National Review's Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs

1. "Won't Get Fooled Again," by The Who.
The conservative movement is full of disillusioned revolutionaries; this could be their theme song, an oath that swears off naive idealism once and for all. "There's nothing in the streets / Looks any different to me / And the slogans are replaced, by—the—bye. . . . Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss." The instantly recognizable synthesizer intro, Pete Townshend's ringing guitar, Keith Moon's pounding drums, and Roger Daltrey's wailing vocals make this one of the most explosive rock anthems ever recorded — the best number by a big band, and a classic for conservatives.

2. "Taxman," by The Beatles.
A George Harrison masterpiece with a famous guitar riff (which was actually played by Paul McCartney): "If you drive a car, I'll tax the street / If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat / If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat / If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet." The song closes with a humorous jab at death taxes: "Now my advice for those who die / Declare the pennies on your eyes."

3. "Sympathy for the Devil," by The Rolling Stones.
Don't be misled by the title; this song is "The Screwtape Letters" of rock. The devil is a tempter who leans hard on moral relativism — he will try to make you think that "every cop is a criminal / And all the sinners saints." What's more, he is the sinister inspiration for the cruelties of Bolshevism: "I stuck around St. Petersburg / When I saw it was a time for a change / Killed the czar and his ministers / Anastasia screamed in vain."

4. "Sweet Home Alabama," by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
A tribute to the region of America that liberals love to loathe, taking a shot at Neil Young's Canadian arrogance along the way: "A Southern man don't need him around anyhow."

See the rest of the list here....


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/25/arts/music/25brockweb.html?ex=1149220800&en=df74c4d6962ead76&ei=5059&partner=AOL

Are they being Ironic? I just don't know what to say.

what the hell is that?

.

!

thanks...I think that 'canadian arrogance' was a freudian slip, perhaps...

That's stupid.

conservative.

Do they even know that a lot of those songs are taking piss out of conservatives?

The guy's a well known liberal. I like living in a relatively small town honestly myself. I swear there's a word for what the idiots who wrote that list did and it's cherry picking.

:rofl:

...what their take on Mellencamp's "Rain on the Scarecrow" would be?!

This is probably a joke.

None of those bands were "conservative". Even Lynyrd Skynyrd is anything but. Calling the Rolling Stones conservative is absurd.

These folks are so culturally full of shit, they think Colbert is playing it straight. Little do they know that most of the songs on their list are MOCKING THEM.

a torie ray davies is not

and johnny rotten is suddenly a rightwinger?

cult of personality-inspired by inspid hero worship at the height of reaganism

"my city was gone"-oh yeah, chrissie hynde was writing about 'big gov'ment' and not urban sprawl and environmental destruction

this list is hilarious. it's one of those moments whrre you want to confront the author with a 'marshall mccluhan in annie hall' moment and pull the musicians out to ridicule him

in Akron Ohio, her home town....

"In Birmingham they love the gov'na--Boo, Boo, Boo" from "Sweet Home Alabama" is lost on these fools. And "A Southern man don't need him around anyhow" is nothing if not mocking.

:eyes:

:rofl:

13. "My City Was Gone," by The Pretenders.
Virtually every conservative knows the bass line, which supplies the theme music for Limbaugh's radio show. But the lyrics also display a Jane Jacobs sensibility against central planning and a conservative's dissatisfaction with rapid change: "I went back to Ohio / But my pretty countryside / Had been paved down the middle / By a government that had no pride."

First off, I've heard that Chrissy Hynde HATES the fact that this is Limbaugh's theme. Second, how can you read that lyric and not interpret it as a tree-hugging liberal rant?

20. "Rock the Casbah," by The Clash.
After 9/11, American radio stations were urged not to play this 1982 song, one of the biggest hits by a seminal punk band, because it was seen as too provocative. Meanwhile, British Forces Broadcasting Service (the radio station for British troops serving in Iraq) has said that this is one of its most requested tunes.

The Clash. Classically conservative. Almost borderline Nazi. :eyes:

23. "Brick," by Ben Folds Five.
Written from the perspective of a man who takes his young girlfriend to an abortion clinic, this song describes the emotional scars of "reproductive freedom": "Now she's feeling more alone / Than she ever has before. . . . As weeks went by / It showed that she was not fine."

A sensitive song showing that the choice to get an abortion is a difficult one? What would the lyrics have been like if there were coat hangers involved?

24. "Der Kommissar," by After the Fire.
On the misery of East German life: "Don't turn around, uh—oh / Der Kommissar's in town, uh—oh / He's got the power / And you're so weak / And your frustration / Will not let you speak." Also a hit song for Falco, who wrote it.

Sounds sort of like Bush's America.

38. "I Can't Drive 55," by Sammy Hagar.
A rocker's objection to the nanny state. (See also Hagar's pro—America song "VOA.")

OK, the conservatives can have this one.

48. "Why Don't You Get a Job," by The Offspring.
The lyrics aren't exactly Shakespearean, but they're refreshingly blunt and they capture a motive force behind welfare reform.

This is about a free-loading woman. Not exactly liberal, but not exactly about "a motive force behind welfare reform."

Overall, this list strikes me as a desperate case of wish-fulfillment for those who can't understand poetry anyway.

:eyes:

that's bad. Really bad. Embarrassing, pathetic and desperate. :wow:

Irony is completely lost on these twits.

understatement...there are really no words to describe the utter stupidity of this list...wow...just wow

I mean, what they said about U2's version of Gloria implies anything vaguely Catholic with some litergical Latin thrown in is conservative.

So why not this?

they didn't look hard for the real conservative in rock, did they?

because D, Mike, and Greg obviously named the band after the right wing loons of the 60s. Sure...

but conservatives would never understand the irony of it

(their original name was The Reactionaries)

How could they pervert so many good songs? :shrug:

What the fuck....

It's about a guy wanted to fuck and a girl sayin' no....

Mid as well say Paradise by the Dashboard light is also conservative...

Cause the guy is prayin' for the end of time....

A double reference...


And Jesus Jones classic....

He was just happy that he was alive when history changed...

I think everyone was pretty freakin' happy when the wall came down regardless of where you stood on the American ideological spectrum....

And carryin' pictures of Chairman Moa...

Was about doin' more than just talkin' and posturin'....

They're trying to claim that Won't Get Fooled Again is PRO-NIXON!

Fucktard freeper National Review!

But that certainly doesn't seem like an anthem for "liberals who saw the light." The lyrics simply make me think of how it is a human tendency to replace one totalitarianism with another, as has been the case long before the rise of "the Left" that they like to bash so much. Not only that, but that it is a pledge by a man who, while not necessarily abandoning the idea of Revolution, is going to take a much more critical eye when such causes arise.

these people are fucking idiots. Most of the songs on that list mean the exact opposite of what they are interpreting it as.

Plenty of hypocrisy and just-don't-get-it here. The small town family values in songs like Pink Houses and Wouldn't It Be Nice and that Pretenders song are being consumed by corporate culture and the reactionary government that sustains it.

Do they not get that song at all?!? Pink Houses isn't about flag-waving, it's about people who have dreams for their future, but have to settle for reality instead, while the haves and have mores get what they want, regardless.

Idiots!

I think that was the point. Also pro-industry. Apparently having an interstate highway in your yard is progress. Either that or it is a case of: "Most of these people were underprivileged anyway, so this is working out rather well for them."

by the Cure didn't make the list.

:eyes:

so damn much. Great song by the way. I remember that they had to put a sticker on the album explaining what the song was about because the title was so controversial. Now it would be celebrated on title alone.

Think about it, there isn't one conservative artist that has any talent. They are all either irrelevent washed up nobodies that are only popular when there's a war going on (Lee Greenwood, Toby Keith) or they are talentless tarted up hosebag skanks (Britney). I can't blame them for trying to stretch their song list to hilarious lengths.

I think the list is funny as hell - Chrissy Hynde, Bono, John Cougar making it on a top conservative song list

:evilfrown:

I wonder how many of these musicians and artists would agree with this numbnut?

What cause they have the word "RED" in the song? I hardly think so. I think this was more of an ode to Middle Earth. Plant was on a "Lord of the Rings" kick

:rofl:

44. "Two Sisters," by The Kinks.
Why the "drudgery of being wed" is more rewarding than bohemian life.

Well, yes, if you ignore the utterly sarcastic tone of voice throughout the entire song.

34. "Godzilla," by Blue Oyster Cult.
A 1977 classic about a big green monster — and more: "History shows again and again / How nature points up the folly of men."

How is that a conservative point? How can their "minds" turn "Nuclear fallout creates big green monsters" into Hobbesian pessimism about human nature?

This lists reminds me of all the jackasses that were shocked that Bruce Couger Mellenstein and John Springcamp, or is it Bruce springstein and John Mellencamp, where not firebreathing conservatives during the 2004 election.

They can't place the lyrics in context and they certainly haven't thought enough about them to understand.

Oh for God's sake these people have no concept of metaphor at all!

"And they wonder why the maples can't be happy in their shade..." What is that if it isn't the exact justification for trickle down economics? It's almost exactly what Barbara Bush said about the New Orleans homeless!

has to be the most ridiculous choice. So, if a metal song is based on a piece of literature that automatically makes it conservatives? I thought most conservatives would consider something so arty for "liberal wimps" only. (I have a suspicion one of the collaborators on the list was just a big Iron Maiden fan and wanted to include something by them.)

Oh yeah, and what about "Revolution"?! Have these guys ever heard the album version where Lennon says both "count me out" and "in"? Pretty much negates their point... Not to mention John's politics were the antithesis of conservative. Then again, so are the politics of most of the folks on this ridiculous list.