Enjoy!

I don't understand Kobaian, but I'm not sure Magma ever had socially conscious  lyrics.

I am under the understanding that their lyrics are more Space Opera stuff ala Assimov's Empire & Foundation.

I love almost all of the greats here. 

Well, it can be said in general about Magma's maybe more or less entire work, or at least the one from the '70s, that Christan Vander, according to Wikipedia, has claimed as his inspiration a "vision of humanity's spiritual and ecological future" that profoundly disturbed him (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magma_(band)) - which I find to be very socially engaged. Furthermore, concerning the side-long track from Udu Wudu, "De Futura", which is included in the poll here: The original release of this album has a rather long description of this track in French. It's a Sci-Fi story, but it looks very probable to me that it symbolizes some social concern - maybe "nightmarish technocracy".

It's a track from the album entitled Western Culture, and I've found those titles and the music itself to be enough to consider it as socially engaged. Besides that, Henry Cow are well-known for being leftists and wanting to express their ideology through the music. There's also the communist hammer and sickle on the front coverart, so I reckon that this track is about criticism of the capitalist industry.

ELP - Karn Evil 9

The Area masterpiece.

It starts with a woman saying a poetry in Arabic, to stigmatize the suffering of the Palestiian people, then the lyrics say: "To play with the world, breaking it into pieces"

I think that the view of the future, even just as Sci-Fi, reflects ones thoughts about the society of today. So is Edward Macan's interpretation of Sci-Fi Prog in his Rocking the Classics. 

Amon Duul 2's Mozambique ... makes some of these sound like ... 

PS: On top of it, Mozambique got their independence a few months later ... kinda makes the song even more ... to the point! And much more than a pointed finger and mouth!

Not sure Sci-Fi oriented lyrics should be considered as social or politically-engaged, or else we should be looking at Rush's 2112 and Cygnus X-1.

And in general Rush had many socially-conscious texts, though it might ne more right-winged than is generally understood here, partly because Peart was influenced by right-wing Ayn Rand.

For me, these polls should concern the present (when the song was written) or near-past. Predicting the future and its possible negative drifts/excesses is largely fictional, even if plausible events to come.

 

Sure, one can rewrite history about Napoleon or Julius Caesar, Jengis or Alexander (etc...) may be thought-provoking, but bear little importance to today's situations.

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As I wrote in the thread "Prog about nightmarish technocracy?":

David_D wrote: Besides the overtly political Prog, and according to Edward Macan's Rocking the Classics (1997, p. 69, 73), symbols drawn from mythology, fantasy and science fiction literature, as well as a host of sacred texts from the past have been used in Progressive Rock lyrics as symbols of resistance and protest in two ways: 1. to symbolize an idealized society toward which we might strive, or 2. to symbolize a nightmarish technocracy which the hippies believed is on the verge of overwhelming us.

In that case, 2112 should be considered. Less certain about Cygnus, however; but tracks like The Trees (US oaks and Canadian Maples) or Subdivisions are also eligible.

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Considering what the experts today agree very much about the state of our planet, one can wonder how prophetic this vision of Christian Vander was - but he was of course not the only one to worry.

It definitely should be when somebody wants to make a poll about right-wing, socially-engaged music. 

In the Danish context, Neil Peart was a rather radical right-wing, as he was opposed the welfare state. This is very evident in an interview with him done by Barry Miles, a reporter for the New Musical Express, upon the release of 2112. 

This interview is described like this in David Weigel's The Show that Never Ends (2017, p. 163):

"When the interviewer started to raise his doubts, Peart tore into him. "You're living in the best example," he said. "Look at Britain and what socialism has done to Britain! It's crippling! And what it's done to the youth. What do you think The Sex Pistols and all the rest of 'em are really frustrated about? They're are frustrated because they're growing up in a socialist society in which there's no place for them as individuals. They either join the morass or they fight it with the only means left. They have literally no future and I lived and worked here and I know what it feels like and it's not very nice."" 

Well Maggie Bitcher certainly killed those late-70's UK days.

not quite sure it did any good for the small/low people, who are still at the bottom rung, but it did allow the UK to reach the 21st C.

Just read Jonathan Coe's The Rotter's Club to see how indeed politics drove the country at a standstill, but it wasn't necessarily the left's fault, since the National Party was doing heavy electoral scores as well (at least equivalent to communists were). 

BTW, David, if you haven't read it, there is a lengthy passage where the Trotter family goes on holidays in Northern toip of  Denmark (Skagen, but it seems like a total sidestep in the storyline, until we get to the trilogy's second part (Closed Circle) when it does all make sense.

But Peart had it wrong: the Pistols only cared about getting their share of the sunshine and would've killed mom & grandma to achieve it. They were 50% junkies anyways: Sid Vicious and Nick Kunt (the writer), whom he replaced. Other punk bands were more credible (though The Jam's Paul Weller was openly pro-Bitcher)

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I certainly agree with that Peart was completely wrong about the reasons for the emergence of the whole British Punk ("no-future") movement, as I mainly see them as big unemployment and other social conditions which made it difficult for the young people to establish a good life in the mid-'70s Britain.

While to me, nothing greater than the genuine socialism! - even communism, the way Marx thought of it, is very beautiful too. 

In general Britain has never truly been a left wing embracing coountry. The politics are broadly centre right and that is what the current Sir Keir Starmer lead government is preaching and doing. The will fail like all labour governments as they move a little bit too far left and away from the natural middle ground that most occupy. We are mostly a very boring country that likes to f**k, drink and watch football. We have one of the best and most affordable health care systems in the world so don't believe all the hyper anti English raving loonies out there. You can choose to live anywhere but strangely thousand and thousands want to live here for some reason. I do wonder why? Because it's okay to live here and there is plenty of opportunity in business and to succeed in life. The people are okay. Of course there is a right wing nationalistic element but honestly what country doesn't have one? The recent rumours of civil war spread by Elon Musk among others was complete nonsense. Don't believe in everything you read. However we are living in troubled times for sure and the global system could well be on the verge of total collapse. What Israel does next could change all our futures for good..

So I don't think that Peart's social philosophy from the '70s was something the British punks were happy about, but I guess that it was better fitting the '80s yuppies. 

Saperlipopette! wrote: ^Ok. Even communism? That's much, much more extreme (imo). I have communist friends, I don't mind. But I do sometimes wonder how things might change between us, if they actually got their way. As the communist way is intolerant and always by force, it's a scary thought.

I was talking about Karl Marx, my friend, and he had a really great vision of future society, not least including:

"everyone provides according to ability and enjoys according to need"

Yeah, I know, difficult to imagine with hundreds of years of capitalism culture. 

Yes, and the older ones know always better than the younger. 

That's fine, I just want to point that that distinction makes a very big difference to me. Neither would I say that all communists have been alike. 

I'm afraid, that's my point of view as well.

I couldn't imagine to do otherwise, and actually, it's the first time that I'm starting threads about "songs" and only because of the theme. 

Actually, in the last instance, "quality over quantity" means to me socialism over capitalism. Also, I'm quite sure that if Jesus lived today, he would be a socialist. 

Besides that, what have Jesus and Marx in common? As I see it, nothing less than the two most influential social figures/thinkers in the history of the mankind up till now.