When Music and Politics collide

[cheddatom]

People say my band Headsticks are "too political" or "too left wing" but if you read the lyrics, they're really not. They're generally about compassion and equality*

 

It's happened a few times though - someone's clearly watched the entire set, and enjoyed themselves, then they come up to us after and say "I'd be a fan if you weren't so political" 🤷‍♀️

 

 

*I have something to say about why those basic human qualities might be considered "left wing" these days, but it'd probably break the rules

[Rich]

4 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

someone's clearly watched the entire set, and enjoyed themselves, then they come up to us after and say "I'd be a fan if you weren't so political" 🤷‍♀️

 

Which undoubtedly translates as "I'd be a fan if you didn't say things I disagree with".

[Lozz196]

I’ve always thought that Stiff Little Fingers were similar @cheddatom, their lyrics could be taken to be left by some but they’re really just about fairness & decency.

[cheddatom]

1 minute ago, Rich said:

Which undoubtedly translates as "I'd be a fan if you didn't say things I disagree with".

 

Yeh, indeed, which if we were saying "F the Tories" or the like, you could understand, but we're just saying "Isn't it sad there are so many homeless people in the UK in 2023" and the like - hardly radical socialism

[hubrad]

Every now and again someone will suggest to Steve Tilston that he should steer clear of politics in his music.

His most usual response is that if they're just complaining about such a thing now then they obviously haven't been paying much attention to his last 50-odd years of songwriting.

[Jack]

6 hours ago, hubrad said:

Every now and again someone will suggest to Steve Tilston that he should steer clear of politics in his music.

His most usual response is that if they're just complaining about such a thing now then they obviously haven't been paying much attention to his last 50-odd years of songwriting.

People complain that the new Star Trek shows are woke. Not like the original, which had a black woman and a Russian on the bridge, two years after segregation and during the cold war. 

Edited April 26, 2023 by Jack

[Woodinblack]

8 hours ago, cheddatom said:

but we're just saying "Isn't it sad there are so many homeless people in the UK in 2023" and the like - hardly radical socialism

 

Some people are so woke..

 

[Bassassin]

On 26/04/2023 at 12:51, SteveXFR said:

 

The comments on their anti trump social media posts were hilarious. People were shocked that Rage didn't dig the whole maga thing 

 

Loads of people who heard:

 

Fück you I'm not doing my homework!

Fück you I won't tidy my bedroom!

[SteveXFR]

Our bands new song has gone political meets conspiracy. 

Weirdos such as David Ike believe our leaders have been replaced by reptilian aliens. As you may have noticed they keep f**King up, especially when it comes to hiding their dodgy deals and affairs. So we now have a song about aliens who have the tech to cross galaxies but are a bit thick.

Attack of the incompetent alien lizard people. 

[hubrad]

16 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

Our bands new song has gone political meets conspiracy. 

Weirdos such as David Ike believe our leaders have been replaced by reptilian aliens. As you may have noticed they keep f**King up, especially when it comes to hiding their dodgy deals and affairs. So we now have a song about aliens who have the tech to cross galaxies but are a bit thick.

Attack of the incompetent alien lizard people. 

Hilarious! oh, wait..

[lemmywinks]

On 26/04/2023 at 12:51, SteveXFR said:

 

The comments on their anti trump social media posts were hilarious. People were shocked that Rage didn't dig the whole maga thing 

 

This is never not funny:

 

[SteveXFR]

32 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

 

This is never not funny:

 

 

I bet they also had some Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Ministry 

[tauzero]

2 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I bet they also had some Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Ministry 

 

The mob that attacked the capitol on January 6th last year were waving confederate flags and chanting "USA, USA". I think they must have missed the point of the civil war.

[SteveXFR]

23 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

The mob that attacked the capitol on January 6th last year were waving confederate flags and chanting "USA, USA". I think they must have missed the point of the civil war.

 

They must be the only group in the world who claims to be patriotic while waving the flag of an army defeated by their country. 

[Jeffb28451]

Had a local bassist here in the States who liked to get "altered" and post political rants on Facebook. His band has/had been together since the early 2000's, if you can believe it. He lost so many gigs for them that they fired him, just to get playing again.

 

Just FYI, his postings were more or less right-wing conspiracy stuff, balanced by leftist rants. At least he was "unfair and unbalanced" !

[Rich]

I recently found out to my that the charismatic frontman of a band I've been following on Farcebook (and have seen a couple of times) has politics that are somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan.

Should it affect my enjoyment of their performances? Probably not.

Has it? Sadly yes. I have difficulty watching him, knowing what's going on in his head.

[Jack]

Being able to separate the art from the artist is only fine if you can do it both ways round. For every "he's a political poophead but his music is good so I'll still go despite that" there should be matching "Jack is a lousy bassist but he's a nice guy so I'll go despite that".

[TheRev]

On 26/04/2023 at 15:29, cheddatom said:

People say my band Headsticks are "too political" or "too left wing" but if you read the lyrics, they're really not. They're generally about compassion and equality*

 

It's happened a few times though - someone's clearly watched the entire set, and enjoyed themselves, then they come up to us after and say "I'd be a fan if you weren't so political" 🤷‍♀️

 

 

*I have something to say about why those basic human qualities might be considered "left wing" these days, but it'd probably break the rules

Ah- did not realise you're in Headsticks.  You've played on my stage at numerous Fueled By Cider festivals in the south west.  You guys have way less an overt political agenda than some of the bands we have on. 

[cheddatom]

26 minutes ago, TheRev said:

Ah- did not realise you're in Headsticks.  You've played on my stage at numerous Fueled By Cider festivals in the south west.  You guys have way less an overt political agenda than some of the bands we have on. 

 

Cool! I'm on drums, say hello if we're on again!