33 Revolutions per Minute, By Dorian Lynskey

Lynskey persuasively argues that the protest song is pop music in which "the political content is not an obstacle to greatness, but the source of it."

This applies to both Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" ("without doubt the most eloquent instrumental protest song") and I Am the Walrus", described by Ian MacDonald as "the most idiosyncratic protest song ever written".

Pete Townshend recognised that lack of protest vitiated "Won't Get Fooled Again": "It's a terrible song." Yet it is ques-tionable whether Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" is the "leap of faith" Lynskey claims.