Andy, It's too bad you have a limited scope rule because I think the Dead Kennedys song "Kill the Poor" perfectly sums up all aspects of Bush Jr's policies. Prophecy. A lot of Gil Scott-Heron's songs would work, e.g. "Johannesburg" (apartheid), "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (corporate media), "B-Movie" (iconography of Reagan). His relatively recent "Work for Peace" is a funny rap about the military-industrial complex: "The military and monetary/Get together whenever they think it's necessary/ They turn our brothers and sisters into mercenaries/They are turning the planet into a cemetary/ The military and monetary/ Use the media as intermediaries/They are determined to keep the citizens secondary...." and on and on. Les Diaboliques (Maggie Nicols, Joelle Leandre, Irene Schweizer) "Diverse Mood Swings" criticizes, in a roundabout way, the widespread use of Paxil/Prozac type drugs. Plus it's pretty damn cool to hear R.D. Laing being name-dropped in a jazz tune. Ben

From: "Miller, James Andrew (UMC-Student)" <jam189@mizzou.edu> To: <zorn-list@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: topical pop songs? Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 15:57:36 -0500

Zornlist:

I'm looking for examples of what I'm calling "topical pop songs"-- the most obvious examples would be protest/folk songs, but they don't have to be specifically in that tradition. The criteria would be something like this:

-- A song intended for "popular consumption," with lyrics that take a definite stand on a specific issue or event.

-- The issue or event needs to be something relatively limited in scope or scale. For example, a straightforward anti-Cold War song would be too big, but Phil Ochs' "Talkin' Cuban Crisis" would be perfect. Here, Ochs is making statements about a relatively specific historical event, while at the same time saying something about larger political and ethical concerns. The topic of the song needs to be narrow enough that students could go to newspapers and the like to research the event and the various contemporary perspectives on its significance.

-- It would be great if I could find songs that take a variety of stands. I'm not specifically interested in songs that reflect my own political views.

Some examples of songs that would work: Woody Guthrie, "Two Good Men" (on Sacco and Venzetti) the Ochs song mentioned above Bob Dylan, "Hurricane" CSNY, "Ohio"

Any more suggestions?

Andy

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