Why don't we have good political bands any more?

[kyser_soze]

I'm assuming that 'dance' in this context means 'Spasmodic twitching, flapping arms and yelling while drunk' rather that actually dancing to a beat?

There's been LOADS of anti-Iraq stuff, mainly in the shape of single tracks on US artists albums.

 

[Oula]

Propagandhi. They have always been very political. Went to see them in late 2001 and they were still political - they had had all their books that they usually sell impounded at customs.

 

[grimble]

The Good The Bad and The Queen album and the new Arcade Fire album are both pretty political - just not shouty political.

 

[grimble]

And Morrissey still sings about America, homophobia and religion.

 

[rhod]

There is stuff there, on the fringes of punk, Americana etc, but you never hear it much political stuff on the radio.

One track which hit the nail on the head that I heard last year was by James (son of Larry) McMurty, called "We can't make it here"

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore

See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna set there till they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore

The bar's still open but man it's slow
The tip jar's light and the register's low
The bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day

Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore

High school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
If she comes up pregnant what'll she do
Forget the career, forget about school
Can she live on faith? live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it's way too late to just say no
You can't make it here anymore

Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their sh@# don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the da$% little war
And we can't make it here anymore

Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat sh$%, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore

And that's how it is
That's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper
Read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind
If you're listening at all
Get out of that limo
Look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone
Tell us all why

In Dayton, Ohio
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

Music and lyrics © 2004 by James McMurtry

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

What happened to all the angry politicos burning up the dancefloor?

Just been watching a YouTube video of the Redskins doing "Keep On Keepin' On", and it struck me that you just don't get highly politicised, ultra danceable bands like that any more. The last of their kind were Chumbawamba I guess.

Redskins were one of the best live bands i've ever seen, absolutely red-hot live and spitting politics at the same time.

I've wondered where the overtly political music scene has gone of late and put it down to the wider general apathy that appears to have infected most of the yout who, instead of wanting to change the world, want to get rich or die trying.....

 

[eoin_k]

This thread is funny. Half the people on it are moaning about the lack of good political tunes while the other half our listing stuff to check out. Shame the first lot seem determined to moan on with there ears shut.

 

[rekil]

All we need is Diddy.

 

[twistedAM]

I forgot: Get Cape Wear Cape Fly has his political side.

(Stands back and waits for the h8ters)

 

[david dissadent]

It seems alot of good politics is banned......

 

[lights.out.london]

Redskins were one of the best live bands i've ever seen, absolutely red-hot live and spitting politics at the same time.

 

[Bajie]

 

[lostexpectation]

what that german rave/dance band begins with A, i dunno em there must be some...

 

[audiotech]

Some political videos we can do without.

 

[ShiftyBagLady]

michael franti and spearhead, i quite like the sounds of this, sweet little lies sounds good too
song called yell fire :


A revolution never come with a warning
A revolution never sends you an omen
A revolution just arrived like the morning
Ring the alarm, we come to wake up the snoring

They tellin' you to never worry about the future
They tellin' you to never worry about the torture
They tellin you that you'll never see the horror
Spend it all today and we will bill you tomorrow
Three piece suits and bank accounts in Bahamas
Wall street crime will never send you to the slammer
Tell all the children in the arms of their mommas
The F-15 is a homicide bomber

TV commercials for a popping pill culture
Drug companies circling like a vulture
An Iraqi babies with a G.I. Joe father
Ten years from now is anyboby gonna bother

Yell Fire, yo, yo ,yo
Here we come, here we come
Fire, yo, yo, yo, yo
Revolution a comin'
Fire, yo, yo, yo, yo
Fire, yo, yo, yo, yo

Everyone addicted to the same nicotine
Everyone addicted to the same gasoline
Everyone addicted to a technicolour scream
Everybody trying to get their hands on same green
From the banks of the river to the banks of the greedy
All of the riches taken back by needy
We come from the country and we come from the city
You play us on the record, you can play us on the CD
All the shit you given us is fertilizer
The seeds that we planted you can brutalize them
Tell the corporation you can never globalize you
Like Peter Toss said Legalize It
Girls and boys hear the bass and treble
Rumble in the speakers and it make you wanna rebel
Throw your hands up, take it to another level
And you can never, ever, ever make a deal with the devil

heres a link if you're interested

 

[rekil]

what that german rave/dance band begins with A, i dunno em there must be some...

Atari Teenage Riot.

 

[rollinder]

michael franti and spearhead, i quite like the sounds of this, sweet little lies sounds good too
song called yell fire :

Light up Your Lighter is a great one too -

"Fire, fire, fire, light up ya lighter, fire fire fire
Armageddon is a deadly day, Armageddon is a deadly way
They commin for you everyday, While Senators on holiday

The Army recruiters in the parking lot, Hustling kids there jugglin pot
Listen young man, Listen to my plan , Gonna make you money, gonna make you a man

Bom Bom

Here’s what you get, An M-16 and a Kevlar vest
You might come home with one less leg, But this thing will surely keep a bullet out of your chest

So Come on Come on, Sign up, Come on
This one’s nothing like Vietnam
Except for the bullets, Except for the bombs,
Except for the youth that’s gone

So we keep it on, til ya coming home, Higher and Higher
Fire, fire, fire, light up ya lighter, fire fire fire, so we keep it on
Til ya commin home, higher and higher
Fire, fire, fire, light up ya lighter, fire fire fire

Tell me President tell if you will,
How many people does a smart bomb kill
How many of em do you think we got,
The General says we never miss a shot
And we never ever ever keep a body count,
we killin so efficiently we can’t keep count
In the Afghan hills the rebels still fightin,
Opium fields keep providin
The best heroin that money can buy
and nobody knows where Osama bin hidin
The press conferences keep on lyin like we don’t know

Some say engine engine number nine,
Machine guns on a New York transit line
The war for oil is a war for the beast,
the war on terror is a war on peace
Tellin you they’re gonna protect you,
Tellin you that they support the troops
Don’t let them fool you with their milk and honey,
No they only want your money
One step forward and two steps back,
Why do veterans get no respect
PTSD and a broken back,
Take a look at where your moneys gone seen
Take a look at what they spend it on
No excuses, No illusions

Light up ya lighter"

I think I've just fallen in love with this album Thanks Shifty

 

[ShiftyBagLady]

*salutes in a camp manner*

i spent ages on youtube watching these guys, some good bits ont here amongst the appalling sound and dodgy camera stuff....
have just bought michael frantis album songs from the porch, less of a political slant (more acoustic self indulgence which is right up my avenue )i love his voice
damn itunes and the immediacy of it. it is both a blessing and a drain on my bank account, i remember having togo and buy albums, not download them at two o'clock in the morning.....

 

[118118]

erm, yeah, maybe all the political bands we need is someone to say that its ok on the music scene and leave it at that. e.g., i imagine that many people are turned towards left wing politics, by many kinds of music - if in deed it makes any difference at all.

 

[stavros]

The Beastie Boys have done work on the freedom of Tibet I think, and their last album (not their best I didn't think) had a line about "a president we did not elect". Some good stuff on it still, especially the Just Blaze remix of "Ch-Check It Out", although that's mostly a load of gobbledy-gook with no politics at all.

 

[northernhord]

One explanation might be Thatchers kids, materialistic apolitical fuckers

 

[Suffolk Punch]

A god of political rock

The late great Allan Smethurst

"You never see a farmer on a bike boy, no you never see a farmer on the bike."

 

[Citizen66]

We're all middle class now, you see.

Are you fuck you big slim liar!!

 

[subversplat]

Atari Teenage Riot.

They're hardly current though are they, what with having been broken up a bajillion years

There's always political hippity hop being made, but it's always drowned out by Snoop Dogg-esque bitches and gangsta-ing. Likewise there's always political punk rock being made (NOFX released The War on Errorism the other year, there were two Rock Against Bush comps, etc.) but its drowned out by bloody Fall Out Boy and whatever new venture the lads from Busted are doing

Citizen66, I am attempting to be a social aspirationist now - leave me alone