Top 40 Conservative Pop Songs
Quite by accident, I happened upon the list of Top 40 Songs from the Top 40 List with a Conservative Message, which I alluded to in my John Lennon post from last Friday.
The Beatles’ “Revolution” is #2. I’ll let it pass, and I didn’t let it pass a week ago, as it was a critique of a left-wing Revolutionary Zeal.
The list seems to define any biblical message as “conservative”, hence the Doobie Brothers’ “Jesus Is Just Alright with Me” and the Byrds’ “Turn”. (However, I take the view that being deeply religious makes the song per se conservative, even if the religion is Hinduism or Buddhism. is his defense of George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord”, which is a weird tact to take considering what rests behind the current fervor over “Christmas” versus a more non-denominational “Holiday Season”.) Likewise, every patriotic celebration is deemed “conservative”. God and Country… God and Country… God… and… Country…
Bobby Fuller Four, “I Fought the Law”, which is supposed to be, what, a celebration of Government Prosecutors?
A word about Lynrd Skynrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”. Consider the defense of the lyrics that aligns it with the “Conservative Movement”:
In Birmingham they love the governor
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth
A pean to the segregationist George Wallace, followed by questioning the motives of Nixon’s political enemies. That does not exactly strike me as the high-point of American Conservativism, but… yeah, I guess it’s a celebration of Conservativism. (Or Reactionaryism?)
Madonna’s, “Papa Don’t Preach”… a joyous celebration of single motherhood?
Beyond that… two anti-feminist songs: Tammy Wynette, “Stand By Your Man” and James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”, for anybody’s consideration to consider.