A Musical Interlude

[valarltd]

So anyway, I'm big on country music. I like the beat, I like the sound. It's a natural descendent of folk which I adore.

But lately, I'm not too keen on what's being played.

For everything like the Dixie Chicks' "Travelling Soldier" there's a lot of half-pop stuff like Mark Wills "Nineteen Something" and far too much like Tobey Keith's "Talk about me" (an unholy hybrid of rap & country) and "Chrome."

Lately, some of the singers are getting a bit more political.
Darrel Worley, whose work I like (I adore "I Miss my Friend." The video is a tear-jerker, even if it did mess with my mind by being het), released this gem lately.



I hear people saying we don't need this war
I say there's some things worth fighting for
What about our freedom and this piece of ground?
We didn't get to keep 'em by backing down
They say we don't realize the mess we're getting in
Before you start preaching
Let me ask you this my friend

CHORUS 1
Have you forgotten how it felt that day
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away?
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside
Going through a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

They took all the footage off my T.V.
Said it's too disturbing for you and me
It'll just breed anger that's what the experts say
If it was up to me I'd show it every day
Some say this country's just out looking for a fight
After 9/11 man I'd have to say that's right

CHORUS 1
Have you forgotten how it felt that day
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away?
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside
Going through a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

I've been there with the soldiers
Who've gone away to war
And you can bet they remember
Just what they're fighting for

CHORUS 2
Have you forgotten all the people killed?
Some went down like heroes in that Pennsylvania field
Have you forgotten about our Pentagon?
All the loved ones that we lost
And those left to carry on
Don't you tell me not to worry about Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

Have you forgotten?
Have you forgotten?



And the DJs were cheering.
::shudder:: I personally think we need to finish the last war before starting a new one.

Y'all pardon me while I go watch the "Nineteen Something" video, with the kids in vest and cape chasing each other with a Kenner brand TIE fighter and Millennium Falcon.

Comments

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

My point exactly.
Given the album it's on, it's possible the song is about the Afghanistan war. OTOH, I hadn't heard it getting any airplay this time last year. (Which is about the time i first heard "I Miss my friend")

Some people. No objection here to finding Bin Ladin. But Bin Ladin isn't Hussein. And from what our op-ed page is showing, 90% of the folks in these parts don't care.

From the NY Times OP-ed page:
As one savvy official observed, occupying Baghdad comes at an "unpardonable expense in terms of money, lives lost and ruined regional relationships." Another expert put it this way: "We should not march into Baghdad. . . . To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us, and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day Arab hero . . . assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war. It could only plunge that part of the world into even greater instability."

Those comments may overemphasize the risks, but they are from top-notch analysts whose judgments I respect. The first comment was made by Colin Powell in a Foreign Affairs essay in 1992; the second is in "A World Transformed," a 1998 book by the first President Bush.

--Nicholas D. Kristof, "Losses, Before Bullets Fly" NYT Times 3/7/03

I could do without hearing that song or Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red White and Blue" again. But I'll take the jingoism over rap which literally sets my teeth on edge. The stresses are in exactly the wrong places, the beat jars me and I find most of the lyrics are offensive. At least on country stations they'll bleep the line "Put a boot up your ass."

Personally, I think Alan Jackson handled it best with "Where were you when the world stopped turning."