Friday 12 April 2013

So Many Better Anti-Thatcher Songs


On the back of Margaret Thatcher's death, the Wizard of Oz song 'Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead' is currently sitting at number five in the UK music charts which i think is outrageous.
Outrageous because there are so many other far better songs about Thatcher that could be used to act as a soundtrack to the death of the Iron Lady.

The most famous is Elvis Costello's 'Tramp the Dirt Down' where he hopes he lives long enough to stand on her grave and tramp the dirt down which of course, he has done unless he gets careless crossing the road before next Wednesday. Just hope he wipes his feet before he comes back home though.
Another well known one is 'Margaret on the Guillotine' which got the old misery Morrissey into a bit of trouble back in the day but saying 'you make me feel tired' and repeating the question 'when will you die?' and then changing it to 'please die' could be interpreted as a bit on the negative side.
Billy Bragg is always up for a spot of Thatcher bashing and his song 'Thatcherites' does just that even if all his songs sound the same. We could also have The Beat's 'Stand down maggie' or even one of the more angry, shouty songs like the Newtown Neurotics 'Kick out the Tories', a song as applicable today as it was in the 80s 'Lets kick out the Tories, the rulers of this land, for they are the enemies, of the Britishworking man'.
They don't write lyrics like that anymore, or rather nobody tries to rhyme Tories with Enemies anyway, they try and end a line with hunts like The Exploited did in the song 'Maggie' who found an interesting way to rhyme hunt with exactly what they thought Maggie was, and i don't mean they thought she was a runt.
There are 3 songs that i thought better summed up Mrs T, Ghost Town by the Specials who explained that the song was about all the shops, unemployment and industries they saw being closed down as they toured the nation courtesy of Maggie and her Government.
Another decent one is 'The day That Margaret Thatcher Died' by Pete Wylie which is set to the tune of Wild Thing but there is one song that trumps them all, The Larks, 'Maggie Maggie Maggie (Out Out Out)'.
With the riff from Led Zeppelins 'Rock N Roll', it's easily my favourite anti-Thatcher song and if the people had spent less time organising death parties and making the Witch is dead signs from bedsheets to hang from bridges, they could have got this song into the charts instead of the Wizard of Oz number.
Its too late now but i will be keeping an ear out Wednesday for someone along the funeral route with a large set of speakers.

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