October 22nd, 2007
1. N.W.A, "Fuck Tha Police"
It's easy to forget those simpler times—on the back of Straight Outta Compton, this classic of legal-civilian relations is listed as "F___ Tha Police." The track, in which the members of N.W.A take the witness stand to testify about mistreatment at the hands of the L.A.P.D., inspired an angry letter from the F.B.I. and U.S. Secret Service, which in turn inspired massive sales, cementing Straight Outta Compton's place in gangsta-rap history. While that all sounds serious, "Fuck Tha Police" is actually an incredibly funny, witty song, if you can get past the killing. Quoth Eazy-E: "Without a gun and a badge, what do ya got / A sucker in a uniform waitin' to get shot."
A fan-made video for Fuck That Police
2. The Bottle Rockets, "Radar Gun"
The Bottle Rockets' seminal 1995 album The Brooklyn Side contains many evocative song-stories, none more potent than this swift, devastatingly funny single about a young cop getting off on a petty abuse of power. The song pegs its subject as a dim-witted local who never made it past junior college, yet did well enough on his Police Exam to consider it a rite of passage ("Got me a gun and a badge / I'm a man"). Now with his "shiny new radar gun," he's "makin' money" and he's "havin' fun" running speed traps, presumably on all the jerks who looked down on him in high school. And don't think this by-the-books officer is letting you off with a warning: "43 from where I was sittin'/ 30 miles an hour is the law of our land."
Some folks messing around with radar guns, set to The Bottle Rockets
3. Fugazi, "Great Cop"
This blast of energy from Fugazi's 1993 zenith, In On The Kill Taker, is slight but pointed, with just a few lyrics ("I look for wires when I'm talking to you / You'd make a great cop"). It's not exactly about cops, per se, but uses the word as the ultimate insult, providing screaming catharsis in the middle of Fugazi's first album to really slow things down.
Great Cop from a key moment in the Fugazi film Instrument
4. Johnny Cash, "Highway Patrolman"
No one knew better than Johnny Cash that the common man often grows to hate the law. But sometimes the common man is the law. Bruce Springsteen originally recorded "Highway Patrolman" for his Nebraska album, and Cash's cover brings a sober view and hard-won sympathy to a state cop named Joe Roberts, who lets his reckless brother Frankie off easy time and again. Then things get nastier, and he lets Frankie escape into Canada. This isn't a happy ending—in Springsteen's bare, acoustic version especially, it seems Joe's just doing his best to improvise his way out of a hopeless cycle. And, in case that sounds too sentimental, Nebraska followed the song up with the much more paranoid "State Trooper."
5. Bruce Springsteen, "State Trooper"
The Boss and the state trooper never actually meet in this spooky classic from Nebraska; it's all about the tension around what might happen if they do. The character, on the edge, knows what evil lurks within, and simply begs the cop not to pull him over—for the cop's sake. Creepiest line: "Maybe you got a kid / Maybe you got a pretty wife / The only thing I got / Been botherin' me my whole life."
The Boss joined by Win and Regine from The Arcade Fire
6. The Strokes, "New York City Cops"
Pulled from the US release of Is This It due to the line, "New York City cops / They ain't too smart"—not exactly a popular sentiment in the wake of 9/11—The Strokes' most infamous song is hardly the incendiary piece of anti-authoritarian polemic it was initially made out to be. Really, it's a fairly standard Strokes track, full of typically vague lyrics about leaving a paranoid girlfriend (or, uh, something). In fact, if there's anything truly offensive about it, it's that the song—widely hailed as one of the band's best—was replaced with the middling B-side "When It Started," denying American audiences the filler-less album that international audiences enjoyed. Thanks, terrorists.
From MTV's short-lived $2 Bill concert show
7. Happy Mondays, "God's Cop"
In 1975, Sir James Anderton was appointed Chief Constable of Greater Manchester. Fiercely conservative and devoutly Christian, Anderton's controversial career was marked by frequent proclamations against homosexuality (which he declared should be illegal) such as famously saying that AIDS victims were "swirling in a cesspit of their own making." To make matters worse, Anderton claimed to be "an instrument of divine judgement" who spoke directly with the Lord, leading the press to dub him "God's Cop." Later, Anderton was embroiled in scandal when his Deputy Chief was accused of collusion, and while nothing was ever proven, that didn't stop Shaun Ryder from giving him a tongue-in-cheek ribbing about how he "pilfered the bag and AmEx Gold" in this biting tribute. Of course, being falsely accused of embezzlement probably wouldn't upset the straitlaced Anderton nearly as much as the image of he and the chief getting "slowly stoned."
Kick-ass fighter planes set to God's Cop
8. The Dicks, "Hate The Police"
Austin hardcore pioneers The Dicks—led by crazy "commie cross-dresser" Gary Floyd—burst onto the '80s punk scene with this classic debut single featuring the incendiary refrain, "You can't find justice / It'll find you." Singing snarling lyrics about a cop who "got himself a good job killing niggers and Mexicans" would be a bold move for anyone, let alone an openly gay liberal in the heart of Texas, but even removed from its historical and geographical contexts "Hate The Police" remains a powerful song. This was later proved by Mudhoney, who included a cover of it on Superfuzz Bigmuff with the altered lyrics, "Mudhoney hates policemen, yes it's true."
Mudhoney hates the police, live
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