The best political Bands/Musicians/Artists/writers

[Socialist Christian]

I'm sure this has been covered but i needed an excuse to laud SYSTEM OF A DOWN in the most elegant superlative. the are like looking into the face of Christ and hearing him say "I'm a liberal". There is nothing like a spirtually enlightened band without the corniness or autonomus Christianity/Judaism/Islam, they show you can be spirtual and not religious (what i advocate)and not belong to anything organized (what any sensible person believes) I think rage was descent (now i guess there audioslave) the Chuck D and my expertise novelists Dickens, Van Gogh Tolstoy and Virgina Woolf (feminist)

Making two possibilities a reality,
Predicting the future of things we all know,
Fighting off the diseased programming
Of centuries, centuries, centuries, centuries.

Science fails to recognize the single most
Potent element of human existence
letting the reigns go to the unfolding
Is faith, faith, faith, faith.

Science has failed our world
Science has failed our Mother Earth.

Science fails to recognize the single most
Potent element of human existence
letting the reigns go to the unfolding
Is faith, faith, faith, faith.

Science has failed our world
Science has failed our Mother Earth.
Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Spirit-moves-through-all-things,
Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Spirit-moves-through-all-things.

letting the reigns go to the unfolding
Is faith, faith, faith, faith
letting the reigns go to the unfolding
Is faith, faith, faith, faith.

Science has failed our world
Science has failed our Mother Earth.

Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Spirit-moves-through-all-things,
Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Spirit-moves-through-all-things,
Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Spirit-moves-through-all-things
Science has failed our Mother Earth.

[terrya]

1. This is subjective, of course. But Gore Vidal is the best political writer

Bar none. Timely, always interesting to read. A national treasure.

[DrZhivago]

2. thats the sign of times

when Rage Against The Machine becomes Audioslave

[thebigidea]

3. I dunno, but here's the worst...

http://www.terminalproduct.com/noisespew.html

[myrna minx]

18. Consolidated, The Clash, PIL. n/t

[displacedvermoter]

4. Woody Guthrie

is the best political musician in US history. This land is indeed, made for you and me!

[SlavesandBulldozers]

5. William S. Burroughs was tops

Some of his words of advice for young people:

"When doing business with a religious son-of-a-bitch GET. IT. IN. WRITING. His word isn't worth shit, not with the Good Lord telling him how to fuck you out of a deal."

and

"Never offer sympathy to the mentally ill. Tell them firmly, 'You are a terminal fool. I am not paid to listen to this drivvle'".


fitting words in these political times from our man Burrougs' "Words of Advice for Young People"

[thebigidea]

8. ah, the best! Love the NOVA trilogy, The Job, Interzone...

well, just about anything.

his audio work is fucking incredible as well. if the writing doesn't work for you, try listening to him. that raspy voice from hell makes it all click.

I'm liable to slip into a bad impersonation of it unless stopped...

"listen, all you boards, governments, syndicates, nations of the earth - all you powers behind what filth deals consumated in what lavatory..."

[Socialist Christian]

9. Have you seen Commisioner of Sewers and Naked Lunch

While he was the most profound of the beats he was a murderer. he lived the same way bush did you know. I mean i like his writing but he was a little scurrilous and caustic to the mentally ill, considering ginsberg was the son of and a mental patient and kerouac suffered from depression

[thebigidea]

12. what an insult

it was a horrible mistake and drunken fuckup he was tortured by!

The same way Bush did?

writing great masterpieces one after another for little money, living on almost nothing, stabbing needles into his gray flesh in some Tangier dive?

Bush lived like that?

I'd like him more.

and where do you get this Kerouac suffered from depression bit of business?

aghgh!

13. just the facts

I'll weigh in here, even though the question was about bands originally. On edit, I see it was about all.

I think it's fairly obvious Kerouac suffered from depression. There's not much question that he drank himself to death. Died at the age of 47! If that's not a sign of depression I don't know what is.(Geez, just occurred to me that I just turned 47)

I'm not trying to bag on Kerouac. I think he's a pretty decent writer.
Maybe slighly overrated. I've got quite a bit of respect for some of his work -- particularly Visions of Cody, wish he had continued in that direction. I've got a degree from the Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, it wasn't chance I went there!

My choices would include the Clash, Woody Guthrie, William Blake, Louis Ferdinand Celine, Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy
for starters.

[Socialist Christian]

16. You know he grew up rich???????????

William s burroughs grandfather created a electronics company, his dad sold the majority of the stock which was worth 65 million in the 70's he didnt write for 5 years after he got rejected from esquire, he never had a regular job. He treated women poorly.
""" Mr. Schoenberg would like to add for your clarification is: "Art does not have room for gentlemen like Mr. Burroughs because the weight of the world is lightened when you have a needle hanging from your arm and your find your foot facsinating.""""

Jack Kerouac- Whos aunt wasnt rich bailed him out of many a situation




Now i cant harp on him for that my dad supported me and everything but we were never rich (20k) and i was a sturggling author and still am.

[thebigidea]

24. your facts are very wrong

Kerouac had no rich aunt. he tried to make money to afford time to write by taking jobs on the railroad, merchant marine, etc.

His mother and sister put up with him for long spells until the novels started selling. then put up with him again when they stopped selling.

Burroughs' father got nearly squat from the Burroughs adding machine stock, certainly nothing like 65 million. They had 100 grand or something to pull through the depression.

He got 100-200 bucks from his parents a month out of the earnings of a small antique shop they ran until Naked Lunch made the writing profitable.

he held a string of regular jobs - bartender, exterminator (used to great effect in his writing, you can tell he liked it), lost many more.

jesus, do some basic research if you're going to argue facts.

[Socialist Christian]

28. ........................

Jack Kerouac- Whos aunt wasnt rich bailed him out of many a situation

you twisted my words

i said it was worth 60-65 million in the sixties he sold it and squandered it away. burroughs didnt write for 5 years after one story got rejected. He never had to hold down a regular job cause he was a spoiled brat he was a TRUST FUND kid. It doesnt matter how broke your parents are when you're on a trust fund. He was turned down from the OSS for being mentally unstable. He was rich in vienna studying medicine. Him and Kerouac helped cover up the murder of a gay man. Let's not forget the whole MURDER thing

[Socialist Christian]

22. But watch Commisioner of sewers<nt>

[Caution]

6. Bad Religion

Jello Biafra
Noam Chomsky
Gore Vidal
Pennywise

just to name a few good ones

[Pillowbiter]

7. I think "Cat Rapes" Dog does well

unfortunately not many people here dig industrial music, let alone know what it is.

Some songs:

God, Guns and Gasoline
Primetime Apocalypse
The World is Good and Nothing Bad Ever Happens
Crusaders in Disneyland
How the Country Falls
Christian Rights

and my favorite:
People They Love Me
"my right hand man is a son of a bitch,
my people are getting poorer while I'm getting rich
I fear no revolution because they would never dare
they parade in my honor so their lives will be spared"

PB

[NightTrain]

10. Rage Against The Machine...

...and Woody Guthrie, to name but two.

[ironflange]

11. Dmitri Shostakovich

Ninth Symphony damn near landed him in the Gulag.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

14. Manic Street Preachers, The Clash

[dwckabal]

15. I love SOAD, but

I was very disappointed with the song "Science" (the lyrics you posted). Spirit may, indeed, move through all things, but to say that "SCIENCE" is to blame for the ills in the world is just ridiculous. I do, however, applaud their stance on the Armenian genocide, guns, prisons, etc.

[Socialist Christian]

17. You know Serj had to be alluding to nukes, Biochemicals, Polution etc

hes a profound guy i dont think hes another naive one like others

[FunBobbyMucha]

19. Why no love for the Boss?

The vinyl double album "The River" was my life preserver when Reagan was elected, Lennon was shot and the world changed for the cynical worst. Though he seldom names names, the Rust Bowl landscape of that album, as well as Nebraska, and the title track to Born in the USA point a workman's glove at the Freepers and scream "Shame!" And with "41 Shots," he's still doing it today. Broooooooooooooce!

Also, one of the best political albums I ever bought was Jackson Browne's "Lives in the Balance."

"I wanna see who the men in the shadows are, I wanna hear somebody asking them why, they can be counted on to tell us who are enemies are, but they're never the ones to fight or to die."

Kosinsky's BEING THERE must've served as Rove's blueprint for making Shrub presidential.

Molly Ivins and Al Sharpton have made my year.

[Socialist Christian]

21. Molly Ivins is peerless. She looses me with the texas metaphors though <nt

[myrna minx]

20. Consolidated, The Clash, PiL. n/t

[Zuni]

23. Solzhenitsyn, Hunter S. Thompson

coming from a family of Soviet defectors I love Alexander Solzhenitsyn. My aunt from moscow gave me a banned copy in Russian of a book of the Gulag Archipelago that she had. My grandparents had all of Solzhenitsyn's books in English and in Russian.
The Gulag Archipelago is among the greatest works of dissident literature ever attempted.
An American dissident writer I like is Hunter S. Thompson. He is provocative, zany, fiercly opinionated and never boring. I like his style, and his 'outlaw' journalism

The Clash have good political lyrics.

[Elidor]

26. I'll second both of those

[argyl]

25. Haven't seen him mentioned yet so I will:Steve Earle

xx

[idontwantaname]

27. propagandhi anyone?

im suprised i havent heard/seen mention of this canadian band.