Elton uses the Beatles and Dylan as examples of 60s protest songs, but Dylan essentially stopped writing protest songs in 1964 and never wrote about the Vietnam War, while the Beatles only protest song (“Revolution”) was about not getting involved. As for Pete Seeger, well he wasn’t exactly a pop star, was he? I’ve no idea who Nina Simone was.

As for the current scene, there are multiple examples of anti-war/anti-Bush songs (Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Patti Smith, Ted Leo, insert your favorite “alternative” act here), there’s Morrissey up on stage wishing Bush were dead, there’s Chrissie Hynde up on stage announcing that she hopes the coalition soldiers get killed … All right, so none of these names are making hit records right now, which is part of Elton’s point. But if he’s so concerned about it, why doesn’t he write his own protest song? To my recollection he’s never actually done this, unless “Crocodile Rock” was a call to arms for swamp-living reptiles. I know he doesn’t write his own lyrics, but surely he can make requests on the subject matter. Or he could record his own version of “Eve of Destruction” and we’ll all party down to that.