15 Greatest Protest Songs Of The 21st Century

Key Lyrics: "It's a shame to awake in a world of pain // What does it mean when a war has taken over? // It's the same everyday and the wave won't break // Tell you to pray while the devil's on their shoulder"

Eddie Vedder has never been shy about challenging authority in his lyrics, whether it be a politician or their corporate overlords at Ticketmaster. And while some of their more overtly political songs haven't aged very well ("Bu$hleaguer", anyone?), this track from their self-titled album, unfortunately, will probably never lose its relevance.

When this song -- dedicated to Army Ranger Pat Tillman, who was killed in a friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan but never received much media coverage -- was released in 2006, it had been awhile since Vedder and his cohorts had really let it rip with a purely aggressive rock track. Critics immediately likened it to the spunkier arena rock anthems of the band's debut album, Ten, but in truth, "World Wide Suicide" is far punkier than anything on that record.

Many of the songs off the band's self-titled album dabbled in politics ("Army Reserve", "Marker In the Sand") but "World Wide Suicide" is the only one that dealt resounding body blows.