In an ideal world every band would have side 1 track 1 of their debut album as a manifesto song. This is who we are, this is what our vibe is, and this is what we’re going to do to the world. So your manifesto songs please. The name of the band must be the name of the track.
Motorhead by Motorhead is pretty much perfect, even though actually written by his previous band.
‘Motorhead, remember me now, Motorhead alright’.
Again,
Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees and people say we monkey around
But we’re too busy singing to put anybody down
Just about nails it.
You don’t have to be a band, individual artists can join in too – but it’s a bit more of a style statement to record a song with your own name as the title. One of course comes to mind straight away in the comments.
Not just one but two from the Bo Diddley beat man
They did … more in redefining themselves without Mick and Topper as they limped to a close
Actually yes of course…wouldn’t be in my top ten manifesto songs…
That Mekon-like domed head and angular jawline – could it be a young Dominic Cummings?
Album 1, track 1, side 1 – has there been a more perfect manifesto statement. An entire career, an entire genre in one take:
Close enough surely?
The Stones took to doing Like a Rolling Stone live in the 90s and released it as a single
Great find @dai – borrowing someone else’s song that turns into your manifesto is somehow even better than writing it in the first place.
Manifesto song, album1 said 1 track 1.
Oasis Rock n Roll Star
I thought about that but does it contain the name of the band? No. This is a borderline case:
To be pedantic, a version of the song Motorhead was first recorded by Hawkwind – but it was actually written by Lemmy.
Arguably, he was the titular Motorhead in a band of psychedelic users, Lemmy and DikMik being the only two who routinely took speed…
Compare and contrast – I love ‘em both…
The Hold Steady are happy to oblige – album one, track one:
All the sniffling indie kids: hold steady
And all you clustered-up clever kids: hold steady
And I got bored when I didn’t have a band
And so I started a band, man
We’re gonna start it with a positive jam
Hold steady
Imarhan by the group Imarhan from the album Imarhan. No idea what the manifesto might be.
World Party by the Waterboys, written by Scott, Hutchinson and Wallinger, great song and perhaps a manifesto for Karl Wallinger’s own band?
Run the Jewels by Run The Jewels from the album Run The Jewels.
All their songs are manifestos.
Rap a fertile area for self-titled songs, whether you or your rap persona:
For my boy Moose:
I’m all in, put it up on the board
Another rapper shot down from the mouth that roared
One, two, three, down for the count
The result of my lyrics, oh yes, no doubt
Cold rock rap, forty-niner supreme
Is what I choose and I use, I never lose to a team
‘Cause I can go solo like a Tyson bolo
Make the fly girls wanna have my photo
Run in their room, hang it on the wall
In remembrance that I rocked them all
Suckers, ducks, ho-hum emcees
You can’t rock the kid, so go cut the cheese
Take this application of rhymes like these
My rap’s red hot, hundred ten degrees
So don’t start bassing, I’ll start placing
Bets on that you’ll be disgracing
You and your mind from my beating from my rhymes
A time for a crime that I can’t find
I’ll show you my gun, my Uzi weighs a ton
Because I’m Public Enemy number one
(It may lose points for not being exactly the same as the band’s name, but picks up points for “manifesto” qualities. Still, if you’re being pedantic, there’s always these geezers…)
(General Public – General Public)
That’s strange. I was singing this to myself this week. Hadn’t thought about it for some time.
Not exactly what the OP asked for, but the band Goat seems to name half their tracks something with the word goat in it:
Goatchild, Goatslaves, Goatband, Goatfuzz, Goatfizz, Goatman, Goathead, Goatlord, Goatmilk, Apegoat, Stonegoat…there are probably some more (I’ve stopped buying their albums so don’t own the latest one). I guess “Goatband” comes the closest to being named after the band!
It’s a nearly eight minute instrumental sounding (like most of their tracks) like they want you to get high and dance, and that’s probably as close to a manifesto of theirs as you can get, I suppose… 😀
Then there’s this.
Good times !
I’ve just had a flashback!
I’d completely forgotten, but do you remember when knob-cheeses like that used to carry those things around the local High Street. There used to be one, you’d never see two, for every row of shops about 400 yards long, like the village idiot in days gone by. It only lasted about a year.
I confess to never having seen two together before.
Like this guy ?
Uncanny, @mikethep alludes possibly to you, possibly, as @rayx enters the fray. Uncanny indeed.
Sock or todger?
(What’s a todgerpuppet anyway?)
Wrong, it was the Baron I was talking about. Sheer coincidence. But welcome back anyway, HPS.
I give you Rammstein by Rammstein (sadly, it’s one of their weakest songs):
However, they also came up with the much better Rammleid:
Unplug the jukebox and do us all a favour
That music’s lost its taste, so try another flavour
Ant music!
Wham! Bam!
I am a man
Job or no job, you can’t tell me that I’m not
I see the world with a heart that knows
In shadow play, rain, tree, crow
(Rain Tree Crow by Rain Tree Crow)
Nice.
Isn’t that by Japan?
Nooo! Rain Tree Crow had nothing to do with Japan whatsoever. Apart from the fact that its four members all previously used to be in Japan, it was an entirely different group.
Wilco will love you, baby …
There’s this, but it was the last song on the debut album. A manifesto? Probably not, but a warning – they will get you, wherever you are.
Iron Maiden
The Who’s Who Are You doesn’t have a question mark, so it’s a statement – The Who are you.
They Might Be Giants?
Not a manifesto, just an examination of who they might be.
Are we not men? We are Devo!
Good example of a non-titular manifesto song, lots of Devo in the lyrics.
Also, always loved this
It took him nearly 40 years, but John Fogerty finally got around to this on his 2007 album ‘Revival’.
‘You can’t go wrong
If you play a little bit of that
Creedence song’.
His name is Prince and he is funky… indubitably.
Palace of names reversed! As MES would say