THERE’S AN ELECTION GOIN’ ON
Ten UK oriented protest tunes about government/politicians/unrest. Theme: we're in a mess and we gotta get outofitoutofitoutofit....
William Hogarth’s 18th Century election trilogy suggests little has changed in the UK
I like a good protest song as much as the next music commentator – if I sometimes appear cynical about entertainers taking a “stance” it’s because many are less than convincing (and often a bit dim). Or the wise ones make music I tend to find unlistenable – Billy Bragg, Rage Against The Machine, Kae Tempest, PJ Harvey etc all produce well meaning tunes that I find as agreeable as fingernails-down-a-blackboard. A good protest song has to be – foremost – a good song while carrying a real sense of conviction. The reason Strange Fruit or Fuck Tha Police or This Land Is Your Land or A Change Is Gonna Come or Free Nelson Mandela or Get Up, Stand Up (or: add your preferred protest anthem) continue to resonate and be sung/shouted/ quoted is because these tunes are superbly crafted and executed so continue to resonate with new generations of listeners. If Frankie’s Two Tribes had any artistic resonance we’d all be nodding along to it as the West and Russia edge towards immolation. But we don’t, ‘cos it’s silly, shouty pop bombast.
Anyway, as surely everyone reading this knows, the UK is about to have a general election on July 4 and its likely we will see the worst government of the post-WW2 era tossed out. Not that I can get excited by those who will replace them. For now #anythingbutTories will suffice (except Reform, that is – if Farage’s neo-fascists end up with a handful of seats, well, things really are rotten in the state of Denmark).
How best to wave goodbye to a vile bunch of corrupt, disingenuous, elitist creeps? A Top 10 of protest songs about British politricks should suffice. Here’s a selection that, to me, both sound good and continue to resonate years after they were released.
1. STIFF LITTLE FINGERS – Alternative Ulster
I’ve loved this song ever since I first heard it in my early teens – back then I didn’t even know what ‘Ulster’ was or why you needed an ‘alternative’, the song’s snap, crackle and bop ensuring it grabs your attention. This is punk at its most astute and dynamic – the lyrics by journalist (then band manager) Gordon Ogilivie being exceptionally astute: “Take a look where you're livin'/ You got the Army on the street/ And the RUC dog of repression/ Is barking at your feet/ Is this the kind of place you wanna live?/ Is this where you wanna be?/ Is this the only life we're gonna have/ What we need?/ Is an alternative Ulster?/ Grab it and change it, it's yours/ Get an alternative Ulster/ Ignore the bores and their laws” I think those sentiments can be applied to many situations, not least the UK (yes, including Ulster) today – “take a look where you’re livin’…” Indeed.
2. DICK GAUGHAN – No Gods And Precious Few Heroes
Dick Gaughan is Scotland’s greatest folk singer of the past half century. The music he made across the 1970-80s, sung in his broad, guttural Glaswegian accent, channels raw, emotive fury like few others. And this song – written by Brian McNeill of the Battlefield Band (Scottish contemporaries of Dick) – brilliantly nails the nationalists who trade on myths for votes: “I was listening to the news the other day/ Heard a fat politician who had the nerve to say/ He was proud to be Scottish, by the way/ With the glories of our past to remember/ "Here's tae us, wha's like us", listen to the cry/ No surrender to the truth and here's the reason why/ The power and the glory's just another bloody lie/ They use to keep us all in line.” As Scotland looks to be awakening from the nationalist lie then this song carries even greater resonance.
3. MILLIE SMALL – Enoch Power
Millie Small broke ska to the world with her huge 1964 international hit My Boy Lollipop. She never managed to scale the charts to such an extent again but, in 1970, she released the Time Will Tell album on Trojan and this included Enoch Power, a Jamaican woman resident in Britain’s response to the race baiting Tory politician’s repatriation speeches. Its a good song on an interesting album – the only time I’ve come across said LP was in Smugglers Records in Deal, Kent, and as I was cycling on to Brighton I had to leave it behind. A shame as Time Will Tell’s worth owning for this song. And for the LP’s cover (unforgettable, in every sense). Concerning that same toxic Tory politician: also check Run Powell Run by Laurel Aitken.
4. LINTON KWESI JOHNSON - Independant Intavenshan
LKJ has written many political diatribes which Dennis Bovell set to music (so creating “dub poetry”) and this, while not his finest polemic, finds him dismayed at (and dismissing) the different British political parties on offer. Its a nihilist diatribe in the sense that LKJ rejects all the different options as worthless – but, at the same time, he suggests the West Indian community will find its own way through. I think we can all agree with this rhyme: “The CRE can’t set me free/ The TUC can't do it for me/ The Liberal Party them is not very hearty/ And the Tory Party/ I no feel no party.”
5. GEORGE MICHAEL – Shoot The Dog
This cryptic satire on Tony Blair’s eagerness to sign up to the US-led invasion of Iraq makes much more sense in combination with its video. Its not one of George’s more memorable hits but showed the singer, who was always anti-Tory, castigating New Labour for engaging in what’s now widely acknowledged as the worst foreign policy manoeuvre since Chamberlain’s appeasing of Hitler.
6. HAWKWIND – We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago
Couched in the slightly abstracted lyricism of early ’70s psychedelia, Hawkwind’s pessimistic, straightforward song of eco-criticism seems both ahead of its time and very pertinent. If you are frustrated by the failure of British politicians to seriously debate the climate crisis during the 2024 election then this tune’s for you.
7. DAVE – Question Time
Streatham grime magus has rhyme skills that no one else in the game can match and this 2017 treatise on the UK’s leaders is, both naive (“we’ve got no business in Syria”) yet eloquent on the struggles of ordinary working people (“my mum’s been working/in and out of nursing, struggling, hurting”). He addresses our rapidly shifting Tory leaders while also saying to Corbyn he has serious doubts about his leadership qualities. Check these rhymes: “Look, I've got a message for our old Prime Minister/ David Cameron/ I mean you fucked us, resigned, then sneaked out the firing line/ I wanna know how you managed it/ And are you bathing in the sun while them papers have a run/ At the woman that you left here to handle it?/ You gonna teach your little lad to be the man that's got a plan/ And then the moment that it fails to abandon it?/ Are there bullies in his school?/ And when you pick him up after class, can you feel his embarrassment?/ I mean you never gave a fuck about the youth and that's the truth/ There's no sympathy for you or your cabinet/ I really wish I could've seen how you were scramblin'/ When you lost the referendum that you had to win/ I feel like politicians are all addicts/ In a big fat game but it's lives that you gamble with.”
8. THE BEAT - Stand Down Margaret
The Specials, The Selecter and The Beat were all openly political, the 2-Tone ska revival kicking off as the Tories took power (which demonstrates that protest songs really don’t hold much sway) but its Ghost Town, a bleak No 1 hit about towns in the North and Midlands being devastated by Thatcher’s neo-liberal economic policies, that resonates as the movement’s exemplary anthem. Still, as we’re addressing elections here, let’s go with The Beat, whose 1980 pean to Thatcher would not come true until 1990: “I said I see no joy/ I see only sorry/ I see no chance of your bright new tomorrow/ So stand down Margaret/ Stand down please.”
9. MAX ROMEO – Beware of the Iron Lady
Margaret Thatcher inspired more protest songs than, surely, every other British politician combined. Unfortunately, most of them are almost as terrible to listen to as a Thatcher speech – Elvis Costello’s Trample Down The Dirt, Crass’ (How Does It Feel) To Be The Mother Of 1000 Dead and Ewan MacColl’s The Grocer are all full of rage and spleen but, as tunes, not much cop. Max Romeo doesn’t mention Maggie by name but, over a loping reggae groove, makes clear that she’s not a good sort – “she makes our lives soooooo hard” he sings and, as her brutal legacy continues to wreak suffering today, then this tune stands tall and true.
10. KUNT & THE GANG – Boris Johnson Is A Fucking Cunt
While punk rock is full of protest songs, few actually focus on elections (or actual politicians). As the UK is (hopefully) about to kick the Tories out and Boris Johnson was the most toxic Tory ever – and our worst, most destructive PM (his successor Liz Truss wins “stupidest/most reckless/fiscally insane”) – then I’ll sign off with a comedy punk rant against Eton’s most wretched scion. This 0.56 second blast got to No 5 in the UK charts in 2020 thanks to a well orchestrated social media campaign and Kunt followed it up with more rants against Johnson, the Tories and the pathetic Rishi Sunak.
If you are reading this in the UK I do suggest you exercise your vote – although if the Tories/Reform/Britain First are tempting you to support then better you stay on the sofa!