What is the worst song condemning television?

I was listening to Night and Day just now and although "TV Age" is pretty lame, I know there must be many worse out there.

"Drug of the Nation" by Beatnigs/Disposable Heroes is way up there, got to be.

Misfits "TV Casualty". And I guess "Static Age", too!

"57 Channels (And Nothing On)," Bruce Springsteen

And "She Watch Channel Zero?!" by PE is a great song, just ridiculous (subject basically being: Soap Operas are mindless fluff, but the Superbowl isn't.)

"Colour Television" by Eddy Current Suppression Ring

What's wrong with Tom Verlaine?

xp Oh dear I read the thread title as best!

gorilla biscuits have one that is not completely awful, but the lyrics are really ernest and goofy-didactic.

Bands whose songs condemning television would automatically qualify for this thread, if they have any (which maybe they do, damned if I'm gonna check): Dead Kennedys, MDC, Consolidated, Negativeland, Culturecide, Rage Against The Machine, Boogie Down Productions, Holly Near, Ani Difranco.

peter gabriel, the barry williams show

Obviously TV Party by Black Flag is great, maybe because it can just as easily be used as a pro-TV anthem.

More good (despite probably being stupid) anti-TV songs: Kursaal Flyers "Television Generation," Don Henley "Dirty Laundry," Stan Freberg "Tele-Vee-Shun."

There might be more good than bad actually. Rezillos "Top of the Pops" is killer. "Talking Head" by Motorhead too.

yeah, obv good songs cn be written on any topic, but such a big, fat, slow-moving target def. brings out the worst in a certain kind of musician who tends to stridency anyway.

Karel Fialka - "Hey Matthew". UGH.

related question 'found a job' - pro or anti tv?

I find the Eddy Current Suppression Ring song pleasingly quaint. Since no one really complains about TV anymore, it seems like a retro move. Kinda how Ladytron sings about Polaroids and LDC screens. I don't get what's wrong with "TV Casualty" either. I'd vote the Disposable Heroes track or "MTV Get off the Air" by the Dead Kennedys.

That Oompa Loompa song bout Mike TeeVee struck me as overly preachy considering it was Wonka who developed the TV ray in the first place.

Another great but dumb anti- : "I'm The Slime," Frank Zappa

there is no worse lyric about TV than this:

You heard the soundtrack
Well now go buy the soft drink
Well, the only cola that I support
would be a union C.O.L.A., Cost Of Living Allowance.

I always liked the beat tho:

nipple/cripple always stood out to me.

"MTV Get off the Air" = the music world isn't working like it was when I started out. Five years ago. Therefore it is bad.

"I'm So Bored with the USA" kind of fits. Funny, when you consider the band's and especially Strummer's love of American pop culture. I love the Clash, but I have to admit a lot of their early political songs are really silly.

yeah I totally missed the "worst". I <3 both of those Misfits songs.

Dire Straits "Money For Nothing" (ok, it isn't directly about TV but theres the MTV sub-context in it).

The Disposable Heroes and Springsteen songs are both abysmal; Black Flag's "TV Party" is probably no less obvious in its intentions, but it's such a great song, in their case it doesn't matter.

Just noticed upthread someone called "Dirty Laundry" a good song. I may barf.

"MTV Get Off The Air" is fucking awesome!

"get off the internet" by le tigre

Stand Still - Gorilla Biscuits (was mentioned somewhere upthread). I like the goofy-didactic lyric:
"Sitting down on a couch you watch / a fuckin slave to a tv-show / you thought before but you sat and dropped / What did you learn you don't even know"

The Disposable Heroes was Franti's second band to tackle the song.

"Teenage Turtles" by Back to the Planet...

I blame the telly with adverts, cool
I blame the Turtles, an influence bad
All the little children, brain dead, it's sad

xpost yeah, the Beatnigs did it on Snub-TV, back in the day.

MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Some Crack is really bad and obvious right down to the line about cond

condos