‘Bulls on Parade’ – Rage Against the Machine

One of the greatest litmus tests for rock fans is watching those who claim that Rage Against the Machine should stay out of politics.

Many were there just for the riffs, the minute that ‘Killing in the Name’ blew up, but when kids stopped using ‘Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me’ as a catchphrase to annoy their parents, not all of them were going to get down with the politics in between the ripping solos and glitchy sci-fi noises. But if we had all taken lessons from Zack de La Rocha back in the day, the modern age wouldn’t have looked nearly as scary as it is now.

Rocha never held back any time he had a mic in front of them, and ‘Bulls on Parade’ is the most literate condemnation of law enforcement there is in rock. The idea of removing the books instead of burning them and arms warehouses filling as quick as prison cells might have seemed like a scenario ripped straight from an Orwell novel, but looking at the state of the world, we probably could have afforded to learn a thing or two from the tune.

‘Racist Sexist Boy’ – The Linda Lindas

The punk attitude never fully went away, no matter what generation you grew up in.

Bands like Ramones and Sex Pistols might not have lasted as long as everyone wanted them to back in the day, but that left the door open for everyone else to come and break down the door for what the corporate side of rock was supposed to be. Green Day may have been there to help cut through the bullshit in the 1990s, and My Chemical Romance went even further in the 2000s, but The Linda Lindas are giving people a reason to be frustrated with the backwards logic that far too many people still subscribe to. 

It’s already unacceptable for people to have microaggressions towards people that they don’t like, but wearing that racism and misogyny with pride every single time you go out into the world is the definition of what human scum looks like. Not all of them necessarily have to be the same people waving battalions and beating protestors on the street, but that’s only because the kind of guy that the Linda Lindas are talking about doesn’t necessarily need a gun in their hand. All they want is power, and that’s far more dangerous than someone who’s simply following orders.

‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’ – Bob Dylan

There’s no way to properly conceive of the carnage that has happened during protests over the last few years. Everyone should have their right to free speech, but as it turns out, there are more than a few people who only allow their fellow citizens to exercise their rights to a certain degree; otherwise, they will be dealt with properly. And if the borderline execution-style form of law enforcement is too much for you, don’t worry. Bob Dylan was thinking the same thing years before.

It’s bad enough for someone to end another’s life because they don’t agree with them, but the tale of Hattie Carroll getting brutally killed and watching William Zanzinger walk away with only six months in prison is only a small snapshot of how with the right contacts and a decent-sized wallet can walk around like they are God’s gift to humanity and can do whatever the hell they want.

The verdict may have been the time for tears, but since people are still doing the same thing today, crying won’t do anyone any good now. You can certainly be angry, but now’s the time to turn the voices up instead of cowering in fear.

‘Ohio’ – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

It’s not like this is the US’s first rodeo when it comes to backwards politicians leading us into disarray. History doesn’t paint everyone in the best light all the time, and it’s up to the rest of the world to either learn from those mistakes or fall ass over teakettle into the same position a few decades down the line. But if Neil Young could make a difference with a song like ‘Ohio’, why can’t those same values still apply today?

After all, the Kent State shootings weren’t all that different from what was going on in Minnesota. People were practising their right to protest without resorting to violence, and yet people decided to fire a couple of shots anyway, leaving friends that most of us will never have the pleasure of knowing. Sound familiar? If not, it’s worth it to give this song another listen and get a feeling for the kind of inhumane things that are going on. It’s easy to look the other way when it comes to tragedies that aren’t affecting you directly, but when it’s in front of your face like this, there’s no real way of working around this kind of carnage. 

‘Give Peace a Chance’ – John Lennon

There are probably a lot of people looking at the violence in the US and getting more than a little bit angry. It’s not like you don’t have a good reason to, either; there are people who have paid the ultimate price for doing the right thing, and no amount of de-escalation is ever going to be able to bring them back. But as long as we look at what a brighter future could be, there’s nothing that we need to worry about.

Because while John Lennon could be as cutthroat as anyone when talking about his problems with political corruption, ‘Give Peace a Chance’ is the other side of a song like ‘Power to the People’. There are revolutionary moments, but after his teenage years of being violent to anyone who disagreed with him, learning to become a better person and peacefully resolving everything is the only thing that we can hope for now. And while this message might fall on deaf ears for anyone with half a brain cell in their head, it’s better to look at spreading peace than trying to fight fire with fire.