Last Gang in Town
Thomas Jones · The Tories' Theme Song
Keane (the band) aren't happy about the Tories using their song 'Everybody's Changing'. Quite right too. Though I wonder who at Conservative central office chose it as the party's theme song, and what their ulterior motives may have been, since it doesn't exactly endorse Cameron's post-Obama message of change. 'Everybody's changing and I don't know why,' the first chorus goes. Later: 'Everybody's changing and I don't feel right.' Is the Tories' co-option of the song perhaps a subtle attempt to reassure more conservative party members that it's OK not to be comfortable with the whole 'change' thing? Or is it a sly attempt by a disgruntled old guard to undermine Cameron? Then again, maybe it's just another facet of the deep confusion underlying the paradoxical slogan 'Vote for Change. Vote Conservative.' Plus ça change...
Leaving aside such knotty political conundrums, the really important question is what song the Tories should be using instead. I would suggest, off the top of my head, 'The Upper Classes' by the Auteurs (‘There's nothing wrong with inherited wealth/if you melt the silver yourself'), Blur's 'Charmless Man' (‘educated the expensive way...') or possibly 'Last Gang in Town' by the Clash. Then again, both in acknowledgment of the general direness of the state of the nation and to appeal to rural voters, how about Iron Maiden's 'Run to the Hills'?
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