THE Plastic Ono Band’s Give Peace A Chance makes listeners want to punch someone. These political songs are enough to turn anyone against their cause:
Nelson Mandela by The Special AKA, 1984
A ska plea to end apartheid and free South African political prisoner Mandela that has one single earworm line. Props to the band for making ‘Nel-son Man-DAY-la’ into an unforgettable chorus, but its contribution to his freedom was negligible and it killed ska dead.
Give Peace a Chance by the Plastic Ono Band, 1969
The only protest song that name-checks comedian Tommy Cooper, it was written by John and Yoko in bed on their honeymoon and has all the political punch of a fart under the duvet. The couple give up on lyrics halfway through and just repeat ‘give peace a chance’. You won’t want to.
Russians by Sting, 1985
Amid the tension of the Cold War and the looming threat of mutually assured destruction, Sting waded in as a lone Geordie peacekeeping minstrel, pleading for common sense to prevail by rhyming biology with ideology and precedent with president. Sent the world to Defcon 2.
Earth Song, Michael Jackson, 1995
What about the elephants? bleats Jacko, what about the whales? And the forests burning, and wars and all the killing going on? Jacko basically lists everything wrong that man is doing, with certain close-to-home exceptions. His protest is lyrically incoherent, musically epic and was itself the subject of an arse-based protest by Jarvis Cocker.
19 by Paul Hardcastle, 1985
A Vietnam protest song released a decade after the war ended, its central message was that the average age of US combat soldiers in Vietnam was 19. It was in fact 22, but anyway. Synths, stuttered lyrics, news footage, laser pew-pew sounds and a military bugle make it a rolling thunder-style assault on the ears.
Just Say No by the Grange Hill Cast, 1985
Child actors who couldn’t sing covering a Nancy Reagan campaign song, adding a rap and filming the video at a school disco. Is there any wonder that the children who bought it progressed to be 90s rave kids double-dropping pills?
Biko by Simple Minds, 1989
Covering a powerful Peter Gabriel song about the police killing of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko and f**king it right up, Simple Minds threw this onto their album Street Fighting Years along with the Northern Irish lament Belfast Child, Mandela Day and environmental blockbuster This Is Your Land. It killed their career.
Stand and Deliver by Eric Clapton and Van Morrison, 2020
Covid refuseniks Clapton and Van Morrison teamed up for this spectacularly awful anti-mask, anti-lockdown single. It’s hard hearing two musical greats crash like this, but also satisfying. Followed by anti-vaccine song This Has Gotta Stop, making Captain Tom’s You’ll Never Walk Alone seem musically transcendent.
