Conservative Pop Music

http://www.townhall.com/phillysoc/bartlettpaper.htm ^ | 10/4/02 | Bruce Bartlet

[Uncle Meat]

Ronnie James Dio bump

The world is full of kings and queens,they blind your eyes and steal your dreams.

[venturin]

Tubthumping is a Bush era conservative battle cry. Well part of it anyway. ;)

It reminds me of those great conservatives down in Florida during those 36 days in the year 2000.

I get knocked down, I get up again nobodies gonna keep me down, I get knocked down, I get up again....

[venturin]

Did anyone mention "Another Brick in the Wall"?

We don't need no education We don't need no thought control No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teachers leave the kids alone
Hey, teacher leave the kids alone! All in all it's just another brick in the wall All in all you're just another brick in the wall

I don't need no walls around me I don't need no drugs to calm me I have seen the writing on the wall Don't think I'll need anything at all
All in all it was just bricks in the wall All in all you were all just bricks in the wall

[LRS]

While I disagree with several of your interpretations, I want to at least thank you for including my all time favorite band, the Kinks, on the list. While lead guitarist Dave Davies is a lefty whacko on a lot of issues, his older brother Ray Davies, the principle song writer and lead singer, and perhaps the best song writer of our era, managed to get the band blasted by the left on numerous occassions for being politically incorrect. From his scathing indictment of the socialist system in "Preservation, Act II", to the number "Black Messiah", which caused some lefty reviewers to say that if Hitler was around at the time and was in a rock band, it would be the Kinks, to taking on unionism, as with "Get Back in Line", it's no wonder the Kinks have never been held in as high regard as some of the other bands of the times, for daring to be so out of step. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not claiming Ray Davies to be a true conservative in the political sense that Americans usually would describe someone. Perhaps more of a libertarian.

I am having some trouble deciding upon which lyrics by Ray Davies to end this post with. However, since "Preservation, ActII" had a profound effect on driving me from the liberal camp when it first appeared in 1974, I'll take something from it, the finale:

Salvation Road
Written by: Raymond Douglas Davies

Published by: Davray Music Ltd.

Lyrics:
Sung by everybody

Hear me brothers, hear me sisters,
Citizens and comrades hear my song.
The old life's dead the order's changing
It's time for all of us to move along.

Got no time to live a life
With old worn-out traditions
Swallowed my pride,
Changed my ways,
And found a new religion.
There you go.

Sick and tired of living on loans,
Driving around in a car that I don't own.
Tired of looking at wealthy faces
Flying off to far out places.
The workers of the world
Shall give the profits to the people.
Class will disappear
And we will live our lives as equals.
There you go.

And we'll all walk along
And we'll all sing a song
And we'll all mark time as we go.
Yes, we'll all walk along
And we'll all sing a song
As we walk down Salvation Road.

Goodbye youth, goodbye dreams,
The good times and the friends I used to know.
Goodbye freedom, hello fear,
A brave new world has suddenly appeared.
Got to be hard,
Don't look back
And no more reminiscing.
Times are rough,
We've got to be tough,
And concentrate on living.
There you go.

And we'll all join hands,
And we'll all march along
And we'll all mark time as we go.
Yes, we'll all walk along,
And we'll sing a song,
As we walk down Salvation Road.

We'll all walk along
And we'll all sing a song
And we'll all mark time as we go.
Yes, we'll all walk along
And we'll all sing a song
As we walk down Salvation Road.

[perfect stranger]

"Taxman" by The Beatles was mentioned in the article, and in a few comments as well.

[Drumbo]

So "My Way" wasn't even an also-ran? Hmmmm, maybe I heard the lyrics wrong.

"Foodstamps, I've had a few,
But then again, I'm still on welfare.
I do what I have to do
Unemployment rules are really unfair.

For what is a man, what has he got?
Without SSI, then he has naught.
He can take a bribe and sell his votes,
For a jug of wine and a pack of smokes,
Let my case worker know,
I'm still on the dole,
Yes I'm on wel-fare!"

Seriously, "My Way" is a VERY conservative song, imho.

[UnBlinkingEye]

You are right. My mistake.

Cheers to George Harrison, and the Beatles.

[Chi-townChief]

Just came across this one now; what's missing is the libertarian anthem "People Got to be Free" by the Rascals, a great counterpoint to John Lennon's neo-fascist "Imagine."

[macrahanish #1]

The group that did that song(Chumbawumba-sp??)were hard-core
leftist whackos.

[macrahanish #1]

I haven't seen "Winds of Change" by the Scorpions mentioned yet.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I always thought that bit about looking to the west was an allusion to Lord of the Rings, myself...but yours is a nice image.

[Yardstick]

20. Johnny Horton, “Battle of New Orleans”...The song was a massive hit, reaching number 1 in May 1959, and staying there for 6 weeks.

Talk about a catchy tune. My dad had an ancient 45 of the song which he played for me back in about 1982. I can still remember the melody and a significant chunk of the lyrics. I had no reason to remember it but for some reason it stuck with me.

We ran 'em through the bushes and we ran 'em through the brambles
We ran 'em through the [places?] where the rabbits couldn't go
We ran 'em so hard that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
Well we ran 'em right down to the Gulf of Mexico

[Yardstick]

******Here are the actual lyrics******

In 1814 we took a little trip
along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
and we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.

*Chorus*
We fired our guns and the British kept on comin'
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

We looked down the river and we've seen the british come
and there must have been a hunnerd of 'em beatin on the drum.
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring
but we stood behind our cotton bales 'n' didn't say a thing.

Chorus

Ol' Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
if we didn't fire our muskets 'till we looked 'em in the eyes.
We held our fire 'till we seed their faces well
then we opened up the squirrel guns and really gave em....
well we

Chorus

Well they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
and they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go.
they ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

We fired our cannon 'till the barrel melted down
so we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannonballs, powered his behind
and when we touched the powder off the gator lost his mind.

Chorus

Yeah they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
and they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go.
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
A down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

[Mr. Blonde]

Amazing how many conservatives love Ted Nugent, but get terribly upset when anyone mentions sweet poontang. Me, I love the Nuge and sweet poontang so no problems for me.