Favorite Political Songs - Thread

[Trotsky]

Feel like your political beliefs or humanitarian sensibilities can be best represented through song? Post 'em up here. Who knows: it might make you better understand someone else's viewpoint. At worst, you get to discover some good music.

"American Low" - Cassino (poverty in the US South)

Oh this hurricane’s blowing us thin
This never ending swirl of American sin
Where I strayed on my knees to a bottomless cage
Where they throw dollar bills and hope to be saved
The poshest scarf on the warmest day…
Its enough to make you give up ….she says...
I know I know I know …it shows

As we sleep in this broken Cadillac
We watch the world leave it doesn’t look back

Oh this earthquake is shaking our hands
Free at the wrists just as we started a dance
The hardest thing next to diamond rings
Is the coats we have to wear just to make ends meet
I got this year and fifty more to beat…
Its enough to make you give up….she says…
I know I know I know….so let go…

The nervous ticks only the holy get
The country treats as the cities get sick
The lunatics and the Harlem tricks
The country treats as we all get sick…

​

"Reason to Leave" - The Narrative (anti-immigration sentiment in US)

I'm living in a land full of foreign sons
Who shudder at the site of foreign blood
They'd rather leave a brother in the cold alone
Than welcome a new sister home

​

"America" - Nas (barbarity of American history)

How could I not be dead?
This old German said I was a thug with a notty head
Looked at my Benz and called that a Nazi sled
With a face like he wonder where I got my bread
Probably all these stones he see
From my shows overseas; from crime to rhyme
My stories is I'm from the home of the thieves
The lord is a G, he gotta be
Who's the God of suckers and snitches? The economy
Lipstick from Marilyn Monroe blew a death kiss to Fidel Castro
He'd want me to spit this
Only the strong survive, Nas bear witness
The hypocrisy is all I can see
White cop acquitted for murder, Black cop cop a plea
That type of shit make me stop and think
We in chronic need of a second look of the law books
And the whole race dichotomy
Too many rappers, athletes, and actors
But not enough s in NASA
Who give you the latest dances, trends, and fashion
But when it comes to residuals, they look past us
Woven into the fabric, they can't stand us
Even in white tee's, blue jeans, and red bandannas

​

"Reagan" - Killer Mike (Reagan being an objectively shitty president and shittier human being)

The end of the Reagan Era, I'm like number twelver
Old enough to understand the shit'll change forever
They declared the war on drugs like a war on terror
But what it really did was let the police terrorize whoever
But mostly black boys, but they would call us "s"
And lay us on our belly, while they fingers on they triggers
They boots was on our head, they dogs was on our crotches
And they would beat us up if we had diamonds on our watches
And they would take our drugs and money, as they pick our pockets
I guess that that's the privilege of policing for some profit
But thanks to Reaganomics, prisons turned to profits
Cos free labor is the cornerstone of US economics

We brag on having bread, but none of us are bakers
We all talk having greens, but none of us on acres
If none of us on acres, and none of us grow wheat
Then who will feed our people when our people need to eat
So it seems our people starve from lack of understanding
Cos all we seem to give them is some balling and some dancing
And some talking about our car and imaginary mansions
We should be indicted for bullshit we inciting
Hella children deaf and pretending it's exciting
We are advertisements for agony and pain
We exploit the youth, we tell them to join a gang
We tell them dope stories, introduce them to the game
Just like Oliver North introduced us to cocaine
In the 80's when the bricks came on military planes

​

"Freedom Bridge" - The Menzingers (Iraq War, PTSD)

Specialist Jeg, a much more honest man than you
Came back from the desert
Where he never found the truth
Now he screeches tires
Fills his head with alcohol
While the morbid, brown faces hang
Like portraits on the wall
Had it all, took the fall
Had it all, they took it all

Something happened on the way to hell
The new guard, they took my sister
Something happened on the way to hell
The old guard, they took my brother away
Something happened on the way to hell
The same greed, it took our parents
Something happened on the way to hell
The west wall, it took us with it

​

"Black President" - Nas (Obama candidacy for POTUS, representation of black Americans)

Say a prayer for "do we have to?"
You ain't right, Jeremiah wrong pastor in love with a slave master
Sincerely yours, usa's most brave rapper
Jesse carjacker, Uncle Tom kidnapper
Ask around: bentley coupe off the richter
Bitch called "life": I pimped her, what
Politics, politricks, klan-shooter
Deacon for defense, progress producer
Nothing on the stove but survival booster
Gotta do what we gotta do
We ain't got no governors coming through to help
Anything we need done, we gotta do for self
New, improved JFK on the way
It ain't the 60s again, s ain't hippies again
We ain't falling for the same traps
Standing on the balconies where they shot the King at
McCain got apologies, main't nobody hearing that
People need honesty

​

"Blood on the Sand" - Thrice (poverty, neoliberalism, American imperialism)

We wave our flags, we swallow fear like medicine
We kiss the hands of profiteers and their congressmen
But I've seen too much (of this fear and hate)
Yeah I've had enough (and I'm not afraid)
To raise a shout, to make it clear — this has to end

There's blood on the sand, there's blood in the street
And there's a gun in my hand, or there might as well be
And I'm sick of it, I'm so sick of it

We panic at the sight of different colored skin
We've got a plan to justify each mess we're in
But I've seen too much (of this fear and hate)
I've had enough (and I'm not afraid)
To take a stand, to make it right — this has to end

​

"The Widow" - The Mars Volta (Mexican drug epidemic)

Look at how they flock to him
From an isle of open sores
He knows that the taste is such
Such to die for
And I hear him every night
On every street
The scales that do slither
Deliver me from?
Freeze without an answer
Free from all the shame
Then I'll hide
'Cause I'll never never sleep alone
Oh Lord
Said I'm bloodshot for sure
Pale runs the ghost
Swollen on…

​

"Come All You Weary" - Thrice (poverty, loss of American Christianity to prosperity gospel)

Come all you weary, move through the earth

You've been spurned at fine restaurants and kicked out of church,
I've got a couple of loaves, so sit down at my feet,
Lend me your ears and we'll break bread and eat
Come all you weary
Come gather round near me
Find rest for your souls

​

 

[Trotsky]

@InternetHero

 

[abiG]

 

[Pseudo Sane]

Unbreakable Union of freeborn Republics,
Great Russia has welded forever to stand.
Created in struggle by will of the people,
United and mighty, our Soviet land!

Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
To Communism's triumph lead us on!

Through tempests the sunrays of freedom have cheered us,
Along the new path where great Lenin did lead.
To a righteous cause he raised up the peoples,
Inspired them to labour and valourous deed.

Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
To Communism's triumph lead us on!

In the victory of Communism's immortal ideal,
We see the future of our dear land.
And to her fluttering scarlet banner,
Selflessly true we always shall stand!

Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
To Communism's triumph lead us on!

Naw, just kidding.

There once was a musical troupe
A picking, singing folk group
They sang the mountain ballads
And the folk songs of our land
They were long on musical ability
Folks thought they would go far
But political incompatibility led to their downfall

Well, the one on the right was on the left
And the one in the middle was on the right
And the one on the left was in the middle
And the guy in the rear was a Methodist

This musical aggregation toured the entire nation
Singing the traditional ballads
And the folk songs of our land
They performed with great virtuosity
And soon they were the rage
But political animosity prevailed upon the stage

Well, the one on the right was on the left
And the one in the middle was on the right
And the one on the left was in the middle
And the guy in the rear burned his driver's license

Well the curtain had ascended
A hush fell on the crowd
As thousands there were gathered
To hear the folk songs of our land
But they took their politics seriously
And that night at the concert hall
As the audience watched deliriously
They had a free-for-all

Well, the one on the right was on the bottom
And the one in the middle was on the top
And the one on the left got a broken arm
And the guy in the rear said, "Oh dear"

Now this should be a lesson if you plan to start a folk group
Don't go mixing politics with the folk songs of our land
Just work on harmony and diction
Play your banjo well
And if you have political convictions
Keep them to yourself

Now, the one on the left works in a bank
And the one in the middle drives a truck
The one on the right's an all-night deejay
And the guy in the rear got drafted

 

[Edgy Brah]

 

[Seaside]

Naw, just kidding.

God bless the USSR.

 

[Pseudo Sane]

God bless the USSR.

God, Comrade Seaside?

I think a few years in the Corrective Labour Camps will liberate you from such reactionary thoughts.

 

[Seaside]

God, Comrade Seaside?

I think a few years in the Corrective Labour Camps will liberate you from such reactionary thoughts.

God is a racist communist. Marx bless. Racist. Stalin bless. Anti cultural marxism

 

[tonni]

 

[Prokofievian]

USSR anthem sucks dick. La Marseillaise is a billion times better, always was, always will be.

In Finland there's a movement to replace their current national anthem (established by convention), which some say is based on a german drinking song. That makes some sense as the guy who wrote it was a German immigrant. Estonia shares the same melody for their national anthem. But here's the proposed replacement:



And here's the current one:



I dunno, I kinda prefer the original, and have been labelled a heretic for this opinion. It's just jauntier. The lyrics to Finlandia are much better, though, but I'm not a lyrics kinda guy.

 

[loyalyolayal]

USSR anthem sucks dick. La Marseillaise is a billion times better, always was, always will be.

In Finland there's a movement to replace their current national anthem (established by convention), which some say is based on a german drinking song. That makes some sense as the guy who wrote it was a German immigrant. Estonia shares the same melody for their national anthem. But here's the proposed replacement:



And here's the current one:



I dunno, I kinda prefer the original, and have been labelled a heretic for this opinion. It's just jauntier. The lyrics to Finlandia are much better, though, but I'm not a lyrics kinda guy.

The star spangled banner was a ripoff of an english drinking song. That's why people are kneeling down.

 

[Bald1]

Blackbird lyrics have been in my sig since I could have one. The song has had a few meanings attached to it. From it being about a metaphorical awakening to support of the Black Panther movement. Usually explained as a sort of lamentation of the state of race relations in the US during the civil rights movement. Social politics fascinate me as they always end up dictating policy and I'm a yuuge Beatles fan, so, yeah.

"I was in Scotland playing on my guitar, and I remembered this whole idea of "you were only waiting for this moment to arise" was about, you know, the black people's struggle in the southern states, and I was using the symbolism of a blackbird. It's not really about a blackbird whose wings are broken, you know, it's a bit more symbolic."

- Paul McCartney

 

[Bald1]

God bless the USSR.

 

[Patrick Jane]

Just kidding, actually American History X by Ill Bill

 

[snakedafunky]

 

[M3t4tr0n]

 

[Prokofievian]

 

[Edgy Brah]

Know Your Enemy and Sleep Now In The Fire- RATM.

 

[M3t4tr0n]

 

[M3t4tr0n]