Top 10: Truly Pitiful Political Songs

Everythingsgonegreen takes no issue with political and social commentary songs. Songs like ‘Respect’, ‘This Land Is Your Land’, ‘Free Nelson Mandela’, and ‘Get Up Stand Up’ were pivotal to the movements they supported at the time and remain classic examples of where political lyrics can hit the mark.

Unfortunately, sometimes it just doesn’t work and here are some examples – from the left, the right, and up the middle – from songwriters who should’ve kept to subjects like love and emotions. Craig Stephen pops his head above the parapet to take a peek … 

Extreme - Rest in Peace (1991)

All-American soft rock boys Extreme reached out to the redneck fraternity with this pro-war dirge that shouted ‘shut up pinkos and watch as our American heroes kill and maim’.

Dumb-ass right-wing sloganeering is nothing new and this was another crude attack on people who sang ‘Give Peace a Chance’. Extreme even reference Lennon’s song but, in that crazy right-wing delusional way, suggest that going to war is the only route to a world free of violence.

Here’s a snippet: “Let's talk of peace/ Sounds so cliché/ A novelty/ Catch phrase of the day.”

And another: “Make love not war, sounds so absurd to me/ We can't afford to say these words lightly/ Or else our world will truly rest in peace.”

Yes, that’s right by trying to stop wars, peace campaigners are actually making the world worse.

Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace a Chance (1969)

And of course, we all want love, peace and a world free of wars, but this effort was so cringy and inane that peace groups must’ve groaned with embarrassment.

‘Give Peace a Chance’ reduced global geopolitics into a hippy flower-waving slogan. As a result it’s irritating and banal.

It’s a song to sing to make you feel like you’re doing something about the state of the world even if you’re not.

Typical stream of consciousness line: “Everybody’s talking about/ Revolution, evolution, masturbation, flagellation, regulation, integrations, United Nations, congratulations.”

Eric Clapton - This Has Gotta Stop (2021)

Entitled white rich guy scenario in excelsis. Released during the height of the Covid-19 restrictions, Clapton takes the side of the conspiracy theory lunacy wing as he just wants his ‘freedom’ while millions of people were dying from the disease.

Here’s a portion of this whingeathon: “This has gotta stop/ Enough is enough/ I can't take this BS any longer/ It's gone far enough.”

Another veteran of the 60s turned tinfoiler Van Morrison meanwhile released a string of anti-lockdown songs, such as ‘Born to Be Free’ and ‘No More Lockdown’, with lyrics claiming that government control was over-reach, and that pandemic researchers were "making up crooked facts". 

The Cranberries - Zombie (1994)

The song is about the tragic death of two children in England during the Troubles (as a result of the 1993 IRA-Warrington bombing). A worthy sentiment and if they had left it that, who would’ve complained.

But in ‘Zombie’ Dolores O’Riordan and co take on the entire nationalist movement, decrying “It's the same old theme, since 1916/ In your head, in your head they're still fighting”.

The pointing to the date is the Easter Rising in Dublin, a rebellion that ended in defeat but ultimately played a prominent role in the events that led to the end of British colonial rule in Ireland.

It’s a significant moment in Irish history, but one which seems to be scorned at by The Cranberries, who hailed from Limerick in the Republic.

Merle Haggard - Okie From Muskogee (1969)

Merle Haggard is renowned for songs such as ‘Mama Tried’ and ‘Workin’ Man Blues’, but his lasting legacy is ‘Okie From Muskogee’, a joke that snowballed into an anti-hippie anthem.

It was hijacked by those who used it for their own means – such as then President Richard Nixon and, just like Springsteen’s ‘Born In the USA’, the meaning has been lost and misused. 

It was lyrics like "We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street, we like living right and being free," that appealed to many and made Haggard a star.

In 1981 Haggard told media that the song made him “appear to be a person who was a lot more narrow-minded, possibly, than I really am.” Later still he would express regret at expressing his opinions in song.

Phil Collins - Another Day in Paradise (1989)

Written by a struggling musician, the song may have received a pass mark. But in the hands of a multi-millionaire and vehement supporter of Britain’s Conservative Party, it just seemed like a way of cashing in on a problem he would only see from the wheel of his expensive car.

It tells the tale of a homeless woman being blanked by those who would easily be able to help her. Collins may have meant well but the song was branded cringeworthy and worse. In 1997 the ex-Genesis man threatened to desert Britain for the more tax friendly Switzerland if a fairly timid Labour Party won the election. Labour won in a landslide and Collins made good on his promise. 

Toby Keith - Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American) (2002)

Proving that country and western music can result in some of the worst redneck malarkey is this dire ‘patriotic’ song that wallows in retribution.

The rally-around-the-flag anthem was released in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon - aka 9/11 - with cartoonish goon squad lyrics like “you'll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A / 'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way.” 

Oliver Anthony - Rich Men North of Richmond (2023)

Plenty was said about this song last year and Billy Bragg wrote his own reposte. It’s not so much the stance of the song, it’s the utter naivety that takes the biscuit.

Initially, Anthony rails against low pay and greedy politicians in Washington D.C. Then he turns away from the fat cats and the corrupt Congressmen and women to lash out at the very people he initially defended - those made unemployed by the greed of the system and forced to exist on welfare. Anthony seems oblivious to the connection between low pay and unemployment and how both are used as tools by the establishment to keep people down.

D:Ream - Things Can Only Get Better (1993)

The song wasn’t political, in fact it was a feel-good dance anthem about, well, how you can go from shit street to happy town if you persist.

But it became political when the British Labour Party adopted it and D:Ream gave it permission, either through loyalty to the Tony Blair project or just because they needed the cash.

The New Labour governments from 1997 to 2005 are synonymous with the illegal war in Iraq and the continuation of Thatcherism. The former may not have been predicted in 1997 but the latter certainly could have so the band were hardly innocents who were taken for a ride.

It’s also a fucking annoying piece of disco pap.

The Deplorable Choir - Real Women Vote For Trump (2020)

Do I even need to comment on this?

Gig Review: The National @ TSB Arena, Wellington, 25 February 2024

I’m a longtime fan of The National, collecting virtually everything the band has released over the past couple of decades. More or less, give or take. So naturally, having missed all of the band’s previous outings in Aotearoa, I picked up tickets for their first ever Wellington show as early as last September. It felt like a long wait.

When The Beths were later added to the bill as the Wellington support - Fazerdaze getting the prior night’s Auckland slot - it was merely a bonus. But it also ensured I was at the venue suitably early to catch the much-loved local power-poppers’ set. By my own unscientific estimation, in terms of gigs, I’ve probably seen more of The Beths than I have of any other live act across the past decade or so.

Once again they didn’t disappoint, pumping out as polished a half hour set - around ten songs - as I can recall from them, with a mix of old and newer tracks offering the perfect taster for any Beths-newbies. My own pick of the bunch being ‘Whatever’, the oldest track of all, an ageless banger that seems to sound better each time I hear it. Perfect pop from a band continually striving to achieve exactly that.

 I’d heard really great things about The National’s live shows. Some reports even suggesting that the band’s compelling live performances far and away exceed any notional high bar created by its recorded output. That’s a fairly big call, and it’s one that was perhaps the main catalyst for my own *relative* level of disappointment upon exiting the near full venue late on Sunday night.

It’s hard to put my finger on exactly what disappointed me. And I’m not even sure disappointment is the right word. More nonchalance, or indifference on my part.

It wasn’t as though the band was lacking any professionalism or inspiration. It wasn’t a lack of effort on their part. The set-list was decent - stacked with older classics blended with more recent stuff. They played for more than two hours, and with frontman Matt Berninger to the fore as the focal point, The National has an energetic and beguiling stage presence rivalled by very few bands on the stadium circuit.

Indeed, there’s been worse concerts at that venue that I’ve enjoyed far more, for whatever reason that was. The one I can’t put my finger on.

Those “older classics” included the likes of ‘Squalor Victoria’, ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’, ‘Conversation 16’, and the slow burning, now 20-year-old, ‘Cherry Tree’. All of them immaculately presented with enough live grit in there to make each one a captivating enough experience. But there was also a little splash of mud in the vocal mix, a lack of clarity even, and while Berninger’s baritone croon works brilliantly on record, I felt his live, clipped, almost shouty/spoken vocal delivery, was found a little wanting at times.

That angsty line in ‘Conversation 16’ where he sings “I was afraid, I’d eat your brains … cos I’m evil” loses some of its horror impact when you remove a more ambiguous croon from its wider punch, and replace it with a short sharp shouty jab.

The “newer stuff” included the recent break-up anthem ‘Eucalyptus’, which went down well as an early treat, ‘Tropic Morning News’, and much later, ‘Alien’. Again, all great, but the band’s focus seemed to be more around its 2010 to 2020 work, with obligatory lip service paid to the two most recent 2023 album releases.

That meant ‘Demons’, ‘Don’t Swallow The Cap’, a superb ‘I Need My Girl’, ‘Day I Die’, ‘Rylan’, ‘Graceless’ et al. Plus others.

At one point, mid-song, Berninger left the stage and made his way to near the bar at the back of the venue - without buying a round! - continuing to “sing”, his stage tech forced to work a minor miracle to keep man and microphone connected. All it would take is some clown in the crowd to do his absolute worst … a thought I quickly and admirably managed to suppress as Berninger passed within an arm’s reach of me.

A five-song encore meant Wellington was treated to a set-list of more than a couple of dozen carefully selected tracks, the band doing more than enough to make up for lost time in the capital, and there’s no doubt they offered good value for money.

The crowd itself was an interesting mix. From the young and the single, to middle-aged couples and everything in-between. An outing for those of a mainstream persuasion perhaps, while it also remains clear - on account of thoughtful clever lyricism mostly - that The National can still court fringes of the indie scene its music has always remained on the very periphery of.

It’s a fine line. Nobody wants to be thought of as an American version of Coldplay, do they?

I’m pleased I went along. Sunday night and all. To scratch that itch.

Are The National a better live proposition than they are as a studio outfit?

That’s a hard “no” from me. Not from this experience anyway. They’re good, possibly great, but that discography is a little bit special.

They’re certainly much more energetic on stage, no question, but for clarity of sound, for sense of purpose and direction in the production, for Berninger’s lush vocal delivery, I’m more than happy to content myself with the band’s studio work. And just quietly, I probably won’t rush out to buy tickets if they visit here again. 

No pics with this one. I took some, but none of them were particularly great when viewed in the cold light of the following day, so I’ll spare you that.