Ok, all you Bern fans are gonna get mad....
Winners, losers in this year's batch of political songs
By GEMMA TARLACH
Journal Sentinel pop music critic
Posted: Sept. 20, 2004
This voting season, the political songs out there could have you seeing red or feeling blue.
With a presidential race that's so divisive, to put it mildly, many an entertainer has been hard at work in the studio creating a musical call to action - at least that's true for musicians hoping to see a new commander in chief installed come January.
After a spate of high-profile releases in 2003 supportive of the president and his policies, such as Toby Keith's "The Taliban Song" and Darryl Worley's "Have You Forgotten," pro-Bush artists have been quiet in the studio. Musicians rallying for the president's re-election, such as Randy Travis and Ricky Skaggs, have been showing their political colors by touring in support of Bush or issuing pro-GOP statements - but not by releasing songs.
Posts on message boards at right-leaning sites reflect the sound of silence when it comes to finding new songs that champion the president. "Where's the anti-Kerry songs?" wonders "Jeren" in a post at RonaldReagan.com.
To be fair, it's just as tough to find an explicitly pro-Kerry song. As any rocker could tell you, penning a protest song is a lot easier than calling for the status quo or even cheering on the challenger.
But how do these election season songs stack up musically? Are they stirring anthems that will resonate years from now, as the best politically potent songs should? Or are they a trivial toss-together of stale musical ideas and cliched lyrics?
We took a listen to a random selection of songs available online for free, in either streaming or downloadable formats, to find out which tunes ignited a civil zeal within - and which gave us a headache.
Tunes were graded on songcraft and musicianship, not political message. Despite every effort to be bipartisan, we were unable to find any recent pro-Bush or anti-Kerry songs available for free online. Got one? Let us know. E-mail a link to [email protected].
Dan Bern: "Bush Must Be Defeated"
http://www.messengerrecords.com/sounds.php
Sounds like: Nasally folk singer over a drum machine and dribbly, unobtrusive synth washes.
Sample line: "Bush must be defeated / his evil gang unseated . . . The Rose Garden weeded."
Verdict: Bern gets a gold star on his nose for thinking up every possible rhyme for "defeated," no matter how corny ("His White House bed short-sheeted"), but the monotony of the song wears thin after a minute.
Grade: B-
The Prophet M.C. Fire featuring Audra Marie: "Not In Vain"
http://www.heartherevolution.com
Sounds like: A spare drum beat, delicate piano and ethereal back-up vocals set off the righteous indignation of Fire's raps.
Sample line: "I'm frustrated but I love this nation / Just want it to live the ideals made with its creation. Let's be honest with our actions and stop trying to rename 'em / to justify and tranquilize the lies that have made us famous."
Verdict: Musically stirring. Fire name-drops an impressive list of historical events and figures, from Hiroshima and Hitler to Jesus Christ and Manuel Noriega, but his attempts to tie it all together sometimes get knotted up.
Grade: A-
Roger Waters: "Leaving Beirut"
Sounds like: Former Pink Floyd front man Waters recycles the motif of solo albums such as "The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking," juxtaposing a spoken-word road story about shared humanity with soaring but angry anti-war choruses.
Sample line: "Put down that two by four / This man would never turn you from his door. Oh George! Oh George! That Texas education must have (expletive) you up when you were very small."
Verdict: Waters articulated his disdain for the follies of war movingly in the underrated 1983 Floyd album "The Final Cut," but this meandering and self-indulgent track, clocking in at 12:29, comes off as a rehash of one of his old songs, shellacked with a new coat of indignation. The companion song "To Kill a Child," also available at Waters' site, recalls "Wall"-era Floyd and includes the memorable couplet "The Bible, Koran, Shinto, Islam/Prosciutto, risotto, falafel and ham."
Grade: C-
John Fogerty: "Deja Vu (All Over Again)"
http://www.johnfogerty.com/main.php
Sounds like: Classic Creedence Clearwater Revival Americana rock with a glossy 21st-century mix.
Sample line: "Day by day we count the dead and dying / Ship the bodies home while the networks all keep score."
Verdict: Passionate but vague, Fogerty laments another life lost "to a war that has no end" but never articulates which conflict has him so vexed. Is he taking the high road and refraining from direct attacks or playing it safe to avoid being Dixie Chick'd?
Grade: B+
Green Day: "American Idiot"
http://www.mtv.com/music/the_leak/green_day/american_idiot/
Sounds like: Toothless, radio-friendly punk guitars - in other words, just what you'd expect from Green Day.
Sample line: "I'm not a part of a redneck agenda. Now everybody do the propaganda / And sing along in the age of paranoia."
Verdict: Like Fogerty, the Green boys don't name names - or suggest a possible solution to the perceived problem. But it's, like, totally fun to dance to.
Grade: B
Kill Radio: "A.M.E.R.I.K.A."
http://www.rockagainstbush.com/
Sounds like: Rough and raw punk rock that secretly hopes it gets played on mainstream radio a lot.
Sample line: "The informed citizen became un-American / for reading a book instead of watching the television / Supporting peace and not the president . . ."
Verdict: In a song clocking in at just under two minutes, screechy front man and lyricist Jordan Brown packs a lot of meat - and venom - into his screed, though he occasionally crosses the line into paranoid rant territory. Check Kill Radio out for yourself live - the band performs Oct. 1 at The Rave, 2401 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Grade: B
Steve Earle: "Rich Man's War"
Sounds like: Earle's gritty vocals are subdued over an organ-driven melody more Jimmy Buffett than battle hymn.
Sample line: "Bobby had an eagle and a flag tattooed on his arm / Red white and blue to the bone when he landed in Kandahar . . . Meanwhile back at home the finance company took his car / Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man's war."
Verdict: Instead of spewing, Earle takes the time to sketch characters and tell their stories, humanizing the topic in a way that reciting brand names (ahem, Mr. Waters, take note) or recycling the same ol', same ol' punk vitriol (you, too, Kill Radio) simply can't touch.
Grade: A
