The Top 10 Protest Songs of the Bush Era

Monday, April 6th, 2009
by andrew.pogorzelski

After eight long years of fighting two seemingly endless wars, destroying our economy, leaving the Republican party in ruins, and just about everything in between, former (finally) President George W. Bush has left the building. With the swearing in of now (thank God) President Barack Obama, we look to the future and begin to roll up our sleeves to fix this United Mess of America that W left behind for us.

However, these long eight years have not gone unnoticed (obviously) by the music industry. Just when the art of the protest song was presumed dead, or at least M.I.A, a new generation of musicians channeled their inner Bob Dylan and sung out against the commander in chief. Everyone from mainstream radio pop to underground rap to indie to old ‘60s classic rock have chimed in on W’s policies over the past eight years. Good thing George gave them a lot to talk about.

10.  DJ Shadow and Radiohead -“Would You Buy a War from This Man?”

Add Radiohead’s eerie track from their 2003 release, “Hail to the Thief”, entitled “The Gloaming” with Dubya spitting out phrases like “nuclear holy warriors” and the infamous “weapons of mass destruction” in a speech to springboard the USA into Iraq. “Would You Buy a War from This Man?” could be the theme song to our dystopian world; where we are constantly paranoid about the declining state of life and how one slipup can lead to mass death with a single push of a button.

9. REM – “Living Well is the Best Revenge”

Kicking off 2008’s “Accelerate” with a politically charged, guitar driven anthem was symbolic to the way Michael Stipe has gone about writing music in recent years. Stipe seems to be the square peg in a round hole when juxtaposed with Bush’s policies: he is an anti-war, pro-environment, homosexual songwriter. Talk about being the black sheep in this Bush-topian world we live in. “Living Well is the Best Revenge” directly reflects these frustrations. Stipe howls singing, “you set me up like a lamb to slaughter/the gospel according to who? / I lay right down”. The REM front man refuses to change his way of life, and decided that living well, is in fact, the best revenge against the former President’s demands.

8. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – “Bomb.Repeat.Bomb”

Ted Leo mixes his own brand of gritty guitars with political satire and sarcasm about the upper class and the deception of political leaders to create one of the finest Bush protest songs. Alluding to old Vietnam theories that “you could mobilize a million troops/but a thousand could probably get the job done”, Ted Leo is able to intertwine the roots of revolution rock to modern times. The War in Iraq is the new Vietnam, and you simply can’t “Bomb.Repeat.Bomb” in order to devastate a population and call it “peace”.

7. Against Me! – “From Her Lips to God’s Ears”

Hands down the most powerful of the Bush protest songs, simply for its brutish force and screams of “Condoleezza”, Against Me! shines light on the hypocrisy of the War in Iraq and the illusion of what freedom truly is. Tom Gabel delivers the song’s (and arguably the album’s) most powerful line, “after all this death and destruction/do your actions really advocate freedom?” Do thousands of American and Iraqi lives justify democracy and does this system truly reflect freedom? Gabel’s rhetorical question may never be answered but it seems that the price of democracy is not worth its value in life.

6. The Decemberists – “16 Military Wives”

Colin Meloy may not be the archetypical spokesperson for the War in Iraq, but with “16 Military Wives” Meloy is able to demonstrate how the media and celebrities take precedent over the war on the television waves. Describing the public as “fourteen cannibal kings” who feast upon celebrities and the pain of the “sixteen military wives”, Meloy is able to reveal America’s necessity for celebrity gossip along with bad news to add reality into their own worlds which may be conquered with boredom and self-loathing.

5. Immortal Technique – “Bin Laden”

One of underground rap’s most prominent lyricists and by far one of the most informed, Immortal Technique raps about the motives of America and how asking questions and demanding truth can be deadly. Immortal Technique preaches of the faux “American Dream” and how beneath its idealistic surface it is filled with greedy politicians (or “professional liars”) and ulterior motives used for financial gain. Being a religious skeptic as well, IT does not believe in the separation of church and state, he believes they are working in unison in order to generate propaganda against the Muslim religion in order to repay for past mistakes. “I am baptized by America/and covered in leeches” exemplifies Immortal’s belief that this “perfect society” is indeed tainted and loaded with corruption.

4. Neil Young – “Let’s Impeach the President”

The song title could not be any more straightforward, it practically spoon feeds you the message Neil Young is trying to portray. Singing in a church-like chorus about Bush shipping all our money to fund a massive war machine, his absence during Katrina, and using religion to his benefit, Young creates a sing-a-long song that actually has depth to it. It is incredibly simple in structure but this simplicity adds to the overall message of the song: by committing injustices against mankind, you do not deserve to be the head of a nation. Amen.

3. The Thermals – “Here’s Your Future”

Who knew the Bible went hand in hand with Dubya’s presidency? Drawing connections to the Great Flood and the crucifixion of Jesus, The Thermals are able to exhibit how our turbulent times are somewhat connected to their religious uncertainty. Katrina is simply our version of the Great Flood and George W. Bush is Jesus-like when answering to a higher authority (God), who he believes gave him advice to invade Iraq.

2. Arcade Fire – “Windowsill”

The rising tensions of our “one click” world, cyber salesman, and the growing need for soldiers in the “holy war” all begin to impede the standard of living. Win Butler mixes string arrangements along with dark ominous tones which create a feeling of isolation while he weeps “I don’t want to live in America no more.” The perfect anthem for paranoid escapists who plan to flee the country to save themselves and their families.

1. Bright Eyes – “When the President Talks to God”

Using his shrill voice, his old acoustic, and a powerful message that perfectly captures President Bush’s dependence religion to make decisions; this is truly the most powerful of the various anti-Bush tunes. Oberst questions if God tells Bush to “rape our women’s right” and to “send poor farm kids off to die” or if the voice is just inside his head. The song is beautifully simple and raw allowing its message to ring clearly and prominently. Symbolically, Conor Oberst is one man standing against an army of thousands, holding only his guitar and his own opinions in line.

Even though poking fun at Bush is like shooting fish in a barrel, hundreds of artists from around the world have pitched in their opinions to bash the former chief. Bob Dylan and Odetta may no longer be the front runners for the political revolution, but they passed the torch to the new generation who are updating the standards of the modern protest song. Dylan would be proud.

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