Political Songs

I got into a Twitter conversation a few days ago when I shared with someone that even though my politics were essentially centre-right socially conservative, I did appreciate some explicitly left-wing music, citing Billy Bragg as an example. So, here are three political songs that are well written and that I appreciate, even if I don’t endorse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7MwXniOD44

For those who don’t know this one, The Farm’s “Altogether Now” was a 1991 anti Gulf War song

Interestingly, all the above are left-wing. For balance, here’s some Austrian music about restoring the monarchy. You may recognise the artist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ_WORDoAXY

Over to you. Do you have any favorite political music? Let us know below (and YouTube URLs will handily embed the video).

4 Comments on “Political Songs

  1. Here’s a couple of Little Guy ones that I remember.

    From 2009, a Letter to Peter Mandelson from Dan Bull, at the time when New Lab were trying to suppress downloading in a very heavy handed way.

    And here’s a Lib Dem one from 2010, on the Election that Never Was.

    Crudely done, but interesting because it was turned round in a couple of hours from the announcement and caught the news cycle.

    http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=l22kHO5jdRU

  2. For political songs, I love Simon & Garfunkel. Most powerful is He Was My Brother. Given recent poltiical tensions, The Sun Is Burning comes to mind too.

    For a slightly more modern song, Tracy Chapman’s Subcity is as beautiful a song as it is as acute.

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