Religion and politics in music - Progressive Rock Music Forum

When it comes to religion, two tracks come to mind:

Emerson Lake & Palmer - Tarkus - The Only Way (Hymn)
Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Angel Station - Resurrection

No, I know how to behave in the restaurant now, I don't tear at the meat with my hands. If I've become a man of the world somehow, that's not necessarily to say I'm a worldly man.

Cboi Sandlin wrote:

They can write about whatever they want, whether that be politics or religion. However, i do think it's wrong whenever people are really rude with their songs, like Neil Young's "Lookin For A Leader". Still, he has the right to put whatever he wants to in his songs, that doesnt mean i cant dislike it.

I don't remember Neil Young's "Looking for a Leader", but I do recall his controversial "Let's Impeach the President" song from the same album: Living with War.

ExittheLemming wrote:

^ Art changes nothing Pedro, it only reflects change. Ermm

Mind if I quote you on this? Simple but brilliant!

"Yes" for religion, "don't care" for politics.

All is but God in God to God revealed;
and so all is, for naught but God is real.

SteveG wrote:

Politics yes. Religion no. So no vote.

The two are often so intertwined, sometimes it would be hard to avoid it. There’s very few people who sing about religion (apart from those who use the music to praise their God/s) that aren’t doing so from a political viewpoint.

Reviewer for The Progressive Aspect

Artists can sing about whatever they want as long as listeners can listen to whatever they want. Celebrate your freedom. When you live in a country when you're not allowed to do either, then you can complain about it (actually no you can't because you will probably be arrested or killed). If that last scenario sounds good to you, then wait a while and Trump will make sure that will happen for you.

The Dark Elf wrote:

...

As far as protest songs, I could rattle off a hundred that were written in the moment, actually when strife was beginning or prophetically singing about the future.

...

Hi,

Thanks ... I was even thinking of Woody Guthrie just now ... or even later during VietNam ... Fortunate Son by CCR ... and several other bands ... Jefferson Airplane for example (Crown of Creation, Volunteers) ... too many to count and mention!

We live in a time, DE, that I'm not sure these folks can conceive of the idea that "songs" don't just happen so they can become a HIT ... and of course, because they are never in a list of top this or that pile of heap ... they must all be trash and not important! Kent State DID happen and a lot more!

There was a film, I think one of the last Richard Harris films about the Irish conflict ... and it is gut wrenching and sometimes, hearing comments like some posted here ... is really scary ... and so SAD ... makes me feel that all that stuff in Madison, Chicago, Milwaukee and around the north Midwest was just crap and nothing meant nothing ... and I do not think that is true!

Edited by moshkito - March 27 2020 at 09:51

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com

LAM-SGC wrote:

The people are already mobilized and fighting long before the first rebel song is written.
Every rebel or protest song I have heard is about the past not about the present or the future. I've never heard one that is a call to arms for the majority.

Really? "A Nation Once Again" immediately springs to mind as a famous call to arms, written by Thomas Osborne Davis in the mid-1840s. There are many more, but I would also suggest that songs, particularly Irish Rebel songs that recall previous events, were sung during the 1916 Rebellion as anthems to steel and fortify the men facing the full weight of the British Empire.

As far as protest songs, I could rattle off a hundred that were written in the moment, actually when strife was beginning or prophetically singing about the future.

Bob Dylan had albums full. Like "Masters of War" (1963, prior to the escalation of war in Vietnam), or "The Times They Are A'Changing" (written in 1964 that presaged the anti-war movement of the later 60s):

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

Or how about "The Eve of Destruction" written by P.F. Sloan in 1964 and made famous by Barry McGuire in 1965:

The eastern world, it is explodin',
Violence flarin', bullets loadin',
You're old enough to kill but not for votin',
You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin',
And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin',
But you tell me over and over and over again my friend,

Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Billie Holliday wasn't referring to historic events in 1939 when she sang:

Southern trees bearing strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the roots
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

That was happening then and there in Mississippi and Alabama.

...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined
to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology...

LAM-SGC wrote:

...

Every rebel or protest song I have heard is about the past not about the present or the future. I've never heard one that is a call to arms for the majority.

Hi,

There are plenty of stories around Europe, and even in Irish film, where the struggle for a change was being made, but it was not going to make the front page news ... fer' crying out loud, those people would get killed off right away.

Czechoslovakia had a very serious movement that even ended up with a playwright as its leader. Spain and Portugal remained "quiet" because of the Government ... but you can read Luis Bunuel's book talking about many artists that the Spain government did away with, and Garcia Lorca was one of the more famous one ... so saying that it was not "alive" or "visible" is really strange. Pablo Neruda finally left Chile ... sometimes it seems like hours before he was going to be picked up.

The "public" is not always aware of these things, since the government controls the media ... so what do you expect? That it be delivered to your door? However, there would be a lot of parents that would hide these things from their children (like my mom and dad did) so we would never say anything about it, and when the Portuguese Government finally blew up, the whole thing became anarchy central and everyone took the guns in their hands and started shooing anyone indiscriminately and we lost some family members to that.

NOTHING in my life has EVER been invisible ... except one thing ... the inability to tell the truth and find out who the real _________ .... The only other thing that hurts, is people sometimes saying things that are not quite right, and they can not see that others fell victim to it, and didn't have a choice to get out! No one can tell me that the IRA and the Irish fight many years back, was silent .. it never was!

Edited by moshkito - March 22 2020 at 10:19

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com

ExittheLemming wrote:

^ Art changes nothing Pedro, it only reflects change. Ermm

Hi,

You have not lived in a place and time when the "arts" were the voices that stood up ... and it meant a lot more than you can imagine, and has a lot more strength than we think. Only in America, will "art" not mean anything and not suggest anything worthy of changing and appreciate.

Europe has many of these stories, and a lot of their arts were the ones that told that story ... not the church or the government!

Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com

Poll Question: Should artists sing about religion and politics?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Yes	23	[60.53%]
No	2	[5.26%]
Don't care	13	[34.21%]
You can not vote in this poll

Post Reply	Page 12 3 >