Recently, I was able to purchase from the Apple iTunes store an old favorite of mine, Alice Cooper's _Elected_. After listening to that repeatedly, I started to think about a mix tape of rock and roll songs I could find that are about politics, but not about Viet Nam or the USSR or any other settled issue. I'd love to put _Bonzo Goes to Bitburg_ on the list, for instance, but that's directly about Reagan and a single foreign policy trip. Great song, doesn't fit.
It sure isn't as many as I expected. Damn near the entire catalog of The Clash and Billy Bragg are political, of course, but I'm not familiar enough with either to pick out the tunes that seem to fit in 2004. Actually I hate The Clash -- but that's a rant for another day.
Now that I've narrowed it down a bit, my nominees for the "Songs for an Election Year" CD are (roughly in order by age):
Alice Cooper "Elected" from Billion Dollar Babies
Stiff Little Fingers "Suspect Device" from Inflammable Material
Iggy Pop "I'm a Conservative" from Soldier (clip is a different song!)
Husker Du "In a Free Land" from Everything Falls Apart (clip here)
Public Enemy "Fight the Power" from Fear of a Black Planet (clip here)
Fishbone "Subliminal Fascism" from Truth and Soul (no clip)
Radiohead "Electioneering" from OK Computer (no clip)
Rage Against the Machine "Guerrilla Radio" from The Battle of Los Angeles
Obviously, this isn't enough for a CD, so maybe y'all might have some ideas for me.
-Nicole
Posted by nicole at January 09, 2004 07:12 PMJoe Jackson - Evil Empire is a great one. From the album Blaze of Glory.
Also,
Rancid - Lady Liberty from Life Won't Wait
~musiquestar via Plastic
Posted by Jen at February 27, 2004 06:25 PM