Political Anthems

[Forstater, Mathew]

How about Burning Spear's "Christopher Columbus is a Dam Blasted Liar"? (lots of
reggae--including but not only Marley--should be included, especially the dub
poets like Michael Smith, Mutabaruka, and Linton Kwesi Johnson).  Some of the
old hardcore bands like MDC (which stood for different things at different
times, including "Millions of Dead Cops" and "Multi-Death Corporations". One
song of theirs that comes to mind is "Business On Parade": ("business on
parade/corporate scam charade..." you get the idea). Old Dylan songs about civil
rights martyrs (did he have a "Ballad of Medgar Evers"?), but he did have the
Hurricane song later on.  Also, even without words, some of the great jazz songs
were highly political, through song titles (Coltrane's "Alabama"), but also, as
Amiri Baraka argued long ago, the emotive fury of intense jazz improvization
(Baraka had a poem called something like "Reggae or not" where he used the
example of Albert Ayler) taps into an energy that has a politically subversive
potential.  The relation of politics and culture was investigated in free jazz
and other traditions going way back, well before "politics and culture" became
interesting to pomo zines and e-mail lists.
mat

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter K. [mailto:peterk at enteract.com]
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2000 2:01 PM
To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
Subject: Re: Political Anthems


>Just interested in starting a thread on folks' favorite political anthems,
>songs with a tough political edge.  Partly my interest is my newfound
diving
>into Napster-style music surfing, so I'm going to try to put together a
nice
>playlist of left political songs.   So what are your favorites.
>Just to kick off a few myself, I've always like Phil Ochs' I AIN"T A
>MARCHING ANYMORE but just listened to HERE"S TO THE PEOPLE OF MISSISSIPPI,
one of the most brilliant and brutal political screeds ever sung in my
>opinion.   I'd throw in Bill Bragg's WAITING FOR THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD and
>his version of the INTERNATIONALE.   Joni Mitchell's  PAVED OVER PARADISE
is
>one of the best environmental songs, while Aretha's R-E-S-P-E-C-T is an
>anthem unto itself.
>
>So....?
>
>-- Nathan Newman

Off the top of my head (and I don't know if these are necessarily "anthems"
and I know I'm criminally forgetting some)

One of my favorite bands (no longer in existence, alas), Uncle Tupelo, has a
song "Coalminers" on their _March 16-20, 1992_ album. It ends with the
catchy line:
"Let's sink this capitalist system to the darkest pits of hell."


>From my youth, Peter Gabriel's "Biko" off a self-titled album.
"You can blow out a candle, / but you can't blow out a fire / once the flame
begins to catch / the wind will blow it higher"

Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" off of _Fear of a Black Planet_ and "Can't
Truss It" from _Apocalypse 91 ... the Enemy Strikes Black_ ; Chumbawamba's
"Tubthumping" from _Tupthumper_; lo-fidelity Allstars' "Battle Flag" from
_How to Operate with a Blown Mind_; The Clash; Marxman's _33 Revolutions per
Minute_; Rancid's "Harry Bridges" from _Let's Go_; Stereolab's "French
Disko" off of _Refried Ectoplasm [Switched On Volume 2]_; Linton Kwesi
Johnson's "Mi Revalueshanary Fren" from _Tings an' Times_; Smashmouth's
"Walkin' on the Sun" from _Fush Yu Mang_.

For those who'd scoff at my limited knowledge and taste, Cake's "Rock 'N'
Roll Lifestyle" from _Motorcade of Generosity_ (a truly great album):
"And how long will workers keep building him new ones? / As long as their
soda cans are red, white and blue ones."

[oh and Nathan, I recently chatted with an ex-girlfriend who's working on
the Gore campaign in Illinois and she relayed how she had thought of me when
she saw and skimmed Cockburn and Silverstein's _Al Gore: A User's Manual_ at
the bookstore. she thought some of it rang true but really, really doesn't
want Bush in the White House. She told how on Tipper's B-day, the vice
president and Tipper were both very, very drunk and didn't touch the cake
some small-town baker lady spent the whole day creating. Gotta watch that
figure! ;>) ]

Peter