KRLX mix #22 (11/05/2018

You won’t find “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” on this list, nor “Get on a Raft With Taft” (although I commend both to your attention). What you will find is a musical treatment of elections, campaigning, and political life in general on both sides of the Atlantic.

Not surprisingly, the political ferment of the 1960s is well-represented, with The Byrds wanting to grow up to be politicians, Marvin Gaye asking what’s going on, and John Lennon demanding that the PTBs give him some truth. If he got any, it didn’t last, judging from the tracks by X, The Clash, Elvis Costello, The Mekons, The English Beat, and others, who lament the cynicism, austerity, and creeping authoritarianism of the Reagan-Thatcher years.

Yet all hope is not lost: Billy Bragg assures us that “all you fascists are bound to lose,” while The Go Team! assert that “We Just Won’t Be Defeated.” For democracy’s sake, let’s hope they’re right.