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I Bought Myself a Politician – Artists with something to say
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I never knew the Beach Boys recorded a protest song, Jung. Very interesting. But then, even sweet-voiced Don McLean got in on the act:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgZQxTxR3Oo
(Sorry for the little dig at Canada!)
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and the classic par excellence
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…and where we are already on the subject of education… 🙂
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Jurgen, great iconic songs from Pink Floyd and Supertramp about protest to the establishment and education. In my high school in the 70s when this song came out, some talented student painters painted the Pink Floy Wall on the school brick wall. What a statement.
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This song rings so true these days as climate change. Floods like never seen before ravage places around the world, heat waves set temperature records like never before, glaciers are melting, and wild fires ravage our forests, scientists tell us we need to change, but many nations don’t appear to be heeding the warnings for change fast enough.
“Hey Waiter, don’t you hear the rain
It’s been pouring down for days and now it rains again
We should leave and move uphill to the mountain range
Before the flood is gonna come, so please
Bring me the change
You gotta bring me the change”
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Jung, you’ve hit on a brilliant metaphorical meaning for this song! “Change” = an alteration in our environmental policies. “Waiter” = a country that is stalling on acting on climate change. “Clientele” = the fossil fuel industry. “Signs” = indications of climate change. “Flood” = melting of the ice caps. “A different place” = previous government inaction at the behest of big corporations.
I wonder if this is what MLT was actually saying in this song. If so, it has rocketed up my list of favorites! (But with environmentally friendly fuel.)
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Although Tom Lehrer always played for laughs, there was a serious environmental message underlying this song:
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David, yes Waiting for The Waiter 4 years ago when MLT wrote it, I think is definitely about protest for change, and the part about the flooding, would make me believe there was also meaning in there about the environment too. Nice articulation there on the metaphors in the song. After listening to “Waiting For The Waiter”, another song that came to mind for me is Tears for Fear “Shout”. That passion in Lisa’s voice for change felt like the passion in this song too, one of the best songs from the 80s.
“Like many classic rock songs, part of the appeal of “Shout” is its ability to allow the listener to interpret it in his or her own way. However, Tears for Fears wrote the song to inspire people to protest. This becomes obvious upon studying its lyrics. And to some degree, they even encourage the audience to do so on a literally, collective level, as in directly confronting authoritative institutions in their lives both on a personal and collective level.”
“Thus we can conclude that the singer is actually angry – for lack of a better word – at the addressee. This is why he expresses pleasure at the prospect of “breaking his heart’, which is symbolic of the inevitable discomfort this person will experience in challenging what they themselves believe in and live by. So in summation, “Shout” is a song designed to inspire people to confront pressing issues around them, with the singer being a bit furious that they aren’t already doing so.”
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You didn’t choose “won’t play fool again” ?
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Hi Pascal, that is another great one by the Who, and great concert clip you found, thanks for posting it. I was trying to figure out what guitar Pete Townsend was playing, but then he started banging it on the floor toward the end probably destroying it. I thought it was a Gretsch, but maybe not. I guess they did that in their shows well through the 70s. They certainly put on one of the best shows, and the loudest too.
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I just remembered this song from the Archies, which was undoubtedly my earliest introduction to the subject of environmentalism:
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That’s a great video David, not something I would have expected from the Archies. They certainly sent a powerful and effective message to the young minds at the time with this one.
This instantly reminded me of this old one from the Beach Boys.
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Yes, Jung, it sounds rather similar, and it’s probably from about the same time.
Who are those two “extra” people?
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A beautiful melody that tries to comfort and at the same time a haunting message that something like this must never happen again. Never.
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David, the guy on the drums and other fella on the guitar to the very left must just be some session musicians helping out on the tour. It looks like Brian Wilson and Bruce Johnson are missing there, and drummer Dennis Wilson is in the background singing and playing another instrument.
Jurgen that is a hauntingly beautiful song with an important warning for the future for sure. Interestingly my mom was born in Japan and grew up there through her early teens in a small Korean community south of Tokyo during WW2. She use to tell us of her account of hearing the B29s at night and the roar of bombs going off in the distance. Luckily for her, and me too, she did not live in Hiroshima or Nagasaki in those days. After the war, my mom and the family returned to Korea, just in time for the Korean War a few years later! Lots of war stories in my family.
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Jung, I know the eventful Asian history and didn’t want to get too close to you with the song. Sorry if I have hurt any feelings of you. I didn’t know that your mother was so close to disaster. I am very sorry about that. It worries me very much that there are always thoughtless scientists who develop such weapons and scroupless military who really use them.
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