A song on their lips and a ballot in their hand!

With the influx of musicians wandering the USA this year as part of the presidential election campaign, it gave one pause to wonder what are some of the great songs of a political nature.

Bob Dylan of course has to be high on any list of political music, there’s much to mine in his library but with Political World, Dylan explains the politics of our times.

Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop will forever be identified with the Clinton/Gore campaign; it seemed to bring with it a sense of hope and optimism. When they first recorded it off the Rumours album, politics probably was the furthest thing from their minds, but when Bill and Al took on George and Dan, Don’t Stop seemed to be the tune that boosted the troops, made for a great convention song.

Bruce Springsteen has had a number of his songs used in a political vein, Ronald Reagan was trying to use Born in the USA as a political theme until the Boss put out his cease and desist edict. No such worries for John Kerry, not only has Springsteen allowed Kerry use of his music, he’s travelled far and wide to play songs and help get out the vote. His No Surrender seems to have become an unofficial theme for these times.

John Kennedy used High Hopes to define the dreams and aspirations of the Camelot era, a brief golden era of American politics that was brought to a dark and tragic end in November of 1963.

John Mellencamp has given us a number of common man anthems, but Down and out here in Paradise perfectly caught the spirit of those that didn’t benefit from the trickle down era of economics of the Reagan/Bush doctrine.

The turbulent sixties brought forward many songs of protest and declaration of concern, The Beatles Revolution seemed to sum up the ear quite nicely.

Not to be out done, the Rolling Stones found the changes of the sixties to be a mother lode of material, their Street fighting Man with images of rioting in the streets seemed to serve as a soundtrack for all that was the sixties.

Billy Joel’s Allentown gave a vivid portrait of the American dream gone wrong, when used in a political context it certainly hits a chord with the unemployed and the under-represented.

U2 reflected the frustrations of the troubles of Northern Ireland with their Sunday, Bloody Sunday, in a province that has marching seasons and no shortage of political discord, this anthem screamed out for some justice in a land where the concept of voting still exists in a very fragile state.

After every election there’s some constituency that can proclaim its allegiance to The Who, their anthem of desperation Won’t get fooled again, contains one of those all time great lyrical contributions “meet the new boss, same as the old boss”.

By no means is this a definitive list, but merely just a few tunes off the top of my head that certainly represent the political landscape in the world of music. No doubt you can think up a number of your own personal soundtracks to the democratic process