photo by SG

Monday, October 5, 2009

Sidenote

A question for you all, loyal readers:

So I was surprised and angered that one of my favorite bands from when I was growing up has a new record that is complete crap and terrible and a host of other negative adjectives. This triggered a frenzied rush to drink enough beer to forget the garbage I'd just heard and listen to older records by the band to remember why I loved them so. This led me to listen to one of their songs that prompts this question:

What not-explicitly-political songs do you love that express great class politics? I think there's a lot of these, of varying levels of popularity and meaningfulness (if that's a word). I know a classic submission is the Stones sweet Street Fighting Man, but that song never really resonated strongly with me, I suspect because of its remote place to me in time.

My nomination is a song by the band in question, my now-no-longer-beloved Big D and the Kids' Table, a Boston third-wave ska group, with their track L.A.X. If you've never listened to it, and you don't totally hate ska (which I would understand, but I have a historic personal affinity for it) you should immediately check it out.

Any other suggestions?

3 comments:

Nate said...

Class content is part of why I've gotten more interested in country music, to Angelica's chagrin. (I've gotten less punk rock narrow minded over the years and she's gotten more, I think.)

Jim Croce, "Carwash Blues," including some major contradictions within the working class (gender mainly).

Dolly Parton, "9 to 5" (this one may fail the requirement though, as it's based on the film I think, which is based on the movement/organization)

As an aside - a band I was in played a show with Big D, in Muncie IN in like 1999 or 2000. We played good if I do say so myself, but I think embarassed ourselves by acting like way overcaffeinated idiots.

brennus said...

Anything and everything that every came from the lips of Tupac Amaru Shakur.

Erik said...

Sabotage by the Beastie Boys
Down for So Long by The Rapture (I'm pretty sure it's about how great it is to realize there is no god)