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David_D View Drop Down
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    Posted: November 14 2024 at 12:46

I've been thinking that it could be interesting to have a thread about the socially-engaged "songs" included in the poll series "Thinking politically / socially-engaged songs", and I can tell now that my selections have mainly focused on major Prog. Also in this new thread, you can mention some more of the same kind, including whole albums if they're more or less socially-engaged in their entirety.

Anyway, here're most of the "songs" from the poll series (Edit: plus some of those (including entire albums) mentioned in other threads of the same theme and in this thread):

Ange - "Les Longues Nuits D'Isaac" (1974)
Area - "Luglio, Agosto, Settembre (Nero)" (1973)
Area - "Gioia e Rivoluzione" (1975)
Art Bears - "The Song of Investment Capital Overseas" (1981)
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - “Canto Nomade per un Prigioniero Politico" (1973)
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - "Dopo...niente é piú lo stessso" (1973)
Curved Air - "Marie Antoinette"  (1972)
Eloy - "The Light from Deep Darkness" (1974)
Eloy - "Plastic Girl" (1974)
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - "Lucky Man" (1970)
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - "Tarkus" (1971)
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - "Karn Evil 9" (1973)
Flower Travellin' Band - "Hiroshima" (1972)
Genesis - "The Knife" (1970)
Genesis - "Get 'Em Out by Friday" (1972)
Genesis - "Supper's Ready" (1972)
Genesis - Selling England by the Pound (1973)
Gentle Giant - The Power and the Glory (1974)
Henry Cow - "War" (1975)
Henry Cow - Western Culture (1979)
Jethro Tull - Aqualung (1971)
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick (1972)
King Crimson - "21st Century Schizoid Man" (1969)
King Crimson - "Epitaph" (1969)
Magma - "De Futura" (1976)
Marillion - "Forgotten Sons" (1983)
Marillion - "White Russian" (1987)
Marillion - "Gaza" (2012)
The Mothers - "I'm the Slime" (1973)
Niemen Aerolit - "Cztery Sciany Swiata" (1975)
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975)
Pink Floyd - Animals (1977) 
Premiata Forneria Marconi - "Mr. 9 'till 5" (1973)
Rush - "2112" (1976)
Triana - "Rumor" (1977)
Van der Graaf Generator - "The Emperor in His War-Room" (1970)
Van der Graaf Generator - "Pioneers Over C" (1970)
Van der Graaf Generator - "Childlike Faith in Childhood's End" (1976)
Rick Wakeman - "The Prisoner" (1976)
Roger Waters - "Amused to Death" (1992)
Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase (2015)
Wigwam - "Pedagogue" (1974)
Yes - "Yours Is No Disgrace" (1971)
Yes - "I've Seen All Good People" (1971)
Yes - "The Gates of Delirium" (1974)
Frank Zappa - "Uncle Remus" (1974)


Edited by David_D - November 21 2024 at 05:34
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The Tangent - "The Lady Tied To The Lamp Post" (2022)
“On the day of my creation, I fell in love with education. And overcoming all frustration, a teacher I became.”
— Ernest Vong
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Points: 14110 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote octopus-4 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 15 2024 at 01:32
Reviewed yesterday:

Fabrizio De Andre' - Verranno a Chiederti del Nostro Amore
I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution
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Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - "Dopo...niente é piú lo stessso", an anti-war song from the album Io Sono Nato Libero (1973)
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Points: 15119 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 15 2024 at 07:30

The Mothers - "I'm the Slime", Over-nite Sensation (1973), about the brainwashing function or effect of many TV programmes,
and here's an excerpt of the lyrics:

I am gross and perverted
I'm obsessed and deranged
I have existed for years
But very little has changed
I'm the tool of the Government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you
I may be vile and pernicious
But you can't look away
I make you think I'm delicious
With the stuff that I say
I'm the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I'm the slime oozin' out
From your TV set
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Points: 15119 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 16 2024 at 04:35

Henry Cow - "War", In Praise of Learning (1975), another anti-war song

Marillion - "Gaza", Sounds That Can't Be Made (2012), about what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict meant for the life of Palestinians living in Gaza, and written after many conversations with ordinary Palestinians living in the refugee camps of Gaza and the West Bank.





Edited by David_D - November 17 2024 at 17:49
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Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

According to Edward Macan's Rocking the Classics, Roger Waters explores in this album those sides of the modern industrial society that depersonalize, dehumanize, and ultimately drive people to madness: time, or more accurately, industrial society's conception of it, money, war and violence ("Us and Them"), and the futility of the nine-to-five work life ("Breathe" and "On the Run") (1997, p. 78). 

This interpretation is quite in agreement with Wikipedias view of this album ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon# ).


Edited by David_D - November 21 2024 at 05:55
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Points: 15119 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 19 2024 at 08:42

Pink Floyd's next album, Wish You Were Here (1975), is much about missing Syd Barrett and his withdrawal into madness, but this "saga" can be viewed as symbolic of the sense of alienation and withdrawal that pervades the entire contemporary Western society. Also, together with heavy criticism of the music industry ("Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar"), the whole album can be seen as a kind of thematic continuation of The Dark Side of the Moon.
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Points: 15119 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 19 2024 at 13:03

Animals (1977) was a significant step away from Floyd's "classic" sound, but it was not less socially-engaged than the two previous albums, on the contrary. Loosely based on George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945), this album presents the listeners for a bleak, Orwellian interpretation of society as consisting solely of "sheep" (mindless followers), "pigs" (tyrannical thought-police), and "dogs" (violent, power-hungry manipulators).
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Points: 4126 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote A Crimson Mellotron Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 20 2024 at 02:14
You might as well put the entire 'Hand. Cannot. Erase.' album in this category because of the story that inspired the album. Also, does not Neal Morse's output count in, too? Most of his albums deal with Christian themes explicitly or implicitly.
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Points: 15119 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 20 2024 at 09:09
Originally posted by A Crimson Mellotron A Crimson Mellotron wrote:

You might as well put the entire 'Hand. Cannot. Erase.' album in this category because of the story that inspired the album. 

Wikipedia quotes Steven Wilson for saying this about Hand. Cannot. Erase.:

"The basic story, or concept of the record – it's about a woman growing up, who goes to live in the city, very isolated, and she disappears one day and no one notices. There's more to it than that. Now, what's really interesting about this story is that your initial reaction when you hear a story like that is, 'Ah, little old bag lady that no one notices, no one cares about.' [Vincent] wasn't [like that]. She was young, she was popular, she was attractive, she had many friends, she had family, but for whatever reason, nobody missed her for three years."

and it looks socially-engaged to me as well.

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand._Cannot._Erase.#Themes_and_concept )


Edited by David_D - November 20 2024 at 12:16
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Points: 10019 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mellotronwave Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 20 2024 at 12:32
Peter Hammill : Handicap and Equality (from PH7)
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Points: 15119 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 22 2024 at 04:48

Rush - "2112" (1976), pro-individualist / anti-authoritarian
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Points: 15119 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 22 2024 at 10:04

^ Very good timing Smile, as I just want to tell this:

When talking about Pink Floyd's lyrics in the 1970s, Deena Weinstein, professor of sociology and author of some much appreciated music literature, has written a bit arrogant or dogmatic but still very fine article about proper understanding of those lyrics, and that is, rather symbolically. This article, entitled "Progressive Rock As Text: The Lyrics of Roger Waters", is for instance published in the book Progressive Rock Reconsidered (2002) edited by Kevin Holm-Hudson.



Edited by David_D - November 22 2024 at 12:06
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Points: 15119 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote David_D Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 hours 1 minutes ago at 13:58

^^ It was very nice for me to discover Hand. Cannot. Erase. as a modern, socially-engaged major Prog album, and I'll be happy to hear about some more of that kind. Smile
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