Favorite political songs

[sne]

 

[Seat68]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1NyWbhCxZE

Thatcher **** the kids by Frank Turner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahzNnXex5fY

words removed are still running the world by Jarvis Cocker

Edited April 6, 2023 by Seat68

[chrisp65]

I’d not heard that Haile Salassie one before, @Seat68  That was interesting.

I’m a little bit in to Ethiopian culture and politics and the religious iconography around HS so it was a bit of a revelation to hear a song from the other side of the argument as it were.

Always learning!

 

[hogso]

Whew, had to scroll way too long to see a Propagandhi song linked. 

[chrisp65]

Most people wouldn’t automatically think of Tamra Motown as ‘political’ but if we have a think about it when it was current, it was incredibly political that it existed and what it’s strapline was for a while.

A black owned business, promoting black artists, with the strap ‘the sound of young America’, not young black America, no mention of it being for a segregated audience. In 60’s U.S. with the backdrop of all that was wrong, just the sound of young america. But then, with some politics in there if you wanted to listen…

Motown and Politics

Quote

To that end, this record company, associated almost purely with dancing and fun, placed some emphasis on message music and a certain brand of politics. But it trod carefully, spending much of the 60s couching its radical tendencies in commercial surroundings.

Bery Gordy’s other label was ‘Gordy’ and you could argue that did have a slightly more overtly political edge, that had black spoken word poetry, and it had a band called The Undisputed Truth and a lot of their content was overtly about social justice and personal advancement 

 

But if social justice is your thing, perhaps you need look at the Stax label and the radical black 60’s politics of… The Staple Singers.

But then politics can pop up in the strangest of places.

Elektra label had The Voices Of Young Harlem

You’d have to wonder who signed off on the black power tee shirts for a live gig inside Sing Sing Prison.

 

[Seat68]

NOFX have figuratively hundreds of political songs (they dont, they have quite a few though), this was unrecorded at the point where I was a big fan of the band but I stopped listening after the release of Coaster so it may now have been recorded in a studio.

One of the best tracks on War on Errorism

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by Seat68

[il_serpente]

 

[Seat68]

I can’t overstate how much this song meant to me as a 14 year old approaching 15. It literally changed everything. If you had to pick out a record that was the catalyst for your music taste from your teens and beyond, Ramones Bonzo Goes To Bitburg would be mine. At the time I didn’t even know it was political. 

 

[GarethRDR]

I dunno guys, personally I like a bit more subtlety in my political songs.

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by GarethRDR

[GarethRDR]

 

[GarethRDR]

Realistically, you could have any Zeal & Ardor song you wanted here, but this is one of my personal favourites.

[Marka Ragnos]

7 hours ago, Seat68 said:

 

At university, I got to meet Amiri Baraka a few years before he died. Big honour. Love his poetry.

[bickster]

For fans of Industrial hip hop beats with cut up speech vocals (thats probably just me). Here's three from the On-U stable. Cassette Boy is not original

And yes I say this all the time but the three musicians at play here are Skip McDonald, Doug WImbish and Keith le Blanc. Who? You say, the musicians that were the house band for Sugarhill Records thats who and they never get the credit for that

 

[blandy]

 

[VILLAMARV]

 

[VILLAMARV]

Good thread this

[chrisp65]

 

 

 

[NoelVilla]

The album Sandinista by The Clash has always been a favourite of mine.

 

[sne]

There is a whole world (well...) of really, really good Swedish political songs. From prog to punk to hardcore to pop-punk (and the odd rap ones) . I'd say it's the main type of music I listen to but most of it is in Swedish so will be lost on most on here sadly.

Edited April 7, 2023 by sne

[Only2McInallys]

I remember going to a miners strike benefit concert in 1984 at Brixton Academy which I think included Billy Bragg but the last group to appear were Aztec Camera.

For the last song of the evening Frame announced he was going to play a cover of a song which he felt had done more for women’s movement than any other song.

He proceeded to play a cover version of Jump by Van Halen.