Best "political" songs ever

[Thursday]

The Shins - Sleeping Lessons

 

[simulatedworld]

Pete Seeger - The Big Muddy

 

[tastes_like_purple]

This isn't what you probably have in miiiind...but hehehehe

YouTube - Brian Cowen - I Kissed Brian Cowen - Dublin's 98 Morning Crew

 

[Llewellyn]

I thought The Partisan by Leonard Cohen was more about war...

R.E.M. - Document, Green, Accelerate

And from Automatic for the People:
[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuknsRV5kDI"]R.E.M. - Ignoreland (Live in New York City 2008)[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Tallulah]

Your Johnny Cash, sir:

[YOUTUBE="ZCqpPj87ekE"]Man in Black[/YOUTUBE]

(Wait for Merle to finish talking.)

[YOUTUBE="qLkNy7_xlcs"]Drive On[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Shimmy]

[YOUTUBE="vq7BHogAmHg"]A Perfect Circle - Annihilation[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="7ejsM0VF-Os"]A Perfect Circle - Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rythm Of The War Drums[/YOUTUBE]

(There's a bunch more great political songs on their album eMOTIVe, but they're all cover songs.)

I'm surprised I couldn't find these ones yet:

[YOUTUBE="okd3hLlvvLw"]John Lennon - Imagine[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="j6gZefW4yEA"]Billy Joel - Goodnight Saigon[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="6aRuqozNMmQ"]Bob Marley - Get Up, Stand Up[/YOUTUBE]

 

[speculative]

Lol, satire makes for great political songs:

[YOUTUBE="8K3v5K1A8O0"]I am Barrack, I'm the Messiah[/YOUTUBE]

Especially since a doctor my parents ran into at a New Year's Eve party did indeed say that Barrack was the messiah; he was not drunk and was very serious.

 

[mr.awesome]

if you think everything is corrupt or you just feel sorta angsty...


Bright Eyes
To love and to be loved
[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiGP2LbaQHY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiGP2LbaQHY[/YOUTUBE]

 

[lowtech redneck]

Just about every other song by Megadeth; here a three classics from the Countdown to Extinction Album,

YouTube - Megadeth-Symphony of Destruction

YouTube - Megadeth, Architecture Of Aggression (modified only slightly for a more contemporary political message)

YouTube - Megadeth - Foreclosure of a Dream

I don't necessarily endorse the entirety of these songs, I just really like them.

 

[wank]

if you think everything is corrupt or you just feel sorta angsty...


Bright Eyes
To love and to be loved
[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiGP2LbaQHY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiGP2LbaQHY[/YOUTUBE]

Has likes that song somethin' good for a long time now



If you feel like everything's collusively corrupt:
[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZggmQfNbZk"]Serum - Buy Design[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Liason]

The Press Corpse-Anti Flag

 

[EJCC]

Capitalism - Oingo Boingo

If there was a broadway musical where the villain was an evil businessman, that is what he would sing.

 

[heart]

For both sides, left and right and all in between.

[YOUTUBE="zh9npH3KS5M"]You Haven't Done Nothing...[/YOUTUBE]


"You Haven't Done Nothing"

We are amazed but not amused
By all the things you say that you'll do
Though much concerned but not involved
With decisions that are made by you

But we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong
'Cause if you really want to hear our views
"You haven't done nothing"!

It's not too cool to be ridiculed
But you brought this upon yourself
The world is tired of pacifiers
We want the truth and nothing else

And we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong
'Cause if you really want to hear our views
"You haven't done nothing"!

(chorus)

We would not care to wake up to the nightmare
That's becoming real life
But when mislead who knows a person's mind
Can turn as cold as ice un hum

Why do you keep on making us hear your song
Telling us how you are changing right from wrong
'Cause if you really want to hear our views
"You haven't done nothing"!
Yeah...

 

[syndatha]

A french contribution
YouTube - Renaud - Miss Maggie

Miss Maggie
by Renaud
Album: Mistral Gagnant
Femme du monde ou bien putain
Qui bien souvent êtes les mêmes
Femme normale, star ou boudin,
Femelles en tout genre je vous aime
Même à la dernière des connes,
Je veux dédier ces quelques vers
Issus de mon dégoût des hommes
Et de leur morale guerrière
Car aucune femme sur la planète
N' s'ra jamais plus con que son frère
Ni plus fière, ni plus malhonnête
A part peut-être Madame Thatcher

Femme je t'aime parce que
Lorsque le sport devient la guerre
Y a pas de gonzesse ou si peu
Dans les hordes de supporters
Ces fanatiques, fous-furieux
Abreuvés de haines et de bières
Déifiant les crétins en bleu,
Insultant les salauds en vert
Y a pas de gonzesse hooligan,
Imbécile et meurtrière
Y'en a pas même en grande Bretagne
A part bien sûr Madame Thatcher

Femme je t'aime parce que
Une bagnole entre les pognes
Tu n' deviens pas aussi con que
Ces pauvres tarés qui se cognent
Pour un phare un peu amoché
Ou pour un doigt tendu bien haut
Y'en a qui vont jusqu'à flinguer
Pour sauver leur autoradio
Le bras d'honneur de ces cons-là
Aucune femme n'est assez vulgaire
Pour l'employer à tour de bras
A part peut être Madame Thatcher

Femme je t'aime parce que
Tu vas pas mourir à la guerre
Parc' que la vue d'une arme à feu
Fait pas frissonner tes ovaires
Parc' que dans les rangs des chasseurs
Qui dégomment la tourterelle
Et occasionnellement les Beurs,
J'ai jamais vu une femelle
Pas une femme n'est assez minable
Pour astiquer un revolver
Et se sentir invulnérable
A part bien sûr Madame Thatcher

C'est pas d'un cerveau féminin
Qu'est sortie la bombe atomique
Et pas une femme n'a sur les mains
Le sang des indiens d'Amérique
Palestiniens et arméniens
Témoignent du fond de leurs tombeaux
Qu'un génocide c'est masculin
Comme un SS, un torero
Dans cette putain d'humanité
Les assassins sont tous des frères
Pas une femme pour rivaliser
A part peut être Madame Thatcher

Femme je t'aime surtout enfin
Pour ta faiblesse et pour tes yeux
Quand la force de l'homme ne tient
Que dans son flingue ou dans sa queue
Et quand viendra l'heure dernière,
L'enfer s'ra peuplé de crétins
Jouant au foot ou à la guerre,
A celui qui pisse le plus loin
Moi je me changerai en chien si je peux rester sur la Terre
Et comme réverbère quotidien
Je m'offrirai Madame Thatcher

 

[valentine]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_kWY9NWGX0&feature=related"][/YOUTUBE]

YouTube - FAITH pt2 Tienanmen Square THE CURE
Intense.

 

[Ginkgo]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFnnV595byE"]Megalomaniac[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV0ysZk3PrM"]If You Fear Dying[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC8V8S_REhk"]Wavin' Flag[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS9uTiEY9ag"]One Day[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvh4xitM2qI"]The Devil Never Sleeps[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5Ssxixpw1k"]American Dream[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lstDdzedgcE"]2+2=5[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki2VMALEPc0"]Question[/YOUTUBE]

 

[EJCC]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lstDdzedgcE"]2+2=5[/YOUTUBE]

This may be one of the most disturbing videos I've ever seen. Jesus!

 

[Sniffles]

I'm suprised Dick Gaughan hasn't been mentioned.

[youtube="nrdl4ijru8o"]Worker's song[/youtube]

The Worker's Song

Come all of you workers who toil night and day
By hand and by brain to earn your pay
Who for centuries long past for no more than your bread
Have bled for your countries and counted your dead

In the factories and mills, in the shipyards and mines
We've often been told to keep up with the times
For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job
And with sliderule and stopwatch our pride they have robbed

But when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
When we've never owned one handful of earth?

We're the first ones to starve the first ones to die
The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky
And always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the fat cat's about

All of these things the worker has done
From tilling the fields to carrying the gun
We've been yoked to the plough since time first began
And always expected to carry the can

 

[Sniffles]

Another good song by Gaughan:

[youtube="fH0GpqJ3L5E"].[/youtube]

World Turned Upside Down

In 1649
To St George's Hill
A ragged band they called the Diggers
Came to show the people' s will
They defied the landlords
They defied the laws
They were the dispossessed
Reclaiming what was theirs

We come in peace, they said
To dig and sow
We come to work the land in common
And to make the waste land grow
This earth divided
We will make whole
So it can be
A common treasury for all.

The sin of property
We do disdain
No one has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain
By theft and murder
They took the land
Now everywhere the walls
Rise up at their command.

They make the laws
To chain us well
The clergy dazzle us with heaven
Or they damn us into hell
We will not worship
The God they serve
The God of greed who feeds the rich
While poor men starve

We work, we eat together
We need no swords
We will not bow to masters
Or pay rent to the lords
We are free men
Though we are poor
You Diggers all stand up for glory

Stand up now
From the men of property
The orders came
They sent the hired men and troopers
To wipe out the Diggers' claim
Tear down their cottages
Destroy their corn
They were dispersed -
Only the vision lingers on

You poor take courage
You rich take care
The earth was made a common treasury
For everyone to share
All things in common
All people one
We come in peace
The order came to cut them down