Political songs
Click here to explore our updated 2014 list, with contributions from the New Statesman’s top critics.
The 20 songs below were voted for by New Statesman readers and members of the Political Studies Association.
The list, published in this week’s magazine, features spoken word, punk nihilism and folk protest. To listen to the songs, together with a commentary by Jonathan Derbyshire and Professor John Street from the Political Studies Association, go to newstatesman.com/podcasts.
Meanwhile, we take you through the top 20 political songs, looking at the ideas that gave rise to them and the reasons for their success. Please feel free to comment on our inclusions, and to point to anything or any songs that we might have missed.
1. Woody Guthrie – “This Land is your Land”
2. The Special AKA – “Free Nelson Mandela”
3. Bob Dylan – “The Times they are a-Changin'”
4. Billie Holiday – “Strange Fruit”
5. Claude de Lisle – “La Marseillaise“
6. U2 – “Sunday Bloody Sunday”
7. Eugène Pottier – “The Internationale”
8. Robert Wyatt/Elvis Costello – “Shipbuilding”
9. Sex Pistols – “God Save the Queen”
10. William Blake – “Jerusalem”
11. The Who – “Won’t Get Fooled Again”
12. Rage Against the Machine – “Killing in the Name”
13. Tracy Chapman – “Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution”
14. Nina Simone – “Mississippi Goddam”
15. Marvin Gaye – “What’s Going On?”
16. Gil Scott-Heron – “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”
17. Bob Marley – “Redemption Song”
18. John Lennon – “Imagine”
19. Pete Seeger – “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”
20. Tom Robinson – “Glad to be Gay“
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