Politically involved songs / Utwory politycznie zaangażowane / Looking into the past

Probably everybody would agree popular music went on the dogs. Songs with corny, not to say dull lyrics like “I love you baby, love me tonight” top the charts. Most of them do not convey any, even the most simply message. That’s why I’m searching for the songs related to the breakthrough or just ordinary political events, in general related to politics. I came up with fifteen examples and divided them into three groups…

The order is random, do not treat it as a ranking!

I. U2 (my favourite band) songs

1) Sunday Bloody Sunday /1983/ (referring to the Bloody Sunday in Derry, 1972)

Broken bottles under children's feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall

2) Red Hill Mining Town /1987/ (inspired by the miners' strikes in the UK, in 1984 and 1985, after Margaret Thatcher’s government decided to close down the unprofitable mines)

We'll scorch the earth
Set fire to the sky
We stoop so low to reach so high

3) Please /1997/ (about unrest in North Ireland)

So you never knew love until you crossed the line of grace
And you never felt wanted till you had someone slap your face
So you never felt alive until you almost wasted away

4) In God’s Country /1987/ – a depressing and full of metaphors picture of Reagan’s America

Sleep comes like a drug...in god’s country
Sad eyes crooked crosses...in god’s country

5) New Year’s Day /1983/ - the only one song of U2 referring to Poland (inspired by the martial law)

Under a blood red sky
A crowd has gathered in black and white
Arms entwined, the chosen few
The newspapers says, says
Say it's true it's true...
And we can break through
Though torn in two
We can be one

II. Other songs in English

1) The Scorpions – Wind of change /1990/ (pulling down the Berlin Wall, transformation in former communist bloc)

I follow the Moskva,
Down the Gorky Park,
Listening to the wind of change

2) The Hooters – 500 Miles /1989/ (the massacre on Tianannmen Square on 4th June, 1989)

A hundred tanks along the square,
One man stands and stops them never
Some day soon, the tide will turn, and I’ll be free

3) Elton John’s – Goodbye England’s Rose /1997/ (written for the funeral of Princess Diana)

Goodbye England's rose
May you ever grow in our hearts
You were the grace that placed itself
Where lives were torn apart…

4) Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A. (said to refer to the aftermaths of Vietnam war on American Society’s mentality, but I’m not sure, than used in electoral campaign, but whose?)

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go

5) Bob Dylan – Blowin’ in the wind /1963/ (the anthem of pacifists, posing a string of questions about human existence)

Yes, 'n how many deaths will it take, 'til he knows,
That too many people have died ?
Yes, 'n how many years can some people exist,
Before they're allowed to be free ?
Yes, 'n how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending, he just didn't see ?

III. Utwory po polsku

1) Krystyna Prońko – Psalm stojących w kolejce /1980/ - jeden z nieformalnych hymnów „Solidarności”

Bądź jak kamień, stój, wytrzymaj,
Kiedyś te kamienie drgną,
I polecą jak lawina przez noc, przez noc, przez noc...

2) Lombard – Przeżyj to sam /ok. 1984/, utwór dość dobrze oddaje społeczne nastroje w połowie lat 80-tych, już po zniesieniu stanu wojennego, ale w codziennej szarości i beznadziei.

Przeżyj to sam,
Nie zamieniaj serca w twardy głaz,
Póki jeszcze serce masz...

3) Lady Pank – Mniej niż zero /1986/ - odwołanie do zabójstwa Grzgorza Przemyka, w maju 1983 roku

Twoje miejsce na ziemi tłumaczy
Zaliczona matura na pięć...

4) Obywatel G.C. – Nie pytaj o Polskę /1988/ - może już bez komentarza

nie pytaj mnie
co ciągle widzę w niej
nie pytaj mnie dlaczego w innej nie
nie pytaj mnie
dlaczego ciągle chcę
zasypiać w niej i budzić się

5) Pudelsi – Wolność słowa /2002/ - żeby było z przymrużeniem oka

And now getting off the track...
The next celebrations of 3rd May Anniversary of Passing Constitution bring to mind infinite wave of questions… Are we really entitled to take pride in that anniversary? Indeed, it was one of the first constitutions in the world, an upshot of concerted effort of the country’s elite. But this country had deserved the fate it met. From the its golden age, when Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania covered almost one million square kilometres area it slid into dismay and was eventually wiped off the Europe’s map. That was the fault of Polish nobility that had seen the golden freedom as the virtue of the land they inhabited. In fact, the golden freedom was nothing else but backwardness, partiality, pursuit of one’s interests, heedless of the others. In the West countries were getting richer by accumulating their income. We impoverished ourselves by squandering our wealth. Our Western neighbours were building factories, our barns were empty, but the nobility would throw lavish feasts… Under those circumstances, when Poland was in decay, partitions were inexorable… And the 3rd May Constitution was just the last gasp of crumbling state…

Would you add any other songs to that list?
Comment in both English and Polish are welcome
Zarówno komentarze po polsku, jak i po angielsku są mile widziane