Greatest Conservative Rock Songs

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INDY500

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Entire article and list available at National Review Online. But here is the top 7 (including a U2 song) and a few other personal favorites.

1. “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” by The Who.
The conservative movement is full of disillusioned revolutionaries; this could be their theme song, an oath that swears off naïve idealism once and for all. “There’s nothing in the streets / Looks any different to me / And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye. . . . Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.” The instantly recognizable synthesizer intro, Pete Townshend’s ringing guitar, Keith Moon’s pounding drums, and Roger Daltrey’s wailing vocals make this one of the most explosive rock anthems ever recorded — the best number by a big band, and a classic for conservatives.
2. “Taxman,” by The Beatles.
A George Harrison masterpiece with a famous guitar riff (which was actually played by Paul McCartney): “If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street / If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat / If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat / If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.” The song closes with a humorous jab at death taxes: “Now my advice for those who die / Declare the pennies on your eyes.”
3. “Sympathy for the Devil,” by The Rolling Stones.
Don’t be misled by the title; this song is The Screwtape Letters of rock. The devil is a tempter who leans hard on moral relativism — he will try to make you think that “every cop is a criminal / And all the sinners saints.” What’s more, he is the sinister inspiration for the cruelties of Bolshevism: “I stuck around St. Petersburg / When I saw it was a time for a change / Killed the czar and his ministers / Anastasia screamed in vain.”
4. “Sweet Home Alabama,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. A tribute to the region of America that liberals love to loathe, taking a shot at Neil Young’s Canadian arrogance along the way: “A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow.”
5. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” by The Beach Boys.
Pro-abstinence and pro-marriage: “Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true / Baby then there wouldn’t be a single thing we couldn’t do / We could be married / And then we’d be happy.”
6. “Gloria,” by U2. Just because a rock song is about faith doesn’t mean that it’s conservative. But what about a rock song that’s about faith and whose chorus is in Latin? That’s beautifully reactionary: “Gloria / In te domine / Gloria / Exultate.”
7. “Revolution,” by The Beatles.
“You say you want a revolution / Well you know / We all want to change the world . . . Don’t you know you can count me out?” What’s more, Communism isn’t even cool: “If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao / You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow.” (Someone tell the Che Guevara crowd.)
9. “Don’t Tread on Me,” by Metallica.
A head-banging tribute to the doctrine of peace through strength, written in response to the first Gulf War: “So be it / Threaten no more / To secure peace is to prepare for war.”
16. “Get Over It,” by The Eagles.
Against the culture of grievance: “The big, bad world doesn’t owe you a thing.” There’s also this nice line: “I’d like to find your inner child and kick its little ass.”
20. “Rock the Casbah,” by The Clash.
After 9/11, American radio stations were urged not to play this 1982 song, one of the biggest hits by a seminal punk band, because it was seen as too provocative. Meanwhile, British Forces Broadcasting Service (the radio station for British troops serving in Iraq) has said that this is one of its most requested tunes.
27. “Obvious Song,” by Joe Jackson.
For property rights and economic development, and against liberal hypocrisy: “There was a man in the jungle / Trying to make ends meet / Found himself one day with an axe in his hand / When a voice said ‘Buddy can you spare that tree / We gotta save the world — starting with your land’ / It was a rock ’n’ roll millionaire from the USA / Doing three to the gallon in a big white car / And he sang and he sang ’til he polluted the air / And he blew a lot of smoke from a Cuban cigar.”
38. “I Can’t Drive 55,” by Sammy Hagar.
A rocker’s objection to the nanny state.

:rockon:
 
some are fine, to each his own, but in some of these the reviewer totally misses the mark and has NO IDEA of what's really going on in the songs, like:

[q]5. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” by The Beach Boys.
Pro-abstinence and pro-marriage: “Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true / Baby then there wouldn’t be a single thing we couldn’t do / We could be married / And then we’d be happy.”[/q]

yes, those abstemious Beach Boys. i didn't realize that wanting to get married was conservative ... unless you're gay!


[q]20. “Rock the Casbah,” by The Clash.
After 9/11, American radio stations were urged not to play this 1982 song, one of the biggest hits by a seminal punk band, because it was seen as too provocative. Meanwhile, British Forces Broadcasting Service (the radio station for British troops serving in Iraq) has said that this is one of its most requested tunes.[/q]

i suppose irony truly is dead. wow.

i'm shocked to see "Born in the USA" missing from the list.
 
I don't agree with what he said about "Gloria". I'm a liberal, and I was deeply affected by this song the first time I heard it. I had never heard Gregorian chant in rock, and I was just amazed. This song goes way beyond political labels and divisions.
 
I think coservatives have always been desperate to find artists that speak for their cause. It's obvious in their trying to embrace songs such as 'Born in the USA' and 'Revolution'.

The truth is there just aren't that many conservative artists.
 
I think he's a bit desparate. I don't think it's such a major deal to have alot of artists disagreeing with you. It seems to be bothering him. It shouldn't.
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:
I think coservatives have always been desperate to find artists that speak for their cause. It's obvious in their trying to embrace songs such as 'Born in the USA' and 'Revolution'.

The truth is there just aren't that many conservative artists.

Conservative artists certainly exist, especially in country music. However, I can't really think of any that don't suck.

I can't decide if the people who came up with this list are simply clueless or if they are so desparate to find good rock songs that express conservative values that they are seeing things that aren't there. I mean, a song is conservative simply because it uses a Latin phrase???
 
I missed the source. I thought the article was a spoof. Actually, I still think it is. It was pretty funny.
 
I wonder how U2 would react to being called a "Conservative" music group?

I can already see Edge's and Larry's hair bristling, Adam smirking and Bono looking like this :ohmy: .


Like others have said, these conservatives are just desparate to try to link whoever they can in Rock music to their viewpoints to try to increase their sway with young people.


My reaction to this article - :lmao:
 
I have not read all of this thread

but I think music, like all art, speaks to different people, in different ways

so, if some people want to say these songs are "this or that"

I could care less

long live art!
 
INDY500 said:

2. “Taxman,” by The Beatles.
A George Harrison masterpiece with a famous guitar riff (which was actually played by Paul McCartney): “If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street / If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat / If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat / If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.”

:lol: It's like they looked into the future and saw the UK in 2006!

:wink:
 
Re: Re: Greatest Conservative Rock Songs

TheQuiet1 said:


:lol: It's like they looked into the future and saw the UK in 2006!

:wink:

lol true ttrue , the conservatives will use that in their election campaign lol.

lib dems will use YMCA - village people
 
Personally, it never occurred to me to label songs as conservative or liberal. What's the point? I'm from the Beavis & Butthead School of Rock. There are only songs which majestically rock--or songs that suck.

And speaking of songs that suck, the next 50 "conservative songs" is out and another U2 song has made the list.

“The Playboy Mansion,” by U2.
Not a place worth visiting: “Then will there be no time for sorrow / Then will there be no time for shame / Then will there be now time for shame / Then will there be now time for pain.”
 
The article's a parody in the Stephen Colbert vein. But I guess you weren't able to "analyze" that and "missed the point".
 
phattom said:
The article's a parody in the Stephen Colbert vein. But I guess you weren't able to "analyze" that and "missed the point".

Since The National Review is known to be a conservative publication I would highly doubt that.

Or maybe they aren't twisting those songs and it is actually a parody. Maybe they actually have a sense of humor *falls off chair* :wink:
 
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phattom said:
The article's a parody in the Stephen Colbert vein. But I guess you weren't able to "analyze" that and "missed the point".

Of coarse the author is having a bit of fun when he uses lyrics from older songs in order to take a swipe at a few tenets of liberalism in the 21st century. Like Che chic or anti-capitalism masquerading as environmentalism. That's National Review's raison d'être. But unlike Colbert, who feigns conservatism in order to mock it, the author is not pretending to be anybody. He's just a rock fan who happens to write for a conservative magazine.

Conservative-Rock. I think everyone on this thread "got" the oxymoron. But then again, who thought rock 'n' roll would age?

People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Just because we g-g-get around (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Yeah, I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
 
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