Songs sung wrong by conservative throng

By Taylor Auclair
Collegian Reporter
September 13, 2006

Writing about music can be a risky act. Lyrics are often very personal to their authors, and thus easy to misinterpret. Others are frequently left open to interpretation, raising questions that are never truly answered. This can sometimes make it easy to simply be wrong when writing about music. Here is the risk of misinterpreting lyrics to such an extent that there is no excuse to have done so: you look incredibly stupid.

People then have the right to question why you spend your time writing about music and, most importantly, who let you do so in the first place. Also, other writers with similar interests then have the opportunity to tear your articles apart, proving you wrong and degrading your publication's reputation regarding writing about such subjects.

In this case, I have taken it upon myself to discredit many of the claims that were made in an article in this year’s June 5 issue of National Review entitled, “Rockin’ the Right: The 50 Greatest Conservative Songs.” This self-explanatory countdown is given a preface in the article that basically gives the magazine the right to misinterpret the songs.

Author John Miller writes, “In several cases, the musicians are outspoken liberals…For the purposes of this list, however, we don’t hold any of this against them,” (read: we could not find 50 truly conservative songs without looking like rednecks, so we interpreted lyrics as would best fit our list.) It is true that some of the songs that they use are in fact more right wing than left wing; however, for purposes of this article I don’t care.

A surprising addition to the list is “Sympathy for the Devil,” the opening track from the Rolling Stones’ excellent Beggar’s Banquet. Since Mick Jagger references the devil’s involvement in Russian socialism with “I stuck around St. Petersburg, when I saw it was a time for a change, killed the czar and his ministers,” Miller believes the song to be an attack on communism. What he overlooks, however, are references to England and France’s Hundred Years War with “I watched with glee while you Kings and Queens fought for 10 decades for the Gods they made,” as well as to World War II with “I rode a tank, held a general’s rank while the blitzkrieg raged, and the bodies sank.”

Looking at the whole picture, which shows the devil’s participation in violent atrocities throughout history that pinned man against man, it becomes evident that the devil is in fact man. He is a side of man that is disposed to kill and massacre in the name of any cause. Let’s not forget that “Sympathy for the Devil” was released in 1968, during the heart of the Vietnam War.

Next is a shocking addition to the list; Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” Miller regards the band’s attack on Neil Young in the line, “Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her…I hope Neil Young will remember, a southern man don’t need him around anyhow,” as a “shot at [his] Canadian arrogance.” Someone didn’t do his homework. Skynyrd’s attack on Young is a reference to his songs “Southern Man” and “Alabama,” in which he sung about the racism and bigotry evident in the history of the south. So apparently it's “arrogant” to criticize intolerance. Interesting.

Another unexpected addition to the list is “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by The Beach Boys. Again Miller focuses upon one line without dissecting either its meaning according to its author, or its relation to any other lines. Unsurprisingly, he took the line, “Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true/ Baby there wouldn’t be a single thing we couldn’t do/ We could be married/ And then we’d be happy,” as “pro-abstinence and pro-marriage.” Personally, I’m speechless, so I’ll let the song’s writer, Brian Wilson, speak for himself.

In 1966, Wilson described the song as, “what children everywhere go through…wouldn’t it be nice if we were older, or could run away and get married.” The song is a statement that reflects the frustrations in youth and the constant wish to be older. It is simply a song about love and joy and is in no way a political tool.

These three examples from Miller’s list are simply the most noteworthy. They make it evident that a political writer and magazine should simply leave the music world untouched. Their minds are better served in current events rather than interpretations of Iron Maiden’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (yes, that’s on the list, too). Nice try though, guys.

auclairt1@lasalle.edu