Libertarian Songs (Part 1)

by Gerard Emershaw

Libertarianism is about freedom. It is about standing up for one’s rights and the rights of others against those who would infringe those rights—most often the government. Popular forms of music such as hip hop and rock and roll are typically considered to be youthful and rebellious. It would be expected that libertarianism and popular music would be fellow travelers. Unfortunately, this has not often been the case. One reason for this is likely that popular music has increasingly become corporate. Even with the advent of the internet, online music downloads, and a plethora of independent sources of music, the major corporate music labels and radio stations still have great influence on music and ensure that much of it will be bland and toothless.

Another reason that popular music has not embraced libertarianism is that musicians and other artists tend not to recognize the crucial link between economic freedom and social freedom. Many musicians genuinely support social freedom yet fail to understand how free economic markets liberate human beings. They confuse corporatist crony capitalism with free market capitalism, condemning the latter for the sins of the former. Many of these artists end up wrong-headedly supporting socialism and other forms of statist economics. Rock bands that have embraced left-wing statism include the Guess Who, the Clash, Gang of Four, R.E.M., Fugazi, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, and countless other. Why such artists trust the government to redistribute wealth is unclear. Why such artists do not allow the government to seize the proceeds from their records, concerts, and merchandise and redistribute it is also unclear.

The following is the first of two parts of a list of libertarian songs. These are presented in no particular order and are hopefully just the tip of the iceberg.

1. “My Life” Billy Joel (1978)

In the late 1970s the Piano Man was eager to prove to the world that he could rock. While this song may unfortunately be best known as the theme song from Tom Hanks’ early 1980s cross-dressing sitcom “Bosom Buddies,” the song is an anthem that champions the libertarian concept of self-ownership:

I don't need you to worry for me cause I'm alright

I don't want you to tell me it's time to come home

I don't care what you say anymore, this is my life

Go ahead with your own life and leave me alone

As easy as it is to ignore self-ownership because it is so obvious, this concept is essential for any conception of liberty. If one does “own” one’s own body and is not allowed to autonomously control his or her most basic actions, then one can have no right to life, liberty, or property. 

2. “Taxman” Beatles (1966)

The Beatles were rarely an overtly political band. Despite being “bigger than Jesus” as John Lennon hyperbolically and controversially claimed, the four lads from Liverpool rarely used their music as a soapbox to broadcast a political message. Their song “Revolution” was anything but revolutionary, indicting violent and radical protests and ridiculing radical Communists who carry “pictures of Chairman Mao.” Best known for cutting edge studio production and melodic love songs, political activists of any stripe will find it difficult to object to the ideas behind songs such as “All You Need Is Love.”

While the Beatles are best known for the songwriting and vocal contributions of Paul McCartney and John Lennon, their most political song was penned and sung by guitarist George Harrison. Harrison would become well known for his devotion to Hare Krishna, but his anti-tax anthem “Taxman” is resurrected as a libertarian anthem each April as the federal income tax deadline draws near. “Taxman” was the opening track on Revolver, the album which solidified the Beatles position as the most cutting edge rock band of the 1960s. The song was a protest against the British government’s 95% “supertax,” to which the members of the band were subject. The song is satirically written from the point of view of the taxman. Like the modern state, Harrison’s taxman sees nothing that he is not willing to tax. Also like the modern state, the taxman believes that taxpayers should consider themselves lucky that they get to keep any of the money that they earn:

Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman

Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.

Don't ask me what I want it for
If you don't want to pay some more
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman

Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
And you're working for no one but me.

 

3. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” The Who (1971)

This song from the album Who’s Next blended organ, guitar power chords, synthesizer, and pounding drums into a perfect mix of “maximum R&B” which became one of the most dramatic song openings in rock and roll history. At a time when both government officials and revolutionary movement leaders claimed to have all the answers, Peter Townshend provided an epic rocking warning. Those who gain power will always ultimately oppress the people. Mao said that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun,” and the Who heed this warning:

And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

In libertarian fashion, the song warns against trusting political parties of either the right or the left. No matter which major party takes power, it will undoubtedly embrace war:

And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
Cause the banners, they are flown in the next war

The party in power will also inevitably bring tyranny despite what it may have promised when it was fighting to acquire power:

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky

Tory, Labour, Republican, Democrat, right, left, conservative, liberal, it just does not matter. A political party that takes power will become just as bad as the one it replaced:

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

Yet human beings are fooled again and again by promises of “hope and change”:

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

President Obama promised change from the Bush administration’s tyranny and warmongering but only increased the scope of the surveillance state and only added to the number of American wars. Whether it is the Progressives, Neoconservatives, Fascists, Communists, etc., they will never deliver anything to the people but more corruption and more despotism. Statism never makes any changes for the better:

There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye

 

4. “I’m Free” Soup Dragons (1990)

The Soup Dragons were a Scottish band of the late 1980s and early 1990s that was part of the first wave of the rock-dance music that would become huge in Manchester, England and inspire the “Madchester” musical movement which along with “Britpop” would dominate the UK music scene in the 1990s while grunge and hip hop would rule in the United States. “I’m Free” is a cover of a lesser known 1965 Rolling Stones song. As the Cold War had just ended, the Soup Dragons souped up the Rolling Stones composition and made freedom fun again, urging everyone with its reggae-infused beats to dance and urging everyone with its lyrics to live free without fear:

Don't be afraid of your freedom
Freedom

The song leaves no ambiguity whatsoever:

'Cause I'm free
To do what I want
To be what I want
Any old time
And I'm free
To be who I choose
To get my booze
Any old time

The Soup Dragons would manage only one more hit in the UK and only one minor hit—“Divine Thing” in the United States. They would disband five years later. However, these Scottish lads will always remind us that there is no greater medicine for the soul than freedom:

These are the words me hear from my granddaddy
Who say nothing in this world like when a man know he free

5. “Invisible Sun” The Police (1981)

In between writing music that combined elements of reggae, punk, and jazz, Sting found time to write lyrics which were often deeply intellectual on subjects ranging from Derrida’s philosophy of language, to Nabokov’s literature, to Jung’s psychology. “Invisible Sun” is a starkly gloomy yet gorgeous song about life under martial law in war-torn countries. Inspired by the British occupation of Northern Ireland, the Police grimly present the phenomenology of a person living under military despotism:

I don't want to spend the rest of my life
Looking at the barrel of an Armalite
I don't want to spend the rest of my days
Keeping out of trouble like the soldiers say

Under totalitarianism, anyone could be “disappeared” into a dark cell or worse:

I don't want to spend my time in hell
Looking at the walls of a prison cell
I don't ever want to play the part
Of a statistic on a government chart

The social engineers of totalitarianism seek to collectivize and dominate the people without regard to the humanity or individual welfare of those people. Ultimately, these despots can only destroy:

And they're only going to change this place
By killing everybody in the human race
They would kill me for a cigarette
But I don't even wanna die just yet

Despite the tyranny, the song speaks of the spark of freedom within human beings which gives hope in even the worst of tyrannical conditions:

There has to be an invisible sun
It gives its heat to everyone
There has to be an invisible sun
That gives us hope when the whole day's done

6. “Capitalism” Oingo Boingo (1983)

Oingo Boingo is probably best known because of its former leader Danny Elfman. Elfman has composed the musical scores for several films, most notably films directed by Tim Burton. Danny Elfman also wrote the theme song to “The Simpsons.” Casual music fans may remember Oingo Boingo for its “Dead Man’s Party” or its theme to the John Hughes directed dud “Weird Science.” Few are likely to remember Oingo Boingo’s avant-garde and often nauseating film Forbidden Zone. 

Very few popular songs have been written in support of free market capitalism. Most songs which might be considered pro-capitalism are usually tongue in cheek tunes about consumerism such as Madonna’s “Material Girl,” or The Flying Lizards’ cover of “Money,” or are songs about greed such as Puff Daddy’s “It’s All About the Benjamins.” Truth be told, Oingo Boingo’s “Capitalism” may very well be satirical. However, if it is, it fails in its purpose since it presents such a positive message about free market economics:

There's nothing wrong with capitalism
There's nothing wrong with free enterprise

The song criticizes the notion that entrepreneurs should feel guilty about earning a profit:

There's nothing wrong with making some profit
If you ask, I'll say it's just fine
There's nothing wrong with wanting to live nice
So tired of hearing you whine

Anti-capitalists invariably accuse honest business owners of being crooks when it is the government which is the real criminal entity. These anti-capitalists are often quick with the slogans and the empty Marxist rhetoric:

You criticize with plenty of vigor
You rationalize everything that you do
With catchy phrases and heavy quotations
And everybody is crazy but you

Yet ultimately many of the most committed socialists are nothing but young poseurs in designer Che T-shirts:

You're just a middle class, socialist brat
From a suburban family and you never really had to work
And now you tell me that we've got to get back
To the struggling masses, whoever they are

In the world of popular music, there is perhaps nothing more rebellious than defending the free market. In essence, Oingo Boingo may have written and recorded one of the most subversive songs in rock and roll history.

7. “The Message” Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1982)

Like rock and roll, hip hop has increasingly become corporatist and narcissistic. While hip hop pioneers such as NWA, Public Enemy, and Curtis Blow had strong social messages to provide along with their beats and grooves, many of today’s most popular rappers seem to only opine on booty, bling, and braggadocio.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five recorded one of the first hip hop songs to expose the horrors of urban life. “The Message” chronicles the woes of inner city life and in so doing provides a strong indictment of the statism which gives rise to such urban problems. Grandmaster Flash paints a shocking picture of the horrors of inner city public housing that are caused by the spoils of the commons:

Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don't care
I can't take the smell, I can't take the noise
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat

“The Message” also attacks the evils that result from the public education system, the Federal Reserve, and public sector unions:

Got a bum education, double-digit inflation

I can't take the train to the job, there's a strike at the station

Drug prohibition and draconian government regulations on businesses have made it so that only criminals can earn a decent living in the inner city:

You'll admire all the number-book takers
Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big money-makers
Drivin' big cars, spendin' twenties and tens
And you'll wanna grow up to be just like them, huh

The horrors detailed in “The Message” are all the result of the welfare state, government regulations, and a corporatist economy. While perhaps Grandmaster Flash would not endorse Austrian economics, it is certain that he was aware of the problems that his community faced and that the status quo was not the answer.

8. “Tom Sawyer” Rush (1981)

  

The Canadian trio Rush has long been associated with libertarian ideals. It is obvious from the words written by Rush lyricist Neil Peart that Ayn Rand was a great influence upon him. Songs like “Anthem,” “The Trees,” and “Freewill” all show a definite Objectivist influence. However, the ultimate Rush libertarian song has to be its signature song “Tom Sawyer.” Rush’s incarnation of the Mark Twain protagonist is a confident individualist:

No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government
Always hopeful, yet discontent

Tom Sawyer is free because his mind is his own. He is no collectivist and is not even tempted by religionism or statism. He is confident and optimistic, yet never satisfied. Having become a staple of classic rock radio, “Tom Sawyer” will continue to inspire individualists for generations to come.

9. “The Prisoner” Iron Maiden (1982)

British heavy metal band Iron Maiden has never been shy about penning tunes about their pop culture influences. One such pop culture influenced song is “The Prisoner” from the platinum selling album The Number of the Beast. “The Prisoner” is inspired by the classic late 1960s British sci fi television show of the same name. “The Prisoner” starred Patrick McGoohan as a former British spy who was kidnapped and imprisoned on a strange colony where mysterious collectivists attempted to break him. No matter what they did, this protagonist would not surrender his individuality.

The song echoes the Prisoner’s unwillingness to let his captors turn him from a man into a numbered cog:

I'm not a number, I'm a free man
Live my life where I want to

The Prisoner defines himself according to the Lockean notion of self-ownership:

Not a prisoner, I'm a free man
And my blood is my own now
Don't care where the past was
I know where I'm going

His blood (and body) are his own, and therefore, he is autonomous. Therefore, neither the government nor society have the right to define him or take away his freedom.

10. “20^th Century Man” The Kinks (1971)

  

The 20^th century was the age of collectivism reacting against the classical liberalism that dominated the 19^th century. The 20^th century was the century of totalitarianism—communism, fascism, Nazism, progressivism, etc. The Kinks fully appreciated the nightmare of the age:

This is the age of machinery,
A mechanical nightmare,
The wonderful world of technology,
Napalm, hydrogen bombs, biological warfare

The 20^th century gave birth to the modern technological warfare state. It also created the modern collectivist welfare state:

I was born in a welfare state
Ruled by bureaucracy
Controlled by civil servants
And people dressed in grey
Got no privacy, got no liberty
Cos the twentieth century people
Took it all away from me.

The modern bloated state has exchanged democracy for bureaucracy, control for self-determination, and the promise of security for privacy and liberty. The Kinks also note how the modern collectivist state is a state that has no problem using violence against its citizens:

Don't wanna get myself shot down
By some trigger happy policeman,
Gotta keep a hold on my sanity
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna die here.

Unfortunately, the 21^st century has only led to a bigger, meaner, and even more dangerous bureaucratic nightmare of a state.

 

(For a detailed discussion of an array of libertarian issues, read my new book The Real Culture War: Individualism vs. Collectivism & How Bill O’Reilly Got It All Wrong. Available now on Amazon in both print and Kindle.)