement.
GRpop
Indie rock gods Superchunk made a whole protest album about Donnie in early 2018 – What a Time to be Alive
It’s really good!
Amir Khalid
Springsteen’s version of How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live savages George Walker Bush for his passivity in the face of Katrina.
The Golux
Way too late as usual, but Richard Thompson rips Trump pretty hard on “Fergus Laing”.
SWMBO
WAY DEAD THREAD
Mark Knopfler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k59xbOiZjo
Mark Knopfler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmYQwdAiCXk
Paul Revere and the Raiders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmYQwdAiCXk