Against: Fascism, Trump, Putin, Q, libertarianism, postmodernism, woke-ism and Identity politics. For: Democracy, equalism, art, science, Enlightenment values and common-sense liberalism.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Dear Mr. President
Pop music ain't my thang. But there's a lovely lady named Pink, previously unknown to me, who just wrote a song you should hear.
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Hi Joe
I saw this clip this weekend. Very powerful.
Recently my husband and I noted the lack of protest songs about Bush and the Iraq war, but shortly after that the void was filled by songs by Pink, James Taylor, and a performance by Madonna. At last! I hope the power of these songs will ramp up the opposition to Bush and the Iraq war until it is overwhelming and he is impeached!
hm. well, it did seem like noisy protest songs were absent from the airwaves at the beginning of the nightmares, but after the 9/11 glow wore off, it only required a little bit of investigation to find evidence of the genre popping up (so to speak) here and there. but it took a while. i think the combo of corporate radio (expressly clearchannel) and the despicable reaction to the dixie chicks' natalie maine's courage to speak the truth made it a confusing terrain in which to propose such a thing. now that the polls have reversed, we will likely be hearing a lot more of them.
to put it all in perspective, as well as get a deeply touching picture of the man, i highly recommend reading the interview with pete seeger in a recent new yorker. the man is not only an icon, he is about the closest thing to saintly i've encountered in many many years.
currently in the pop genre, though, here are just a few examples of what's been emerging: steve earle's last album, the revolution starts now!, has several cuts of anthem quality the target the shame of this administration, including the title cut and an affectionate little ditty dedicated to condi.
last summer the stones' album included a cut called 'sweet neocon' skewering the brazen hypocrisy of these folks, to their credit. to their solid DIScredit, they chose NOT to argue with their sponsor's insistence that they refrain from performing this tune at all during their tour, or during super bowl halftime. i have never heard it on the air myself, but it's a doozy.
a couple of weeks ago, i posted the alert for neil young's album, living with war, which is now available online for streaming. it is classic neil; raw, edgy, rough, and real. and the entire album is a protest. what does it say that, after more than 30 years, he repeats his role as composer of a movement's anthem with 'ohio.'
and of course there's pink's contribution, and bruce has just released an album of pete seeger stuff that is fabulous, and much more. keep yer ears open for it, and demand it from your radio stations! that's the key.
finally, i ran across this piece, strange nation, on huffpo, and man, it is remarkable! do NOT miss it. very sophisticated and damn spot one. you'll love it.
like i said before: we need an anthem. we need an anthem real bad.
Dude, you don't know who Pink is? Maybe you are a little out of touch with this culture. (Just a little, and I don't mean to be dis you too much. You do great work.) Not as much as George the First, who didn't recognize the optical scanner in the grocery... But maybe you should get out more. There is a lot going on that is not politics.
4 comments:
Hi Joe
I saw this clip this weekend. Very powerful.
Recently my husband and I noted the lack of protest songs about Bush and the Iraq war, but shortly after that the void was filled by songs by Pink, James Taylor, and a performance by Madonna. At last! I hope the power of these songs will ramp up the opposition to Bush and the Iraq war until it is overwhelming and he is impeached!
Oregon Fan
hm. well, it did seem like noisy protest songs were absent from the airwaves at the beginning of the nightmares, but after the 9/11 glow wore off, it only required a little bit of investigation to find evidence of the genre popping up (so to speak) here and there. but it took a while. i think the combo of corporate radio (expressly clearchannel) and the despicable reaction to the dixie chicks' natalie maine's courage to speak the truth made it a confusing terrain in which to propose such a thing. now that the polls have reversed, we will likely be hearing a lot more of them.
to put it all in perspective, as well as get a deeply touching picture of the man, i highly recommend reading the interview with pete seeger in a recent new yorker. the man is not only an icon, he is about the closest thing to saintly i've encountered in many many years.
currently in the pop genre, though, here are just a few examples of what's been emerging:
steve earle's last album, the revolution starts now!, has several cuts of anthem quality the target the shame of this administration, including the title cut and an affectionate little ditty dedicated to condi.
last summer the stones' album included a cut called 'sweet neocon' skewering the brazen hypocrisy of these folks, to their credit. to their solid DIScredit, they chose NOT to argue with their sponsor's insistence that they refrain from performing this tune at all during their tour, or during super bowl halftime. i have never heard it on the air myself, but it's a doozy.
a couple of weeks ago, i posted the alert for neil young's album, living with war, which is now available online for streaming. it is classic neil; raw, edgy, rough, and real. and the entire album is a protest. what does it say that, after more than 30 years, he repeats his role as composer of a movement's anthem with 'ohio.'
and of course there's pink's contribution, and bruce has just released an album of pete seeger stuff that is fabulous, and much more. keep yer ears open for it, and demand it from your radio stations! that's the key.
finally, i ran across this piece, strange nation, on huffpo, and man, it is remarkable! do NOT miss it. very sophisticated and damn spot one. you'll love it.
like i said before: we need an anthem. we need an anthem real bad.
Dude, you don't know who Pink is? Maybe you are a little out of touch with this culture. (Just a little, and I don't mean to be dis you too much. You do great work.)
Not as much as George the First, who didn't recognize the optical scanner in the grocery... But maybe you should get out more. There is a lot going on that is not politics.
Anonymous: I seem to recall that, back in the days of my youth, there was this group called the Something Stones. Are they still in business?
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