A professor asked me to compile a list of songs that would be good for a political science class. *summons the ILM Bank of Pop Music Knowledge*

The Constitution

C'mon, your professor has GOT to know some Schoolhouse Rock.

Gotta 'peal to the kids, Ned.

Foreign Policy: Should the United States care what happens overseas?

A certain Sparks song off of their last album all but has this wrapped up in my mind, but if something can beat "Baby, Baby (Can I Invade Your Country)" feel free to share.

Black Civil Rights Movement - there are quite a lot of these right?

"A Change Is Gonna Come", "I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free)", and "Young, Gifted and Black", for a start.

Campaigns and Elections = NERD's LapDance

Thanksgiving Day Holiday = fugazi's small pox champion

Social Policy = killer mike - that's life

Dylan's "Masters Of War" always does it for me...

more analyzable tunes... Billy Bragg, Crass, Poison Girls' "I'm Not A Real Woman"... maybe Test Dept "Statement" (about a union deonstration).

Media & Politics: Gil Scott Heron "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

Black Sabbath - War Pigs!

I have a good one for you on women's rights: Julie Ruin - I Wanna Know What Love Is --

how many girls stay awake all night
too scared to sleep and too scared to fight back
i know you know what i'm talking about
another woman killed and hardly a pout about it
green river killer my fucking ass
the cops have gotta be deaf, dumb, and spastic
to not catch the killer(s) of one hundred woman
i guess it'd be different if they thought we were human

so i'll stay awake almost every night
a pen in my hand and in the other a knife
because i'd rather be scared and fight back
than be some dick's maid, babe or wife

i don't care how we get it but we'll get it someday

Lyrics in case you can't find the song itself.

I'm an amendment to be, yes, an amendment to be - and I'm hoping that they'll ratify me!
There's a lot of flag-burners who have got too much freedom, and I want to make it legal for policemen to beat them!

Political Culture and Public Opinion: What is the voice of the people?

Found another one (same lead singer though)

Le Tigre: New Kicks

In the middle: "this is what Democracy looks like / this is what democracy sounds like."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiwgR5Uy0Iw

Also obviously related directly to Iraq war / foreign policy.

OH GOD and of course 'Dyke March 2001'. Yeah. I'm done now.

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

The concept of a President

"dickie's such an asshole," frank zappa
"california über alles" and "we've got a bigger problem now," dead kennedys

Foreign Policy: Should the United States care what happens overseas?

"fuck a war," geto boys

The American Courts

"one time's got no case," sir mix-a-lot

(of all of my recommendations, this one is my most serious recommendation -- sir mix-a-lot had a lot more going on upstairs than "baby got back")

here are the lyrics -- judge for yourself:

*SPOKEN*

What you pullin' me over fo' mistuh offi-suh?
I'll be askin' the questions Leroy.
My name ain't Leroy, man.
Heh, all right Jerome, outta the car.
Man, why I gotta be Jerome man? Why can't I be Tommy or Philbert or something?
Just put your hands on the hood Muhammed

*RAP*

It's the man that you love to hate
Coming outta Washington state
Cops don't like my profile
Cause Mixalot kicks much style
So the man is on my trail
He wanna take Mix to jail
If he does, I'll make the bail
Cause I know alot of rich females
I'm shakin' 'em just like this
Keepin' that Porsche in fifth
King County cops don't quit
Even when a young brothers legit
So they follow me wherever I go
I hear 'em on the radio
With a scanner that I bought from the sto'
Cause a brother like Mix gotta know
I'm checkin' them cops with radar
They don't believe I'm a rap star
That my brain is up to par
An I'm ready when they follow my car
I know they wanna spray me with mace
Cause my trunk keeps pumpin' much bass
But they best get outta my face
Cause one-times got no case, give it to me

One-times got no case

The police think I'm movin' them keys
They trip cause I clock much D
They pull a gat an' they yell out "Freeze!"
I'm whippin' out my I.D.
My gat sits under my seat
The cops throw me out in the street
They found my gun like thieves
Officer Friendly has got a new beat
So I show him my gun permit
I told him I roll legit
Give me a test to see if I'm drinkin'
They claim my breath was stinkin'
They had me walk on the line
I walked backwards stopped on a dime
My female just reclines
Cause she knows I know the time
I'm hip to the cop procedure
They get ya everytime they see ya
They stop ya, they cuff ya
They roll ya an' they rough ya
They ask what I do for a livin'
Should this information be givin'?
This is what keeps me driven
Some cops want a brother in prison
So I got me a few attorneys
Just in case a cop wanna burn me
They protect me from the state
Cause one-time's got no case, break it on down

One-times got no case

A cop asks me "What's my name, and don't lie"
And I'm askin' officer "Why?
Why ya wanna mess with a brother like Mix
When you know I'm livin' legit?"
The cop said "Don't get smart.
I tear soul-brother apart"
I said "Well take off your gun, if you wanna get done
An' I'll show you that I ain't the one"
The cop rolled up his fist
Puts the handcuffs on my wrists
Then he threw a straight jab and he missed
A female cop pulls up and she's pissed
But this cop had K-9
A soul sister, yes she's fine
I said "Won't ya help a brother outta bind?"
But that badge was going to her mind
So she stuck a billy club in my back
She said "Don't think because you're black
That I won't beat you", crack, "hit you with the gat"
Her partner starts to laugh

Oooh, hit 'em again. Hit 'em again.

So they took me on down to the jail
P.L.B. came to pay my bail
Then we called Goldstein and Claire
Them's my lawyers
Walkin' up the stairs
To the courtroom dressed in suits
'Bout to give a couple cops the boot
So the female cop takes the stand
Took her oath with the wrong damn hand
My lawyers ate her up like catfish
The other cop pleads the fifth
She lost her job
I seen a few tears on her face
Sorry baby, one-time's got no case

Foreign Policy: The Fugs' "CIA Man"

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KBQG80KML._AA240_.jpg

Alternative Foreign Policy perspective: Sammy Hagar, "VOA"

Parliament, Chocolate City

... serious political comment with a few (pointed) laughs thrown in, perfect

Alice Cooper, Elected

Civil Liberties
Ice-T, Freedom of Speech

Congress
Randy Newman, The Beehive State

The Media: What impact do the media have on politics?
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Television

Foreign Policy: Should the United States care what happens overseas?
Waren Zevon, Lawyers Guns and Money

James Brown - Funky President

Civil liberties: MC5 - The American Ruse

Dig The Minutemen, baby! By far the best political band of all time.

Foreign Policy: The Price Of Paradise and especially The Big Stick (and about 100 other songs)

The Media: Shit From An Old Notebook (and the other one from Double Nickels that goes, "the media lies and betrays us, no more lies...)

Also, a real smart song about American foreign policy: The Clash, Washington Bullets.

Pretty much every American foreign policy song from the 1980s is about Central America. But it's all the same theme.

Anything by Phil Ochs.

http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/

I like how no one's recommending any Rage Against the Machine songs

They're the room in the pink elephant.

If you mention the Brixton riots, maybe 'Ghost Town' by the Specials

i can't believe no one's mentioning ted leo! especially his new album. bomb repeat bomb, army bound, etc.

sufjan stevens - decatur (mentions the lincoln-douglas debates)
sleater-kinney - far away (about 9/11)
saul williams - list of demands
that new rufus wainwright song, "going to a town," which i think is about being gay in today's world and is actually really very affecting
neil young - cortez the killer (native relations, yow)
both M.I.A. albums, in full

Political Participation:
The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
Fugazi - Burning Too

The Women’s Rights Movement:
New Haven Women's Liberation Rock Band - So Fine

Duran Duran, "911 is a Joke".

Civil Liberties-Rush's 2112

Political Culture and Public Opinion: What is the voice of the people?: Husker Du-In A Free Land ("Everybody's an authority in a free land")

The Black Civil Rights Movement -Mingus-"Fables of Faubus"

peaches - impeach my bush

Pet Shop Boys - "Integral"

Political Culture and Public Opinion: What is the voice of the people?

Fortunate Son

Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant (as american a song you'll find); Presidential Rag -- (deals with Watergate, and the version from Together in Concert has a great preamble)
Neil Young - Ohio, Southern Man, etc. -- (civil rights)
Nina Simone - Mississippi Goddamn, Old Jim Crow, etc. -- (civil rights)
Whiskeyhill Singers (et al) - Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) -- (civil rights)
Joan Baez - Joe Hill -- (civil rights)

Interest Groups

Ian Huner--Fuss About Nothing

This is a great song from his new album, from the POV of a superconnected GOP Washington K Street insider type.

Bureaucracy:
Monsters in Disguise, Breaking Glass soundtrack

Political Parties:
Adolescents, Democracy

Foreign Policy:
Fear, Foreign Policy

Political Participation:
Eminem, Mosh

The Concept of a President:
Jimmy Carter Says Yes

Interest Groups;
Dead Kennedys, Moral Majority

Social Policy:
Tenacious D, City Hall

Great suggestions! Thanks for all the help. I still haven't made any decisions yet (Well, final decisions) but I think I'll have to rule out the SFA's "Presidential Suite" because of the Monica Lewinsky line at the beginning. Ugh! It was relatively perfect.

Social Policy = killer mike - that's life
OTMFM

also, not American, but "Armagh" is a spectacular civil liberties song (that's also screaming for a Bush-era American cover version)

Anything specifically for Public Opinion? He told me he really needs more ideas for that.

The lecture is about where our political ideas come from and how we measure them, but I am open to suggestion.

The Gang of Four? Maybe something with a little bit less of a Marxist bent? Ideas, ILM, ideas!

Dead Prez, Propaganda: "You can't fool all the people all of the time/But if you fool the right ones then the rest will fall behind"

Maybe this is too metaphorical for his needs or too literal a take on "where our political ideas come from," but Leonard Cohen's "Democracy" is all about the sources of desire for change.

http://betterpropaganda.com/images/artwork/American_Idiot-Green_Day_480.jpg

< / dom passantino>

Maybe _you're_ the faggot American, that one guy that hit it and quit it

the jam, "going underground," sort of.

what you see is what you get
you've made your bed, you better lie in it
you choose your leaders and place your trust
as their lies wash you down and their promises rust
you'll see kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns
and the public wants what the public gets
but i don't get what this society wants

Duran Duran, "911 is a Joke".

-- DavidM, Friday, September 7, 2007 5:59 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Link

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