Music Blogs

Rockers are an innovative bunch. When they run out of ways to sing about their drug problems, their groupies, their need for love and a world that just doesn't understand, they sing about politics and other subjects they often know little about. Not all of them, of course. Some rockers, allegedly, even read newspapers. Which means they're just slightly smarter than the people they're often criticizing. Which counts. Which may also explain why rockers didn't take to picking on President Clinton. A Rhodes scholar, Clinton wasn't one of those guys you could just call stupid without receiving a counter-rebuttal. Most Presidents couldn't even spell that one.

Here are ten songs that would easily qualify for a late-night CD collection called "Presidential Rock." So, yes, turn it up, dude!

10) "He Was A Friend Of Mine"--The Byrds: Even if he hadn't been gunned down in Dallas, JFK was likely to be the recipient of positive pop songs since he wasn't old and wrinkly. That he died tragically meant that even people who normally wouldn't sympathize with any politician found themselves feeling pretty bad and the songs about JFK are generally a pretty bummed out lot--as you might expect.

9) "That Was The President"--Phil Ochs: Ochs criticized plenty of politicians in his day and he was what some encyclopedia's might call a "tough social critic." But he, too, turned into Ol' Softy when dealing with a tragedy of JFK's magnitude.

8) "Eisenhower Blues"--Elvis Costello: J.B. Lenoir's "Eisenhower Blues" got reworked by Elvis Costello in 1986 because in some parts of England it's still the 1950s? I guess Costello just liked the song because picking on Eisenhower three decades later when there were so many worse targets to rally around just doesn't make much topical sense. Then again, maybe we're in for a whole slew of Anti-Nixon, Post-Watergate tracks.

7) "The President"--Robyn Hitchcock: Robyn Hitchcock doesn't get literal too often, preferring to write about what Procol Harum once called exotic birds and fishes. But in the mid-80s, he caught then President Reagan on his TV and was quite confused. That's the thing about cable TV. Put into the wrong hands--or distributed without proper instruction--there's a good chance that it will be misinterpreted. People from other countries may begin to actually believe that we live in something called Hannity's America when it no more exists than Green Acres, The Munsters or That ‘70s Show. It's all make-believe. No one really believes in any of it.

6) "Old Mother Reagan"--Violent Femmes: This song, much like myself, is really short. But it's the closest a band of acoustic instrument waving nutjobs can come to playing hardcore punk without actually firing up electric instruments.

5) Let's Impeach The President--Neil Young: So, tell us what you really think Mr. Young. Who says there aren't any real protest singers out there anymore? Of course, it takes one old enough to be my grandfather to take a stand. The young ones are too busy building that nest egg for the rainy days that always seem to be up ahead. And since Young's Canadian by birth, we know he wasn't performing this song in hopes of snagging the job.

4) "Bush League"--Pearl Jam: I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I don't think Eddie Vedder was impressed with George W. Bush. He might even dislike him more than Ticketmaster, since I can count more Pearl Jam songs that could conceivably be about Bush's presidency than about the selling of concert tickets.

3) "N.W.O."--Ministry: The great thing about most Industrial Music is how you can't actually understand much of what they're singing about--but whatever it is, they're quite angry about it and they mean it, man. This is where Closed Captioning on your TV set comes in real handy. The videos come on and you're immediately given access to the lyrics, unless some wiseacre writes: "indistinct gibberish."

2) "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg"--Ramones: Alas, when the track finally made it to an album it was re-titled "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down" with the "Bonzo" bit in parenthesis. The Ramones had a major political rift in the band between Joey's Jewish-Liberal background and Johnny's Reagan-loving right-wing beliefs. The two found the perfect co-existence. They didn't speak to each other for years.

1) "Campaigner"--Neil Young: Neil's always enjoyed being contrary. What better way to be contrary than to suggest that even Richard Nixon has got soul at a time when he was being forced to resign from the White House? If Neil were a dentist, he'd recommend sugared chewing gum to his patients who chew gum.