Speaking of political songs (as I did last night), the conservative National Review has posted what it touts as the "top 50 conservative rock songs". I’ve put the whole list, along with National Review’s reasoning, below the fold.
What’s clear is that in order to compile this list, the editors of NR often had to ignore the politics of the songs’ authors and engaged in tortured interpretation of lyrics. But Rude Pundit explains it better:
The entire list – fuck, the entire effort – is sad and embarassing, like watching Grandpa do the Macarena now, thinking that he’s still hip, that he’s been hip for the last 30 years. Because to come up with fifty songs, the readers and editors of the National Review had to neglect, almost entirely, the politics and lifestyles of nearly every single one of the music acts on the list, like, say U2, the Clash, and the Sex Pistols, just for kicks, or noted cross-dressing androgyne David Bowie. They had to twist the meaning of lyrics so that vague references to "freedom" all of a sudden became calls to a modified libertarianism (you know, no taxes, but also no fucking). And, of course, the mention of every fucking song they could find that seems to oppose abortion or alludes to the fall of Communism or doesn’t like taxes. This leads them to have to include the Scorpions, Kid Rock, Rush, Creed, After the Fire, Sammy Hagar, and Jesus Jones in a great huge pile of suck.
For, truly, what madness does it take for a magazine that not only supported the Vietnam War, but viciously attacked the anti-war movement, to include Creedence Clearwater Revival’s "Who’ll Stop the Rain?" as the 35th best conservative rock song? And then justify it by saying that it "takes a dim view of Communism and liberalism" in the line, "Five Year Plans and New Deals, wrapped in golden chains." Does it even matter to say that the point of the song is, would somebody, fucking anyone, make the insanity of the war end?
Of course not. It’s best just to point and laugh at how simple-minded and, yes, again, pathetic the whole effort is, like when Ronald Reagan played Bruce Springsteen’s "Born in the USA" on campaign stops (hell, at least the National Review didn’t include that). And enjoy the mad manipulations: The Pretenders’ "My City Was Gone" (#13) is really about "a conservative’s dissatisfaction with rapid change." The Georgia Satellites’ "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" (#32), which seems to the Rude Pundit to be about the deep desire to fuck a girl, actually seeks to "affirm old-time sexual mores." The Crickets’ "I Fought the Law" (#15) ain’t about rebellion against authority, oh, no – it’s a "law and order classic." And let’s not even get into the myriad sins, misinterpretations, and outright delusions in putting the Who’s "Won’t Get Fooled Again" as the #1 conservative rock song.
He’s right (and rude). To add another example, I notice that #7 on their list is The Beatles’ Revolution. This was how the Editors explain that song as a "conservative song":
"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?"
Nice ellipses, boys. Of course, everyone knows that The Beatles wanted to be "counted out" of "destruction", not revolution, as in:
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me out
So the Beatles were pro-revolution — as long as it was non-violent revolution. That’s Gandhi hippie stuff. NOT revolution at gunpoint, which is what we are seeing in Iraq. Hardly a conservative sentiment.
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