Evan Greer playing "Love Me I'm A Liberal"

[ralph435z]

Great rendition!

[jakinthebox45]

has its downsides but I think its a good recording!

[skcin7]

All I want to know is........... what fret is the capo on, and what chords is he playing? I know the chords of the Phil Ochs version. What are the chords in this version? If anybody knows please post them. Thank you.

[BenjaminLaird]

this is bad, phil ochs would hate this cover.

how boooooring...another white kid with a dissenting view of the state.

he might as well not have the guitar & deliver speeches.

this has almost zero musicianship & the lyrics are horrible too. he thinks liberals are against female anarchist literature? what?!

this song doesn't even make sense on top of being sung by a poser.

[Nullifidian]

No need to be so modest! My philosophy, according to you, also includes fearmongering and warmongering while enabling "my allies" to maintain their chokehold on power. However, my allies couldn't be less interested in power, and I have even been jailed during the course of antiwar protests.

Contrary to the blind, unreasoning partisanship by which everyone who disagrees with a liberal is automatically a rightist, I am an anarchist. Liberals may be people of goodwill, but they're also in the way.

[emceelynx]

elvis, you're missing the point. Och's song was about the frustration of dealing with liberals from the perspective of a radical who's sick of their half-assed hypocritical bullshit. Evan just takes the same critique a step further and updates it. it's not that they're insufficiently active, it's that they're actively doing ALL THE WRONG THINGS.

[elusiverobertdenby]

This isn't updating Ochs' message; it's changing and confusing it. Phil did want "revolution," as it were, but the original lyrics were more about castigating liberals who lived in opposition to their beliefs ("I love Puerto Ricans and Negros/

As long as they don't move next door.") This version is all over the place. It attacks people for listening to NPR, then attacks someone who doesn't believe in evolution -- and calls them both liberal. That's simply wrong.

[xavean]

Elusive is right.

This reworking of the song was funny enough to get people to laugh and snicker (and it certainly doesn't take much to get that sort of reaction anyway -- certainly didn't require satire, which this version completely lacks over the original).

And what's this about taking it a "step forward"?? More like a few leaps and bounds back.

[Nullifidian]

How clueless. The song doesn't mention evolution at all. It says "And maybe our country ain't perfect, but *R*evolution is never the way". It's a telling mistake, because liberals confusing evolution (reformism) for revolution is part of the problem.

The point of Ochs' song is that the liberals' public posturing hides an authoritarian, reactionary core, and Greer's update captures that perfectly. I'd say it sounds as if your problem is not that the message is confused, but that it's on target.

[elusiverobertdenby]

I may have misheard "evolution" for revolution, but the point still stands. And if you think liberals are authoritarian reactionaries, then George W. Bush is a card-carrying member of the ACLU. He certainly fits the reactionary mold.

If those who foam at the mouth about "liberals" redirected just an ounce of their hatred toward the real problems in this country, we'd all be better for it. But black and white views of the world are as compelling as they are childish.

[Nullifidian]

Bush is not a reactionary, rather he believes that the world can be remade according to his ideology.

I'd love to know what you see as the "real problems" are. It seems to me that the liberals provide moral cover, a way of synthesizing the cognitive dissonance that comes with prattling on about liberty and committing a holocaust. They disperse anger and disgust in ways which do not threaten the centres of American power. If liberals didn't exist, the State would have to invent them.

[elusiverobertdenby]

Real problems -- a downhill economy addicted to polluting resources that are killing us, less social mobility, more social isolation, a consumer culture choking the spirit and the breakdown of the family. Another one: Your allies don't care about anything except staying in power. You and your ilk have done a good job strengthening your throat muscles screaming "liberal," but it's clear that your philosophy has nothing to offer but fear, and no ideas other than war.

[Nullifidian]

So liberals are going to take a stand against consumer culture? That was quite funny. It is also in contradiction with your complaint about the downhill economy, which relies on consumerism. As far as less social mobility, may I remind you that the most brutal rollback of welfare happened during Saint Bill's administration?

By the way, your description of "my philosophy" doesn't seem to accord with anything I believe or have done. What is my philosophy, and how did you come to know of it?

[elusiverobertdenby]

Talk to an economist -- they'll tell you that an economy powered entirely by spending (as opposed to saving) will suffer long-term trouble, as we're discovering. Spending our way out of a recession is short-sighted, but spending is the only economic program this current administration has offered.

Your philosophy, as far as I'm aware, is bashing liberals. You come back to "liberal" like a quarterflash skipping over a record. If your views are more nuanced than that, here's the floor.

[Nullifidian]

Liberals are as necessary for the conduct of the current wars as .223 rounds.

Iraq has been carpet-bombed? Don't blame me, I lit a candle.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been slaughtered? Don't blame me, I adhere to non-violence.

Their token opposition allows for the state to safely dissipate any disgust with the status quo which might otherwise be threatening. This happens time and time again, with war, capitalism, civil liberties, etc. I oppose them for the sake of *real* change.

[adhdkid91]

i saw evan sing this song live and i think his intro to it was interesting. he said first off that he was bailed out of jail by a liberal group and he said that you could make this very same song for anarchist or any other group.

[elusiverobertdenby]

Phil Ochs was criticizing people who hold liberal opinions but don't do anything. This attacks people who go to rallies and sign petitions (and throws in a tired attack on the media to boot) because -- why? They're not sufficient active? They can't devote 18 hours a day to protests? How much more can you do on top of that? This version warps what Ochs was trying to say.

[EvilLaughKid]

I dont think so.

Protesting these days has been warped into a one day BS which gets nothing done.

And yeah, the media is great. . .

You can practice what you preach.

[elusiverobertdenby]

I'm fascinated by this thought that hating the media marks one as a bold, original thinker. Putting aside the fact we have more outlets to choose from than in any time in history (enough to ratify our world views), we also have plenty of camps on the left and right that will tell us why the evil, evil media is working for corporate interests or liberal interests. Fascinating.

And you don't advance a cause very far when you attack people working with you.

[teaguertugee]

I LOVE your version of this song!

[jesuschristison]

This is so good, i love phil ochs!

[devotchkaninja]

awesome, awesome. riot folk is made of win.

[coltrain210]

hmm. Where the hell did you find that many people our age that know that song....well at least the "love me im a liberal," part. Where are you loacted?

[jonbate]

Awesome! Thanks for posting this

[slowpokecat]

Another Phil Ochs song.

[skcin7]

Dude that's fucking awesome. Is this your own version of the song? Post the lyrics!

[HoChiMinhOrg]

What's folk music without singalong? Fun little vid.