Political Music

[laceblade]

PLAYLISTS ARE MY THING LATELY, HAVE YOU NOTICED?

Anyway, started a playlist of songs for US/UK politics; you can find it here if you have Spotify. I think that all of the UK ones come from a fanmix for Attack the Block that I downloaded a while ago - will link to that when I'm home & have the bookmark.

Do you have any song recs? As evidenced by the list, I'm into pop music, so recs along those lines = nice. Recs need not be centered on US/UK politics; that's just what I've got so far.

There's a War Going On For Your Mind - Flobots
Council Estate of Mind - Skinnyman
Golden Sand - The Republic Tigers
Wretches and Kings - Linkin Park
My England - Lady Sovereign
Take a Walk - Passion Pit
If There Ever Was a Time - Third Eye Blind
Hands Held High - Linkin Park
POWER - Kanye West
Wisdom, Justice, and Love - Linkin Park
We Are Winning - Flobots

---

I might add to this list myself later, because I forgot my iPod at home today. I need music to function at work, so the Spotify app is currently creating a playlist centered on Flobots's "There's a War Going On For Your Mind." Its first add is "We are all on drugs" by Weezer, lol.

WARNING THAT THE GLEE COVER OF "SCREAM" MIGHT BE MY FIRST ADD, JSYK.

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

Dar Williams' "I Had No Right," Girlyman's "Amaze Me," Catatonia's "Fuel," Blue Scholars' "50k Deep."

do i seriously have NO K-On! icons of them PLAYING MUSIC?!

[laceblade]

Will look into these when at home!

I <3 <3 <3 Lady Sovereign's My England, btw, the lyrics are boss:

It ain't about the tea and biscuits, I'm one of those English misfits,
I don't drink tea I drink spirits, and I talk alot of slang in my lyrics

We ain't all Briget Jones clones, who say pardon me,
More like gwanin mate, You get me...
Now i can select a few, paper people like to reject all my views,
Well I'm letting you know the news and
well, this is the straight up truth,
We ain't all posh like the queen, we ain't all squeaky clean,

OMG RITSU IS DISAPPPPPPPPPOINT

[littlebutfierce]

Somehow I have never actually heard that song, but I should! B/c that is totally more like the England I live in.

Also, totally cliched, but I have a weak spot for Eminem's "Mosh," I admit it!

More (some of these are a little more... single-issue?): Catie Curtis, "Radical"; The Ark, "Father to a Son"; like all of Blue Scholars' stuff, not just the one I mentioned before, but "Fire for the People" is especially awesome; "We Belong," Magnetic North w/Taiyo Na; "Queer Nation" by Good Asian Drivers (welllll that's more spoken word but whatever); Indigo Girls, "Go"; "Weapon of Choice", Melissa Li; Echobelly, "Give Her a Gun."

[laceblade]

"I Had No Right" = awesommmme, I had never previously heard of Daniel Berrigan :O
I <3 50 Thousand Deep, too!

[littlebutfierce]

I thought you specifically would like that song! :D

"Bayani" is another amaaaze political song by Blue Scholars -- I am kind of surprised I didn't suggest it first, heh.

[dolorosa_12]

It's more rock than pop (with the most epic, beautiful build-up and close), but Calexico's song All Systems Red is basically about the US under Bush, as you can tell from the lyrics.

I, too, make playlists for everything.

[laceblade]

Those lyrics, oof.

[dolorosa_12]

I know, they're just so beautifully angry.

[liseuse]

Against Me! "White Crosses", American Idiot "21 Guns", Dropkick Murphy's "Boys on the Dock", anything ever by Chuck Ragan, Vienna Teng "City Hall", Dead To Me "The World Has Gone Mad".

[liseuse]

Also, a lot more, but I don't know how into punk music you are?

[laceblade]

I'll try anything, I'll take more recs!

Due to short Hello Kitty headphone cord, I won't be able to listen to recs until I'm at home after work, but I promise to listen to all!

[liseuse]

Awesome, I will have a flick through all of my music and do some more recs!

[emceeaich]

Elvis Costello's "Tramp the Dirt Down"

[jesuswasbatman]

Willy Mason - "Live It Up"
Billy Bragg - "Accident Waiting To Happen"

[laceblade]

Both of these were great, but holy crap at the lyrics to "Live It Up."

[rhivolution]

US: Janelle Monáe, 'Mr. President'
Bruce Springsteen, 'Born in the USA' and 'We Take Care of Our Own'
Jackson Browne, 'For America', 'Lives in the Balance', 'Till I Go Down'
Crosby, Stills, and Nash, 'Chicago'
Fleetwood Mac, 'Peacekeeper'
Indigo Girls, 'Hammer and a Nail', 'Sugar Tongue', and 'Go' (as someone else said!)
Public Enemy, 'Harder Than You Think'
REM, "Exhuming McCarthy"
Dixie Chicks, 'Not Ready to Make Nice'
Sage Francis, 'Makeshift Patriot'

UK: nearly anything by Billy Bragg
the Proclaimers, 'Cap in Hand' (adding Scottish independence to the UK mix)
M.I.A., 'Pull Up the People'
Peter Gabriel, 'Games Without Frontiers'

No worries if some of this isn't to your taste!

various genres

[bibliofile]

Seconding Billy Bragg. The only performer I've seen who sings "The Internationale" pretty much every show.

Patti Smith reading the Declaration of Independence (dunno if she ever released it formally, but you KNOW it's available online)

You know about "Strange Fruit," right? Billie Holiday, about lynching

Midnight Oil, "Beds are burning." The band broke up because the lead singer, Peter Garrett, decided to go into politics and lawyering full time. They were all about social justice.

Peter Gabriel, "Biko"
Pink, "Dear Mr President"
Public Enemy, "Fight the power"
Sex Pistols, "God save the Queen"

[adrian_turtle]

Phil Ochs, "The Power and the Glory," (might be specific to US--very hopeful)
Leonard Cohen, "Democracy," (also very much about the US, bitterly cynical, but brilliant.)
Will I Am, "It's a New Day" (extraordinarily hopeful)
and I second the recommendation for Indigo Girls, "Go."

[jesse_the_k]

Bruce Cockburn: "They Call it Democracy"
(and around 30 others by him)

[j00j]

Here via littlebutfierce. This may not be pop-y enough, but I'm really fond of Chumbawamba's "English Rebel Songs" album-- protest songs throughout English history. Some of their other stuff is political and more pop, of course, but their more folksy stuff is my favorite.

more...

[bibliofile]

Sly & the Family Stone, "Stand"
Lady Gaga, "Born this way"
Jefferson Airplane, "Volunteers"
Tom Lehrer, "National Brotherhood Week" (based on an actual event, back in the '50s I think)

Re: more...

[bibliofile]

Lily Allen, "F--- You"

Also, Nina Simone! "Mississippi Goddam", covered "Strange fruit"

[littlebutfierce]

Oh, drat, this isn't in English, but in case you're interested anyway, Ultra Bra's ""Ken Saro-Wiwa On Kuollut" is v. political! (the title means "Ken Saro-Wiwa Is Dead" or "Ken Saro-Wiwa Has Died" I guess?) Nobody has translated the lyrics that I can see. ;___; I get the gist of them but not enough to rattle them off. It's a v. bouncy upbeat song w/lyrics like "electric chair, or guillotine, after this he's not alive, Ken Saro-Wiwa." ^^;;

[littlebutfierce]

Another one: Manic Street Preachers' "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next," which is about the Spanish Civil War & non-Spanish anti-fascists going to fight against Franco. IIRC this one line is specifically about Welsh farmers doing so: "if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists." (MSP are Welsh.)