Patriotic Battle of the Bands
Here’s “We the People”, by Lloyd Marcus – a conservative with some vocal talent – who bills this as “the NEW Tea Party Unity Song”:
The title (NOT the actual content) of the above song put me in mind of an old Schoolhouse Rock short called “The Preamble”:
Do me a favor:
Watch both of these and vote for your favorite.
[poll id="6"]
Feel free to discuss the reasons for your choice in the comments.
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(6 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
June 24th, 2009 at 12:29 am
The Preamble definitely. Because of that song, I have since grade school been able to recite from memory (okay, sing in my head from memory) the opening lines of the U. S. Constitution.
Plus it’s got a better beat I can dance to.
(Both songs are nice though; I especially like the image of Ronnie in the first one. I really miss that guy.)
June 24th, 2009 at 12:38 am
Gotta side with Nunya. I didn’t play the vid – I don’t need to. I haven’t seen it in about 30 years, but I remember it perfectly.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:41 am
I’m in the 26th percentile. I based my choice on the music only. Both are very nice though, I just happen to like the constitution for singing more. I am obviously a product of public education and this was the first I’d every heard either of these songs.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:47 am
Actually I’m going to play this a couple more times to go to sleep to, I like it so much.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:51 am
The Preamble is a great song to get drunk to…
June 24th, 2009 at 12:54 am
Yup, your right, the Preamble is better, but heck, I’m going to sing this and record the whole thing. Maybe I’ll get someone in my choir to do a duet with me (only she is a drone liberal but has a nice voice so maybe I can talk her into it)
June 24th, 2009 at 1:20 am
We the People is way overdone, Preamble wins by far.
Not entirely related, but as far as Capitalist Propaganda music, this is more up to my speed.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:53 am
“We the People” is a little too “up with people” and propaganda-like for me. “Preamble” is a simple, wonderful learning tool. And it’s also unabashedly proud of the American heritage. Got love that in a 3-minute cartoon.
June 24th, 2009 at 4:06 am
“We The People” sounds like something sung at a funeral, but the words are good.
With a better tempo it could do what Patriotic Songs are meant to do.
You could sing it at a rally, at a protest march, while manning a barricade, while repulsing the reactionary forces of oppression, while storming their last stronghold, while parading their leader’s head through the streets on the point of a spear, and at a memorial service for fallen comrades.
Depending on the tempo.
“Yankee Doodle”, “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, “The Yanks Are Coming”, “We Shall Overcome”, and “We’re Gonna Hang the Kaiser From a Sour Apple Tree” can be sung smiling, snarling, or somberly, depending on the occassion.
A Patriotic Song should stir up our courage, honor the courage of others, and remind us of what we need courage for.
“The Preamble” is a handy aid-to-memorization, which, I expect, it was intended to be.
“We the People” could become a classic … if there’s anyone left to sing it.
I’m just saying …
June 24th, 2009 at 7:18 am
I’m thinking of making a cd and this will certainly be on it. Tonight I’m going to a protest and if I knew this well I’d sing it there.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:13 am
A good theme song really needs to rise organically and Preamble fits perfectly. When a well-intentioned true-believer sits down at the piano with the idea, “we need a theme song!” I cringe at what I am about to hear. We the People sounds like a SNL parody of Tea Bagging (see? organic naming strikes again with one of the best ever!) A good movement always takes the insulting characterization used against them by their opponents and makes it a badge of honor. When your opponents slap you on the forehead with a name that happens to be an over the top, literally IN YOUR FACE, victory dance, one must thank the gods for such a gift and proudly wear it. I think we need a taunting little Tea Bagging Pelosi/Reid/Obama dance for our rallies. The vision of little old ladies crooking their arms and doing a quick set of shallow bent knee squats while yelling “BOO-YAH!” delights the hell out of me. The key to victory is not to take yourself too seriously and have fun. DAily SHow/SNL/Colbert yourself before they can. It follows then, that a saturday morning cartoon theme song is golden.
June 24th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Most people like that which we are familiar with. Besides like NunyaB I’ve been singing the Preamble for a long time. It’s already our theme song.
June 24th, 2009 at 10:13 am
I’ll go with the “preamble” it’s smiple and catchy like the rest of school house rock. Simple and easy to understand helps young kids learn. Things went down hill when they stopped doing thing like school house rock for kids. “We the People” was well done too but a little over the top.
June 24th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Here’s what a catchy rebellious ditty ought to sound like – Johnny Horton’s “Battle of New Orleans”. Sadly, YouTube fails on this one, so you have your choice of “badly-timed unrelated photo slideshow”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T2E9m0BcYI
or “laughably wrong lyrics slideshow”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxB42cjHTGg
or a cute live version from the Ed Sullivan show, with people in costumes acting out the lyrics in the background. However, the audio is a little fuzzy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsRK3DNoa_Q
June 24th, 2009 at 11:27 am
My vote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SMWF3rJ-lo&feature=channel_page
June 24th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
It all seems a bit cloudy (smoky) now but seems like I remember being stoned on some gold back in the ’70s when I first heard this
June 24th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Did anyone else catch that in “We The People”, the word ‘punishment’ was spelled wrong at the end? Not like it’s that big a deal; unless Bush had done it. The song sort of went over the top though so “Preamble” gets my vote. Besides, Schoolhouse Rock might be the only thing on the level of learning that the current administration can actually understand.
June 24th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
My favorite, at least for now.
http://music-videos.grouchymedia.com/2001/10/taliban-bodies.html
It has a certain bluntness that I appreciate.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
not really a fan of either, but the first gets my vote, on the count a the guy in the intro sounds like bud hedinger
OH WAIT, IT IS!
i saw lloyd live, i was at the orlando tea party, which was hosted by bud, and lloyd played the tea party anthem for the first time live there.
June 24th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
#11 – Dunkirk,
That’s true. ‘Yankee Doodle’ was originally a British song, but the Revolutionary Army proudly made it their own.
‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ was set to the tune of a British drinking song.
There have been many commercially successful Patriotic Broadway Musical, Hollywood Blockbuster or Country/Western songs in the last century, but since they also were purposely written that would disqualify them all from being spontaneously adopted as the anthem for a popular movement.
Maybe we could commandier some old hippy anti-war protest song like ‘Eve of Destruction’ or ‘Peace Train’.
But ‘tea-bagging’?
((Zombie Helen Thomas shudders))
The Colonists had other ways of protesting British taxation besides throwing tea into Boston Harbor.
Tar-and-feathering tax collectors, for instance.
Would holding a Tar-and-Feathers, Pitchforks-and-Torches rally on July 4th send the wrong message?
June 26th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
What the heck!
‘The Preamble’ is easier to remember, and I like the graphic that shows the country covered with single family homes, each with a large American flag proudly flying.