A conservative, properly speaking, should be someone who wants to preserve things more or less the way they are. On that definition all of us are conservative much of the time. And on that definition a lot of great songs are conservative.

Songs about all kinds of old-fashioned and traditional ways of doing things.

But not just them. Take THE RED FLAG for example:

It waved above our infant might
When all ahead seemed dark as night.
It witnessed many a deed and vow,
We will not change its color now.

It suits today the meek and base,
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place,
To cringe beneath the rich man's frown,
And haul that sacred emblem down.

And the same goes for so many songs about strikes - almost all of them are about people defending themselves against those who would take away their rights and conditions.

And yet somehow the word is used and exploited by those same people who would tear the world to pieces to make money, and who care nothing for tradition and for the decencies of life by which most of us rub along together and help each other.

And for the classic example of that - "There's no such thing as society" Maggie Thatcher crowing in triumph.

There's good change that needs to be helped. And when you do that the word is radical. And there's bad change that needs to be resisted. And when you do that, the word is conservative.

And there are people who turn this on its head - and help the bad changes while resisting the good changes. And whether they call themselves "conservatives" (which they so often do) or "progressives" or whatever, they are the real enemy, at all times. And I don't think they have many good songs.