Though he may have won all the battles / We had all the good songs

by Kieran Healy on March 8, 2004

“Juan Non-Volokh”:http://volokh.com/2004_03_07_volokh_archive.html#107867124871611745 opens an interesting line of inquiry: which political ideology has the best music? I’m torn on this. Juan leads with his chin, describing “Rush”:http://www.rush.com/ as “arguably the most prominent libertarian band of all time.” _Arguably?_ Who else is in the running here? Clint Eastwood singing “I Talk to the Trees” in “Paint Your Wagon”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002PEY/kieranhealysw-20/ref=nosim/? Was “Ayn Rand”:http://www.villainsupply.com/miscevil.html, like L. Ron Hubbard, a “great composer”:http://www.scientology.org/html/en_US/l-ron-hubbard/professional-dozens-fields/artist/composer/ on the side? The irresistible image is of a phalanx of airborne Libertarians screaming up the Potomac in surplus “Hueys”:http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Rotary/Huey/HE11.htm fitted with “tactical nuclear weapons sourced on Ebay”:https://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/001478.html, while Rush’s “‘Freewill'”:http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Freewill-lyrics-Rush/88C8D6AD95B2BD4E48256BBF0032C460 blares from speakers bolted to one of the choppers.

But the question seems a bit underspecified. For instance, conservatives in general might claim the whole tradition of western classical music for themselves, while quietly ignoring the fact that, throughout history, your common or garden conservative can reliably be found bemoaning the appalling quality of serious music since the year _n_ — 75, for all values of _n_. Those on the left, meanwhile, will have to work hard to distance themselves from the output of the troops of the “Folk Song Army”:http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/thefolks.htm. Perhaps we should be asking which are the best _explicitly political_ songs. A related question is which country has the best National Anthem. France edges it, I think, over South Africa (too long) and the United States (too hard to sing). _God Save the Queen_ is clearly the worst, a judgment made compelling both by the anthem’s non-existent musical merits and the fact that English fans would rather sing a “spiritual”:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/singers/sfeature/songs_swing_l.html written about an exhausted, enslaved people longing for the sweet release of death.

{ 66 comments }

1

anno-nymous 03.08.04 at 10:09 am

French National Anthem easier to sing??? It’s not even in English!

On a different note, pardon the pun, there’ve got to be some anarcho-punk bands that qualify as libertarian insofar as they’re fuck-the-governmentarian.

2

Kieran Healy 03.08.04 at 10:25 am

French National Anthem easier to sing??? It’s not even in English!

This makes it easier rather than harder to sing. Viz: “Tom tom tee tom tom tom tom TOM tom tomtom, La la la la la, dee dee dee.” Etc.

3

Dave F 03.08.04 at 10:28 am

The SA one is too long because the beautiful Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika has had the despised apartheid anthem Die Stem cobbled on to it.
As someone who went into exile during that era, I find that a bit much, even in the spirit of reconciliation. The great thing about Nkosi Sikelel’ is that it is intended to be an African rather than South African anthem. Indeed, I believe some of our neighbours also use it.

I seem to recall Paraguay’s is one of the longest, with several pauses followed by new melodic themes (presumably this is a cobble too).

4

John Quiggin 03.08.04 at 10:28 am

Tongue in cheek, but Lehrer’s right – the folkies do have all the best songs.

As regards the worst National Anthem, I think Advance Australia Fair wins hands down. Reputedly written as a training exercise, the only distinctively Australian feature to which it refers is the fact that “our land is girt by sea” (not very distinctive I admit, but more so than “golden soil, and wealth for toil”).

5

ajay 03.08.04 at 10:45 am

Weirdest anthem: the Netherlands, which has in the first verse the line “We are loyal to the King of Spain.”
Not only is this factually odd, as the Netherlands has its own perfectly good monarch to be loyal to, but it’s historically weird: the Netherlands is only independent thanks to a rebellion against, er, the King of Spain.
I have yet to hear a good explanation for this one, even from a Dutch person.
According to Michael Frayn, Tibet, before its occupation, used to use “God Save the Queen” at ceremonial occasions. Not because of any link to Britain, but because the bandmaster had heard it played on special occasions in India, and thought it was just a generic “special occasions song.” Someone tipped him off in the 1930s, though, and Tibet switched to using two minutes of silence, followed by a slight bow.

6

Chris Bertram 03.08.04 at 11:18 am

And there I was thinking the English national anthem is “Three Lions”!

Speaking of (unofficial) national anthems and songs about exhausted and enslaved peoples, I hereby claim for the left the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Verdi’s Nabucco.

Elsewhere in the operatic tradition, both Fidelio and Das Rheingold are clearly left-wing operas, and for classical music generally, we can claim the whole of Beethoven (why not?) and especially the final movement of the 9th with Schiller’s Ode to Joy. I’m tempted to throw in any settings of works by Heine too (after all he was Karl Marx’s friend and correspondent).

7

Andrew Edwards 03.08.04 at 11:38 am

God Save the Queen is clearly the worst

Apparently, you’ve not considered O, Canada

8

dsquared 03.08.04 at 11:41 am

As regards the worst National Anthem, I think Advance Australia Fair wins hands down

For an embarrassingly long time, I believed that Waltzing Matilda was the national anthem of Australia. Australian friends were content to allow me to continue in this error because the truth was more embarrassing.

9

John Isbell 03.08.04 at 12:07 pm

Whereas My Country Tis Of Thee isn’t bad. Interesting how many countries have ersatz/rival national anthems. Flower of Scotland is a great song:
And sent them homeward
Tae think again.
I claim that the left owns rock music. And maybe Mozart. And Shostakovitch. And Stravinsky. And Berlioz. And Chopin. And Debussy. And Verdi. In fact, a large chunk of anything post-1789.
Rastafarianism does well in political music. The right simply does not have a lyrical corpus to approach the left in politics, though they have Tomorrow Belongs To Me, I guess. Good song. And of course they have Born In The USA, lucky them. I’ve also seen evidence that Fortunate Son ws intended to sell jeans. I guess the right has country, minus Willie Nelson.

10

des 03.08.04 at 12:09 pm

Chris wroted:

Elsewhere in the operatic tradition, both Fidelio and Das Rheingold are clearly left-wing operas, and for classical music generally, we can claim the whole of Beethoven (why not?) and especially the final movement of the 9th with Schiller’s Ode to Joy.

In fact, Mr Beethoven’s stirring tune has been well-and-truly anthemed, although without Mr Schiller’s words, which are considered rather too German for some tastes:

In 1972, the Council of Europe (the same body that designed the European flag) adopted Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” theme as its own anthem. The well-known conductor Herbert Von Karajan was asked to write three instrumental arrangements – for solo piano, for wind instruments and for symphony orchestra. Without words, in the universal language of music, this anthem expresses the ideals of freedom, peace and solidarity for which Europe stands.

All together now:

Laaa la la LA la la la,
La la la la LA la la…

Marvellous.

11

Chris Bertram 03.08.04 at 12:20 pm

How unfortunate that the choice should have been the well-known _Nazi_ conductor Herbert Von Karajan.

12

chris 03.08.04 at 12:24 pm

Further to Chris Bertram’s insight into Beethoven, I’d have to prefer his (LvB’s) assessment of the musical merits of God Save the Queen to Kieron’s. The words, ofcourse, are quite another thing.

13

John Kozak 03.08.04 at 1:15 pm

I think the old Soviet “national” anthem is impossible to beat (tune now used for the new Russian NA, I think). Agreed about GSTK nearly meriting nul points, but it does deserve some kind of credit for the dirty linen airing in verse 3. Can’t see the appeal in the US NA, which sounds like it was written to be played on kazoos.

14

Doug 03.08.04 at 1:31 pm

Noting in passing that a national anthem played on kazoos (or electric guitars with massive feedback) is self-evidently brilliant (and much more what America is all about), I’ll add that the right only likes Born in the USA because they don’t read the words. Scratch country just a little bit and you’ll find old-fashioned populism, which will be lefty if the lefty folks don’t look down on the country people.

Viz:

The old man turned off the radio, said:
“Where did all of the old songs go?
“Kids sure play funny music these days.
“They play it in the strangest ways”.
Said: “It looks to me like they’ve all gone wild.
“It was peaceful back when I was a child.”
Well, man could it be that the girls and boys,
Are trying to be heard above your noise? …

A young man sittin’ on the witness stand,
The man with the book says: “Raise your hand.
“Repeat after me: I solemnly swear.”
The man looked down at his long hair.
And although the young man solemnly swore,
Nobody seemed to hear anymore.
And it didn’t really matter if the truth was there:
It was the cut of his clothes and the length of his hair.
And the lonely voice of youth cries:
“What is truth?”

The young girl dancing to the latest beat,
Has found new ways to move her feet.
The young man speaking in the city square,
Is trying to tell somebody that he cares.
Yeah, the ones that you’re calling wild,
Are going to be the leaders in a little while.
This whole world’s wakin’ to a new born day,
And I solemnly swear that it’ll be their way.
You better help that voice of youth find:
“What is truth.”

http://www.coquet-shack.com/lyrics/Cash/What_Is_Truth_0329.htm

That’s Johnny Cash.

15

Nicholas Weininger 03.08.04 at 1:36 pm

Hungary’s national anthem wins pride of place for me, both for the stirring beauty and simplicity of its melody and for its utter lack of military triumphalism.

16

Rich Puchalsky 03.08.04 at 1:42 pm

john isbell writes about the right wing: “And of course they have Born In The USA, lucky them.”

Wow, John Isbell, prepare to sputtered at at length by Bruce Springsteen fans. Born in the USA was never a right-wing song, although it was appropriated by right-wingers who were, typically, too stupid to listen to the lyrics outside the chorus. It’s a really, really left wing song. A partial quote:

Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much
‘Til you spend half your life just covering up

[chorus:]
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.

I got in a little hometown jam
And so they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man

[chorus]

Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says “Son if it was up to me”
I go down to see the V.A. man
He said “Son don’t you understand”

[chorus]

I had a buddy at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They’re still there, he’s all gone
He had a little girl in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I’m ten years down the road
Nowhere to run, ain’t got nowhere to go

17

David Lloyd-Jones 03.08.04 at 1:43 pm

Von Karajan arranging Bach gets us into the correct area, doesn’t it? Surely Wagner is the definitive musician of the last couple of centuries just as fascism is the political theme music of our time.

Standard disclaimer: observation is not endorsement…

18

DeeDee 03.08.04 at 1:44 pm

[i]Apparently, you’ve not considered O, Canada [/i]

Hah! I’d almost agree…..

I’m rather partial to Isreal’s. Both the lyrics and the tune are very beautiful. I sometimes miss the days when I used to sing it in the mornings.

19

David Lloyd-Jones 03.08.04 at 1:49 pm

Note, btw, that “O Canada” replaces an even worse anthem, the name of which I have repressed.

All together now: “In days of yore/From Britain’s shore/Wolfe the conquering hero came…”

Ah, those were the days: French and English currencies, with the French ones not being accepted in eastern Ontario. “Speak white” was what the francophone might be told…

20

beavis 03.08.04 at 2:09 pm

Rush shmush!

Orrin rocks like Slayer!

:-)

21

michelle 03.08.04 at 2:13 pm

Pearls before swine featuring “Johnny, folk singer for the far right”

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/pearls/archive/pearls-20040219.html

22

Rivka 03.08.04 at 2:20 pm

I am pleased to say that I live in the only U.S. state whose state song advocates the overthrow of the federal government.

Sadly, I’ve lived here for three years, and have never had the opportunity to join in a public singing of the line “Huzza! She spurns the Northern scum!” Mostly they just play the music.

23

Rich Puchalsky 03.08.04 at 2:30 pm

Gad, rivka, they knew how to write songs in those days. I found the following to be especially, um, stirring:

“She breathes! She burns! She’ll come! She’ll come!”

24

wcw 03.08.04 at 2:38 pm

in re ex-anthems, I do agree that the USSR’s takes it, but Austria’s erstwhile, Haydn-penned anthem was pretty darned good once. then the Germans stole the tune and stomped all over it with their “Uber Alles” lyrics, the thieves, which is probably why you don’t think of it any more.

I think when it comes to music, the left wins that battle about as often as the right does the fight actually to wield political power. what does the far right have — Das Horst Wessel Lied? Skrewdriver? save me. the left can plausibly claim everything from ‘Die Gedanken Sind Frei’ to ‘California Uber Alles’ and a whole lot in between.

fascists don’t make good songwriters.

25

Matt McIrvin 03.08.04 at 2:39 pm

Rich, about “Born in the USA”, I think that was the point John Isbell was making (since he then immediately mentioned the use of two lines from “Fortunate Son” in a patriotic-themed jeans commercial).

My favorite along these lines: that Target ad that used Devo’s “It’s A Beautiful World”, a song whose original video was made from clips from old Civil Defense films about blast radii and radiation burns. The commercial showed perky people in red clothes using red gadgets in red rooms, which I interpreted as a subtle reference to the concept of the erythema dose, or possibly the Commies.

26

doghouse riley 03.08.04 at 2:49 pm

Is Janet Greene forgotten?

Be careful of the commie lies,
Swallow them and freedom dies.
The USA may must realize
That she’s the biggest prize.

27

alkali 03.08.04 at 2:58 pm

Juan Non-Volokh opens an interesting line of inquiry: which political ideology has the best music? I’m torn on this.

That’s an easy question, although I suppose it helps if you know that all of the Holland-Dozier-Holland songs on Motown are coded appeals to anarchosyndicalism.

28

PZ Myers 03.08.04 at 3:03 pm

Let’s not forget Joe Hill and Woodie Guthrie, either.

I think one reason for the difference here between conservatives and liberals is that good music rises out of suffering and pain; not that all of us liberals have suffered, but at least when our cause is equality and social justice, we can justifiably appropriate the music of those that have. The conservatives have to make do with the music of the rich and complacent, and in the case of the worst Country Western hackwork, the stupid.

And Rush? Preachy screeching. Horrible stuff, as far as I’m concerned.

29

Matt Weiner 03.08.04 at 4:15 pm

A lot of the best country is pretty right-wing, too–Johnny Cash’s politics were exceptional. That won’t help the libertarians, tho, because it’s cultural/social rather than economic conservatism.
That Maryland song is really weird. Didn’t Maryland fight with the union?

30

Matt Weiner 03.08.04 at 4:17 pm

Speaking of cultural conservatism, here’s Blind Alfred Reed’s “Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls?”

Why do you bob your hair, girls?
It does not look so nice;
It’s just to be in fashion,
lt’s not the Lord’s advice.
And every time you bob it
You’re breaking God’s command
You cannot bob your hair, girls
And reach the Glory land.
I know this from a Mainer’s Mountaineers recording, and I can’t tell whether they mean it.

31

maurinsky 03.08.04 at 4:32 pm

I don’t care for the U.S. national anthem, and I wish they would switch over to America the Beautiful instead – a much easier song to sing and less bombastic.

32

Rich Puchalsky 03.08.04 at 4:53 pm

America the Beautiful contains some really sinister lines, though:

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!

Any city undimmed by human tears is uninhabited by humanity.

33

Nick B 03.08.04 at 4:56 pm

Going back to John Isbell’s comments, I’ve got Scottish friends who dislike Flower of Scotland because of those lines. The objection is that ‘tae think again’ implies something like ‘(and come back later with a better plan that actually worked)’

And, of course, any mention of anthems in rugby requires a mention of a crowd at Cardiff Arms Park/the Millennium Stadium singing either Hen Gwlad y’n Gwlad (sp?) or Guide Me Thou O Great Redeemer.

Politically, I’ve seen libertarians claim Frank Zappa, though he also described himself as being a ‘liberal Republican’ at one point. Choose your own comedic use of You’re Probably Wondering Why I’m Here, as appropriate.

34

HP 03.08.04 at 5:02 pm

Bah. You’re all wrong. The single greatest political song ever is “Strange Fruit.” I know of no other song that reduces any person with a conscience to unutterable, inconsolable grief. Don’t ask me for the lyrics, ’cause I’m at work, and I don’t want my colleagues to see me weeping uncontrollably.

Lots of songs work as politics but fail as music, and vice versa. But “Strange Fruit” works on every level: The politics are direct, the poetry is powerful yet naive, and the music transcends jazz and blues to reference everything from European hymns to 19th c. “coon songs.”

35

oli 03.08.04 at 5:33 pm

Million Dead – I Am The Party
“well you can tell by the way i move my feet
that i’m a genuine insurrectionary –
it’s a kind of nervous shuffle
that contrasts so well with bolshevik bravado.
I am the party, the apparatchik
and the grey bureaucracy.
I am the secret police,
manufacturing a constituency
that doesn’t answer back.”

and:
“Willy Wonka was a corporate confidence trickster,
a poster boy for neo-liberalism”

yes, they fitted that into a song.

36

dsquared 03.08.04 at 5:39 pm

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Star Spangled Banner, on the basis of how intolerable would Americans be if they could sing their national anthem as well as doing that insanely annoying “USA! USA!” chant.

37

some info 03.08.04 at 6:03 pm


Weirdest anthem: the Netherlands, which has in the first verse the line “We are loyal to the King of Spain.”
Not only is this factually odd, as the Netherlands has its own perfectly good monarch to be loyal to, but it’s historically weird: the Netherlands is only independent thanks to a rebellion against, er, the King of Spain.
I have yet to hear a good explanation for this one, even from a Dutch person.

It is from around 1570 (it is supposed to be the oldest national anthem), so it isn’t that strange that hardly anyone knows either the exact words or the meaning of the Dutch national anthem.

Two links with some info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelmus

Which has a explanation about the loyalty to the king of Spain:


The last two lines are often interpreted to mean that the leader of the Dutch war against Spain had no specific qualms with the king, but rather with his emissaries in the Low Countries; it may also be sheer sarcasm

And

http://www.dordt.nl/diversen/wilhelmus/english.htm

which translates the part as follows:


To the king of Spain I’ve granted
A lifelong loyalty.

A good reference in Dutch is
http://www.wilhelmus.nl

As for the part that the “Dutch” had their own monarch, at that time it was the King of Spain, and after they cut loose of Spain they formed a republic. It was Napoleon who changed the Netherlands into a monarchy in 1806 by appointing his brother as king.

38

Ted Barlow 03.08.04 at 6:32 pm

There’s a terrific garage-punk band in Chicago called the Goblins, who could arguably be called center-right, at least for a punk band. They’ve extolled the deliciousness of beef (“Mr. Beef”), warned about the horrors of cloning (“Dr. Clone”), and written the only pro-police punk song I’ve ever heard, “The Cops are Just Doing Their Jobs”:

My apartment got robbed
Cops are doing their jobs
I called the police
And the robber got caught
Cause they were doing their jobs (jobs) jobs (jobs) jobs (jobs) jobs (jobs) jobs (they’re doing their jobs)
They were doing their jobs (jobs) jobs (jobs) jobs (jobs) jobs (jobs) jobs (they’re doing their jobs) (etc.)

Also, Dr. Frank wrote “Democracy, Sexy, Whiskey”, which was a pro-invasion of Iraq song.

39

Redshift 03.08.04 at 6:33 pm

That Maryland song is really weird. Didn’t Maryland fight with the union?

Maryland regiments fought on both sides. :-)

Maryland didn’t secede, and probably wouldn’t have even if they hadn’t been occupied by the Union army (apparently secession resolutions failed before that because legislators successfully argued that they didn’t have the authority to vote to secede.) But Maryland is below the Mason-Dixon line, and outside of the major cities, had (and has) a lot of cultural sympathy with the South. The lines in the song are probably a reference to the Civil War occupation, Union troops being sent to arrest pro-secession legislators, and deadly riots that occurred when a pro-Southern mob attacked the 6th Massachusetts Volunteers as they were traveling south through Baltimore.

40

Rosa 03.08.04 at 7:11 pm

the star spangled banner gets bloodthirsty in the third verse:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

but nothing tops the Marseillaise:
Let us go, children of the fatherland
Our day of Glory has arrived.
Against us stands tyranny,
The bloody flag is raised,
The bloody flag is raised.
Do you hear in the countryside
The roar of these savage soldiers
They come right into our arms
To cut the throats of your sons,
your country.

Chrous

To arms, citizens!
Form up your battalions
Let us march, Let us march!
That their impure blood
Should water our fields

(if a BBC sport translation can be trusted, that is. “La Patrie” as “Fatherland” makes me suspicious, but the rest looks accurate.)

On Strange Fruit, I just did a google search on the lyrics. I found them on UB40’s lyrics page of all places. I’ve never heard their recording, obviously, but I don’t think that can possibly be a good idea.

41

Fritz 03.08.04 at 7:25 pm

Does Rush count as Libertarians? “2112” is dedicated to Ayn Rand.

Ted- Mr. Beef is a fairly famous Eye-talian beef sandwich shop in Chicago so the Goblins are probably praising that rather than the beef industry in general.

Right-wing anthem: Sgt Stadler’s Ballad of the Green Beret, of course!

42

rosa 03.08.04 at 7:27 pm

Wow, those Janet Greene lyrics make almost me appreciate Clint Black:
http://www.poofcat.com/iraq1.html

Now it might be a smart bomb,
they find stupid people too.
If you stand with the likes of Saddam,
well, one might just find you.
Iraq, I rack ’em up and I roll,
I’m back and I’m a hi-tech GI Joe.
I got infrared, I got GPS,
I got that good old fashioned lead.
No price too high for freedom,
so be careful where you tread.

43

Matt Weiner 03.08.04 at 7:55 pm

It’s not a pro-punk police song, but the gangsta verse of “Ice Ice Baby”–the one that has “Shay with the gauge, Vanilla with the nine”–ends with the cops saving Vanilla’s ass.
I think Ted Nugent might be the best libertarian rocker, though I’m not sure how he feels about funding the interstates. And of course there’s “Taxman,” which well expresses one of the basic motivations behind libertarianism.
(The rightful complaints of someone who wants to keep the money he’s earned, or super-rich people whingeing about putting their fair share toward the common good. Your choice.)

44

Mrs Tilton 03.08.04 at 8:27 pm

I’m not certain one should want to have the best songs, at least when it comes to national anthems. Back in pre-CT days Tom Runnacles posted some ludicrous praise of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ as music. The shock led me to my greatest scientific discovery. (Comments lost when I imported from Blogger, so Tom (if he can be arsed) will have make his rebuttal anew.)

45

Susan Hendrix 03.08.04 at 9:18 pm

For best political song, I’d nominate Jackson Browne for “Lives in the Balance.”:

I’ve been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you’ve seen it before
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war

And there’s a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs

On the radio talk shows and the T.V.
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends–
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can’t take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
There are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

There’s a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we can’t even say the names

They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they’re never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

In the years since this one came out, it’s only gotten more true, and sad.

46

Rivka 03.08.04 at 9:33 pm

Matt Weiner wrote: That Maryland song is really weird. Didn’t Maryland fight with the union?

Maryland didn’t secede, but only because it was occupied by federal troops and because Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and arrested half the state legislature. During the Civil War, Baltimore was such a hotbed of pro-Confederacy activity that the guns on Federal Hill and at Fort McHenry – normally there to defend the city – were pointed at the city.

You’re not the Matt Weiner who went to Reed College in the early 90s, are you?

47

Luc 03.08.04 at 9:46 pm

David Lloyd-Jones,

French and English currencies, with the French ones not being accepted in eastern Ontario. “Speak white” was what the francophone might be told…

I am 63, was born and raised in Rivière-Beaudette (Québec), which is virtually on the border with eastern Ontario, and spent a good part of my youth going to movies in Cornwall (Ontario), so you would think I would remember such things as your currency apartheid and the admonition to “speak white”. Well, I don’t. I have never encountered unilingual Canadian currency in my lifetime, nor have I ever been asked to “speak white”. I have voted PQ (Parti québecois, the sovereignist provincial party, but mainly for its social-democratic policies rather than any ethnic or linguistic reasons) since its founding, but even pure laine péquistes have long since given up repeating stories about “speaking white” or the apochryphal “fat English saleslady at Eaton’s” who refused to speak French.

48

Jonathan Edelstein 03.08.04 at 10:27 pm

I’m rather partial to Isreal’s. Both the lyrics and the tune are very beautiful.

I have the same partiality. Unfortunately, I think it will ultimately have to be changed for something that Arab Israelis can also consider theirs. Hopefully, when the time comes, somebody will be up to the job of writing a song that is as beautiful as Hatikvah while expressing an Israeli national consciousness rather than an exclusively Jewish one.

49

John Isbell 03.08.04 at 10:57 pm

I have a friend, retired French prof from UPenn, who was born well before 1963 and was in Montreal when you (as I) were about 2. A shop assistant told him to speak white, unless he’s lying, which he doesn’t. Your insight may apply better to times when you were older than 2, luc.
Best political song: The Pogues, And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda. Crushing. It’s Gallipoli:
“And as the ship sailed into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where me legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To weep, and to mourn, and to pity.”

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Matt Weiner 03.08.04 at 11:25 pm

For best political song I nominate Brecht/Eisler, Das Lied von der Moldau. Sung by the demonstrators who helped bring down the DDR in ’89, if I remember my Timothy Garton Ash correctly.
rivka–
no, that one’s a new one to me. there was a Matt Weiner a year behind me at Harvard–I was ’92–who now sometimes plays bass for the Asylum Street Spankers sometimes, one an undergrad at Pitt when I was a grad student, and much to my chagrin involved in the Pitt Libertarians, one who was involved in an early internet thing called the Brahms Gang, and one who died as an undergrad at Princeton in the late 90s, which has led to some interesting comments on my blog.

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Rivka 03.09.04 at 12:35 am

John Isbell – “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” was actually written by folksinger Eric Bogle.

But now I must own the Pogues version. Which album?

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Doctor Slack 03.09.04 at 12:52 am

Not sure if anyone’s got round to mentioning it, but I’m told Henry Rollins (of Black Flag fame, among other things) is an Ayn Rand fan.
As far as best political song goes… tall order. Strange Fruit is a great song, but in the later 20th/early 21st century it’s not really staking out any particular ideological ground. Billy Bragg’s There is Power in a Union and Woody Guthrie’s The Ballad of Tom Joad both come to mind (hey, the Folk Song Army has had some great generals, you have to admit). Or there’s Concrete Blonde’s classic anti-gun anthem God is a Bullet, or Cat Power’s homage to Third World youth in Cross-Bones Style, or Rage Against the Machine’s cover of Maggie’s Farm (they were tolerable when doing other people’s songs, oddly enough). All contenders. Right now, though, I’ll go with Mos Def’s New World Water — not only does it have the unusual distinction of being an environmentalist rap song, but it’s also intelligent and un-kooky (unlike so much “conscious” rap music).

As far as national anthems go, first I’ll say that I’ve had to sing O Canada and God Save the Queen back to back, and for my money GSTQ is definitely worse. If only by a smidge.

If Nkosi Sikelele alone had been adopted as SA’s national anthem, I would rank it above any contender. (You can’t beat an anthem that features call-and-response shouting at the end. “Amandhla! Ngawetu! Amandhla! Bayete!”) With that one out of the running, though, I have to concur with the nomination of the Russian anthem — from a different, but similarly stirring, choral tradition. think the Irish national anthem deserves a mention. I do think the Irish anthem is a very close contender, though.

And that Maryland anthem. Yeeesh. “Remember Howard’s warlike thrust”? Well, I suppose sometimes an anthem is just an anthem, just as a cigar is just a cigar…

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Doctor Slack 03.09.04 at 12:56 am

Ahhh, and I just saw mention of the Pogues, which brings to mind Young Ned of the Hill — could virtually be a national anthem in its own right:

A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell
You who raped our Motherland
I hope you’re rotting down in hell
For the horrors that you sent
To our misfortunate forefathers
Whom you robbed of their birthright
“To hell or Connaught” may you burn in hell tonight

Great stuff.

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Luc 03.09.04 at 1:01 am

Matt,

I can’t vouch for what your friend may or may not have heard in 1943 (I was born in 1941; did you misinterpret the reference to “63”?), but I can assure you that I have never heard anyone being asked to “speak white” — outside of obligatory readings of Michèle Lalonde’s poem at nationalist events. Any more than I have ever encountered that apochryphal “fat English saleslady” in Eaton’s despite having shopped regularly at their Ste-Catherine street store in Montreal from the mid-1940s (with my mother; she loved taking me for lunch at their splendid art deco dining room on the 9th floor) until the company’s demise several years ago. The unilingual saleslady, of course, is an outright fiction, a political urban legend. I can’t say that no one ever uttered “speak white”, but it just doesn’t ring true in an everyday context and the expression fits just a bit too nicely with the circa 1968 Nègres blancs d’Amérique interpretation of québécois history to be very convincing.

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Luc 03.09.04 at 1:06 am

Oops… my last comment should have been addressed to John Isbell, not Matt! Hope that doesn’t reflect on its accuracy!

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John Isbell 03.09.04 at 1:12 am

Luc, I’m not Matt. I took you to mean you were born like me in 1963, which would make oyur memory of the 60s limited. I can attest for strong French nationalism in Montreal by 1967, when I got beat up there at the age of four, by some 10-year-olds. I just know my friend visited around then, and he doesn’t lie to my knowledge. He’s quite religious. It was indeed in a Montreal department store, in his anecdote. But he didn’t live there. Mind you, he’s US so a shopkeeper may have objected to his insisting on French with a metropole accent. I just trust his story.
The Pogues, Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash. Great album, almost all political. I once sang “And the Band” in Paris, with an Australian girl who was bemused that I knew the lyrics.

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Zizka 03.09.04 at 3:52 am

Peter Tosh, Downpressor Man, ultra-left.

Pogues, Turkish Song of the Damned, just because we’re talking about the Pogues. Maybe the Turks could retrofit the lyrics a bit and make it an anthem.

The melody Deutschland uber Alles is from a Haydn string quartet (Op. 76, #5 — ??). Musically I think it’s the best of all — except for Hitler, etc.

There are also two great Russian patriotic songs, “Meadowlands” (featured on an album by Jefferson Airplane, alas) and the one in the 1812 overture, but I don’t know if either was an anthem. You could add several things from Boris Gudonov or Alexander Nevsky too.

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laura 03.09.04 at 4:35 am

My understanding is that the tune that the Star Spangled Banner words are set to just wasn’t meant to be sung like it generally gets sung these days — faux operatic, soaring, sustained notes. It was a folk tune, meant to be sung a lot quicker so that the high notes go by faster and you just hit them, perhaps raggedly, and move on. I’ve heard it sung that way a time or two and it works.

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clew 03.09.04 at 9:39 am

And Pogo said the point of the tune to the Star Spangled Banner was that no one person could sing the whole thing; the high and low notes were shared by neighbors.

Mam’zelle Hepzibah hit the high ones.

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Vance Maverick 03.09.04 at 10:08 am

The Haydn quartet is Op. 76 #3 (second movement). But the anthem came first — the movement is a set of variations on it. For me, clearly the best anthem of all, considered as a tune. And considered as a political utterance by Haydn, clearly conservative.

(One of the most striking things about the movement is that only the accompaniment is varied, never the tune itself. The effect is very beautiful, but it’s hard not to read politically.)

Vance

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Peter Clay 03.09.04 at 11:19 am

How can you mention Swing Low Sweet Chariot without mentioning Land Of Hope And Glory? If the monarchy is ever abolished then it should will almost certainly replace GSTQ.

The old soviet anthlem is a rousing tune by Prokofiev. Russian is a wondeful language to sing in, like Welsh.

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Finlandia, or the grand Irish tradition of rebel songs like The foggy dew

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John Isbell 03.09.04 at 12:43 pm

I’d have thought Beasts of England would replace GSTQ.

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Keith 03.09.04 at 6:30 pm

Votes for Strange Fruit and And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda seconded, but I prefer Slim Dusty’s version of the latter to the Pogues’.

I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned The Internationale. Damn, I love that tune, but it sounds better in French, Russian, or even German than it does in English.

As far as national anthems go, I choose my own – Hen Wlad Fy’n Nhadau. Russian, French, and Italian are next, I think. In fact, apart from the dirge of God Save The Queen, the Six Nations must have the highest average musical quality of any sporting event, with Flower of Scotland and Ireland’s Call always bringing a tear to my eye.

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Norsecats 03.11.04 at 4:42 am

>I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned The Internationale.

I have a recording of the International sung by Tuvan throat-singers. Very cool.

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harry 03.12.04 at 2:07 am

I bet none of you noticed that the sleeve notes on Shakin Stevens’ first album contains a tribute to Karl Marx. God, I wish I still had that album.

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Kieran Healy 03.13.04 at 11:39 pm

Well, he was Welsh wasn’t he?

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