The Common People

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good guys don't wear white - the standells ("all you rich kids with yo' lazy money can't hold a candle to my love...good guy bad guy which is which, the white collar worker or the digger in the ditch?")

boondocks - billy joe royal ("people put me down cause that's the side of town I was born in")

hang on sloopy - the mccoys ("Sloopy lives in a very bad part of town And everybody yeah, tries to put my Sloopy down...Sloopy I don't care what your daddy do")

Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors"

wow, I'd totally forgotten that song. my mom played it when I was a kid. I have to get some Dolly.

"Uptown Girl"

"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". Elton John singing some of Bernie Taupin's best lyrics.

'Well you get your kicks in Knightsbridge not in Stepney any more'

hey, I've always wondered about the places in "Play with Fire" - I mean I think I get the general idea, but what exactly is implied in the references to St John's Wood, Stepney and Knightsbridge?

Janis Ian's "Society's Child" I think was somewhat groundbreaking in that regard, though I think it was about race not class. I remember when I was about 10 in central California hearing my local AM station's year-end top-100 (or whatever) countdown and this was number 1, and I don't think I had ever heard the song on that station before. I can only guess that the song was too hot for them normally but their list was from national sales/airplay so they had to play it.

The Dicks -- "Rich Daddy"
Stones -- "Salt Of The Earth"
Kinks -- "House In The Country", about thirty others

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Stevie Wonder "Uptight (Everything's Alright)"
Johnny Rivers "The Poor Side of Town"
The Supremes "Love Child"

Well, maybe not the Johnny Rivers track, but it shouldn't be destroyed either.

'Rat Race' ~ The Specials.
'Five Get Over Excited' ~ The Housemartins.

Every Oi! song ever. Search: Sham 69. Destroy: the Dropkick Murphys.

also search "Big Brother" by Stevie

Paul Simon, "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes."

"Summertime" by Lots of People ("you're daddy's rich and your ma's good looking/so hush little baby don't you cry")

"Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival

"Richard Cory" by Simon and Garfunkel

"Rich Girl" by Hall and Oates

"Substitute" by the Who ("I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth")

Search: the complete works of the Fall, especially "Prole Art Threat", "Crap Rap 2 / Like to Blow" ("We are the Fall / Northern white crap that talks back"), and "C 'N' C-S Mithering" ("Five wacky proletariat idiots").

"If her daddy's rich/ Take her out for a meal/ If her daddy's poor/ Then do what you feel" - Mungo Jerry

I'm upper,upper class high society
God's gift to ballroom notoriety
I always fill my ballroom
the event is never small
the social pages say I've got
the biggest balls of all

"Big Balls", AC/DC

An insight into the class prejudice permeating the justice system is found in Aerosmith's "Same Old Song and Dance", in which somebody is sentenced to the chair for "coincidental murder" just because of the "judge's constipation".

This thread has just inspired me to dig out 'Stay Close to Me' by Ted Hawkins, a beautiful song on his 'Watch Your Step' alb that contains the following lines:

"You're from the Upper Class

You dislike long hair anyway, I know you do

I'm going to the barber shop, I read the paper just like you

Tomorrow morning, I swear to god, I'm gonna see if I can find a job"

All delivered in Ted's best heartbreaking gurgle.

DaveM took the words right out of my mouth (It must have been while he was kissing me etc.)

Also, 'I Want The One I Can't Can't Have' by the Smiths, kinda.

Someone already mentioned the Kinks. The three that stand out are "David Watts," "Dead-End Street," and "Shangri-La." They probably stand out because they're back-to-back-to-back on my copy of The Kink Kronikles as much as for their subject matter ...

The Four Seasons' "Dawn" about a poor boy (Frankie Valli) telling his sweetheart to take up with his rival because the rival is rich. There's also "Rag Doll," where Frankie is the (relatively) rich one (and if Mr. Valli's in the same financial straights as he was in in "Dawn," then the "Rag Doll" must be really down-and- out).

Goodly portions of the Merle Haggard songbook, of course (esp. "Mama Tried," "Tulare Dust," "If We Make It Through December," even "Okie from Muskogee" [the voice of Richard Nixon's so-called "Silent Majority]). And so many rap songs it would take forever to mention them.

Search: The Upper Crust's Let Them Eat Rock and The Decline and Fall of the Upper Crust.