Yes, I'd Like Some Politics with My Rock and Roll

Rating: 5 after 3 votes

Posted by Katie on June 26, 2008 at 10:32pm in American Culture

I've been to several concerts where lead singers use their microphones for political purposes and two nights of Pearl Jam at Madison Square Garden were no exception. I'm of the school that Rock and Roll is at its best when it has a message. Eddie Vedder not only dedicated a song to and read a quote from George Carlin, but replaced a song lyric with a line about Obama being our friend. He also told the audience that even if we can't make a difference in November, there's nothing wrong with going down fighting. I didn't feel he was crossing some unspoken line and the audience seemed to respond favorably. Although, some line was definitely crossed when Vedder plucked his guitar and chanted "Let's Go Rangers!" Keep the sports out of the rock arena please.

And so what I offer here are my choices for the best and the worst political songs. I think I'm much more qualified to presume the former, but I'll take a stab at both.

For best political song, I choose "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die-Young Rag" by Country Joe and the Fish. Most notably perhaps, it was performed at Woodstock and it really kicks ass, containing the refrain:

Well, come on generals, let's move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta go out and get those reds —
The only good commie is the one who's dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come.

I don't know if it's the worst, but "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" by Toby Keith really bothers me. I'm not going to rail against it just because I don't agree with the song…OK, maybe I am. It’s just that it reminds me of the kind of song played in movies made during World War II when the government and Hollywood were indistinguishable.

Justice will be served
And the battle will rage
This big dog will fight
When you rattle his cage
And you'll be sorry that you messed with
The U.S. of A.
‘Cause well put a boot in your ass
It’s the American way

Ok, who’s next?

Tags: music, politics, songs

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Permalink Reply by Justin on June 27, 2008 at 4:00am: I recently had my first taste of live Pearl Jam. Musically they didn't disappoint, played 9 encore songs. Eddie Vedder did liberally sprinkle in politics between songs. While I agreed with his sentiments and was in general enamoured with his passion, he may have overdone it a bit. He seems like a guy with a big heart, though, and for one of the later songs he talked about his friend who was shot and paralyzed in the Middle East. His friend is Thomas Young, the subject of the recent documentary "Body of War," for which Vedder contributed a song for the soundtrack. Vedder mentioned that Thomas had recently come out of a coma and that Vedder would visit him soon: "I want to do something for him, but I'm here now. So, I'm going to play this song and let's all sing along and I'll bring him the tape in the hospital." Big heart on Vedder.

Now, for songs. Springsteen's "Born in the USA" comes to mind. Perhaps since Bruce plows through the verses or because we Americans don't pay close attention to things like lyrics we can't easily chant, this song is often considered the pinnacle of patriotic rock. President Reagan even used it on the 1984 campaign trail.

I got in a little hometown jam
And so they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says "Son if it was up to me"
I go down to see the V.A. man
He said "Son don't you understand"

I had a buddy at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a little girl in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years down the road
Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go

It tells the story of a Vietnam Veteran -- poor, small town kid, who comes back from war to nothing much. While the song doesn't directly discuss politics, like most Springsteen songs, it intends to illuminate the greater struggle for justice in America by telling a plain story about a small town kid.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Justin on June 27, 2008 at 6:08am: Always loved "My Back Pages" -- one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar. And only Dylan would be able to summon that pantheon of guitarists to accompany him at his Anniversary concert.

Politically though, I have to admit that I have no idea what the song means. I've been thinking about which Dylan song I would choose for this debate.

"Times They Are A-Changin'" - too obvious (same with Blowin' in the Wind)
"Only a Pawn in Their Game" - about the man who shot Medgar Evers
"Masters of War" - song just never ranked high enough on my favorites

So, I think I'll go with "Chimes of Freedom." The lyrics have both the phantasmagoric, Tambourine Man quality, but the penultimate line in each verse is always a blunt and beautiful expression of humanity. And in the last stanza, he even includes the "hung up" people. Here's the lyrics:

Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An' for each an' ev'ry underdog soldier in the night
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

In the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden while the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin' rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an' forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin' constantly at stake
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
An' the painter and the poet far behind his rightful time
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an' blind, tolling for the mute
Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an' cheated by pursuit
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Even though a cloud's white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An' the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An' for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Starry-eyed an' laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an' we watched with one last look
Spellbound an' swallowed 'til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an' worse
An' for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Copyright © 1964; renewed 1992 Special Rider Music

It's a long song; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Katie on June 27, 2008 at 10:17am: I'm going to inject some Billy Joel into this debate…because well, he’s a hometown hero (not really). “Goodnight Saigon” has always elicited a visceral, physical reaction whenever I listen to it. Even when I was very young, the opening helicopter just got me. You knew you were in for something intense.

I think the power of the song lies more in the music than in the lyrics, but among my favorite verses are:

We came in spastic
Like tameless horses
We left in plastic
As numbered corpses
And we learned fast
To travel light
Our arms were heavy
But our bellies were tight

and

Remember Charlie
Remember Baker
They left their childhood
On every acre
And who was wrong?
And who was right?
It didnt matter in the thick of the fight

Another note about Pearl Jam. Eddie Vedder did actually mention Tomas Young at one of the New York shows too and I was really glad he didn’t go into a whole rant about it. It was not the place. He didn’t go into the extent of Young’s injuries or talk about the war in any specifics. There is always that tension of when do you cross that line where you alienate your audience.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rod on June 27, 2008 at 3:04pm: 1) Rush: "Closer to the Heart"
2) Sting: "History Will Teach Us Nothing"
3) Don Henley: "The End of the Innocence"
4) R.E.M.: "Ignoreland"
5) Stevie Wonder: "You Haven't Done Nothin'"
6) R.E.M.: "Until The Day Is Done"
7) A Whisper in the Noise: "The Times They Are A-Changin'"; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Frances Chapman on June 28, 2008 at 4:52pm: Hello--
I guess I would have to say Lennon's Imagine. Context: L, shape shifter from right-wing libertarian to the far left, in her white pickup, saying "they're actually playing those lyrics on radio." The song was a pop tune.

But for emotional wallop, it's Neil Young's Helpless, conflated in my mind with Judy Blue Eyes. In 1975, the progressive movement of the 1960s having been shut down, I am alone in my car, not wanting to go upstairs. Crying because we had all failed.

When it's participatory, it's personal.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ocean on July 18, 2008 at 4:34pm: RATM - Killing In the Name Of ( a little spicy tho)

Killing in the name of!
Some of those that were forces are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that were forces are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that were forces are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that were forces are the same that burn crosses
Huh!

Killing in the name of!
Killing in the name of

And now you do what they told ya (11 times)
But now you do what they told ya
Well now you do what they told ya

Those who died are justified, for wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
You justify those that died by wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
Those who died are justified, for wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
You justify those that died by wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites

Some of those that were forces are the same that bore crosses
Some of those that were forces are the same that bore crosses
Some of those that were forces are the same that bore crosses
Some of those that were forces are the same that bore crosses
Uggh!

Killing in the name of!
Killing in the name of

And now you do what they told ya (4 times)
And now you do what they told ya, now you're under control (7 times)
And now you do what they told ya!

Those who died are justified, for wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
You justify those that died by wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
Those who died are justified, for wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
You justify those that died by wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites
Come on!

(Guitar solo: 'Yeah! Come on!')

Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me (8 times building to a shout)
Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me! (8 times screamed/shouted)
Motherfucker!
Uggh!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jonah on July 24, 2008 at 11:51am: Three recent political songs (by old guys) that are worth listening to:

1)"In the News" by Kris Kristofferson: a sort of catalog of recent failures/blunders/atrocities carried out by America (Iraq, the destruction of the environment, etc) -- and more interestingly the effects of these developments on the American psyche, which seems to be comprised of equal parts anger, weariness and sorrow.

2)"Devils and Dust" by Springsteen: one of his more beautiful songs, which like "In the News," articulates the weariness and sorrow that have resulted from recent political developments, specifically the war and how Americans and insurgents have perverted and devalued religion in waging it.

3)"Rich Man's War" by Steve Earle: a song that looks at the role of economic inequality in the current war. Particularly interesting in that it tracks this dynamic as it plays out in the story of a poor American soldier and a poor Iraqi insurgent.; ▶ Reply to This