I hope the Rolling Stones’ war protest tune is decent, but I have my doubts. Damn-near all of the protest songs related to Iraq have been dreadful. Even Steve Earle — generally a terrific songwriter — has put out a roster of protest songs that sound like readings from the Daily Kos comments section imposed over slapped-together three-chord progressions. Rather uninspiring. Even the better stuff (Green Day’s American Idiot IMHO) has been passable at best.

In fact, for my money the only decent anti-war song to come out in the last five years is Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Big Time in the Jungle” which is a three-decades-late Vietnam war anthem.

In fact, odd as it sounds, the best anti-Iraq war anthem around is also an old anti-Vietnam anthem. John Prine’s satirical blade in “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore” is as appropriate, wry, and incisive today as it was in 1971.

Given the bumper sticker-decal infestation of the highways these days, it may be even more appropriate.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 13th, 2005 at 1:47 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.