Top 20 Political Songs

Read the story behind the songs, listen to all 20

By Ian K Smith and... Published 25 March 2010

The 20 songs below were voted for by New Statesman readers and members of the Political Studies Association.

Listen to the songs here.

The list, published in this week's magazine, features spoken word, punk nihilism and folk protest. To listen to the songs, together with a commentary by Jonathan Derbyshire and Professor John Street from the Political Studies Association, go to newstatesman.com/podcasts.

Meanwhile, we take you through the top 20 political songs, looking at the ideas that gave rise to them and the reasons for their success. Please feel free to comment on our inclusions, and to point to anything or any songs that we might have missed.

1. Woody Guthrie - "This Land is your Land"
2. The Special AKA - "Free Nelson Mandela"
3. Bob Dylan - "The Times they are a-Changin'"
4. Billie Holiday - "Strange Fruit"
5. Claude de Lisle - "La Marseillaise"
6. U2 - "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
7. Eugène Pottier - "The Internationale"
8. Robert Wyatt/Elvis Costello - "Shipbuilding"
9. Sex Pistols - "God Save the Queen"
10. William Blake - "Jerusalem"
11. The Who - "Won't Get Fooled Again"
12. Rage Against the Machine - "Killing in the Name"
13. Tracy Chapman - "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution"
14. Nina Simone - "Mississippi Goddam"
15. Marvin Gaye - "What's Going On?"
16. Gil Scott-Heron - "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
17. Bob Marley - "Redemption Song"
18. John Lennon - "Imagine"
19. Pete Seeger - "Where Have All the Flowers Gone"
20. Tom Robinson - "Glad to be Gay"

Tags: Political Songs

 
 

25 comments

Sheryl's picture

Mon, 2012-11-12 20:50 — Sheryl (not verified)

OHIO by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
The words say it all.....

Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la.

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

Four dead in Ohio

Four dead in Ohio.

Scary's picture

Sat, 2012-07-07 14:23 — Scary (not verified)

Although I'm an indie artist this may be of some merit in the political realm. It is a piece based on how the communist movement has accomplished some of it's goals it outlined to infiltrate our society.....

"The Death of Our Nation"
http://youtu.be/3tOS2-_WQ6Q

sjoe10's picture

Sat, 2012-09-29 15:50 — sjoe10 (not verified)

Check out Correy Forbes song Election fever, find on itunes website.

Agence matrimoniale rencontre avec femme russe's picture

Thu, 2012-06-14 22:19 — Agence matrimoniale rencontre avec femme russe (not verified)

Please listen to the beautifully video by Eurochallenges called “Agence matrimoniale Eurochallenges sur 100% Mag: Ils rencontrent l'amour à l'autre bout du monde !” then rearrange your list.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2aU9asEF2g
It has to be in your top 10.

Vimeo's picture

Fri, 2012-06-15 01:19 — Vimeo (not verified)

Rencontre : Thanks for this information ! Guide des agences matrimoniales

peterhh's picture

Tue, 2012-05-22 05:20 — peterhh (not verified)

I notice all your selections are left of center except perhaps 'Won't get fooled again' which is sort of neutral. While conservative songs make for pretty slim pickings I'll mention three: two from the great Merle Haggard: The Fighting Side of Me, which expresses anger at Vietnam war protesters, and Okey from Muskogee, which defends small town America and its values against the alternative values of the hippies. A third one, Rednecks, by Randy Newman, is a contrarian defense of the south against the assumption of moral superiority on the part of northern liberals. Rednecks is from the album Good Old Boys, certainly one of Newman's most memorable efforts.

deathpigeon's picture

Sat, 2012-11-24 13:37 — deathpigeon (not verified)

Claude de Lisle was a royalist who wrote La Marseillaise for France under the King before it got adopted by the French Revolution. That's a song that's definitely right of center written by someone who was almost killed for being right of center. Sure it was adopted by a left of center group, but calling it a left of center song is like calling "Hey Yeah" a song about true love because some people mistake it for one. :/

sjoe10's picture

Sat, 2012-09-29 16:00 — sjoe10 (not verified)

Correy Forbes has to hilarious political songs on Itunes. Back to lemonade and Election Fever. You should download it.

peterhh's picture

Tue, 2012-05-22 05:29 — peterhh (not verified)

PS - Now that I think of it I should mention Revolution by the Beatles which rebuffs the escalating militancy of sixties radicalism. It contains the immortal line, "If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow." And that reminds me of another great song, 'Apolitical Blues' by Little Feat, which permutes a standard blues refrain going back to Robert Johnson: "My telephone keeps ringing, and they told me it was Chairman Mao. Tell him anything: I just don't want to talk to him now-ow-ow."

jake's picture

Tue, 2010-08-10 12:10 — jake (not verified)

Perhaps it's not your target audience, but a list of political songs without any Hip-Hop is rather sadly lacking. Public Enemy, BDP, Lauryn Hill, Ice Cube, Paris, Mos Def, Talib Kweli etc etc etc

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