It's not Hub-specific, but I suspect many of you will find high entertainment and plenty of barroom-argument fodder in Ben Sisario's NY Times story about a National Review piece listing the 50 top conservative rock songs. I don't see the actual article on the NR site, but the annotated list is here. The National Review writer, John J. Miller, missed a couple of '60s classics - Ten Years After's "I'd Love to Change The World" ("Everywhere there's freaks and hairies/dykes and fairies/tell me where there is sanity") and Steppenwolf's "Pusher" ("Damn the pusherman"). But many of his choices are smart and well annotated - The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" is at #1, and the Beatles' "Taxman" is #2. And he hits some relative obscurities that are right on the money, like Graham Parker's searing abortion tale, "You Can't Be Too Strong" (#30).
There are some pretty revealing selections as well. "Sweet Home Alabama" (#4) is no doubt a conservative song and a helluva rocker - and there are a million shitfaced rednecks flying the confederate flag from their pickups who love it for other reasons. Yeah, go ahead, Miller, claim them as your own. Hope you've got lots of domestic beer in the fridge when they come over, and no black friends. He also cites the fact that Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Who'll Stop the Rain" (#35) is "pessimistic about activism" as a conservative value. Okayyy, that's going to come as a surprise to some of your troops, but, uh, good luck in November. I'll be the guy circling the block at 2 a.m. on the day after election day, blasting CCR's "Fortunate Son" while your legions of defeated Congressmen sob into their Abramoff-funded jacuzzis.
Yet other choices offer material for actual debate about pop music. Is the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice" (#5) really an anthem for the true-love-waits set, or is the real point the way hormonal anguish fuels the beautiful singing? Is "I Fought the Law" (#15) really on the side of law and order? To me, Miller has entirely missed the point of these songs - it's as if he parsed the lyrics but never actually listened to the records.
Maybe all of this is of interest only to guys who think "High Fidelity" is nonfiction. But give Miller credit for a different take, anyway. It's nice to read a story that offers something to chew on. And there's a picture of Pete Townshend with the Times story that shows why geezer rock can still be worth hearing.
Photo: Flickr - FTIEGS -Creative Commons
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