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5/28 National Review lists top 50 conservative rock songs:
http://tinyurl.com/j8zpg
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/features/article620213.ece
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2006/05/top-fifty-conservative-rock-songs.html
http://blogs.philly.com/blinq/2006/05/right_rock.html - danh |
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| tinyurl.com/j8zpg -> www.nytimes.com/2006/05/25/arts/music/25brockweb.html?_r=4&adxnnl=1&oref=login&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1148922075-rTLquvAD067BjYT9mWMSFg&oref=slogin&oref=slogin Breaking news and award winning multimedia New York Times newspaper articles Arts & Dining reviews Online Classifieds It's free and it only takes a minute! |
| enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/features/article620213.ece Features Rock'n'roll reactionaries: Meet the not-so-hip parade So you think modern music is the sound of revolution? The right-wing US magazine 'National Review' has taken a fresh look at some of our favourite songs and discovered a decidedly conservative streak. Published: 27 May 2006 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 naive idealism. "There's nothing in the streets/Looks any different to me/And the slogans are replaced, by-the-by ... The best number by a big band, and a classic for conservatives. The song closes with a humorous jab at death taxes: "Now my advice for those who die/Declare the pennies on your eyes." The devil is a tempter who leans hard on moral relativism - he'll try to make you think "every cop is a criminal/And all the sinners saints". He's also the inspiration for the cruelties of Bolshevism: "I stuck around St Petersburg/ When I saw it was a time for a change/Killed the tsar and his ministers/Anastasia screamed in vain." But one that's about faith and whose chorus is in Latin? That's beautifully reactionary: "Gloria/In te domine/Gloria/Exultate." And: "If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao/You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow." "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/'Cos the 20th-century people/Took it all away from me." The Trees, by Rush 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? Neighborhood Bully, by Bob Dylan 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." My City was Gone, by The Pretenders Most American conservatives know the bass line, which is the theme for Limbaugh's radio show. But the lyrics also display a sensibility against central planning and a 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." Right Here, Right Now, by Jesus Jones The words are vague, but they're also about the fall of Communism: "I was alive and I waited for this ... I Fought the Law, by The Crickets The original law-and-order classic, made famous in 1965 by the Bobby Fuller Four and covered by just about everyone since then. Get Over It, by The Eagles Against the culture of grievance: "The big, bad world doesn't owe you a thing." There's also this: "I'd like to find your inner child and kick its little ass." Stay Together for the Kids, by Blink 182 A eulogy for family values by an band who 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 ... Cult of Personality, by Living Colour 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." Kicks, by Paul Revere and the Raiders 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." Rock the Casbah, by The Clash After 11 September, radio stations in America were urged not to play this 1982 song, one of the biggest hits by a seminal punk band, because it was considered to be 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. Heroes, by David Bowie 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." Red Barchetta, by Rush 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". Brick, by Ben Folds Five 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 ... Der Kommissar, by After The Fire 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." The Battle of Evermore, by Led Zeppelin The lyrics are out of Robert Plant's Middle Earth period - there are lines about "ring wraiths" and "magic runes" - but for a 1971 song, it's hard to miss the Cold War metaphor resonant during the era: "The tyrant's face is red." Capitalism, by Oingo Boingo "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." Obvious Song, by Joe Jackson 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." Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Iron Maiden A heavy metal classic from the British band, inspired by a literary classic. How many other rock songs quote directly from Samuel Taylor Coleridge? You Can't Be Too Strong, by Graham Parker 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?" Small Town, by John Mellencamp A Burkean rocker: "No, I cannot forget where it is that I come from/I cannot forget the people who love me." Keep Your Hands to Yourself, by The Georgia Satellites Lyrics that affirm some old-time sexual mores for the more staid and traditional values: "She said no huggy, no kissy until I get a wedding vow." 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. Godzilla, by Blue Oyster Cult A 1977 classic about a big green monster - and more: "History shows again and again/How nature points up the folly of men." Government Cheese, by The Rainmakers A protest against the welfare state by a Kansas band that deserved more success than it got. The first line: "Give a man a free house and he'll bust out the windows." The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, by The Band Despite its sins, the American South always has been about more than racism - this song captures its pride and tradition. I Can't Drive 55, by Sammy Hagar A rocker's objection to the nanny state and speed limits. Property Line, by The Marshall Tucker Band The secret to happiness, according to these southern rockers , are 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." Wake Up Little Susie, by The Everly Brothers A smash hit in 1957, back when high-school social pressures were rather different: "We fell asleep, our goose is cooked, our reputation is shot." The Icicle Melts, by The Cranberries A pro-life tune sung by the Irish warbler Dolores O'Riordan: "I don't know what's happening to people today/When a child, he was taken away ... Everybody's a Victim, by The Pr... |
| rudepundit.blogspot.com/2006/05/top-fifty-conservative-rock-songs.html The Rude Pundit Proudly lowering the level of political discourse 5/25/2006 Top Fifty "Conservative" "Rock" Songs: An Effort in Mass Delusion: Now the Rude Pundit's pretty sure that the lyrics to the song "Sweet Home Alabama," by proud Confederate flag wavers, when not going down screaming on a crashing plane, Lynyrd Skynyrd, contains these lines: "In Birmingham they love the governor" and "The governor's true." See, problem is that the governor of Alabama at the time the song came out, in 1973, was George Wallace, elected in 1970, well before the vile segregationist became born again and repudiated his doorway-blocking past. Of course, his major accomplishment around that time was learning to piss from a wheelchair. spinning like a member of Congress caught with three dead Thai child hookers, a brick of Peruvian blow, a machete, and bundles of hundreds, justifying the view of the South in "Sweet Home Alabama," the number 4 song on hell's countdown: "Things aren't perfect here or anywhere else, they seem to say, but we've been known to pick a song or two, we have ourselves some blue skies, and the road will always carry me home to see my kin. We have secrets and shames, but so do you, so don't dare preach to me. list - fuck, the entire effort - is sad and embarassing, like watching Grandpa do the Macarena now, thinking that he's still hip, that he's been hip for the last 30 years. 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 fucking). And, of course, the mention of every fucking song they could find that seems to oppose abortion or alludes to the fall of Communism or doesn't like taxes. This leads them to have to include the Scorpions, Kid Rock, Rush, Creed, After the Fire, Sammy Hagar, and Jesus Jones in a great huge pile of suck. For, truly, what madness does it take for a magazine that not only supported the Vietnam War, but viciously attacked the anti-war movement, to include Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Who'll Stop the Rain?" And then justify it by saying that it "takes a dim view of Communism and liberalism" in the line, "Five Year Plans and New Deals, wrapped in golden chains." Does it even matter to say that the point of the song is, would somebody, fucking anyone, make the insanity of the war end? It's best just to point and laugh at how simple-minded and, yes, again, pathetic the whole effort is, like when Ronald Reagan played Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" on campaign stops (hell, at least the National Review didn't include that). "My City Was Gone" (#13) is really about "a conservative's dissatisfaction with rapid change." The Georgia Satellites' "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" (#32), which seems to the Rude Pundit to be about the deep desire to fuck a girl, actually seeks to "affirm old-time sexual mores." The Crickets' "I Fought the Law" (#15) ain't about rebellion against authority, oh, no - it's a "law and order classic." And let's not even get into the myriad sins, misinterpretations, and outright delusions in putting the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" as the #1 conservative rock song. It all starts to seem like the soundtrack to the lamest orgy ever at, say, the Dartmouth College Republicans annual retreat, where Muffy blows Drake as Scott Stapp growls out "One" on the stereo, high-fiving Blaine, who's getting blown by Jessica, when "I Can't Drive 55" comes on, screaming in orgasmic delight when they blow their loads on "The Trees" by Rush, crying and holding each other on Ben Folds' "Brick," and then promising to marry each other for one more scrotum tongue scrubbing, smiling that they're not breaking any hymen as "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by the Beach Boys plays on and on. rumbling, and the ground below is about to tear open and swallow them whole, crushing the entire movement into a viscous goo that'll poison the ground when it closes, but at least the planet won't heave them forth again. Sure, sure, they can grab the scrapbooks, the laptop, the dog. And while they may take those things with them into the crumbled ruins of their city, it's nice to know they'd pause to take the iPod so they can rock, dancing dementedly, grotesquely, into the dust-filled darkness of their own unending night. |
| blogs.philly.com/blinq/2006/05/right_rock.html And it's part of the newspaper, the filtered, mainstream aggregator that pays me. The Point I cover the blogosphere, trawling the millions of sites of vaunted wisdom and unvarnished pablum so you don't have to. A Disclaimer This site contains links to other Web sites. We have no control over the content or privacy practices of those sites. Geoffrey Robinson sent me Rockin' On the Right, the National Review's list of the 50 greatest conservative rock songs of all time, I've been going through my collection with fresh ears. The piece begins with a disclaimer - rock music doesn't seem very conservative at first glance. John J Miller writes: Neil Young has a new song called "Let's Impeach the President." Last year, the Rolling Stones made news with "Sweet Neo Con," another anti-Bush ditty. For conservatives who enjoy rock, it isn't hard to agree with the opinion Johnny Cash expressed in "The One on the Right Is on the Left": "Don't go mixin' politics with the folk songs of our land / Just work on harmony and diction / Play your banjo well / And if you have political convictions, keep them to yourself." But great conservative songs are out there, he continues, their lyrics expressing, say, skepticism of government or support for traditional values. Miller, the Review's national political reporter, argues: The conservative movement is full of disillusioned revolutionaries; this could be their theme song, an oath that swears off naive idealism once and for all. "There's nothing in the streets / Looks any different to me / And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye. Then "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones, which tells us that the devil was responsible for the cruelties of Bolshevism and he would have us think "every cop is a criminal." I'm guessing you learned from the Reagan campaign's misappropriation of "Born In The USA" that there is only so much one can grab from the left, and so you have not argued that Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days" is really about Herbert Hoover. In fact the list is filled with great music, and some of it, the writer agrees, is penned by liberals and libertines. But that doesn't mean they're not the stuff of conservative classics, he writes. Like Bodies, a "searing anti-abortion anthem" by the Sex Pistols. A better anti-abortion song is Graham Parker's "You Can't Be Too Strong," which they list lower. calls the list "sad and embarassing, like watching Grandpa do the Macarena now, thinking that he's still hip, that he's been hip for the last 30 years." Music is personal to me, the soundtrack to my story, not yours. The best writing about it is personal, too, like the great Stranded book, in which writers lovingly riff on the one record they'd take to a desert island, and invariably they recall where they were in their lives when the music first called to them, like Ariel Swartley's still-vivid recollection of "The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle." The National Review compiles a pretty strong list, though I'm not sure liberals would fight over the songs by Rush or "Der Kommissar." But it picks songs with political messages, like "Wind of Change" by the Scorpions over great songs, and reminds again, that while music can be used for political purposes, it's a perversion. I have the sane visceral reaction when a great song winds up in a TV commercial. This stuff is personal, from the player straight to my heart. I never much liked Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow, " but now I can't flush the image of Bill and Hillary and Tipper and Al dancing to it on stage, and this is not a good thing. I remember watching John Kerry cruise around Boston Harbor with his Swift Boat buds as Springsteen's "No Surrender" blasted. It made me feel better about Kerry for a second, but it left a stain on a track that used to allow me to imagine Springsteen and Little Steven busting out of class, learning more from a three minute record than they ever did in school. I'd argue less that "Sweet Home Alabama," at No 4 is a conservative song. The National Review writes: 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." Some modern Southern rockers called the Drive-By Truckers might object to this notion of a conservative Dixie. That is one of the most ridiculous/offensive things I've ever read from NRO - and that's saying a lot. It's like watching Glenn Campbell do heavy metal - they don't even realize that we're laughing at them, not with them. Stick to your Toby Keith, boys, and leave the real music to us. Mark | May 28, 2006 10:41:07 PM First, thanks for the link. I agree with you on the way songs can be ruined for us by associating them with ads or political campaigns. There's a problem with using political movements or protest songs from the past. The political world is always changing and what the parties or movements stand for changes as well. The Federal government has grown and metastasized far beyond anything imagined by FDR, but he is still used as a talisman by the Democrats. Last I checked they were getting enraged about hair styles and whether or not blacks tip cab drivers more than whites. I'll bet Newt Gingrich looks at the present Republican Congress and wants to vomit. Lastly, I would suggest that politics is a poor way to serve your fellow man. They do it by creating a need, not necessarily filling one. vanity link, but I want to plug my weekly World of Good posts that show how common individual kindness is. Cooperation and thoughtfulness make the world go round far better than politics. |