Any good anti-goverment bands/songs out there u like?

Only ones i can think of at the mo are: -

Anti-Flag - (911 for peace)
Propagandhi - (Bullshit Politicians)
AFI - (God Called In Sick Today)
NOFX - (The Decline)
Sick Of It All - (Us Vs Them)
Sex Pistols - (Anarchy In The UK)
Death By Stereo - (Porno, Sex, Drugs, Lies, Money, And Your Local Government)


all good tunes.

I can't think of any others.

Give Peace A Chance - Plastic Ono Band

Margaret On The Guillotine - Morrissey

She'll Have To Go and Turn It Up - Simply Red ( I especially like the latter's lyric)

A lot of Billy Bragg

No government - Nicolette

Chumbawumba

Give Ireland Back To The Irish - Paul McCartney

A lot of 60s stuff:

Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Creedence Clearwater Revival

Lots, really, when you start to look. Rock 'n'roll. Punk. Folk.

Anything by The Clash!

BTW as far as I know they didn't write a song called "anything" I mean just take your pick of any great political Clash tunes.

Any early songs by Bob Dylan. I can't say I agree with them, but good songs they are.

Also a song from the 70s by Dylan called The Hurricane which was not a anti-government song but was a protest song, was a bloody good song and also something I believe in.

'99 red ballons'...Nena.
'Working class hero'...John Lennon.
'War pigs' Black Sabbath.
'The Soldier' Harvey Andrews. (banned by the bbc!,)


loads more really..

some ska

'Stand down,Margaret' the Beat

'Man at C&A' the Specials

anything by Public Enemy although they are not really ska

Lots of stuff by the Manic Street Preachers. Radiohead just named their album "Hail to the Thief", and are fairly political.

Is that a good thing though? Should musicians be telling their listeners what to think? If I want to be politically informed, I'll watch Newsnight and read the Guardian...

I dont think its telling people what to think. Its providing an opinion in the shape of a song. You could just as easily say that Newsnight or the guardian tells people what to think. Or anyone who states their own opinion.

From the 80's-"Free Nelson Mandela" by the Specials.

For 2 reasons-
1. Musically, it's a great record!

2 (Probably more important) It reminds me of the day that I, and 11 of my fellow students (all disabled, BTW!) were arrested outside Dunne's Stores at Ormeau Embankment in Belfast!!

Rage Against the Machine have some good tracks, Wake Up & Killing in the Name of.

Yeah but someone like Thom Yorke or that dude out of Rage Against the Machine is likely to have a far greater influence over a bunch of 14 year olds than Jeremy Paxman.

I'm not saying political songs are wrong, of course it's good that people are expressing their opinions, but I feel that sometimes it's done in the wrong way. For example, Chris Martin from Coldplay - he's always wearing that "Make Trade Fair" t-shirt at gigs, and good on him for raising awareness, but I get a sneaky feeling that he really hasn't a clue what he's talking about. So after each gig, there'll be kids leaving the venue going "yeah, make trade fair! Rock!" when they haven't a clue either and are just spouting meaningless slogans just to look cool.