Songs for Inauguration 2025

The Playlist

(on YouTube)

1. = playlist order

#	Title	Artist	Link	Notes
01	Kiss Me, Son of God	TMBG	YouTube	Sort of obvious, and a bit of a musical outlier from the rest of the list, but it's quick ;-)
02	Ship of Fools	World Party	YouTube	Save us all from tomorrow.
03	Radio Song	REM	YouTube	Thought of this because of the first line, then thought "wait no, this doesn't really work; it's about a relationship breaking up" -- but now I'm thinking you can see it as being about how things fall apart when people can't communicate, and how the media ("the radio") seduces, distracts, and confuses things even further.
04	Tomorrow Never Knows	Beatles	YouTube	Turn off your mind, let the media float you downstream...
05	Excitable Boy	Warren Zevon	YouTube	It's perfectly normal to have a rapist felon for President. Nothing to see here; he's just an excitable boy. Oligarchs will be oligarchs.
06	What I Can Do for You	Sheryl Crow	YouTube	You've probably heard some awful things about him, but he's gonna take care of everything! Just ask anybody, they'll tell you that it's true. (We call this "the gaslighting song", here at Hypertwin Manor.)
07	The Idol	Procol Harum	YouTube	"They knew that only he could pull them through / They thought that he would make a plan / He'd work it out, he'd understand / Like drowning men they clutched at every straw" The people described in this song at least realize that they've been had; still waiting for that realization to hit our real-life idol's followers...
08	Into the Frying Pan	King Crimson	YouTube	"I was just now thinking about the jaws of life that chew you up, and spit you right back into the frying pan." "You think you're fine, but then..."
09	Ball of Confusion	Temptations	YouTube	"Vote for me, and I'll set you free!" "...and the band played on." (Some of the details given are out of step with today's facts, but the point remains.)
10	Long Dark Night	Fabulous Knobs	YouTube	"You're lying under darker shadows, you're stretching truth across the floor." It's gonna be a long, dark night.
11	Out of My Hands	Michael Penn	YouTube	"When every conclusion reached is out to you... I put on my best face and my kid gloves, too, and held up the end until it's out of my hands." We never were their assassins, nothing up our sleeves... but they keep on finding us harder to believe.
12	Then the Morning Comes	Smashmouth	YouTube	"You're gonna do it again." "It's just the way you talk, like it ain't nothing -- and every single day is just a fling..." They voted for the entertainer. AGAIN. (see also: Ronald Reagan) It's just the way that they are.
13	May Be a Price to Pay	Alan Parsons	YouTube	"There's evil brewing, getting out of control -- and I'm helpless, I can't put it right."
14	In the Wake of Poseidon	King Crimson	YouTube	"Air, fire, earth and water - balance of change - world on the scales" ...then everything changed when the Asshole Nation attacked. "Whilst in the aisle, the mad man smiles -- to him it matters least." "Magi, blind with vision's light, net death in dread of life."(I originally had "Epitaph" here, but I think that's more of an election day song.)
15	Prophecies	Philip Glass	YouTube	Translation of Hopi lyrics: "If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster. Near the Day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky. A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans." (see Wikipedia) All is koyaanisqatsi. I chose this unofficial upload instead of the official one because it was the only one I could find with the longer/full version from the movie, which is much superior to the one on the LP.
	Hjartað hamast	Sigur Rós
	Time After Time (ELO)
	Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys
	Rock Me on the Water	Jackson Browne	YouTube
	One Thing Leads to Another	Fixx
	Brave New World	Michael Penn
	Utopia	Goldfrapp	YouTube
	Incense Peppermints
	Redemption Day	Sheryl Crow
	Land of Confusion	Genesis cover by Katzenjammer
	Last Days on Earth	Tears for Fears

To Add:

not used

I would have liked to include these, but they didn't fit for various reasons.

• I Will Not Go Quietly (Don Henley) -- official copy n/a on YT, looks intentional
• Captain America (Kinks) paints US as unironically good - definitely not the right context here
• Crime of the Century (Supertramp) -- too long for the message
• Save a Prayer (Duran Duran) - lyrics don't quite work
• Palace of Versailles (Al Stewart) - not quite the right historical parallel
• Swords and Knives (TFF) - not quite right either, though the mood is...
• In the Flesh / Run Like Hell / Waiting for the Worms / Stop (Pink Floyd) - I would have had to re-upload a combined version in order not to have this broken up...
• Ignoreland (REM)
• Is It Like Today (World Party)
• Mad World
• For What It's Worth (Buffalo Springfield)