Music, Art, and All Like That

[rolanni]

I run toward the guitar-heavy, "unclassifiable" in my taste in music. The Waybacks' "Devolver" is never far from the CD player (you can listen to some of it here if you've a mind to, though my favorite cuts -- "The Witch of the Westmereland" and "I Wan'na Be Like You" -- aren't available to sample, "The Last Steam Train" and "Compadres in the Old Sierra Madre" are worth a listen). I'm also fond of Ray Wylie Hubbard. And Warren Zevon. Great Big Sea and Gaelic Storm -- so, OK, we're starting to wander from guitars, here...

And then there's James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards. "Live in Aught-Three" is giving "Devolver" a run for "most-played CD" here in the back office. I'm particularly fond of "Rachel's Song," and "The Lights of Cheyenne," while kinzel favors "Choctaw Bingo." You can listen to bits over on Amazon, but they don't do justice.

James and the Bastards have a new song; it's been getting a lot of play up thisaway, as you might expect. You can download it for free with the band's blessing here. I prefer the acoustic myself, but there's the full-band version on offer, too, if you swing that way. The title of the song is "We Can't Make it Here," and it's likely the scariest song I've ever heard.

The song's hit a lot of people, and you can read some of their letters off the front page there on the band's website. Just click on "Read Public Response," and you'll get a pop-up window full of letters. Three, four pages of letters. The first six are about what you'd expect; True Believers telling James and the boys how good they did. Seventh letter's different, though. In its own way, as scary as that song. It goes like this:

James
you lost my respect. Every time I pay money to go see you in concert,
I don't pay money to hear you campaign for the democratic party or
bash the President (basically.) I am a proud supporter of our
President and the Republican party! If you want to express your
political views, please don't do it at your shows, you have offended
me and many other young folks who go to UT, and my family to whom
I introduced your music and name to ........we enjoy your music (that
isn't about bashing the United States or the President or the war.) I
think you have been watching to much of Michael Moore and his
ignorant, heavy biased movies.

Sure you have freedom of speech, but I don't go to hear political
opinions or views, I go to hear good music that does not have anything to do with politics.

Sure, you have freedom of speech...

Sure, you do.

Comments

WHy I love Austin

[noiseinmyhead.livejournal.com]

I get to hear _we can't make it here anymore_ on the radio :)

Re: WHy I love Austin

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we get to hear it on WKIT -- Stephen King's radio station up there to Bangor. In one of Life's Little Ironies, we were in Roanoke at a con when McMurty was up in Ellsworth doing a concert. I hear a grand time was had by all, so maybe they'll come back...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

A college student wrote that?

To right.

I often sit and wonder what forms the backlash will take. I know it's coming. Has to be...

I'm not too familiar with McMurtry's music, but I recall some lyrics that ring. "Ghost of a moon in the afternoon...bullet holes in the mailbox."

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

"Ghost of a moon in the afternoon...bullet holes in the mailbox."

Too Long in the Wasteland. Apt.

I worry about the backlash, too. "Culture War" takes on a whole new meaning when you've got parents sending little kids through a police line to "take a drink to Terri" -- and then proclaiming that "God is with" them when they're arrested. I'm trying to get my head around the notion that -- as ...hunted... as I feel right now, watching rights I fought for in my lifetime being trammeled -- that the folks who're pulling these stunts must've felt just as hunted and bewildered for a ...years. But my head's not gettin' there, y'know?

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

But my head's not gettin' there, y'know?

I know. I look at some of these people, realize the wideness of the gulf separating my viewpoint from theirs, and throw in the towel. Can't reach 'em, don't even try, just do what I can to vote out them and theirs every chance I get.

I can...accept that these people felt marginalized, victimized by a culture they felt ignored their beliefs and values when they weren't belittling them. But I cannot accept their conviction that the solution to this is to remake the whole of society into what they believe it should be--they've confused beliefs and values with rights, . Call me a cock-eyed optimist, but I truly believe they will push some issue to the point where they will reveal themselves for what they are and marginalize themselves again. The culture has become too diverse, and the muttering majority really does not want the gov't to butt in to certain aspects of their lives. Now that they've gotten the Stand By Your Man stuff out of their systems, I am hopeful that they will grab the handbrake and yank back real hard.

But as I said, cock-eyed optimist.

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

I'm just glad I live in a city where the worst insult some people can come up with to scream at me is "Republican!" I just can't get their worldview in my brain...I guess I am just too much of a rationalist. And obviously they have never read and understood the USA's founding documents, nor do they care to.

Ugh.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Remember the Separatists who came to New England first...they were only 10% of the colony, I believe, but they dominated the politics and laws--for a long time.

The bottom line is, to keep this country from becoming a literal battleground 10-20 years down the line when the non-Christians hit 50%, we must all fight NOW for separation of church and state.

I wish we could convince the highly religious that one reason religion remains so strong in the USA is because it is NOT a state religion--or so one theory goes. Mainstream religion has faded in Europe and Scandinavia because there was an approved, state religion.

A lot of them would yank themselves back to a low profile.

The other thing we could do is say that any property owned by a church that is NOT being used for church business is investment property and should be taxed at corporate rates. Lots of Downtown Dallas, for example, is owned by various Baptist churches, who make big bucks off leasing the ground. This might cut a lot of PAC money? But it won't happen in this administration.

Censorship

[neyland-tarr.livejournal.com]

OK, let's review the bidding. What exactly is it about the fan's letter that you object to? So, the fan has found that his idol isn't his conception of perfect, and told his idol so. That's what fans are. In what way does this infringe on the musician's freedom of speech?

The First Amendment guarantees your Freedom of speech, and the freedom of the press. It doesn't promise you an audience or a line of credit at the printers'. If you are in show business, you have an absolute right to present your shows any way you want to (with in very broad limits defined by the laws on incitement to riot, treason, and endangering the public). Your fan base has an absolute right to STOP BUYING TICKETS, and write to tell you THEIR pinheaded political positions.

The cry of "censorship" is to often the sound of a self appointed Moral Leader who has been told he must pay for his own printing and hire his own hall.

Re: Censorship

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I object, first and foremost, to a college student who doesn't know the difference between "to" and "too" -- elementary school grammar.

I also object to the idea that CRITICISM of the president is WRONG, period, end of discussion. This is the United States of America. The common folk are allowed to criticize the Big Guy in the White House. This point increasingly seems to escape some people, many of them who ought to have a little more on the ball than an illiterate student.

Thirdly, I object to a president who is so allergic to CRITICSM that he feels he has to send shills out into the aether, and muzzle reporters for the so-called Free Press in order to cement his position as self-appointed Moral Leader.

Re: Censorship

[neyland-tarr.livejournal.com]

Where in the fan's missive do you derive the message that he thinks that criticizing the President is wrong? He objects to being politically harranged when he came to be musically entertained. It seems to me that he is saying "I love your music, but hate your politics. I don't want to be burdened with the latter while paying for the former."

Many entertainers choose to make their politics a part of their show. That's fine, so long as they understand that while they may attract some fans thereby, they repel others. An entertainer who puts the politics in the show, and then is shocked - SHOCKED! - to find that his politics are as subject to criticism as his playing is an annoying twit. Alas, the entertainment industry has proven, in recent years, to be full of just such annoying twits.

As for the so called Free Press, no such thing will exist in this country until reporters are ready to free themselves from the absurd fiction that an unbiased press is desirable, or possible. The best reportage in the english language has always been unblushingly biased, and often openly politically partisan. By contrast most of the reporting done under the banner of the supposedly unbiased media is trite and boring.....and biased anyway. Reporters are human. Unless they are complete dolts, they will have opinions about that on which they report. Those opinions will inform the direction of their research, and the manner of their writing. Attempts to disguise this result in pablum...and in a press that frankly comes of as 99% hypocritical shills for SOMEBODY.

Re: Censorship

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Where in the fan's missive do you derive the message that he thinks that criticizing the President is wrong?

Because he/she/it says so.

You have, by the way, been banned from commenting in this lj. Have a nice day.