Why can't politically conservative people write good music?

gabers

PaperPlates wrote:

Was Johnny Cash a conservative?> Id think so. Great music. Great songs. Great man.

There is no way Johnny Cash was a conservative. He sang songs of oppression and love for your fellow man. He was good friends with Bob Dylan and sung "It Ain't Me Babe". I think his beliefs and definitely his style is what led him away from Nashville to do his own thing. He and Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson were all part of that "Rebel Country" movement. I think you might be confused because Johnny was a Christian man who took amphetamines.

This is from wikipedia "When invited to perform at the White House for the first time in 1972, President Richard Nixon's office requested that he play "Okie from Muskogee" (a Merle Haggard song that negatively portrays youthful drug users and war protesters) and "Welfare Cadillac" (a Guy Drake song that derides the integrity of welfare recipients). Cash declined to play either song and instead played a series of his own more left-leaning, politically-charged songs, including "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" (about a brave Native-American World War II veteran, one of the men memorialized on the famous flag Raising photograph taken on Iwo Jima, who was racially mistreated upon his return to Arizona), "Man in Black" and "What is Truth?"

gabers

miller8966 wrote:

many great artists have taken conservative positions in their carears...look at bob dylans jesus albums which won him a grammy.

Umm.... Singing about Jesus doesn't make you a conservative. Going to a Christian church doesn't necessarily make you a conservative.

I occasionally go to an Episcopal church and I know several "liberals" also attend. This is in Houston, Texas too my man. Home of George H. W. Bush. Unbelievable, huh?

angelica

PaperPlates wrote:

Was Johnny Cash a conservative?> Id think so. Great music. Great songs. Great man.

Yike, I just edited out the same wikipedia quote gabers used! The bottom quote is from Wikipedia, though.

I wouldn't assume Johnny Cash was conservative. Rather I think he was a humanitarian/idealist, like a motivational speaker. He'd deliberately relate to the "downtrodden", by connecting with those in prisons. He'd connect with them, let them know he understood, and then he'd bring it around to singing soul-soothing, inspirational songs for them. The man was brilliant at that. He did not judge--he understood. Even when he was continually stigmatised and misunderstood, himself.

Such lyrics sound idealistic to me: "I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, / Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, / I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, / But is there because he's a victim of the times."

"Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world, except money." --Johnny Cash


Believing in God or being a Christian does not make one conservative.

miller8966

angelica wrote:

Believing in God or being a Christian does not make one conservative.

THen what does...giving your song to corporations, does that count?

Cause thats a huge list of artists right there....

angelica

miller8966 wrote:

THen what does...giving your song to corporations, does that count?

Cause thats a huge list of artists right there....

I think who you vote for is the deciding factor, right?

For the record though, I'm a highly spiritual person and due to that fact I cannot call myself conservative.

Pearl Jam and toast

It's hilariously coincidental.

Not all good-political bands are liberal though.. just most..

I think it's partially the fault of the terrible bands that outrightly express it..

3 doors down, toby keith (country music in general).. the Nudge (though he's not even close to as bad as those first two... i can deal with 70's cock rock ).. make it seem like all conservative bands suck.

Thing is, artistically inclined people are naturally drawn to the more liberal side of the political swing. Just a personality thing.

Pearl Jam and toast

miller8966 wrote:

many great artists have taken conservative positions in their carears...look at bob dylans jesus albums which won him a grammy.

Well also look at the fact that the 80's were his jesus years and inarguably his low-point creatively for a lot of reasons (99% of that being that the 80's BLEW)

besides, christianity doesn't merit conservative politics, esp. in Dylan's case.

Johnny Ramone is a much better example :cool:

mpg82

okay the best conservative bands i've gotten from this thread are

ted nugent
3 doors down

that's it?

(i liked bob dylans christian stuff by the way, like "forever young")

i can't possibly be right that there are no good conservative bands.

Skitch Patterson

Fred Bear is a great song.

the rest, not so much.

messymarv

Why cant people stop grouping conservatives into a stereo type of uppity rich people who look down their noses. Ramones i do believe to answer.

kenny olav

mikeg19_82 wrote:

I can think of two conservative bands: blues traveler and alice cooper

blues traveler (well, john popper... don't know about the rest of the band) is libertarian, not conservative. there's a significant difference between the two.

awesome band, blues traveler.

miller8966

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

Well also look at the fact that the 80's were his jesus years and inarguably his low-point creatively for a lot of reasons (99% of that being that the 80's BLEW)

besides, christianity doesn't merit conservative politics, esp. in Dylan's case.

Johnny Ramone is a much better example :cool:

I disagree with it being his lowpoint but anyway thats a matter of opinion.

Pearl Jam and toast

miller8966 wrote:

I disagree with it being his lowpoint but anyway thats a matter of opinion.

Well i still love the music he made then, but it's just not as good as the rest of it (though it is, technically opinion ). Oddly enough he recovered right at the end of the 80's..

decides2dream

um, the ramones?


i think many, many rock bands do not let their politics be known, it is not a part of their music, etc. i can think of many bands that i have NO idea what their political beliefs are...so who knows, they could be completely conservative! i think we only know about the bands who WANT us to know...either they speak out, or it's integral to their music.

Pearl Jam and toast

decides2dream wrote:

um, the ramones?


i think many, many rock bands do not let their politics be known, it is not a part of their music, etc. i can think of many bands that i have NO idea what their political beliefs are...so who knows, they could be completely conservative! i think we only know about the bands who WANT us to know...either they speak out, or it's integral to their music.

that's true. That's why i've used labels like "political bands"

good point.

decides2dream

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

that's true. That's why i've used labels like "political bands"

good point.

well then, i think it's simply b/c there are not enough good rhyhme schemes for conservative-related political language.

Pearl Jam and toast

decides2dream wrote:

well then, i think it's simply b/c there are not enough good rhyhme schemes for conservative-related political language.

bush
push
mush

that's all i've got.

boxwine_in_hell

Who gives a rat's ass about a band's political persuasion. Either they write good music or they don't. That does it, I'm going to dig up some Stryper tunes.

WindNoSail

How bout left brain(conservatives) vs right brain (liberals)

Left brain is linear thinking
Right brain is, well, not

Psych tests will show some are dominant with different sides of the brain, or some are centered which is how I tested a couple of times.

Cons have a hard time expressing thoughts that are not logical, and how much fun is that. Supertramp the 'Logical song' comes to mind but I don't know exactly why or what that song means. Been years since I heard it

Whenever I have written literature, poetry, songs I always have to get past the linear thinking to really express myself.

Probably a stupid theory, but I have been thinking about this.

boxwine_in_hell

Dude go smoke some more dope and wax poetic some more about Supertramp.