My husband and I were looking at the “Most Controversial Songs of All-Time” and a song caught my attention. After listening to it, I found this song to be very relevant for today.
The name of the song is “Doing the Reactionary” by the legendary Cab Calloway. I’m sure at the time he was talking about what he was seeing in his world, but the song he and Harold Rome (the writer of the lyrics) wrote was in a lot of ways prophetic of the times today.
I could honestly see someone take this and add either a hip-hop beat or some other genre of music as a backing track, and it could be the most relevant (and popular) song of today. It speaks (sadly) to the point that no matter how much time changes, times stay the same.
If you have some time, check out the song. I’ll post the lyrics below.
Lyrics:
Don’t go left
Oh oh! Be polite
Move to the right
Doing the Reactionary
Close your eyes
To where you’re bound
And you’ll be found
Doing the Reactionary
All the best dictators do it
Millionaires keep stepping to it
The Four Hundred love to sing it
Ford and Morgan swing it
Hands up high
And shake your head
You’ll soon see red
Doing the Reactionary
