Election Songs

Hats off to George Washington, father of our country and the man who opted out of "President for Life" status in favor of the two-term limit, securing the right of future Americans to choose their own leaders. George may be the only President who never had to campaign, but he'd probably still dig our [i]Election Songs[/i] Basics, featuring musicians of all styles and civic affiliations inspired to sing the praises of our great nation and its greatest freedom — from John Mellencamp's heartland shout-out "Our Country," to Deee-Lite's dance-party platform "Vote, Baby, Vote," to Bruce Springsteen's soul-stirring anthem of bone-deep American potential, "The Rising."

So push that lever, mark that ballot, or hang that freakin' chad — we [i]will[/i] be heard, just like the election songs that carry on in Next Steps.

No one ever said that bipartisan life wasn't tricky. Just ask the Arkansas-Illinois match-up in Sweetwater Abilene's indie love story "Red State Blue State," or the politically mismatched combo in "The One On the Right Is On the Left" from all-American icon Johnny Cash. But the beauty part is, whether a you're Democrat or Republican, a bleeding-heart liberal or a rock-ribbed conservative — or even a staunch supporter of the Silly Party (see "Election Special" from British madcaps Monty Python) — it can all work out if we just take a cue from the trip-pop union of the Farm's "All Together Now."

Let your voice ring out — just like our [i]Election Songs[/i] artists in Deep Cuts.

When Oscar Brand goes old-school to get out the vote, he really goes [i]old[/i]-school, as in the 1840 campaign ditty "Tyler and Tippecanoe." The O'Jays do some sharp soul sloganeering of their own, with a fierce-and-funky "Give the People What They Want," while 2Pac & Outlawz send a righteous rap "Letter to the President," and Jack Teagarden gets into the swing of the political process with the big-band jamboree "I Swung the Election." And from blues legend Sunnyland Slim comes an important piece of election-day wisdom, with the Chicago-style plea of the polls "Be Careful How You Vote."

Like folk hero Woody Guthrie says, "This Land Is Your Land." That means it's we the people who get to say what goes down in the U.S. of A., and just, exactly, who is going to represent the great, glorious humanity that is our country's finest asset. It's tough [i]not[/i] to be feel patriotic when that super-charged Tuesday rolls around, and if the flag flies over different sonic displays of national pride — the stand-up-and-salute country of Brooks & Dunn's "Only In America," the Replacements' ragged-but-right "Election Day" — well, that's as it should be. And so, our fellow Americans, we make a solemn pledge to bring you a long-playing set of [i]Election Songs[/i] Essentials packed with everything from the principled rock crunch of Neil Young's "Lookin' for a Leader," to the sly international diplomacy of Randy Newman's "Political Science," to the better-days pop of Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop."