Worlds colliding

I read with interest an article this morning that makes the case that, with a new presidential administration in place that’s very different from the last one, music will be impacted.

The writer’s view is that, without an evil president to protest, we’re headed for an era of bland pop music, similar to the early ’60s.

It became quite fashionable during the past 8 years for artists to write and record their obligatory “Bush sucks” songs. Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, various rappers, Madonna – it seems like everybody spoke out except Britney Spears, who said, “Who’s George Bush?”

Apparently even Pink has a Bush is bad song. Well, that had to be devastating news for the former president. When you’ve lost Pink, you’ve lost the country.

I saw Joan Jett on the “Henry Rollins Show” one night, and learned that she has an anti-Bush, war-is-bad song. That was the second-most shocking thing I learned watching that show, the first being that Joan Jett is still alive. She had been feeling this way for some time, she said, and she felt like she had to get it out. I’m sure that was very influential on the people who are still buying Joan Jett CDs – both of them.

I am of the opinion that music and politics don’t make good bedfellows. Yes, there were some political songs in the ’60s and ’70s that have a lasting impact, and were actually good songs, but those were different times. And I suspect that for every Blowin’ In the Wind, there were 50 more like Eve of Destruction.

Quick, what’s your favorite Dylan song? I’m betting you didn’t say Masters of War or Just a Pawn in Their Game. Just a hunch.

Has anybody ever gone to a Springsteen concert and shouted out, “Play 41 Shots!” I doubt it. And I much prefer Steve Earle’s beautiful elegy for Townes Van Zandt (Ft. Worth Blues) than that song he wrote about Condi Rice. I suspect I’m not alone here.

And my dislike of political songs extends to both ends of the spectrum. Listen, I love America as much as the next guy, but if I go another 10,000 years without hearing Lee Greenwood’s God Bless The U.S.A., it still won’t be long enough. I’m right there with you on the sentiment, Lee. But the song sucks.

I remember not too long after 9-11 and some country singer released a song with the lyrics, “And you say we should forget about Bin Laden, but have you forgotten.” I really don’t think anybody was saying that. I think pretty much every Democrat, Republican, Libertarian and everything in between in America still wants that bastard dead.

Of course, everybody has a right to write and sing about whatever they want to. That’s the beauty of America. But, like George Costanza, I don’t like it when my worlds collide, and that’s what happens when I hear political songs. I like songs about drinking, and women, and loving, and loving women who drink – you know, the important stuff in life.