Is Rolling Stone serious?  I mean, I know Rolling Stone hasn’t been Rolling Stone in about 25 years, but are they serious?  In a recent “Readers’ Poll”, Rolling Stone listed the top 10 Protest Songs of all time and Sunday Bloody Sunday was nowhere to be found on the list.  Really?  Isn’t Rolling Stone’s editor a guy by the name of Phil Atio, when it comes to all things U2?  Knowing R.S.’s obvious lust and love for all things that Bono & the boys do, I thought that Sunday Bloody Sunday would have been ranked Uno, Dos or Tres on the list.  Hell, I thought the list would have had just S.B.S on it and then ended, no questions asked, on to the “From the Vault” & Viagra ads in the back of each issue.  Did R.S. fall for the “This is not a rebel song” bula, bula by the king of Hyperbole & not put it on their list?  Are they that gullible?  If so, here’s next week’s headline:  Bono “May” never play guitar again. (wink, wink)

No disrespect to Bob Dylan, but three songs on the list?  Did R.S. do like everyone else does and just guess at what words Dylan supposedly sang and said, “I guess he’s singing about some sort of protest” and put him on the list?  Dylan’s sound is more like dust in the windpipe. (See what I did there)  Also, I am a HUGE Rage Against the Machine fan and I love their song,” Killing  in the name of”, but when R.S. says, “It has the power to stir up a crown like virtually no other song in human history…” are they F*CKING kidding me?  In human history?  Rage is at the top?  I know 3 Rage songs off the top of my head that could stir up the crowd more than, “Killing in the name of,” and they are nowhere near the top in human history!

My problem is not what songs made the list, I am familiar with all the songs that made it.  My problem is the song that did not make the list.  You don’t have to be a U2 fan to understand what S.B.S is about or that it is the king of protest songs.  Bono’s white flag waving at Red Rocks is a memory that will forever be etched in my mind.

The common themes that run throughout R.S.’s list are war, police brutality and defiance.  The theme that is nowhere in sight is the one most people in the world protest for or against….religion!  The tragedy that just occurred in France this past week is evidence of that.  The Crusades, Isis, Israel/Gaza, 9/11, Middle East, Far East, West all four corners of the globe, someone is protesting something in the name of their religion.  If you listen closely, you can hear cymbals crashing, Bibles smashing, someone painting the world they want to see and that color is usually red.  The worst things in life are justified by belief.  There’s shards of a blue, mink ford that will testify to that.

When Bono sings, “I wont’ heed the battle call, it puts my back up , my back up against the wall” or “How long must we sing this song”, those lyrics should be prominently sung in every protest song as homage to the greatest protest song ever, Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Rolling Stone will hide behind that it was a “Readers’ Poll”.  Doesn’t Freedom of the press allow Rolling Stone the ability to rank these songs anyway they see fit….as long as U2 is in there somewhere!  Rolling Stone…step up your poll game!

Rolling Stone Readers Poll