Re: Stupidest attempt at

My pick:

"Watergate does not bother me,
Does your conscience bother you?"

-Lynyrd S.

As far as I know, the Buzzcocks' only outright protest song:

"I hate fast cars."

If that was the only thing they had to be pissed off about, it's good that they pretty much turned their backs on the whole social protest angle of punk.

I find the lyrics to Neil Young's aptly-titled song "Piece of Crap" to be a pretty awful attempt at social criticism, if they were intended to be serious:



I'm trying to save the trees
I saw it on TV
They cut the forest down
To build a piece of crap

Bernard Sumner is a pretty crappy lyricist who fortunately almost never writes about social issues, since when he does we get

I'd like to read, I'd like to write
But where I live, I learn to fight

Much Too Young by the Specials
Squeezing Out Sparks by G. Parker

Ira, are you referring to a specific song on *Squeezing Out Sparks*? Or to that album as a whole?

GP: sorry, i was thinking "You Can't Be Too Strong," which (if memory serves) contains the album title in its lyric

Wow, what an unexpected diss! Graham Parker's "You Cant Be Too Strong" is a wonderful and, in my opinion, pretty moving song. I second "Student Demonstration Time", however, as incredibly lame!

nosepail wrote:

> Wow, what an unexpected diss! Graham Parker's "You Cant Be Too
> Strong" is a wonderful and, in my opinion, pretty moving song.

I wouldn't call it a "statement" song, either, although it has been taken as such by some commentors. He's just telling a story.

Again, Prince can always be relied on for an irritating lyric ... such as this one, from "Sign 'o' the Times":

Sister killed her baby 'cause she couldn't afford to feed it
And we're sending people to the moon

This, more than a decade after NASA's (or anyone else's) last moon shot.

I never bothered to listen to said disc, but Ira's review of the third Cranberries album gives me the impression that it's overflowing with stupid statements.

And much as I love Jonathan Richman, his song about Mumia Abu Jamal, where he basically argues that Abu-Jamal must be innocent because he's well-spoken and Susan Sarandon says so, shows why it's good that Jonathan doesn't do too many topical songs. He's just not very good at it.

As a JoJo fan myself, both as a Modern Lover & solo, I sadly have to agree w/breno re: that Mumia Abu Jamal song.

Anyway, I can think of two other songs that would fit this catagory: 1. "The War Song" by Culture Club, which basically sank their career & 2. The grandpappy o' them all, "The Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire. I think that it was an influence on Dick Shawn's performance as L.S.D. of "Love Power" in the (original) Producers.

The Beach Boys' "Student Demonstration Time," a Mike Love atrocity about Kent State:

"Four martyrs earned a new degree
The bachelor of bullets"



Post Edited (03-30-07 19:14)

mr fab wins

Woo-hoo!

Whoa, slow down! I love "Student Demonstration Time".

As much as Mike Love deserves bashing about a host of other issues, that song or its lyrics are not one of them. I don't see anything misguided about it.

[Based on "Riot in Cell Block Number 9" by Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller]

Starting out with Berkeley Free Speech
And later on at People's Park
The winds of change fanned into flames
Student demonstrations spark
Down to Isla Vista where police felt so harassed
They called the special riot squad of the L. A. County Sheriff

Well there's a riot going on
There's a riot going on
There's a riot going on
Student demonstration time

The violence spread down South to where Jackson State brothers
Learned not to say nasty things about Southern policemen's mothers
Nothing much was said about it and really next to nothing done
The pen is mightier than the sword, but no match for a gun

Well there's a riot going on
There's a riot going on
Well there's a riot going on
'Cause it's student demonstration time

America was stunned on May 4, 1970
When rally turned to riot up at Kent State University
They said the students scared the Guard
Though the troops were battle dressed
Four martyrs earned a new degree
The Bachelor of Bullets
I know we're all fed up with useless wars and racial strife
But next time there's a riot, well, you best stay out of sight

What a great song! "Don't protest injustice because you might get hurt! Stay at home and listen to records instead!"

You're mistaking a warning for preaching.

The message of the lyrics is to point out the paradox of non-violent demonstrators being met with riot squads and guns.

Tom_Violence wrote:

> You're mistaking a warning for preaching.

What's the difference? He's saying "You should do 'A' to avoid 'B'".

> The message of the lyrics is to point out the paradox of
> non-violent demonstrators being met with riot squads and guns.

That's not a paradox. It's not even irony, except in the Alanis Morissette sense, since the non-violent demonstrators are not the ones being violent.

"It's not even irony, except in the Alanis Morissette sense"

That's good stuff right there. Had me snortin' through my nose!

Sorry, but a paradox is defined as a person, thing, or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature. Love is observing the paradox of violence at peaceful demonstrations.

And inferring from Love's lyrics that he's calling for an end to demonstrations is just ridiculous.