Sunday Song Lyric:
John Miller presents his list of "the top 50 conservative rock songs of all time" in the June 5 issue of National Review. Admitting the list is somewhat arbitrary, John explained the criteria he used, in consultation with others, to produce the list:
UPDATE: The full list of 50 is now on-line here.
What makes a great conservative rock song? The lyrics must convey a conservative idea or sentiment, such as skepticism of government or support for traditional values. And, to be sure, it must be a great rock song. We’re biased in favor of songs that are already popular, but have tossed in a few little-known gems. In several cases, the musicians are outspoken liberals. Others are notorious libertines. For the purposes of this list, however, we don’t hold any of this against them. Finally, it would have been easy to include half a dozen songs by both the Kinks and Rush, but we’ve made an effort to cast a wide net.Topping off the list is "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who. Why is this a conservative song? "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," Miller explains. "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." Consider some of the song's lyrics:
There's nothing in the streetsThe full lyrics to the song are here.
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Are now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight
I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
UPDATE: A reader with a much better memory than mine notes that I blogged about WGFA during the Townsend-Moore dust up over whether the song could be used in Fahrenheit 9/11. Relevant to the debate in the comment thread is this comment from Pete Townsend:
WGFA is not an unconditionally anti-war song, or a song for or against revolution. It actually questions the heart of democracy: we vote heartily for leaders who we subsequently always seem to find wanting. (WGFA is a song sung by a fictional character from my 1971 script called LIFEHOUSE. The character is someone who is frightened by the slick way in which truth can be twisted by clever politicians and revolutionaries alike).
UPDATE: The full list of 50 is now on-line here.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Townshend on the Politics of WGFA:
- Sunday Song Lyric:
I wonder if, by "disillusioned revolutionaries" he had in mind today Republicans and the 1994 election.
I'm sure Keith Moon is spinning in his grave to learn the music of the Who is considered "conservative".
Have you ever listened to the song. It is full of anarchic rage. Are you saying anarchy is a conservative movement? Is The Sex Pistols "God Save The Queen" on the list because it obstensibly rails against monarchy and fascism?
There actually is a Sex Pistols song on the list, but it is "Bodies" rather than "God Save the Queen."
JHA
"We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song"
Hmm... how about "you say you want a revolution, well, you know, you can count me out"?
Maybe rock, or at least good rock, doesn't particularly follow simple little rules like that. Unless of course by "revolutionary" you just mean "willing to say interesting and provocative things," in which case there's no reason it couldn't be conservative.
Seriously, I'll give you "Tax Man" by the Beatles, "Material Girl" by Madonna, and a chunk of Ted Nugent's excecrable work. And no, Ann Althouse, Dylan isn't "right wing" because he rejected bad musical advice from (admittedly drippy) liberals at the start of his career.
Ah, yes the Sex Pistols were the ultimate conservative band. Dick Clark said John Lyndon (aka Johnny Rotten) without a doubt the worst person he ever interviewed. He peeed on the floor of his dressing room. Remember their other big hit besides "God Save the Queen" was "Anarchy in the UK". Please don't tell me that anything by the Clash is on the list. How about the Ramones? At least they had one legitimately conservative member (Johnny) who was really pissed off when he figured out that "The KKK Took My Baby Away" was directed at him and "Bonzo goes to Bitburg" was directed at Ronald Reagan.
I think after "Born in the USA", and his short-lived marriage to that model/actress, Springsteen realized he had sold his soul for pop superstardom--eventhough the lyrics on "Born in the USA" stayed true to his message. His next studio album was "Tunnel of Love", stark and acoustic. And all those flag-waving, one album fans thankfully disappeared, leaving those of us who really listen to his lyrics and know what he is singing about.
Oh, I forgot, Eugene would say, "not that there's anything wrong with that ; )"
Now John, you know you whispered count me in on the slow version of that song.
How about Kill the Poor by the Dead Kennedys
Interpretation is in the mind of the beholder, but I could use the lyrics today it as a reaction to the excesses of the communist and islamic "revolutions", and as a caution to those who propose violent overthrow of the old system (and eliminating everyone who believed in it). I know this song is pre-Pol Pot, but I've got friends and family that were caught in the Khmer
Rouge hell, and I can't think of a better example of seeing this song lived out.
Sorry I have to disagree on 'I love a man in uniform' being pro-military. Despite being in the military (and proud of it) in the late eighties, I loved that song, but pro-military? Only if you if you considered it satire of military stereotype, given the background of the band, I doubt it. Great song, though.
Well, if you want to take one song out a body of work that spanned over 25 years and call it "conservative" or "libertarian" and ignore the politics, lifestyle, and totality of the art of the authors, you are just being disingenious.
By that token, I could say Ronald Reagan was a raving communist because when he said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall", he obviously was inviting Gorbachev to expand the Soviet Empire to all of Western Europe. Context is everything.
I guess I do need to post a big warning I AM BEING SARCASTIC HERE. When I said "I Love A Man in A Uniform" was one of the great pro-military rock songs of the early eighties, I meant that it was one of the one of the great anti-military rock songs of the early eighties, but the boneheads of the National Review would probably miss the satire and irony and think it was pro-military.
I think Freder was being sarcastic about "(I Love a Man) in a Uniform."
LittleJ:
Even if your reading of "Won't Get Fooled Again" is correct, it's hardly uniquely conservative to oppose the Khmer Rouge or Stalinism, or what came before them, or both.
Miller writes
Surbanization is actually the antithesis of central planning, not an example of it. Isn't the conservative and libertarian mantra that "sprawl is good, people should be able to live where they want and do whatever they want with their land. Central planning is a communist plot to stop people from having huge houses and drive 50 miles each way to work alone on congested highways in huge SUVs."
There was (and, I believe, still is) some neo-Nazi punk (Skrewdriver, e.g.). Will conservatives want to claim that stuff?
Absolutely, and they display the archetypes of masculine manliness, a biker, an indian chief, a construction worker, a cowboy, a cop, and a sailor. What could be more representative of traditional values than that?
I like country. Once you get past some of the godawful stuff that is played on top 40 country radio, there is some really good, and subversive, stuff out there, especially if you define it loosely to include people like Steve Earle, Kelly Willis. And how about the Dixie Chicks?
There's always "Amerika" by Rammstein:
http://german.about.com/library/blmus_rammst04.htm
English translation here:
http://german.about.com/library/blmus_rammst04e.htm
end sarcasm mode
Heck, even Charlie Daniels was liberal in his younger days. "Uneasy Rider" is one of the greatest songs of all times, hilarious and liberal.
Know your place in life is where you want to be
Don't let them tell you that you owe it all to me
Keep on looking forward...no use in looking 'round
Hold your head above the ground and they won't bring you down
Anthem of the heart and anthem of the mind
A funeral dirge for eyes gone blind
We marvel after those who sought
The wonders of the world, wonders of the world
Wonders of the world they wrought
Live for yourself...there's no one else
More worth living for
Begging hands and bleeding hearts will
Only cry out for more
Well, I know they've always told you
Selfishness was wrong
Yet it was for me, not you,
I came to write this song
"Body, I'm not an animal!
Mummy, I'm not an abortion!"
Now I'm ultracurious to see what the other 48 songs are.
My favorite Rush song is "Subdivisions", which basically insults their entire fanbase--middle class surbanites. About the only other band that can get away with calling their fans a bunch of mindless idiots is Pink Floyd--isn't that the entire point of The Wall (well that and "I hate women and my mother in particular").
By the way, Mondale also wanted to use the song.
Could you please read the lyrics of Born in the U.S.A., which is about the alieanation and lack of opportunity that Vietnam Vets felt when they returned to the U.S. and please explain to me how that is pro-America? Not that I am calling it anti-American, I think it is a deeply patriotic song--but it is a song about pain, frustration and alienation, it is not a song that makes you proud to be an American. Anyone who thinks it is, is an idiot, plain and simple.
How very post-modern of you.
I called the author of this article at the National Review a bonehead. I never questioned his morality. And I was really only referring to his expertise in the area of rock criticism. I think it is perfectly legitimate to call anyone who thinks that "Won't Get Fooled Again" (or indeed anything by the Who) is a "conservative" song is a rock music bonehead. To include music by the Sex Pistols (!) in his list confirms his extreme boneheadedness. Anyone who thinks that "conservative" and "Sex Pistols" belong in the same article unless it is something along the lines of "The Sex Pistols are the antithesis of conservative" is a complete bonehead when it comes to music.
Now I don't know anything else about John Miller. He might be a brilliant political strategist and one of the great conservative minds of the twenty-first century. And I am sure he is a moral and decent man. But I know enough about music that I have the right to call him a bonehead when it comes to rock music criticism.
Big Bubba is listening.
Bachman Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care of Business
Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought The Law (And The Law Won)
The Byrds - Turn, Turn, Turn
Cracker - Get Off This
Dennis Leary - I'm an Asshole
Dave Matthews Band - Bartender
- Proudest Monkey
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
Eagles - Get Over It
Iced Earth - Declaration Day
Johnny Cash - When the Man Comes Around
- I Hung My Head
Kansas - Dust In The Wind
Kenny Rogers - The Gambler
Led Zeppelin - Dream On
Living Color - Cult of Personality
Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall ("We Don't Need No Education")
Rush - The Trees
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - I Won't Back Down
Well, Freder, without going into too much detail, people simply ignore the verse (few could even tell you what's in it) and concentrate on the rousing chorus. If a song is to live, it's because those who listen to it like it for whatever reason they choose to like it. Reagan understood the song better than Springsteen.
(Look at our National Anthem. We only sing the verse that ends with a question mark, but believe it's a ringing affirmation.)
I think you are being purposely obtuse. Why is Miller disingenuous? Miller's list is of conservative songs. It's not a list of songs that capture the conservative essence of the best rock bands. It's not a list of songs intended by their authors to be conservative. Its a list of songs a conservative can listen to and agree with the sentiments expressed.
I don't see why a song can't be taken out of the context of a band's history. Other than songs on some concept albums, a song usually doesn't have a context that must be understood to understand the song. Springsteen's problem was nobody listened to the words of Born in the USA other than the chorus, not that it was removed from the context of his body of work.
By the way, does anybody know what the deal is with all the Who songs on commercials and TV dramas? Did somebody sell out or what?
Well, considering that The Who came out of the same working class London neighborhoods that produced The Kinks and The Rolling Stones, the song, in the context of the times, is more about the frustration felt by the youth of that time in history. Instead of the prosperous future promised to them after the privations of World War II and the aftermath (rationing didn't end in England until the late fifties), by the mid-sixties it was obvious that England was never going to regain its former glory, and prosperity for all (which had always been promised but never delivered to the English working classes) was not going to be delivered. That even with Labour in power the New Boss was going to be the same as the Old Boss.
Britain in the late Sixties was indeed a grim place, and as Pink Floyd summed it up in "Time", "Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way".
You should probably read the lyrics of "Born in the USA" before you go off on a irrelevant rant.
Or, for another abortion related song by a band not known for being "conservative," there is Slayer's "Silent Scream":
http://www.lyricsdepot.com/slayer/silent-scream.html
Forget about Born in the USA -- if you want to hear some righteous anger from Springsteen, listen to Seeds.
For some reason, I found it necessary to look up the following in the definition:
cock·a·lo·rum ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kk-lôrm, -lr-)
n.
A little man with an unduly high opinion of himself.
I believe the smug cloud over this post is getting bigger and drifting west, where it will join with the San Francisco cloud. Unfortunately, the two will be joined by a smug cloud that originated from George Clooney’s Academy Award acceptance speech. When all three of them come together, they are going to create a “perfect storm” of smuggitude. God help us all.
Well, maybe if you had some respect for history and context I wouldn't have to take you all to school.
I dunno. This may be a valid interpretation of "Won't Get Fooled Again" but I always had in mind they were talking about revolution, the kind where blood runs in the streets and a new order is promised ("the shotgun sings the song", remember?), not the kind of social democratic reforms implemented by Labour.
I read that Pete Townsend (the lyricist) has disowned the song as "irrelevant" in the modern world. Maybe he thinks utopian revolution promising a whole new order is a good thing now or maybe the failure of fascist and communist parties as mainstream political movements makes it obsolete.
But it is quite a good song in that it captures the idea that "revolutionaries" promising a better world, whatever kind of world they have in mind, are often as rotten as the current batch of leaders. That's not an exclusively conservative idea but it is certainly a running theme in much conservative political thought (at least Burkean thought) -- with original sin and unchangeable human nature and all.
For those textualists among us, here are the actual lyrics. Hell, if this song had been written during the Vietnam war, you would have had conservative posters here claiming Springsteen's speech was aiding the enemy to downright seditious.
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
[chorus]
felt by the youth of that time
in history.Instead of the prosperous future promised them after the privations of WWII and the aftermath(rationing didn't end in California until the late 50's)by the mid 70's it was obvious that the US was never going to regain its former glory, and prosperity for all(bla bla bla)was not going to be delivered. That even with the democrats in power the new boss was going to be the same as the old boss. The US in the late 70's was indeed a grim place, what with disco and polyester and ugly cars, and Mr. Hagar summed it up so well with his plaintiff plea for slower traffic to yield to the right.My parents are one (actually half) a generation removed from The Who, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks and grew up in the same economic circumstances in England. In fact my Great Aunt lived down the street from the Davies' in the Muswell Hill neighborhood of London and my 2nd cousin played with the Davies children when she was young. My father is from the same neighborhood as Ozzie Osborne (my dad is 18 years younger). So don't mock me or think I don't know a little bit about England in the fifties and sixties.
and grew up in the same economic circumstances in Hoboken.
In fact, MY great aunt lived down the street from Goobers garage in the muffdiver mounds neighborhood of of Bugtussle and MY 2d cousin played with Goober's children when she was young. MY father is from the same neigborhood as Pea Wee Herman (MY dad is 18 years younger if you care). So don't mock ME or think I I I I don't know nuthin about Hobken in the 60's and 70's. ME ME ME MY MY MY WGAF?
I'd have called 'Sympathy for the Devil' conservative when it came out, but conservatives have stopped being isolationists, so now it's hard to say.
I like it when I was a conservative and I like it now that I'm more of a libertarian. I would hesitate to call the song itself either conservative or libertarian, though. I think it's the song of an ex-idealist whose eyes are open.
"Dream On" is by Aerosmith, not Led Zeppelin. That, of course, was when Aerosmith was good.
One song not mentioned here that might be on the list is John Cougar Mellencamp's "Minutes to Memories." Very individualist theme:
On a Greyhound thirty miles beyond Jamestown
He saw the sun set on the Tennessee line
He looked at the young man who was riding beside him
He said I'm old kind of worn out inside
I worked my whole life in the steel mills of Gary
And my father before me I helped build this land
Now I'm seventy-seven and with God as my witness
I earned every dollar that passed through my hands
My family and friends are the best thing I've known
Through the eye of the needle I'll carry them home
CHORUS
Days turn to minutes
And minutes to memories
Life sweeps away the dreams
That we have planned
You are young and you are the future
So suck it up and tough it out
And be the best you can
The rain hit the old dog in the twilight's last gleaming
He said Son it sounds like rattling old bones
This highway is long but I know some that are longer
By sunup tomorrow I guess I'll be home
Through the hills of Kentucky 'cross the Ohio river
The old man kept talking 'bout his life and his times
He fell asleep with his head against the window
He said an honest man's pillow is his peace of mind
This world offers riches and riches will grow wings
I don't take stock in those uncertain things
CHORUS
The old man had a vision but it was hard for me to follow
I do things my way and I pay a high price
When I think back on the old man and the bus ride
Now that I'm older I can see he was right
Another hot one out on highway eleven
This is my life It's what I've chosen to do
There are no free rides No one said it'd be easy
The old man told me this my son i'm telling it to you
Oh, absolutely. Over the last nine months or so, everyone I know would put "I Wanna Be Sedated" on the list. Warren Zevon gets a look in too, as the White House seems to have adopted "Send Lawyers, Guns and Money" as its crisis-management theme song.
Freder said:
"Well, if you want to take one song out a body of work that spanned over 25 years and call it "conservative" or "libertarian" and ignore the politics, lifestyle, and totality of the art of the authors, you are just being disingenious."
Well, I'm not a Who fan, but if the writer's lifestyle is an indication of the leanings of every song ever written, I doubt if there are many rock songs that are anything but anarchic, so maybe you have a point. I wouldn't call it conservative or libertarian, but to say that every song only fits a solitary context, which you have deigned to school everyone about, is just as disingenuous as your Reagan example. I don't buy the context you're selling completely, as the first stanza says "the shotgun sings the song"; my take is a reference to violent revolution - Labour didn't use shotguns, did they? I stick by my interpretation that you take care of the ones you love because raw idealism isn't really for the man on the street.
JosephSlater said:
"Even if your reading of "Won't Get Fooled Again" is correct, it's hardly uniquely conservative to oppose the Khmer Rouge or Stalinism, or what came before them, or both."
I'm not sure where you got that idea from my post. I said I thought the song more libertarian than conservative ( although in my opinion it's not either one), and I said I could use the lyrics today as a reaction to the excesses of the communist (were they really "liberal"?) and islamic (arguably conservative) revolutions. How is that an implication that one has to be conservative to oppose murderous tyranny? Idealism has many forms, including communism, religious zeal, nationalism, etc. Pick your poison - it's still poison, and I think that's what the song says.
Are you assuming I'm conservative or libertarian? Don't.
We may be misunderstanding each other, or I you, in which case I apologize. The point I was trying to make was simply that if one reads "Won't Get Fooled Again" as being anti-revolution in the sense of the Cambodian or Soviet experiences, then liberals, libertarians, and conservatives could all claim it, because all those groups opposed the Khmer Rouge and Stalinism. If we agree on that, cool.
I still really, really wish somebody would post the list so we could discuss some other songs.
He ran the same con with "The Rising," which exploited 9/11 far more extensively than the Alan Jackson shlock that's been so widely derided.
I grew up with this guy's music; literally it was the soundtrack to my life. For my 21st birthday my dad took me to see him (this was 2000) where he proceeded to yell at the crowd for not donating enough to a local canned food drive. The lameness was so jarring--here's a guy who fired his band, then took them back to make a buck and sold them as his "Blood Brothers," mocking people who were making him a million dollars richer in one night--that I broke out the AC/DC and Skynyrd on the ride home from the stadium and never looked back.
It's interesting that many seem to think that a song's lyrics sum up its viewpoint. "Won't Get Fooled Again" is a terrific example of the simplicity of that notion. The lyrics are deeply cynical, counselling that any firebrand (left- or right-wing) should be viewed with extreme skepticism, and that any leader should be viewed potentially as one who will either exploit or ignore his followers upon assuming power.
The music, however, is anthemic, carefully orchestrated to build up to a unifying climax, made all the more powerful in concert, when a stadium full of adoring fans can add to the song's power by screaming in exultant unison at the final "Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh!" The music encourages the listener to become exactly the sort of rabid follower that the lyrics caution against becoming.
There's an undercurrent of that. If I remember correctly, Parker has stated that his real hostility in that song was to men who would encourage abortion as an easy way to escape responsibility for their own actions. (This could also be viewed as a feminist reading - abortion as a woman's choice.)
The last bridge, though, suggests that abortionists can only view themselves with loathing and contempt, which seems pretty clearly antiabortion to me.
Did it make the list?
I always thought Aerosmith only did a cover, turns out you are correct. (The singer sounds nothing like you think Steve Tyler would sound like, which is why it has sat quiescently in my MP3 archives under Led Zeppelin since I got it off Napster in 2000 It has now been renamed.)
And also, it appears that Prof. Adler already had Rush's "The Trees" as one of his long ago Sunday Song picks.
Like moths to a flame
Is man never gonna change
Time’s seen untold aggression
And infliction of pain
If that’s the only thing that’s stopping war
Then thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Nuke ya nuke ya
War is just another game
Tailor made for the insane
But make a threat of their annihilation
And nobody wants to play
If that’s the only thing that keeps the peace
Then thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Nuke ya nuke ya
Today was tommorow yesterday
It’s funny how the time can slip away
The face of the doomsday clock
Has launched a thousand wars
As we near the final hour
Time is the only foe we have
When war is obsolete
I’ll thank God for war’s defeat
But any talk about hell freezing over
Is all said with tongue in cheek
Until the day the war drums beat no more
I’ll thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Thank God for the bomb
Nuke ya nuke ya
I was 16 when Barry Goldwater lost to LBJ, and was crushed, but I remained conservative, sadder and wiser.
Do you have any Idea re: eating chicken and dumplings refers to?
It is not about breakfast, lunch, or dinner in the conventional sense.
On the incompetence of government services.
Until you mentioned it, no I didn't!!! Now I get it. Which is pretty funny.
You badly misunderstand this song if you think Rush is trying to insult anyone with it. It's not about criticizing middle class life. It's a song about the "the restless dreams of youth" - how young people chase their dreams, and what happens after they've lost them. The lyrics are below - the beginning is a criticism of the ordered lifestyle of the suburbs, but from the perspective of the young dreamer or "misfit". The last line of the song shows another perspective -"Somewhere out of a memory / Of lighted streets on quiet nights" - the memory of the same dreamer - but one who has lost his dream and wants to "relax their restless flight". And what do they dream of then? They dream of home.
So Peart isn't writing to criticize his fans - he's writing about the changing outlook of youthful dreamers. It's about human nature.
Subdivisions
Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown
Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone
Subdivisions ---
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions ---
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth
Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night
Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight
Somewhere out of a memory
Of lighted streets on quiet nights...
You badly misunderstand this song if you think Rush is trying to insult anyone with it. It's not about criticizing middle class life. It's a song about the "the restless dreams of youth" - how young people chase their dreams, and what happens after they've lost them. The lyrics are below - the beginning is a criticism of the ordered lifestyle of the suburbs, but from the perspective of the young dreamer or "misfit". The last line of the song shows another perspective -"Somewhere out of a memory / Of lighted streets on quiet nights" - the memory of the same dreamer - but one who has lost his dream and wants to "relax their restless flight". And what do they dream of then? They dream of home.
So Peart isn't writing to criticize his fans - he's writing about the changing outlook of youthful dreamers. It's about human nature.
Subdivisions
Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown
Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone
Subdivisions ---
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions ---
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth
Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night
Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight
Somewhere out of a memory
Of lighted streets on quiet nights...
Yes, I think we're on the same page on that one.
I was in a bunch-o-bands in the mid-80s--high school and college. I played a black Fender Strat, and my best band covered tunes like King Crimson's "Thela Hun Ginjeet," Genesis's "Return of the Giant Hogweed," and all that other hippie-dippy stuff that would get Eric Cartman apoplectic.
I was then a libertarian, though I couldn't stand Rush or their Ayn-Rand-inspired lyrics. (Still can't.)
I'm now a Dick Lugar conservative.
And though I had teen dreams of rock stardom, I've never made the mistake of thinking that I was cool. Or that the songs mean anything. The best rock lyrics I've found come from songs like "One Week" by the BNLs. What do they mean? Who cares?
Like Kurosawa I make mad films. Okay, I don't make films. But if I did they'd have a Samurai
I've always thought of WGFA as a conservative song. It seemed to highlight the foolishness of overthrowing the old order for some new nirvanah, which was all the rage of the left back in those days.
Ann Althouse did her self-indulgent thing a while ago on a similar note, observing (in blithe indifference to the world) that there was something quintessentially right-wing about being an artist. And then people started arguing that there was rather something quintessentially left-wing about being an artist.
Those of us who thought there was only something quintessentially artistic about being an artist were bored stiff by that conversation, too.
Well no, I'm much too old to be cool. But I am wise enough to know that I was a hopeless geek when I was younger. But my politics really haven't changed either. I am a little more of a pragmatist, but still unashamedly liberal--and I grew up in hardcore Republican country in the suburbs of Chicago.
Oh, no. Dupage County?
I'm originally from New Trier Township myself: Not hardcore GOP, but generally breaks toward Republicans.
Well, perhaps not the current teen generation, but it would be ridiculous to assume that none of us were ever teenagers.
And presumptious to assume that none of the erstwhile teenage VC posters ever plumbed the depths of angst driven music. In fact, I'd argue just the opposite - the forty-something thoughtful VC poster is probably more likely to have plumbed those depths way back when than the average. Speaking from my own personal experience, of course.
Finally, WGFA is a conservative song? WTF? Preposterous.
You got it. Downers Grove to be precise.
Since Althouse's unconvincing piece about Dylan/"great artists" being right-wing has been mentioned, maybe it's worth asking: what's with right-wingers trying to claim rock and roll (or at least some decent chunk of it) is "conservative"? A nagging insecurity that conservative kids aren't cool kids?
It sure is a crazy mixed up world where liberals are "conformists" and "conservatives" are somehow the anti-establishment radicals. Think about it. Conservatives, by the very definition of the phrase, want to conserve the way things are--or at least return to the way they think they once were. They extol "traditional" values and a society that reflects the past, not progressive or revolutionary values. By definition, they reject those.
There are many here amoung us
Who feel that life is but a joke
But You and I have been trough that
And this is not our fate
Let us not talk falsely now
The hour's getting late
I've always thought that was a conservative phrase
While some might consider the "I'm not talking 'bout moving in" to be a thinly-veiled anti-marriage message, there is an affirmation of human connection found in the opening chorus: Hey, I miss you.
The song continues:
Do you see the CrunchyCon undercurrent in this verse? A love for the outdoors while, at the same time, a respect for man's dominion over the environment.
The song finishes:
Perhaps the saddest lyrics ever written by a white person. It takes a realistic view of the relationship between the two but wishes to maintain the connection anyway.
I don't want to change your life... but you've changed mine. And I'd really love to see you.
What's more conservative than that?
John Stuart Mill was right.
"You say you got a real solution,
we-ell you know...we'd all love to see the plan."
Well, either that or Pauline Kael's query (turned into lyrics by Springsteen), "Is a promise that love couldn't keep the same as a promise broken?"
Yeah, they really rock!
You have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin
Watching X-files with no lights on
We're dans la maison
I hope the smoking mans in this one" BNL 1998
We finally agree on something Frank!
I think you may have mis-typed when you said this:
Ozzy was born in 1948. I believe you meant 18 years older, but I'm not sure.
Really not nit-picking.
As a libertarian-leaning conservative, I don't even have to look at this list to see how wrong it is. There is no such thing as good conservative rock music. The only good rock music is made by stupid drug-addled kids who want to get laid, and the best rock songs are all pretty much bad drug induced poetry about getting laid. That's the way it is, and the way it always will be. We like it because when we were stupid drug-addled kids trying to get laid, it was on the radio.
Now you kids get off of my lawn.
You're right, my dad was born in 1930, and lived there in a council house in the same neighborhood (Aston) as Ozzy Osborne until 1955. My Grandmother lived there until 1962 (my Grandfather died in 1960). My uncle was born in 1944, so he is only a few years younger than Ozzy.
White ones, Black ones, yellow ones, red ones,
Necropheliacs looking for dead ones
The greatest of the Sadists and the Masochists too
Screaming "please hit me" and "I'll hit you"
I can't wait for F. Frederson's interpretation of this.
Or is that too much of a "conservative reading of the text"?