This post by Ann Althouse (and the ensuing comments) got me thinking about just what is the worst liberal song of all time? Being a man of action, I went ahead and created a poll:
A few notes on my criteria:
- It had to be a popular song people would actually recognize (which meant everything by Rage Against the Machine was right out)
- It had to suck (so things like the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” and many Dead Kennedys songs were exempt because they kicked ass)
- Only one song per artist (I mean, I really could have used just about everything off Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut otherwise)
- It had to have a certain self-righteous pretentiousness about it, so anything that was actually funny was exempt.
So go ahead and vote for your favorite musical slice of Suckitude.
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
I’ve roamed and rambled and I’ve followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
As I was walkin’ – I saw a sign there
And that sign said – no tress passin’
But on the other side …. it didn’t say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
Chorus
In the squares of the city – In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office – I see my people
And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me.
Chorus (2x)
I’d vote for “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” if only for the irony of Bush ripping off the song for the 1988 presidential campaign.
I am delighted to see that “Imagine” has a substantial lead in the poll at the moment, but saddened to see that nobody’s given any love to Bruce “I want peace and justice, and I’m prepared to kill in order to get it” Cockburn.
Personally, I think “Beds Are Burning” doesn’t qualify for non-suckage based reasons. (However, as I like to point out in every “Beds Are Burning” discussion, the lyric “How can we dance when our Earth is turning?” makes no freaking sense. If the Earth WASN’T turning, the ability to dance would be the LEAST of your worries.)
I’d disqualify “If I Had a Hammer” just because that song is so much fun to mock.
Floyd has a good point, too.
Earl, I looked at the lyrics for “Don’t Worry Be Happy”, and I’m not sure I’d consider them political enough to count.
Well, “Don’t Worry Be Happy” has a significant meme payload, in my opinion.
You need to add “That’s Just the Way It Is” By Bruce Hornsby and the Range. Liberal whining at its best.
Speaking as a token progressive, I don’t so much whine as snarl these days. heh.
Wow. I thoght [sic-LP] I’d have to look a long time for a perfect example of selective reality and simplistic thinking. But someone led me to your site.
I can finish my thesis, now. Thank you!