Spine tingling politcal songs?

[HEyHEY]

The end of "No shelter" by Rage against the machine always tightens my stomach and shivers my timbers.
"JUST STAAAAAARRREEEE."
I think it really brings home how fucking stupid we in the first world are.

[1gobluedem]

1. Pete Seeger's Bring 'Em Home

Both the old and updated versions. I get chills hearing it.

[Roon]

2. and it's one, two, three, four, what are we fighting for?

Don't know the name of the song, but I love it

[Richardo]

9. "Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag"

Country Joe and the Fish :headbang:

Come on all of you big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam

So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.

Chorus:
And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.


2:
Come on generals, let's move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta go out and get those reds —
The only good commie is the one that's dead
You know that peace can only be won
When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come.

<Chorus>

3:
Come on Wall Street, don't move slow,
Why man, this is war au-go-go.
There's plenty good money to be made
Supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,
Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Viet Cong.

<Chorus>

4:
Come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, don't hesitate,
Send your sons off before it's too late.
You can be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.

<Chorus>

[Roon]

22. Thank you!

:hi:

[madinmaryland]

3. I know its really sappy, but when Clinton was elected in 92,

the song they played was "Don't Stop Believin'".

:shrug:

[1gobluedem]

4. I thought it was Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow n/t

[madinmaryland]

5. I'm horrible with song titles. Its the song by Fleetwood Mac.

[1gobluedem]

13. Yep

That's Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.

But I like Don't Stop Believing too!

[Radical Activist]

6. The thin line between entertainment and war

Rage's No Shelter is one of my favorite songs.

[Redneck Socialist]

7. If I Had a Rocket Launcher

...some son-of-a-bitch would die.

Bruce Cockburn

[Taverner]

8. Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner

gives me chills every time

[redqueen]

10. Killing in the Name - RATM

also

A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall - Bob Dylan

and also

The Ludlow Massacre - Woody Guthrie

[BrewerJohn]

11. I think a number of Midnight Oil songs qualify

I happen to be having an Oils mini-marathon on my office stereo right now. The currently
playing tune is "Forgotten Years" which has always packed a punch for me. Gets me
belting along with the chorus every time.

[WoodyTobiasJr]

14. Agree totally!!

U.S Forces

US Forces give the nod, it's a setback for your country
Bombs and trenches all in rows, bombs and threats still ask for more
Divided world the CIA, say who control the issue
You leave us with no time to talk, you can write your own assessment

Sing me songs of no denying, seems to me too many trying
Waiting for the next big thing

Will you know it when you see it, high risk children dogs of war
Now market movements call the shots, business deals in parking lots
Waiting for the meat of tomorrow

Sing me songs...

Everyone is too stoned to start emission
People too scared to go to prison
We're unable to make decisions
Political party line don't cross that floor
L.Ron Hubbard can't save your life
Superboy takes a plutonium wife
In the shadow of Ban The Bomb we live

Sing me songs...

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. Six White Horses... Waylon Jennings.

"I rocked the cradle where he used to lay...

I found his tin soldiers, and threw them away...

Come here and look through the window Marie...

Open up the shutters and tell me what you see...

Was that his knock that I heard at the door...

Or is it Six White Horses coming down the road?

[taterguy]

15. Peter Gabriel's Biko

[redqueen]

17. oh gawd yes!

i can't believe i didn't mention that one!

[WoodyTobiasJr]

16. Call It Democracy - Bruce Cockburn

padded with power here they come
international loan sharks backed by the guns
of market hungry military profiteers
whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared
with the blood of the poor

who rob life of its quality
who render rage a necessity
by turning countries into labour camps
modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom

sinister cynical instrument
who makes the gun into a sacrament--
the only response to the deification
of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations'
idolatry of ideology

north south east west
kill the best and buy the rest
it's just spend a buck to make a buck
you don't give a flying fuck
about the people in misery

IMF dirty MF
takes away everything it can get
always making certain that there's one thing left
keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

see the paid-off local bottom feeders
passing themselves off as leaders
kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows
open for business like a cheap bordello

and they call it democracy
and they call it democracy
and they call it democracy
and they call it democracy

see the loaded eyes of the children too
trying to make the best of it the way kids do
one day you're going to rise from your habitual feast
to find yourself staring down the throat of the beast
they call the revolution

[MarkDevin]

18. Edwin Starr's "War."

[LeftyMom]

19. Killing in the Name by RATM and thier cover of The Ghost of Tom Joad

There are a whole freakin' lot of RATM songs that should make the list.

Sabbath's War Pigs is a good one.

Masters of War is a damn fine song too, both the original Dylan version and the cover Pearl Jam did on TV a while back (on Letterman I think?)

[unpossibles]

20. Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding" n/t

[mvd]

21. "Let's Impeach The President" by Neil Young is..

a favorite of mine. The lyrics are hard-hitting and I love the choir in it.

[skygazer]

23. Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming

We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio

[u4ic]

24. Universal Soldier and The Crow on the Cradle

Buffy Ste Marie's original is the one I like best:

He's five foot-two, and he's six feet-four,
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of thirty-one, and he's only seventeen,
Been a soldier for a thousand years.

He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn't kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend and me for you.

And he's fighting for Canada,
He's fighting for France,
He's fighting for the USA,
And he's fighting for the Russians,
And he's fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.

And he's fighting for Democracy,
He's fighting for the Reds,
He says it's for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide,
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.

But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.

He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can't you see,
This is not the way we put the end to war.



The Crow on the Cradle

The sheep's in the meadow
The cow's in the corn
Now is the time for a child to be born
He'll laugh at the moon
And cry for the sun
And if it's a boy he'll carry a gun
Sang the crow on the cradle

And if it should be that this baby's a girl
Never you mind if her hair doesn't curl
With rings on her fingers
And bells on her toes
And a bomber above her wherever she goes
Sang the crow on the cradle

The crow on the cradle
The black and the white
Somebody's baby is born for a fight
The crow on the cradle
The white and the black
Somebody's baby is not coming back
Sang the crow on the cradle

Your mother and father will sweat and they'll slave
To build you a coffin and dig you a grave
Hush-a-bye little one, never you weep
For we've got a toy that can put you to sleep
Sang the crow on the cradle

Bring me my gun, and I'll shoot that bird dead
That's what your mother and father once said
The crow on the cradle, what can we do
Ah, this is a thing that I'll leave up to you
Sang the crow on the cradle
Sang the crow on the cradle

[jpgray]

25. "Shipbuilding" by Elvis Costello, the Robert Wyatt version

[zonkers]

26. With God on Their Side. nt

[WCGreen]

27. I Ain't a Marchin' Any More....

Oh I marched to the battle of New Orleans
At the end of the early British war
The young land started growing
The young blood started flowing
But I ain't marchin' anymore

For I've killed my share of Indians
In a thousand different fights
I was there at the Little Big Horn
I heard many men lying I saw many more dying
But I ain't marchin' anymore

chorus)
It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the saber and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all

For I stole California from the Mexican land
Fought in the bloody Civil War
Yes I even killed my brothers
And so many others But I ain't marchin' anymore

For I marched to the battles of the German trench
In a war that was bound to end all wars
Oh I must have killed a million men
And now they want me back again
But I ain't marchin' anymore

(chorus)

For I flew the final mission in the Japanese sky
Set off the mighty mushroom roar
When I saw the cities burning I knew that I was learning
That I ain't marchin' anymore

Now the labor leader's screamin'
when they close the missile plants,
United Fruit screams at the Cuban shore,
Call it "Peace" or call it "Treason,"
Call it "Love" or call it "Reason,"
But I ain't marchin' any more,
No I ain't marchin' any more



Travelin' Soldier by the Dixie Chicks....


Two days past eighteen
He was waitin' for the bus in his army greens
Sat down in a booth a café there
Gave his order to the girl with a bow in her hair
He's a little shy so she gave him a smile
And he said would you mind sittin' down for a while
And talkin' to me I'm feelin' a little low
She said I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go

So they went down and they sat on the pier
He said I bet you got a boyfriend but I don't care
I've got no one to send a letter to
Would you mind if I sent one back here to you?

I cried
Never gonna hold the hand of another guy
Too young for him they told her
Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier
Our love will never end
Waitin' for the soldier to come back again
Never more to be alone
When the letter says a soldier's comin home

So the letters came
From an army camp
in California then Vietnam
And he told her of his heart
It might be love
And all of the things he was so scared of
Said when it's gettin kinda rough over here
I think of that day sittin' down at the pier
And I close my eyes and see your pretty smile
Don't worry but I won't be able to write for a while

I cried
Never gonna hold the hand of another guy
Too young for him they told her
Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier
Our love will never end
Waitin' for the soldier to come back again
Never more to be alone
When the letter says a soldier's coming home

(Martie's fiddle break - Emily's dobro break)

One Friday night at a football game
The Lord's Prayer said and the anthem sang
A man said folks would you bow your heads
For the list of local Vietnam dead
Cryin' all alone under the stands
Was a piccolo player in the marching band
And one name read and nobody really cared
But a pretty little girl with a bow in her hair

I cried
Never gonna hold the hand of another guy
Too young for him they told her
Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier
Our love will never end
Waitin' for the soldier to come back again
Never more to be alone
When the letter says a soldier's comin home

I cried
Never gonna hold the hand of another guy
Too young for him they told her
Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier
Our love will never end
Waitin' for the soldier to come back again
Never more to be alone
When the letter says a soldier's comin home

[LisaM]

28. Anything by Phil Ochs - how about "The War Is Over"?

In particular, this verse:


So do your duty, boys, and join with pride
Serve your country in her suicide
Find the flags so you can wave goodbye
But just before the end even treason might be worth a try
This country is to young to die

I declare the war is over
It's over, it's over