WORLD / Odd News

Fifty ways to rock the right way
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-05-28 11:45

It may only be rock 'n' roll, the music born of anti-establishment rebels, but conservatives can like it too.

Sure, Neil Young just released "Let's Impeach the President" and Green Day scored a huge hit with its 2004 "American Idiot" album, one track featuring the anti-Bush lyric "Zieg Heil to the President Gasman."

"But some rock songs really are conservative -- and there are more of them than you might think," political reporter John J. Miller wrote on the Web site of the U.S. conservative magazine "National Review."

Starting with The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," deemed the number one right-leaning rock anthem, Miller's list of "The 50 greatest conservative rock songs will be published in the magazine's June 5 issue.

However the songs' authors might feel about their embrace by the right -- Miller notes that several of the musicians are outspoken liberals -- the magazine says all of its choices convey conservative ideals or sentiments such as skepticism about government or support for traditional values.

"Won't Get Fooled Again," could be the theme song of the disillusioned revolutionaries who fill the conservative movement, Miller wrote. He cites lyrics such as "Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss."

At No. 2, The Beatles' "Taxman" -- "If you drive a car, I'll tax the street/If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat" -- was a list natural. Miller says No. 3, The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," attacks moral relativism and notes Bolshevism's cruelties with "Killed the czar and his ministers/Anastasia screamed in vain."

No. 4, Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama," praises the U.S. South, which Miller calls "the region of America that liberals love to loathe."

Among songs espousing conservative social values are No. 5 The Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice," as "pro-abstinence and pro-marriage," Blink 182's "Stay Together for the Kids," called a "eulogy for family values" at number 17 and No. 32 "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" by The Georgia Satellites.

No. 50, Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man," could be the most appealing tune to many "National Review" readers because of its association with former first lady and now senator Hillary Clinton, a favorite target of conservative ire.

Answering questions about her husband Bill's alleged infidelities as he ran for president in the early 1990s, Clinton said in an interview that she "wasn't some little woman 'standing by my man' like Tammy Wynette." Wynette demanded and received an apology from Clinton.

"Hillary trashed it -- isn't that enough?" Miller asked.