Best "political" songs ever

[iamathousandapples]

Great song about being an individual both in thought and in action, even when the world is telling you that mediocre conformity is the way to be.


[YOUTUBE=FAvQSkK8Z8U]Rush - Subdivisions[/YOUTUBE]

...pretty sure that's just a song based off a book. In fact I'm 100% sure.

This is actually a Vietnam Protest song(In fact, the majority of the album is Vietnam protest songs).

[youtube="NMF1-OEZYBE"]Part 1[/youtube]
[youtube="591HzS_DeKo"]Part 2[/youtube]

 

[pure_mercury]

...pretty sure that's just a song based off a book. In fact I'm 100% sure.

This is actually a Vietnam Protest song(In fact, the majority of the album is Vietnam protest songs).

[youtube="NMF1-OEZYBE"]Part 1[/youtube]
[youtube="591HzS_DeKo"]Part 2[/youtube]

My bad, I put in "Red Barchetta" instead of "Subdivisions." Wrong link. Anyway, you are right that "Red Barchetta" is based on a book, but I think that is about driving a car really fast when that is a crime, isn't it? Something along those lines.

 

[C.J.Woolf]

James Connolly was an Irish socialist who was killed in the Easter Rising of 1916.

My name is James Connolly
And I didn't come here to die,
But to fight for the rights of the working man,
The small farmer too,
Protect the proletariat
From the bosses and their screws,
So hold on to your rifles boys,
Don't give up your dream
Of a republic for the working class,
Economic liberty!

[YOUTUBE="IGwsGdjyJ3Y"]Black 47 - James Connolly[/YOUTUBE]

And here's another Vietnam song:

[YOUTUBE="4zdH09mWVF8"]Country Joe McDonald - Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag[/YOUTUBE]

 

[pure_mercury]

The socialist element of the Irish Republican movement has always been downplayed in the history books and films concerning that period (especially American ones). Of course, the IRA itself downplayed that aspect after the Republic was achieved, too, so I guess it isn't that weird.

 

[tcda]

The movie The Wind That Shakes the Barley by Ken Loach shows very well the class struggle within the Irish national liberation movement and how the British played on this.

Anyway, more music:

YouTube - anti flag stars and stripes
YouTube - The Jam - Going Underground
YouTube - The King Blues - Let's Hang The Landlord
YouTube - King blues - What if punk never happened?

 

[Ruthie]

I think I just wrote down about 100 on paper, but just picking my favorite two from that long list (that have not been mentioned):

End of the Innocence - Don Henley

American Tune - Paul Simon

Also, any version of The Ballad of John Henry should be included...

 

[Solitaire Unraveling]

"While you were busy fuckin' sleepin' you know your government was creepin'..."

[YOUTUBE="fFAY5i4BJoM"].[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="mGEQT48Ghzs"].[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="on3WKwWJJPI"].[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="dYpML0cuZpw"].[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Valiant]

I'm working on an iPod playlist of my favourite quasi-political or protest songs, I've not put any RATM on the list yet surprisingly and I'm not going to include the ubiquitous Chumbawumba at this point, I am putting Zombi by The Cranberries on there, it speaks very loudly and clearly to me on a number of levels but mainly on a personal one about someone I knew who was murdered towards the end of the shooting war here in Northern Ireland. That said I just think of it as a general anti-war song. Infact I think it's broader than it, people become zombis too easy, possessed by images or ideas which are in their heads, which put them on auto-pilot or which arent a true picture or reflection of reality at all.

Anyone any ideas?

A few Irish favorites... Been listening to this kind of music since I was like nine.

[YOUTUBE="tsts9GngmM0"]Revenge for Skibereen[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="13MQFCfCYdQ"]Sinead O'Connor & the Chieftains - Foggy Dew[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="Gn9WWliz_zg"]Wolfe Tones - Only our rivers run free[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="8V3AEgStKvE"]Fighting men of Crossmaglen[/YOUTUBE]

This one is just too funny
[YOUTUBE="Okr9JpRd1UY"]The Fenian record player[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="Voin7TwCyoE"]Wolfe Tones - Erin go brag (a row in the town)[/YOUTUBE]


My favorite speech of all time.

[YOUTUBE="7wnqaSNygHs"]Padraig Pearse, "The Rebel"[/YOUTUBE]





Here are a few Scottish jacobite songs that I really love.

[YOUTUBE="Av2-A-igOJk"]Corries - Bonnie Dundee[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="n24v5_sOx0Q"]The Haughs o' Cromdale[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="cS3z713P9n8"]The News frae Moidart[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="UAhRs9ZfLj4"]The Roses o' Prince Charlie[/YOUTUBE]


Here's some other stuff.

[YOUTUBE="hqYHeX0i0NU"]Nathalie Cardone - Hasta siempre Comandante[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="pBGw-2wUBCU"]Victor Jara - La zamba del Ché[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="fCFibtD3H_k"]The Internationale (Russian)[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="fqZ4GQ5ZPME"]La Marseillaise[/YOUTUBE]

 

[tinkerbell]

Almost all of U2 in the 1980's

YouTube - U2 - Bloody Sunday
YouTube - U2 Where The Streets Have No Name Live At Slane Castle

Or Janice Ian - singing about social issues
YouTube - Janis Ian - Tattoo

 

[Valiant]

[YOUTUBE="vNdb8o0IzCA"]Ballad of the Alamo[/YOUTUBE]

 

[tcda]

Gotta love the WolfTones! +1.

 

[tcda]

Another classic, I can't believe I forgot it.

YouTube - INLA Roll of Honour Tribute - The Red Flag

So raise the scarlet standard high,
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here

 

[Valiant]

The IRSP and INLA are kind of my favorite factions.
Here's another video:

[YOUTUBE="t_TEMt6pbUs"]INLA Freedom Fighters[/YOUTUBE]

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

[YOUTUBE="p2hNhM3dHB4"]The times they are a changing[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Valiant]

[YOUTUBE="VTPLSED67fE"]Victor Jara - A Cuba[/YOUTUBE]

It's a pretty unique song, somehow.

 

[demimondaine]

off the top of my head, and sorry for repeats!

donovan - universal soldier (though i believe it's a cover)
boris vian - le déserteur
leonard cohen - the partisan
pete seeger - waist deep in the big muddy

 

[Valiant]

[YOUTUBE="9NKHJ64qRR8"]Communist Christmas[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Thalassa]

[YOUTUBE="9NKHJ64qRR8"]Communist Christmas[/YOUTUBE]

This is made of so much win. I can't imagine anything to top it.

 

[tcda]

pretty much describes my ideal xmas

 

[tcda]

actually I forgot perhaps my favourite political peice of music, Shostakovich's 7th Symphony, which was played by radio to Leningrad while it was under Nazi seige to inspire the resistance.

In fact Soviet troops shelled the Nazi trenches specifically to ensure they were silent throughout the performance. The musicians at the time recall that they could barely keep hold of their instruments through starvation, but it became Russia's most loved tune, including Leningrad's.

It's since been dismissed by a lot of trendy historians as "propaganda" but in fact the Stalinist bureaucracy was initially suspicious of the peice (as they were of Shostakovich in general)and only after seeing the chord it struck in the people chose ot use it for propaganda (in the good sense, i.e. I'm not using a bourgeois-liberal moralistic denunciation of "propaganda", rather I recognize that in politics and war - the latter being a continuation of the former by other means - all sides use propaganda and that it's necessarry and justified).

But I digress, just enjoy (the video also has great and moving historical footage):
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=97D806CA80C6FE20&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&v=RKOZEW9SfdU