Oliver Anthony, for the Working Class, not the Left nor the Right
"It was funny seeing my song at that presidential debate. Because I wrote that song about those people."
Oliver Anthony is the composer and singer of ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’. If you haven’t heard it yet, you must be Martian.
I’ve read so much shit about that guy which makes no sense because he wasn’t trying to be famous, and no one knew him last month. Some critics bash his lyrics as if he should write an essay for each verse (but then it wouldn’t be a song).
I’ve no need to make argument for him because he stands up for his own sanity and intentions better than any politicised American singer.
“It was funny seeing my song at that Presidential Debate. Because I wrote that song about those people, you know, so for them to have to sit there and listen to that, that cracks me up…
I hate seeing that song weaponized. I see the Right trying to characterize me as one of their own. And I see the Left trying to discredit, I guess in retaliation. That shit’s gotta stop.
If you watch the response videos on Youtube, it’s not conservative people responding to the song… it’s not necessarily Americans. I don’t think I’ve seen anything get such positive response from such a diverse group of people. I think that terrifies the people I sing about in that song.
And they've done everything they can the last two weeks to make me look like a fool, to spin my words, to try to stick me in a political bucket, and they can keep trying but I'm gonna keep on writing. I'm gonna write and produce and distribute music that represents authentic people and not politics.”
Oliver Anthony’s touched the chord of the disaffected. I’m one of them. I despise and fight our money-driven-self-consuming-fuck-everybody-else global kleptocracy.
I want clean water and electricity, Judges that believe in justice more than politicians, and much more. I don’t want another Ukrainian or Russian to die. I don’t want nuclear war.
I want more of us to be Oliver Anthony. We don’t have to be singers, we just have to sing our part into making a world that’s less downtrodden.