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talkpoliticsHere's a good link with a breakdown of the lyrics.
And the lyrics are what this is all about.
The first two verses, by Immortal Technique and by Killer Mike are good, but not what I want to discuss. It's the third verse, by Brother Ali, an albino Muslim-American from Minnesota.
Our hearts were torn apart just like y'all was
Watching towers full of souls fall to sawdust
Everytime we called your office you ignored us
Now you holding hearings on us all inside of Congress
Microscopes on us, ask if we're jihadists
My answer was in line with all of the Founding Fathers
I think Patrick said it best: Give me liberty or death
I shall never accept anything less
You claim innocence
You play victimless
But you gave the kiss of death in the name of self-defense
Slavery and theft have brought our nations to the end
Of pacifying your citizenry with excess
We believe in freedom, justice, security
But they're only good when they're applied universally
So certainly if I rage against the machine
My aim was only to clean the germs out of the circuitry
Heard you need putting fear inside your heart
Make you burn Qu'rans and tell me not to build a mosque
Me, my wife and babies we ain't never made jihad
We just want to touch our heads to the floor and talk to god
Ask him to remove every blemish from our heart
The greatest threat of harm doesn't come from any bomb
The moment you refuse the human rights for just a few
What happens when that few includes you?
Now, I'mma go ahead and admit something. That last verse, by Brother Ali, has brought me to tears on multiple occasions. Now I'm no Muslim, hell, I'm not even a believer in God, but, I fear the country that tries to tell it's citizens what it can believe. I feel for those who are discriminated against because of their beliefs--and for all my doubting of the truth of Islam, I respect Brother Ali and his family wanting to touch their heads to the floor and talk to God. In his voice you can hear, he really just wants to ask God to remove every blemish from his heart. I can respect that.
Sometimes my conservative friends will ask me why I hate America. Sometimes they are just joking, playing up the stereotype of the America hating liberal, but sometimes they mean it.
Well, you wanna know why? That's why. Cause we are denying the human rights of just a few.
But until that few includes you....well, we all know that poem.
First they came for the Muslims....
So aside from me just ranting and sharing a bit of my personality I do have a question.
What political music gets you going? What's your musical preference for political songs? What, if any, have brought you to tears?
P.S.
If you don't know Brother Ali or Immortal Technique, here are some other tunes to tune into:
Brother Ali- Self Taught, Uncle Sam Goddamn, Whatever
Immortal Technique- Rich Man's World(1%), The Martyr, the 4th Branch
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Date: 19/7/12 17:48 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 19/7/12 17:50 (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 19/7/12 17:53 (UTC)Don't know if the official vid will embed, so here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CxKA1uETxE
Also he's got a new one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQtRXqBQETA
Pretty impressive stuff, even if you only measure it from a musical standpoint.
(no subject)
Date: 19/7/12 18:00 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 19/7/12 18:05 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 19/7/12 18:06 (UTC)This is the only music by a group named after Civil War that is worth listening to
Date: 19/7/12 18:20 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 19/7/12 18:24 (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 19/7/12 18:25 (UTC)Propaganda tag? Who applied that?....
(no subject)
Date: 19/7/12 18:27 (UTC)Okay. Name your terms, commie!
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From:To answer the question...
Date: 19/7/12 18:26 (UTC)Then there's this Muse song, which only makes sense as a right-wing political protest song if you ignore the reality of Muse's politics:
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Date: 19/7/12 18:28 (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 19/7/12 18:32 (UTC)Even the song itself is left-wing.
"its time the fat-cats had a heart attack"
I don't hear the right complainign about fat-cats too much. They usually are the fat cats. They just claim that they want to make YOU a fat cat too!
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Date: 20/7/12 10:46 (UTC)Re: To answer the question...
Date: 20/7/12 19:33 (UTC)hardcore/punk songs.
Wouldn't go so far as to call it right-wing but when you rebel against your hippy parents there's only so many directions you can go...
Edited to fix embed code
(no subject)
Date: 19/7/12 20:23 (UTC)But lest you think it's just about and for old white rich anglo saxon men...
Or just the powerbrokers:
Or simple:
(no subject)
Date: 19/7/12 21:45 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 19/7/12 22:08 (UTC)Stuff that comes to mind
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Date: 19/7/12 22:16 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 19/7/12 23:11 (UTC)Mozart was a big support of liberal reforms of Austrian Emperor Joseph II, who had freed serfs, cracked down on church authority within the Austrian Empire, angered the nobility greatly, and reformed church music, and a supporter of the Enlightenment. In Don Giovanni, there's a very odd chorus that is a bit out of place, with praising liberty, freedom, etc. It was recognized as a homage to Joseph and his republican ideals (who was in the audience for the Vienna premiere). Within a few days after that performance, Mozart was made a court composer (in charge of the Carnival dance music given every year). This performance is from the controversial NYC Opera staging by Peter Sellars in the late 1980s. Sellars is firm believer in modern staging and making the production believable (verisimilitude). In this production, Don Giovanni is highly seductive, and a sexual predator, but also a heroin user, and unrepentant murderer, and the opera takes place in Harlem.
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Date: 19/7/12 23:24 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20/7/12 08:01 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20/7/12 00:58 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20/7/12 05:59 (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwoNQvSOxM8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdZT2FQJnpg
(no subject)
Date: 20/7/12 18:05 (UTC)The Captian by leonard Cohen is pretty reliable in that regard.
Followed by pretty much anything from Johhny Cash's American Recordings. Hurt, Hang my Head, and God'll Cut you Down, being particular standouts.
As far as songs with "punch" both my parents were of the flower-power persuasions so of course as a teen-ager I shaved my head and listened to a lot of punk/hardcore.