Gimme shelter,highwire, sweet neo-con,sympathy for the devil, fingerprint file, respectable, back to zero, too much blood, lies, hang fire, salt of the earth,mother's little helper, satisfaction, just wanna see his face, blinded by rainbows,memo from turner....2000 man I know that some songs are closer to generalized social commentary, but it always seems very odd to me when people say that the stones aren't a political band, whether they are rich or not is immaterial by the way!

rain fall down, it won't take long, get up stand up, get off of my cloud, undercover, it must be hell

They're not very political compared to many other bands, or when you think about the statements they could have made. And that's good. Of course it's impossible to be completely silent about what's happening in the world, that's why there has been a few "politicial" songs during the years.

dear eric, can you be more precise about the other bands?

they are a band...they sang about everything...but for the most part they were
not political....not like most bands of the 60's...they were more in the social types of songs...songs about life, love....sex drugs and rock and roll....
jagger just a singer in a rock and roll band!

Clash, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen just to name a few artists I care about.

I think Jagger's basically a liberal who has empathy with Islam (going back to The Stones's association with The Master Musicians of Joujouka) as evinced in songs like High Wire and Sweet Neocon (about Gulf Wars 1 and 2) and his support for Bill Clinton. Keith and Ronnie probably don't give a flying fook either way and Charlie is probably quite right wing.

The Stones aren't a political band per se, but in the present climate a song like Sweet Neocon was a brave thing to release, even if the song itself was a damp squib.

They stiffed 12,000 people so they could kiss Clinton ass. Hard to get more politcal than that.

I think theyre mostly a- political, but things today are so polarized, no one can sit on the fence.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-11-04 00:17 by ryanpow.

guy Wrote:
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> it won't take long,


? what's next - Wild Horses as a political song?

you can't catch me!

guy Wrote:
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> rain fall down, it won't take long, get up stand
> up, get off of my cloud, undercover, it must be
> hell


Rain Fall Down? Political???

Highwire is an extremelly political song--and in my opinion pretty much the last good song they've written. Song is extremelly topical today, wish they'd dust it off live at some point.

www.minor-ripper.blogspot.com

I've never regarded the Stones as overtly political in their songwriting. "Generalized social commentary" is what most of it is, to borrow your phrase. They've been writing songs for over 40 years. Even if the dozen or so listed in this thread are ALL classified as political, it still represents a very small fraction of the entire catalogue. Of all the posts here so far, I'd have to agree with hotstuff the most. I mean, they had to write about SOMETHING.

Highwire is indeed political, but it sucks.


I think Jagger just wrote Sweet Neo-Con to drum up sales for ABB.

it's_all_wrong Wrote:
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> Highwire is indeed political, but it sucks.

You're all wrong

Political band, sometimes, in an instinctive way...

Guy, you can add some more songs in your catalogue. Like Street Fighting Man, Sweet Black Angel (it's about Angela Davis), Heartbreaker and Rock And A Hard Place.

Sometimes the Stones had in their minds something not political, but the result sounds ...political. An example: First time i heard Ruby Tuesday, when i was child, i thought it was an anthem for liberty, speaking in allegories. But it was a song written for a famous grupie!

Songs like Heartbreaker...I really don't see any political stands or comments in that one. It's just a story...social-pornography, I love to listen to the song, though.

yes....I love Heartbreaker too, Erik. I don't read it as being political, either. Instead it is a statement of social commentary, still relevant today. If I'm not mistaken that song was popular at about the same time that Stevie Wonder's "Living Just Enough For The City" came out. Both songs had similar themes to me. Both are poignant; about the less than fortunate person trying to survive in the city, in an unfair world.

political only when they "think" they should be. jagger goes which way the wind blows on that subject

Hey scelsa, how was the show? (or shows?) I hope you swallowed your pride and went to the first one in spite of your disdain for the Clintons.