What is your favorite political song?
Or songs?
One of my all time favorites is
‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carol,’
by robert zimmerman
Kings by Steely Dan.
Now they lay his body down
Sad old men who run this town
I still recall the way
He led the charge and saved the day
Blue blood and rain
I can hear the bugle playin’
CHORUS:
We seen the last of Good King Richard
Ring out the past his name lives on
Roll out the bones and raise up your pitcher
Raise up your glass to Good King John
While he plundered far and wide
All his starving children cried
And though we sung his fame
We all went hungry just the same
He meant to shine
To the end of the line
Find the cost of freedom
buried in the ground.
Mother Earth will swallow you
lay your body down.
“Find the Cost of Freedom,” Crosby, Stills and Nash.
Also: “King Harvest (Has Surely Come)” by The Band, and “Armistice Day” by Paul Simon.
Favorite political song?
Just about everything Utah Phillips does.
It isn’t a casual interest for Utah.
He’s dedicated his life to it.
There were the songs we sang on the picket lines:
If you miss me at the back of the bus
You can’t find me nowhere.
Come on over to the front of the bus
I’ll be riding right there.
I’ll be riding right there
I’ll be riding right there
Come on over to the front of the bus,
I’ll be riding right there.
If you miss me in the Mississippi River
You can’t find me nowhere,
Come on over to the public pool,
I’ll be swimming right there.
Chorus…
Blowing in the Wind, Bob Dylan
Lyrics are sublime in their complexity and simplicity. It is one of the first songs I learned on the ocarina, in my pre-whistle days.
The old Army Air Corps song…“off we go, into the wild blue yonder…”
Actually more a military than political song. Terrible message too.
But fun to play on the piano.
The tune goes a way, way back. The same air was “borrowed” by Dylan for his great “With God on our side”.
The lyric was written by Dominic Behan, Brendans brother. The tragedy being that it is based on a true story..one of many.
Come all ye young rebels, and list while I sing,
For the love of one’s country is a terrible thing.
It banishes fear with the speed of a flame,
And it makes us all part of the patriot game.
My name is O’Hanlon, and I’ve just turned sixteen.
My home is in Monaghan, and where I was weaned
I learned all my life cruel England’s to blame,
So now I am part of the patriot game.
This Ireland of ours has too long been half free.
Six counties lie under John Bull’s tyranny.
But still De Valera is greatly to blame
For shirking his part in the Patriot game.
They told me how Connolly was shot in his chair,
His wounds from the fighting all bloody and bare.
His fine body twisted, all battered and lame
They soon made me part of the patriot game.
It’s nearly two years since I wandered away
With the local battalion of the bold IRA,
For I read of our heroes, and wanted the same
To play out my part in the patriot game.
I don’t mind a bit if I shoot down the police
They are lackeys for war never guardians of peace
And yet at deserters I’m never let aim
The rebels who sold out the patriot game
And now as I lie here, my body all holes
I think of those traitors who bargained and sold
And I wish that my rifle had given the same
To those Quislings who sold out the patriot game.
Slan,
D.
I heard this on Ewan McColl’s 1951 disc, British Industrial
Ballads. The tune goes well on the flute. I believe
it is about a weaver’s strike in maybe 1819,
where the strikers were reduced to starvation.
‘Clem’ means starve. ‘Hood’ means she’d.
THE FOUR LOOM WEAVER
(Becket Whitehead’s version of The Poor Cotton Weaver)
I’m a four loom weaver, as many a man knows,
I’ve nowt to eat and I’ve worn out m’ clothes
M’ clogs are all broken, and stockings I’ve none.
Thee’d hardly gi’s tuppence for all I’ve gotten on.
Old Billy O’ Bent, he were telling us long
We mayn’t had better times if I’d nobbut held m’ tongue.
Well, I held m’ tongue til I near lost m’ breath,
And I feel in m’ hear that I’II soon clem to death
I’m a four loom weaver, as many a man knows.
I’ve nowt to eat and I’ve worn out m’ clothes.
Old Billy were right, but he ne’er were clemmed,
He ne’er picked o’er in his liie.
We held out for six weeks, thought each day were the last.
We tarried and shifted til we were quite fast.
We lived upon nettles while nettles were good.
And Waterloo Porridge were best to us (as) food.
Our Margaret declares, if hoo’d clothes to put on,
Hoo’d go up t’ London and see the great man
And if things didn’ alter when there hoo’d been
Hoo’ swears hoo’d fight til there blood up to th’ e’en.
I’m a four loom weaver as many a man knows.
I’ve nowt to eat and I’ve worn out m’ clothes
Stockings I’ve none, nor looms to weave on,
I’ve woven m’sen to far end.
Note: clem - starve; hoo’d - she’d
I guess it depends on what your definition of political song is. My favorite political songwright is definitely Phil Ochs. Probably my two favorites are Draft Dodger Rag and I Ain’t Marchin’ Any More
http://www.utterlyrics.com/p/phil-ochs/i-ain-t-marching-anymore-1965/draft-dodger-rag.html
http://www.utterlyrics.com/p/phil-ochs/i-ain-t-marching-anymore-1965/i-ain-t-marching-anymore.html
A band that’s underrated for its lyrics but wrote some really good political songs is Steppenwolf. Its classic political song is Monster, but a wonderful one is Don’t Step on the Grass Sam:
The song “Which side are you on?” immediately came to mind, being the daughter of a coal miner, and wife of one during the 1988 UMWA strike where we sang this old stirke song.-
http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/3448/whichsid.html
But- I can’t think of political songs without thinking of Dick Gaughan-
two of my favorites are Erin Go Bragh and the ultimate -The Worker’s Song, which covers it all.
At Berkeley we sang, to the tune of ‘Which side are
you on?’ these words:
My father is a member of the bourgeoisie,
And I’m a campus radical
And he’s supporting me.
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
I prefer to hear the whole thing - puts it more into context, though I appreciate the poetry of the last part:
Daylight again
Following me to bed
I think about a hundred years ago
How my Fathers bled
I think I see a valley
Covered with bones in blue
All the brave soldiers that cannot get older
Been asking after you
Hear the past a’ calling
From Armageddon’s side
When everyone’s talking and no one
Is listening
How can we decide
Do we find the cost of freedom
Buried in the ground
Mother Earth will swallow you
Lay your body down.
- Stephen Stills
I also like Fortunate Son by Creedence.
djm
And who could forget this one?:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kC22sVuD4ng
djm
Is “I am a Good Old Rebel” a political song? It’s funny because it has a cuss word in it.
Shipbuilding- Elvis Costello -(E. Costello and Clive Langer writing credits)
Costello has actually written quite a few ‘protest’ songs (in some way almost everything he writes is a protest song if not just taking a look at the ironies of life and the world.) Perhaps his most well known was written by Nick Lowe -What’s So Funny 'bout Peace Love and Understanding. Another I like alot by Costello is ‘Peace In Our Time’ A couple of others I can think of without going down a list are Tokyo Storm Warning and Night Rally.
Toss-up between “California Uber Alles” by Dead Kennedys and “Screaming at the Wailing Wall” by Flogging Molly.
Wow. Great lyrics. Fantastic. I don’t really have a favorite but I like a lot of the socially oriented stuff of the Woody Guthrie era and the anti-war stuff from the late 1960s.
I never thought of a “favourite”, but the ones I find myself singing are
“When this lousy war is over” (WWI vintage) and the Internationale. I love the internationale, but its a symptom of its failure that there is both a UK version and an American version.