This is a project I’ve been contemplating for awhile now. In church we are taught that the songs of the righteous are a prayer to God that He delights in hearing. (D&C 25:11–12) Elder Dallin H. Oaks has taught that because of the power of music to direct our thoughts is so strong we should memorize hymns as a way to move our minds away from sinful and temptuous thoughts and as a way to better learn and understand the doctrines of the Restored Gospel. There is a great deal of insight, inspiration, and truth in these teachings and they apply to subjects beyond the doctrines of the Church.
There is a lot of music out there with powerful messages of liberty, individualism, resistance to tyranny, and freedom. There is also a lot of music out there that glorifies the State, degrades the worth of the individual, encourages obedience to unjust laws and, and mocks freedom. If we want to buttress the message and values of liberty within ourselves, our homes, our families, our children, and our friendships, we have to be more conscious about which kind of music we are listening to and willfully choose to immerse ourselves in the songs of freedom which promote liberty and avoid music that encourages ideas of subservience to people, organizations, substances, and ideas that weaken and destroy our humanity and liberty (for you cannot do the one without the other.)
In an effort to do this I thought I would share some of the music that I regularly play, music which embraces and promotes the ideals of liberty, freedom, and the worth of the individual. That way you too can fill your home with the doctrines, values, and spirit of liberty.
I’ll post videos of these songs here on the page with a brief explanation of why they’re included. At the bottom of this page there is a YouTube link to the playlist I’ve organized with all these songs on it so you can just play and listen to them all. While this volume is done in a mixtape style with a variety of musical genres included, I plan to do future volumes of liberty music that will focus on other genres of music as well. If you have any suggestions, leave them in a comment and I’ll see about adding them to future editions.
Now, without further ado…..
The Mixtape of Liberty
War by Edwin Starr
War is one of the most useless wastes of human life. It accomplishes nothing. It defends nothing. It achieves nothing. Its only reward is human suffer, slaughter, and terror. Edwin Starr’s phenomenal War teaches this truth perfectly.
War Pigs by Black Sabbath
War does nothing but spread violence and terror. It is the tool of Satan, he who rules through blood and horror and those who wage it are his servants. Black Sabbath’s War Pigs teaches this truth better than any other song I know.
One by Metallica
The propaganda politicians spoon feed us and the lies they deceive is into believing are too numerous to list here, but their purpose always seems to boil down to two things: getting us to acquiesce to taxation or getting us to murder for those in power. One by Metallica gets to the heart of this truth and how reality is very different form the lies we are told.
Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth
The issue with power isn’t that attracts the corrupt. The problem with power is that it corrupts everyone absolutely. The holiest man alive, given power, becomes a monster by the use of it. Megadeth’s Symphony of Destruction explains this principle very well.
People Say by Portugal The Man
The way we talk about war is insane. Think about it. “This nation killed 100 of our people, so we are going to kill ten thousand more to make sure we murder a hundred thousand of theirs!” How does that make sense? It doesn’t. How can even more death be victory? It isn’t. Its all political doublespeak. And People Say by Portugal The Man absolutely exposes it for what it is – propaganda.
Civil War by Guns N’ Roses
Politicians spew nothing but propaganda and lies. They uses buzzwords like freedom to whip up people’s emotions while betraying those ideas every chance they get. And the masses buy it and buy into it hook, line, and sinker, selling their lives and sacrificing their children for those in power. As odd as it may seem to some (we’ve all listened to Paradise City at some point), Civil War by Guns N’ Roses cuts through the lies to get at the truth of the State and its warmongering lies better than just about any song or speaker you’ll ever listen to in your entire life.
Gimmie Shelter by The Rolling Stones
We often speak of violence as if it is inevitable. Person/Group A did this thing to me/us so I have to kill them. It is how we justify everything from arguments to wars. But Christianity calls us to something greater. We are to save people, not to destroy them. We all have the power to choose how we will act and react, and everything from extermination to salvation flows from our choices. Gimmie Shelter by The Rolling Stones explains this truth very well, everything from war, rape, and murder, to love, hope, and salvation depends on us and who we choose to be and how we choose to react to the evils of the world.
Walkin’ On The Sun by Smash Mouth
Other than being the best Smash Mouth song, Walkin’ On The Sun is also a upbeat yet devastating critique of modern culture. It takes on both the Leftists who see themselves anti-war activists when in reality they’re just political posers enabling the exact kind of monsters they claim to oppose and the modern day drug culture that glorifies the use of dangerous narcotics even as they destroy the lives of the user and everyone around them. This song is a wake up call disguised as a pop song.
Road To Peace by Tom Waits
The claims of the American government to be a world leader in Middle Eastern peace efforts is a sick joke. Worse, it is a blatant lie. While violence escalates and Israel carries out acts of ethnic cleansing and genocide, the US government is actively helping them. In Road To Peace, Tom Waits asks where is God in all this? The answer is that we Saints are to be God’s hands in the world. Yet so many of us support wicked organizations like the US government which actively murder children and support genocide. Instead of putting our hands to God’s work we put out hands to work supporting evil.
Man In Black by Johnny Cash
Repeatedly modern Prophets and Apostles have warned us against the allure that an easy life, wealth, and plenty have and the way they blind us to the world’s problems, make us deaf to the cries of those in need, and desensitize us to the suffering of others. The pain of others became the pain of Christ, it should be ours as well. In Johnny Cash’s classic country song Man In Black, he talks about wearing black as a reminder of all the problems in the world and his responsibility in helping to actively solve them. That is our duty as well, to remember and to serve.
Reagan by Killer Mike
From a song named Reagan you might expect Killer Mike to deliver just another partisan agitprop piece. Instead he delivers a masterclass in recognizing the true purpose of the State and specifically calls out Republican and Democratic Presidents by name as perpetuating the same social problems endlessly for their benefit and to the suffering of the public. I don’t agree with him on everything (how the man who wrote this song still thinks who gets elected matters is beyond me), but I would love to simply sit down and talk with him. He is one of the most intelligent voices in music today.
Cult of Personality by Living Colour
A song about the way we idolize other humans, especially political leaders, treating them and their power structures as if they were gods with the power to do anything if we would but submit and obey, Living Colour’s The Cult of Personality exposes the true nature of the idolatry at the center of the modern State and warns about the dangers of the Cult of the State.
The Government Can by Tim Hawkins
There was time, oh say a decade ago, when I thought this song was absolutely hilarious.
I was wrong.
It is deadly serious.
Tim Hawkins may be a comedian, but in The Government Can he is doing nothing but speaking straight facts and dropping truth bombs.
We’re Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister
Thomas Jefferson was right when he said that people are willing to suffer evils while those evils seem sufferable. But there comes a point where we can no longer suffer evil. We should never suffer it, but eventually even the ignorant, stupid, and blind are forced to pay attention. We’re Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister is the anthem of those who are truly awoken to what is happening to them, to others in their name, and who refuse to let these evils continue.
The Resistance by Muse
The State is based on violence, suffering, and pain. Modern governments rule through blood and horror upon the Earth. In the face of seemingly crushing oppression, what can we hope to do to make it better? Muse has the answer in their song The Resistance. Here is the basis upon which we will fight back, upon which we will win, and upon which we will found a better society.
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And here is the link to the playlist on Latter-day Liberator’s YouTube page so that you can easily play and listen to these songs.