Posted on 12/03/2004 8:38:25 AM PST by Warhead W-88
That Ukranian protest song got me thinking.
We all make fun of the painfully-earnest and stridently-liberal balladeers who fill us with so much excess stomache acid, but, hey, I'll be the one to admit it: I'm jealous.
Where's my protest anthem? Where's my catchy sing-a-long rock rebellion?
Sure, such songs don't really advance a philosophical position. They're the near-religious chants of the already-converted. But damnit, it gets kinda tedious just quoting Larry Kudlow and Deborah Orin all day. Why can't we occasionally just be able to sing our politics and maybe even groove to it? ...
The only real conservative protest anthems are only such if considered metaphorically, or loosely. There aren't too many songs with lyrics which explicitly champion conservatism.
The best you can find, really -- and this is either sad or pretty cool, depending on your taste -- is the sort of dunderheaded heavy metal screw-your-parents-and-teachers rock of the eighties. The actual specifics of the lyrics are usually pretty irrelevant to politics -- unless your politics is in fact fighting for your right to party -- but often just the attitude and a phrase in a chorus is close enough to an expression of the conservative discontent as to qualify as a bona fide political anthem.
And the song that I think is best example of this is Twisted Sister's We're Not Gonna Take It. Yeah, it's kinda silly, but that guitar and drum really kick, and the lyrics, actually, are pretty easily read as a conservative manifesto:
We've got the right to choose it There ain't no way we'll lose it This is our life, this is our song
We'll fight the powers that be, just don't pick our destiny, 'cause you don't know us, you don't belong
We're not gonna take it, no ain't gonna take it We're not gonna take it anymore
Oh you're so condescending Your gall is never-ending We don't want nothin', not a thing from you
Your life is trite and jaded Boring and confiscated If that's your best, your best won't do
We're RIGHT (Yeah!) We're FREE (Yeah!) We'll FIGHT (Yeah!) You'll see! (Yeahhhhh!)
If anyone can top that -- by a rock performer, not by Darryl Whorley, Tobey Keith, or Charlie Daniels -- I'd like to know about it.
More at Ace of Spades HQ.
Solidarity Forever?
Conservative anthems: God Bless America, Holy Night and Christ the Lord is Risen Today.
Get Out of Cheney's House!
Battle Hymn of the Republic, A Mighty Fortress, and Onward Christian Soldiers.
Then there is always The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Anything by Charlie Daniels (at least post 1985).
I saw Twisted Sister over the summer. It was all of the original members back together. Dee talked a little about 9/11 and how the song took on a new meaning afterward. He then had the entire audience give the middle finger to Al Qaeda and we all sang along to the song. It was a loud F*ck You to Osama from us all.
Didn't Rush write a bunch of songs about Ayn Rand?
I do not normally think that "conservatism=Christianity", nor that "morality=Christianity". But it does seem that when the forces of Western Civilization get together to sing, they choose Christian hymns.
And Twisted Sister toons.
Nuts to that, man! When the liberals are the establishment, rebellion definitely becomes a conservative value.
Half the fun of a site like this is that we're all opting out of the establishment media.
And what is wrong with that?
We're Not Gonna Take It
Oh we're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh we're not gonna take it anymore
We've got the right to choose it
There ain't no way we'll lost it
This is our life, this is our song
We'll fight the powers that be just
Don't pick our destiny 'cause
You don't know us, you don't belong
Oh we're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh we're not gonna take it anymore
Oh you're so condescending
Your gall is neverending
We don't want nothin', not a thing from you
Your life is trite and jaded
Boring and confiscated
If that's your best, your best won't do
Oh Oh
We're right (yeah)
We're free (yeah)
We'll fight (yeah)
You'll see (yeah)
Oh we're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh we're not gonna take it anymore
Oh we're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh we're not gonna take it anymore
No way
Oh Oh
We're right (yeah)
We're free (yeah)
We'll fight (yeah)
You'll see (yeah)
Oh we're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh we're not gonna take it anymore
Oh we're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh we're not gonna take it anymore
Just you try and make us
We're not gonna take it
Come on!
No, we ain't gonna take it
You're all worthless and weak
We're not gonna take it anymore
Now drop and give me twenty
We're not gonna take it
Oh crinch pin
No, we ain't gonna take it
Oh you and your uniform
We're not gonna take it anymore
"Nuke The B*st*rds" is my favorite.
You just go and lay your hand
on a Pittsburgh Steeler fan
and I think you're gonna finally understand.
---Charlie Daniels, "In America"
I guess now conservatives can use Pink Floyd's "We don't need no education" when protesting the leftist educational establishment.
There's always Amazing Grace.
How about Dixie?
FREE BIRD!!!
Well the eagle's been flying slow and the flag's been flying low
And a lot of people are saying that America's fixing to fall
But speaking just for me and some people from Tennessee
We got a thing or two to tell you all
This lady may have stumbled but she ain't never fell
And if the Russians don't believe that they can all go straight to hell
We're gonna put her feet back on the path of righteousness
And then God bless America again
And you never did think that it ever would happen again
In America, did you?
You never did think that we'd ever get together again
Well we damn sure fooled you
We're walking real proud and we're talking real loud again in America
You never did think that it ever would happen again
From the sound up in Long Island out to San Francisco Bay
And ev'ry thing that's in between them is our home
And we may have done a little bit of fighting amongst ourselves
But you outside people best leave us alone
Cause we'll all stick together and you can take that to the bank
That's the cowboys and the hippies and the rebels and the yanks
You just go and lay your head on a Pittsburgh Steeler fan
And I think you're gonna finally understand
And you never did think that it ever would happen again
In America, did you?
You never did think that we'd ever get together again
Well we damn sure fooled you
We're walking real proud and we're talking real loud again in America
You never did think that it ever would happen again
---Charlie Daniels, "In America," 1978
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