Tom Ricks at Foreign Policy surveyed soldiers and asked them their favorite songs to listen to when they go into combat. Justin Bieber didn’t make the cut. (Maybe in the French Army.) Here’s the top ten.
“1) Drowning Pool, “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor”
2) Anything by Metallica, but especially — “Enter Sandman,” “Disposable Heroes,” “All Nightmare Long,” “Don’t Tread on Me,” “Ride the Lightning” and “Whiskey in the Jar.” (I found the last one tolerable.)
3) AC/DC, lots of songs, but especially “Thunderstruck” (here’s a version featuring Apache attack helicopters) or “Hell’s Bells.” (I couldn’t find the version with George Patton’s speech to soldiers overdubbed into it.)
4) Rage Against the Machine. A variety of songs show up on lists, but a favorite is “Down Rodeo.” (Also, “Killing in the Name” and “How I Could Just Kill a Man.” But “Bullet in the Head” was not listed by anyone.) I remember an officer in Baghdad playing RATM back on little speakers in the summer of ’03. When I expressed surprise that an Army major would like the band, he said, “Hey, I get my music from them, not my politics.”)
5) Manowar shows up a lot. I’d never heard of them. “Hail & Kill” seems to be one of the more popular of their many hymns to bloodshed.
6) Survivor, “Eye of the Tiger” (You’ve heard this. You’ve just tried to forget it.)
7) Dope, “Die M———-r Die” (“Great when you have to bust wire,” commented “Centurion”).
8) Limp Bizkit, “Rollin’.” What a cheeseball!
9) Stevie Ray Vaughan, “Voodoo Chile” (but only because it was in the soundtrack to “Black Hawk Down,” a favorite of deployed soldiers).
10) The Hold Steady, “Stevie Nix” (But not their “Multitude of Casualties.”)”