Protest Songs – They Ain’t What They Used To Be
How bad is it? Watch this and cringe. This is a take off on the Peter, Paul and Mary (well, actually a Bob Dylan song, but PPM made it famous) song, “Blowing in the Wind”. At the end of this they all seem quite pleased with themselves – well, except for the guy on the right who appears to want to quietly back out of the picture.
As Reason’s Nick Gillespie says:
Remember the old line about how the left won the ’60s culture war because “they had better songs”?
Well, if the music matters in public policy debates, then this song is the ultimate weapon for opponents of single-payer health care. And folk music. And quite possibly, humanity itself.
Heh … Indeed.
~McQ
Come on, it’s a parody by the anti-healthcare-bill folks, right? Nobody could be this bad on purpose. “The answer to this fix… is HR676″ Gahhhh!
After seeing this freakshow, I really thought it would be absolutely impossible that an even stupider “protest song” than this exists. And then I saw a comment on the video and checked out her channel. Oh. My. God. Cannot.. Unhear…
http://www.youtube.com/user/suescannon
Gregoir, for an antidote, look up Tom Lehrer’s “Folk Song Army”. He was mocking this attitude back in the early 60′s!
The lyrics:
We are the Folk Song Army
Everyone of us cares
We all hate poverty, war and injustice
Unlike the rest of you squares
There are innocuous folk songs
Yeah, but we regard ‘em with scorn
The folks who sing ‘em have no social conscience
Why they don’t even care if Jimmy cracked corn
If you feel dissatisfaction
Strum your frustrations away
Some people may prefer action
But give me a folk song any old day
The tune don’t have to be clever
And it don’t matter if you put a couple extra syllables into a line
It sounds more ethnic if it ain’t good English
And it don’t even gotta rhyme – excuse me – rhyne
Remember the war against Franco
That’s the kind where each of us belongs
Though he may have won all the battles
We had all the good songs
So join in the Folk Song Army
Guitars are the weapons we bring
To the fight against poverty, war, and injustice
Ready, aim, sing
Thank you – this was INSTANTLY what I thought of. Lehrer’s songs ‘of the times’ remain proof of the French expression plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (the more that changes, the more it’s the same thing).
I got 13 seconds in and jammed a pencil in my ear. Now I NEED healthcare…
LOL! Yeah, it was an excruciating 3 plus minutes but as Gillespie says, it may be the single most powerful tool to use against the bill they tout.
Yeah, I’m with you. I made it eleven seconds myself before I started cursing McQ. Shame on you for making me click that.
But you know, it’s not that much worse than this.
http://vodpod.com/watch/1770992-conservative-rappers-on-huckabee
Gahhhh! No! That’s a parody too, right? By leftist comedians? It has to be! They must have gotten a Huckabee lookalike.
Oh, good lord.
My eyes.
My freakin’ ears.
“How many people will forgo food…..”
Certainly not the lady on the left.
Where’s Bluto when you need him?
Okay, I’m taking a poll. The nutbar in the front — the one that looks like the love child of Richard Belzer and Cindy Sheehan — boy nutbar or girl nutbar?
Weren’t there videos of kids singing odes to Obama during the campaign? This is merely a continuation of that fine tradition carried on by people who can’t sing. And, equally creepy.
Rick
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