How to cherry-pick lyrics

I tend to check the National Review Online pretty regularly, and I stumbled upon this interesting article titled National Review's Top 50 Conservative Songs.

Okay, that's a lie.

I never "check the NRO" reguarly. Heck, my beliefs lie about 180° from the National Review, but I did stumble upon an article when googling the lyrics "Kyle William they called him...washed away little Kyle's sins" because they were stuck in my brain, and I couldn't remember what song they came from. (Springsteen's "Reason to Believe", thanks for offering, but I already found it.)

From that article, I went to the original article being commented on...

And I absolutely love what the National Review has done. They went searching for the greatest conservative rock songs, and their list reads like an absolute primer on cherry-picking lyrics to fit your needs. Like Ronald Reagan using "Born in the USA" as his theme song, a lot of folks hear a lyric here or there and think that the songwriter must believe with their political view.

Let me say this plainly: lyrics taken out of context can say just about anything.

Sure, "Won't Get Fooled Again" (NRO's #1 conservative song) does express skepticism about leadership change, but that doesn't mean that Pete is going to be lining up to endorse Ron Paul anytime soon.

"The Trees" from Rush - clearly one of Canadia's top seven or eight musical exports (probably right behind Triumph, Ashley MacIsaac, Gordon Lightfoot, Amy Grant, Alannis, Neil Young...but that's another post for another day) - talks about survival of the fittest, sure, and maybe even the tyrany of the majority but to say about it...

Before there was Rush Limbaugh, there was Rush, a Canadian band whose lyrics are often libertarian. What happens in a forest when equal rights become equal outcomes? “The trees are all kept equal / By hatchet, axe, and saw.”

...seems a little nuts.

"My City Was Gone" from the Pretenders always seemed like a song talking about a woman's repugnance at the change that had overtaken her hometown, paving what were once beautiful fields. I never knew it "display[ed] a Jane Jacobs sensibility against central planning".

Neither #31 ("Small Town" by John Mellencamp) or #35 ("Who'll Stop the Rain" by CCR) would ever make their songwriters happy to find themselves on this list. Mellencamp even asked John McCain recently to stop using his songs at the McCain rallies.

They avoid Neil Young (who clearly and openly stumped for Reagen in the 80's) and most of the conservative country market and instead just grab a few lines from a couple score songs. Cherry-pickers...

Oh, and on a totally unrelated note...this trailer has me thoroughly intrigued...