Does Politics Belong In Popular Music?

While writing the John Lennon piece yesterday I was reminded of his song ‘Working Class Hero’, which in turn made me think of songs with a political slant. Working Class Hero is an often misunderstood song, I think. Most people assume that it celebrates the idea of being a ‘working class hero’, but closer examination of the lyrics reveals that it was actually a critique of the entire concept. This is often the case with ‘protest songs’ since they are often taken at face-value rather than studied properly.

So does politics actually belong in popular music? Can music really change anything? It could be argued that everything is political and so the very act of making music is a political act. Elvis Presley was famously apolitical; he never recorded an overtly political song, but his very existence changed American society for ever. The fact that Elvis performed rhythm and blues songs ensured that young American teenagers would become aware of Afro-American culture, which in turn helped lead to desegregation. Anything cultural becomes political eventually.

What about political songs though? Do they have a function in themselves or are they really just about egocentric singer-songwriters thinking that their opinions are more important than other people’s? I think there may be some truth in either of these views. We’ve all become a bit tired of rock stars like Bono making grandiose pseudo-political pronouncements but a good protest song can be a strong rallying cry and can help give voice to real life concerns. There are many examples of this; the songs of Woody Guthrie; Gospel songs being adapted for protest marches (We Shall Not Be Moved, for example); early Bob Dylan songs; Billy Bragg songs during the Miner’s Strike; The Special AKA’s ‘Free Nelson Mandela’; the list goes on.
I have made a list here of ten of the political songs I like. They’re not in any particular order and I’ve tried to pick the less obvious ones. If you are reading this and think I’ve left out your favourite, please feel free to add it in the comments section below.

1) ‘All You Fascists Bound To Lose’ – Woody Guthrie

Wow,, this is a really hard to find Woody Guthrie song. Well certainly I’ve never been able to find it on any collection and we have a lot of his records in our house. I dread to think of what Guthrie would have thought of the world nowadays, with its neoliberal fundamentalism, but then again he might be heartened by the internet and how much free information can be shared on it. Who knows? This is a fine example of Guthrie’s talent for writing simple, optimistic sing-alongs that can serve to unite people to a common purpose. And he was right, there’s still time left to defeat the fascists and we will in the end!

2) ‘Love Me I’m A Liberal’ – Phil Ochs (from ‘In Concert’ – 1966)

Much more than his contemporary Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs followed in the tradition laid down by Woody Guthrie. The occasionally mean-spirited Dylan famously told Ochs that he considered him to a ‘journalist’ rather than a songwriter – he was palpably wrong, of course, but there was a journalistic quality to many of Och’s songs. There was much more than that though and on occasion Ochs could be just as poetic as Dylan, if not quite as blessed in terms of popularity and sixties mystique. Ochs could be extremely witty too and his humour took absolutely no prisoners. On this song he even satirised people who would have made up most of his fan-base in very savage style. Not even his own middle-class, liberal audience were safe from Ochs, he seemingly had no time for weekend activists who took on fashionable causes. Ochs knew the revolution demanded full-time commitment and he lived that way all the way through his tragically short life.

3) ‘Universal Soldier’ – Buffy Sainte Maria (from ‘It’s My Way’ – 1964)

Although Donovan is associated with this song it was Buffy Sainte Maria who wrote and recorded her original version in 1964 for her debut album. The album became a favourite on the British folk music scene and that’s how Donovan heard it. Buffy Sainte Maria’s version is still the best though; there is much more commitment in her performance and her voice gives the lyrics a chilling resonance lacking in Donovan’s. Perhaps it’s because she had some direct experience of the legacy of war, having grown up on the Piapot Cree First Nations Reserve in the Qu’Appelle Valley – whatever the case, her version of the song is the most powerful.

4) ‘Fortunate Son’ – Creedence Clearwater Revival (from ‘Willy And The Poor Boys’ – 1969)

Staying on the subject of anti-war songs, this is one of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s best songs. This is different from most of the anti-war songs of the period in that it brings class into the equation; asking the question why a disproportionate number of those being drafted for the Vietnam War were from blue-colour backgrounds. John Fogerty’s vocal performance on this track was particularly passionate and the band were equally hot.

5) ‘Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) – Marvin Gaye (from ‘What’s Going On’ – 1971)

Marvin Gaye had to fight to get ‘What’s Going On’ released and it was testament to his strength of character that it was it came out at all. Tamla Motown had no faith in the album and were put off by the political nature of the songs, but Gaye was right, the album resonated with the public and became the label’s biggest selling album until his next release (the sexed up ‘Let’s Get It On’). The early seventies were a period of political consciousness in soul music and ‘What’s Going On’ is one of the era’s key albums. In fact it is still one of most important records ever recorded. Inner City Blues is the climactic track of ‘What’s Going On’ and the single version made number nine in the Billboard charts. The song has a low-key funk groove and is very dark, listing a litany of the social troubles familiar to Afro-American in the inner-cities of the time (and probably even today). Marvin Gaye’s singing adds huge weight to the lyrics; it is an incredibly moving performance – heartbreaking, in fact.

6) ‘(Don’t Worry) If There’s A Hell Below, We’re All Going To Go’ – Curtis Mayfield (from ‘Curtis’ – 1970)

Perhaps Gaye was inspired to record ‘What’s Going On’ by hearing the work of Curtis Mayfield, particularly the album this song was from. Mayfield had previously been the main man in The Impressions and his writing had always had an element of social consciousness in it, even the group’s biggest his ‘People Get Ready’ was as political as it was gospel. ‘Curtis’, the album, was released and it was brimming with songs about race relations, Watergate, social unrest, drug addiction, teenage pregnancy and much more. This particular track is almost apocalyptic and Mayfield’s keening falsetto in this context is practically chilling.

7) ‘The Bottle’ – Gil Scott Heron (Single – 1974)

Gil Scott Heron was one of the finest lyricists of any genre and this is one of his best and most well-known songs. It may not be political per se but its vivid descriptions of the social deprivation that alcohol addiction can cause are magnificent. This song also highlights some of the causes of such addiction, how people living in difficult circumstances attempt to use alcohol (or other substances) as an attempt to escape. Heron was a man who battled many demons during his life and so he knew all about what he was describing – or at least, came to know.

8) ‘Have You Ever Been Away’ – The Beautiful South (‘Welcome To The Beautiful South’ – 1989)

This is another anti-war song but it’s a rather more nasty than the previous ones I’ve included. In many ways it shares some of sentiments of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song, in that it focuses on class and the fact that the poor are usually sent to fight wars for the wealthy and privileged, but this song uses irony to get its point across. Paul Heaton’s lyrics often have this feature and most of The Beautiful South’s songs tend to have a bitter-sweet flavour as a consequence. Even the band’s name is a put-on, since they were famously based in the North of England. ‘Have You Ever Been Away’ targets jingoism, nationalism, classism, Remembrance Day and a whole lot more – nothing is safe. Lyrics like; ‘/ Any last requests / Before you join the dead? / I’ll crap into your Union Jack / And wrap it ’round your head /’ are not exactly subtle.

9) ‘Career Opportunities’ – The Clash (from ‘The Clash’ – 1977)

The Clash were well-known for being a highly political band, even if they were signed to one of the most established labels in the world; CBS/Columbia. This song is from their first album and the lyrics are focussed on not wanting to be tied down to a traditional job – particularly not one in the military or civil service – and wanting to do something more individual instead. Joe Strummer’s vocal performance goes off like a Molotov cocktail and even though the whole track sounds defiant and aggressive there is something amiss. Strummer was a very clever lyric writer; this occasionally gets overlooked partly because of The Clash’s noisy swagger but also owing to Strummer’s hard-to-read voice (apparently this had a lot to do the pitiful state of his teeth, which was not helped by his prodigious intake of cheap speed). Strummer’s lyrics often acknowledged that were most ordinary people were concerned personal rebellion was often doomed to failure and so he wrote this for the final verse; ‘ / They’re gonna have to introduce conscription / They’re gonna have to take away my prescription / If they wanna get me making toys/ If they wanna get me, well I got no choice / ‘ Despite the fact that Strummer was very comfortably middle-class, he had a lot of insight into the reality of working people’s lives.

10) ‘Sound Of Da Police’ – KRS One (from ‘Return Of The Boom Bap’ – 1993)

Being a very politically conscious rapper, KRS One has written a lot of protest songs but this is probably his most famous, since it was practically the law that it was played at every club gathering of the 1990s. The lyrics are extraordinarily clever and KRS One’s flow is magnificently literate, associating the word ‘officer’ (as in police) with ‘over-seer’ (as in overseeing slaves) to point out the similarity of the two occupations in respect to Afro-Americans from the cotton-fields to the ghetto. This is a landmark rap record.