right-wing rock songs // Richard Grant

[The Great Quail]

> ?Rime of the Ancient Mariner,? by Iron Maiden.

Many Iron Maiden songs could be considered right wing, in terms of
glorifying battle. But they also have a lot of songs mocking political power
as well, not to mention cautionary tales of modern war. I think Maiden are
more about glorifying the heroic acts of the common man, rather than any
particular right wing stance.

>A heavy-metal classic inspired
> by a literary classic. How many other rock songs quote directly from Samuel
> Taylor Coleridge?
> --(Xanadu, if that's rock?)

I assume you mean the Olivia Newton John stuff, but there's actually an epic
Rush song from the late 1970s that uses Coleridge's "Kublai Khan" poem much
the same way Steve Harris and the lads use "Rime."

And speaking of Rush, they started "right wing" only in as much as they
followed Ayn Rand for a while, but I think they've been pretty firmly
"liberal" since the late 1980s. Same as above--they tend to glorify
individualism over the group, a traditional "conservative" stance.

Any discussion of right-wing rockers should surely include the Nuge, so I am
including him.

--Quail