Top Five Best & Worst Songs About 9/11
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Charlie Daniels, on the other hand, jumps right in with cartoonish racism with the couplet "This ain't no rag, it's a flag/ And we don't wear it on our heads." Oh, Charlie. To be so simple-minded as to not only think that all Muslims are terrorists, but to also think that everyone who wears a turban is a Muslim (ask a Sikh about that). Daniels slings trite sentiment as if he's getting paid by the cliche: "We're gonna hunt you down like a mad dog"; "These colors don't run"; "Now it's time to rock and roll"; "When you mess with one, you mess with us all" and so forth.
It's one thing for performers to want to inspire the soldiers who fight for America. Daniels' chief objective seemed to be simply to let them know they were defending at least one total asshole.
4. Thriving Ivory, "Angels on the Moon": We have a hard time understanding the lyrics from this one, since they are melodramatically shrieked at us in a register only audible on the outward edges of the human hearing spectrum. They may be saying something beautiful, but we can't tell since the singer sounds like Rob Thomas on helium. As for the instrumentation, it's all hyper-dramatic, teen-drama-friendly pseudo-emo mush. There's no reason to listen to this song if you're past puberty.
3. Michael Jackson & Friends, "What More Can I Give?": The late King of Pop had some really well-produced songs; why, then, did this one make it to its final stages with nothing more than the simplest of Casio beats and synthesizers accompanying some of 2001's hottest singers? This song was never released, and it's a good thing. Jackson deserved to be remembered for better songs than this, and the 9/11 victims deserved more than poorly planned pop mediocrity.
2. Paul McCartney, "Freedom": The flipside to Sage Francis' "Makeshift Patriot," "Freedom" shows what can happen if you don't let a song cook for long enough before taking it out on the road. Namely, you end up repeating the same words over and over without adding any new ideas or personal touches, simply repeating the same words over and over while strumming the same simple chords over and over the same way you repeat the words, over and over, with no urgency or craft or thought. Over and over. It's a tad redundant, is the subtle point we're trying to drive home here.
1. Trade Martin, "We've Got to Stop the Mosque at Ground Zero": Plagued by poor production and awkward, simplistic writing, we don't think we can sum up this godawful pox on patriotism better than Jef With One F did when it first came out: : "It plays like a cut from the No Holds Barred soundtrack with lyrics that were probably written on the back of a Wal-Mart receipt showing the purchase of truck nuts."
And a shitload of beef jerky, too. Well said, Jef. And we'd like to also give props to the YouTube commenter who suggested this song be used if a sequel to Team America: World Police is ever made.
SURPRISINGLY GOOD
Wheatus, "Hometown": Yep, it's the same guy who sang that massively irritating 2000 hit "Teenage Dirtbag." Quite surprising, then, that he could produce such a well-written song, even if the electric piano does sound like it's soloing in a different key.
SURPRISINGLY BAD
Gorillaz feat. D-12, "911": Did Gorillaz lift hit-and-miss rap outfit D-12 up to their level? Nope, quite the reverse, actually. The production is throwaway and the rapping is uneven at best. It's no wonder this song was shelved and only released to the public on the Bad Company soundtrack. You remember, that dreaful Chris Rock/Anthony Hopkins movie that no one saw. You don't remember? Good. Good for you.
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