The National Review has released its list of 50 Top Right-Wing Rock Songs. It's a pretty good list, on the whole--they have such stalwart conservatives as CCR (Who'll Stop the Rain), The Beatles (Revolution), The Pretenders (My City Was Gone), and the Clash (Rock the Casbah)--but they leave out some obvious choices. So here's my list of the top 10 conservative rock anthems:
- Crosby, Stills & Nash - Ohio: A great song about a great heartland state (that, by the way, voted twice for George W. Bush). At least I think that's what it's about.
- The Blasters - Boomtown: I'm not that familiar with the lyrics, but I think it's all about the prosperity that Reaganomics brought us.
- X - 4th of July: What could be more patriotic? Actually, I haven't listened to the lyrics of any of these. That's the kind of detail and nuance that's best left to the liberals.
- John Lennon - Happy Xmas (War Is Over): It isn't Season's Greetings (War Is Over), is it? I don't think so. In your face, secular humanists!
- Woody Guthrie - This Land Is Your Land: "This land is your land, this land is my land..." Acid-rock pioneer Woody Guthrie's tribute to the great American principle of individual ownership.
- Gang of 4 - To Hell With Poverty: I couldn't have said it better myself.
- X-Ray Spex - Oh Bondage Up Yours!: Condemns sexual perversion and thus implicitly affirms traditional values.
- The Smiths - Every Day Is Like Sunday: All about maintaining religious devotion and dedication throughout one's life, not just on Sundays.
- Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska: The Chief pays tribute to another great (reliably Republican) heartland state.
- Jane Wiedlin - I Don't Wear Fur: Here's a song I never would have expected: an ode to Pat Nixon's respectable Republican cloth coat. It's good to see these young kids have a sense of history.
[That's all, folks]
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