So once again I've got myself this giant work of procrastination. And this time I get to have some fun by doing a song analysis that is related to history and/or political. So of course I'm going to pick some Linkin Park song. However, I am just having the hardest time picking my song so I couldn't think of a better way to choose the best song than here. There are no requirements in terms of language by I do wish to stay away from Minutes to Midnight Era because I feel as if those songs have been overdone and over-analyzed. I have been tediously studying the A Thousand Suns Era music because this stuff just interest me so much. So if you guys could help out, just post here what you believe to be the best choice for a political/historical song analysis and give some info on why so. I've got my personal opinions of songs but I always find it very interesting to see others view points as well. Thank you!
I don't know about political history, but I was running to ATS yesterday and while I listened intently to the lyrics of Wretches & Kings I realized, rather shockingly, how closely the association of people with machines parallels what Dostoevsky said about the Enlightenment's pursuit of rational interest in Notes from Underground. I don't know if that helps but I'll elaborate later if you're interested.
Hands Held High. But if you insist on no M2M, then I would say The Catalyst is your best bet. It does a good job of summing up the state of the human race and how we got there (sins of our hand, sins of our tongue, etc.). Though, the song does require a lot of inferring. But I think you could make it work.
Wisdom, Justice and Love (If it counts as a song). The speech excerpt is taken from Martin Luther King's Vietnam-era address to the people of the United States called "A Time To Break The Silence". It talks about how the US economy bleeds itself dry to feed the Military-Industrial complex, and how Militarism leads to destructive, fruitless wars and how God's chosen people must protest against the system to save their country from the adverse effects of Imperialism, a really inspiring read. It is also somehow related to Mario Savio's speech which is inserted into Wretches and Kings, in that they are both subversive and anti-establishment. Here's a great political overview on ATS by the way. http://theastrarium.com/3596
Along similar lines, in Hands Held High there definitely are references to Chairman Mao (the little red book) and Jean-Paul Sartre ("when the rich wage war it's the poor who die"). That's also pretty easily the best one for analysis in my opinion. I'm not keen on the lyrics from Wretches & Kings or NMS. TLTGYA is borderline, I like the turn of phrase in the chorus though. By far the wittiest lyric they've ever came up with.
Oh, I forgot about Little Things. I change my vote to that. It doesn't bash you over the head like Hands Held High, but doesn't wallow in the glory of it's own pretentious farts the way The Catalyst comes across.
Getting serious again for a second, if you want to avoid MTM (which is their most political album), I would have to say Wretches and Kings. The meaning of it should be pretty obvious, if not, read a bit about Mario Savio on Wikipedia, and read the lyrics to W&K, and then it should be pretty clear.
Yeah, Wretches and Kings, as watered down as it is (doesn't stop me from liking it ), is by far the most political track on A Thousand Suns, although, the whole album does seem to have a bit of a political undertone throughout.