Monday, April 17, 2006
Neil Young's "America the Beautiful" Album
FOX News was on at the gym this afternoon. The crawl under the picture said:
Neil Cavuto was talking to some people about the album. I don't know what they were saying because the sound was down, but I assume it was along the lines of "Why does Neil Young, a Canadian ingrate, hate America when it has done so much to enrich him?"
Neil Young doesn't hate America, of course. Neil Young hates the direction America has taken the last few years, which is a totally different thing. Young seemed to embrace the direction America was taking in the days after 9/11 (i.e., war on terror, passage of the Patriot Act, etc.) but it seems Iraq, Katrina, domestic spying, and a host of other issues have helped to change his mind.
Young wouldn't be the only one to have decided the nation is heading in the wrong direction. Every poll released since the first of the year shows 55%-68% of Americans believe the nation is heading in the wrong direction.
Most of those people who think the nation is heading in the wrong direction lay the blame at George W. Bush's feet. In the latest Gallup poll released today, for instance, only 36% of Americans approve of Bush's performance as preznit.
So you see, how people feel about the direction of the country and how they feel about the preznit are related issues.
Anyway, let's let Reuters report on the new Neil Young album and you decide for yourself if its an attack on America::
Gee, this new Neil Young album doesn't sound like an attack on America. It sounds like an attack on George W. Bush.
An attack on George W. Bush isn't the same thing as an attack on America, is it?
I mean, after all, the recording session wrapped with an a cappella version of America the Beautiful. You can't get any more patriotic than that, can you?
Neil Young Records Album That Attacks America
Neil Cavuto was talking to some people about the album. I don't know what they were saying because the sound was down, but I assume it was along the lines of "Why does Neil Young, a Canadian ingrate, hate America when it has done so much to enrich him?"
Neil Young doesn't hate America, of course. Neil Young hates the direction America has taken the last few years, which is a totally different thing. Young seemed to embrace the direction America was taking in the days after 9/11 (i.e., war on terror, passage of the Patriot Act, etc.) but it seems Iraq, Katrina, domestic spying, and a host of other issues have helped to change his mind.
Young wouldn't be the only one to have decided the nation is heading in the wrong direction. Every poll released since the first of the year shows 55%-68% of Americans believe the nation is heading in the wrong direction.
Most of those people who think the nation is heading in the wrong direction lay the blame at George W. Bush's feet. In the latest Gallup poll released today, for instance, only 36% of Americans approve of Bush's performance as preznit.
So you see, how people feel about the direction of the country and how they feel about the preznit are related issues.
Anyway, let's let Reuters report on the new Neil Young album and you decide for yourself if its an attack on America::
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran rocker Neil Young has recorded a protest album featuring an anti-Iraq war track with "a holy vow to never kill again" and a song titled "Let's Impeach the President," the singer said on Monday.
The 10-track set, called "Living with War," was recorded this month by a "power trio" -- electric guitar, bass and drums -- plus trumpet and a 100 voices, the 60-year-old Canadian-born musician announced on his Web site.
Young's longtime manager, Elliot Roberts, told Reuters the album, which has been the subject of Internet buzz for several days, will be played for executives at his label, Warner Music Group's Reprise Records, on Tuesday.
"It's devoted to the state of America, or the direction that America is moving in," Roberts said of the album.
In a message crawl along the bottom of his Web site, Young drew parallels to two of the leading protest singers of the 1960s, saying of his new record: "I think it is a metal version of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan ... metal folk protest?"
The crawl goes on to reveal the lyrics of the album's title track, with such lines as: "I raise my hand in peace ... I never bow to the laws of the thought police ... I take a holy vow ... to never kill again ...
"In the big hotels ... in the mosques and the doors of the old museum ... I take a holy vow ... to never kill again."
Roberts confirmed that a separate song on the album is titled "Let's Impeach the President." He declined to disclose any further details about the record.
But according to some online reports, the song accuses President George W. Bush of "lying" and features a rap with Bush's voice set against a choir singing "flip-flop."
One member of that choir, a California-based musician, wrote on a "blog" entry last Friday that the recording session wrapped with an a capella version of "America the Beautiful."
Gee, this new Neil Young album doesn't sound like an attack on America. It sounds like an attack on George W. Bush.
An attack on George W. Bush isn't the same thing as an attack on America, is it?
I mean, after all, the recording session wrapped with an a cappella version of America the Beautiful. You can't get any more patriotic than that, can you?
Comments:
<< Home
Good observation, good post.
The conflation of the leader with the state is a bizarrely cultlike phenomena. It's one of the truly creepy elements of the PR campaign that attempts to prop this administration up, much like the apparent doctrine of inerrancy.
Mike
The conflation of the leader with the state is a bizarrely cultlike phenomena. It's one of the truly creepy elements of the PR campaign that attempts to prop this administration up, much like the apparent doctrine of inerrancy.
Mike
You should let your gym know how you feel about Fox, and if they don't change the channel, you ought to find another gym.
Or ask them to play Neil Young videos to be "fair and balanced."
Good luck getting the aerobics classes to boogie to "Heart of Gold."
Or ask them to play Neil Young videos to be "fair and balanced."
Good luck getting the aerobics classes to boogie to "Heart of Gold."
Your prediction is a good one, praguetwin. The right-wing noise machine will churn into overdrive attacking Young for hating America. hell, it's already started. You have to figure Bill O'Reilly will be doing a hit piece on Young pretty soon.
Mike, can you think of any political figure less deserving of a cultlike devotion than George W. Bush? Not that anybody's deserving of cultlike devotion, but good god, George Fucking Bush??? This guy didn't get his first job until he's was 40 and even then, Daddy's rich oil buddies got it for him!
nyc educator, my gym is in my building. It's small and cheap and the trainer only works from 6PM - 10PM. FOX is very rarely on. Usually the TV's are showing VH1, MSNBC, CNN, and ESPN, but there's one wingnut in my building who works out like once every week and asks to have FOX News put on. I don't mind, actually, because the membership fee is so reasonable (like $300 a year compared to $3,000 a year at Crunch down the street) that I can put up with Neil Cavuto, Falfalel Man and Britt every so often.
The one time I had a problem with the TVs at my gym was last year during Katrina when one woman asked to have both CNN and MSNBC turned off during the height of the disaster because she found the hurricane coverage "depressing". Plus she was missing "her show" on MTV.
I said to her "I bet you'd find it even more depressing if you were sitting outside the convention center without food and water for three freaking days."
She didn't respond. She just enjoyed "her show" (happened to be The Real World, how's that for irony!!!) on MTV while she peddled away on the stationary bike.
Mike, can you think of any political figure less deserving of a cultlike devotion than George W. Bush? Not that anybody's deserving of cultlike devotion, but good god, George Fucking Bush??? This guy didn't get his first job until he's was 40 and even then, Daddy's rich oil buddies got it for him!
nyc educator, my gym is in my building. It's small and cheap and the trainer only works from 6PM - 10PM. FOX is very rarely on. Usually the TV's are showing VH1, MSNBC, CNN, and ESPN, but there's one wingnut in my building who works out like once every week and asks to have FOX News put on. I don't mind, actually, because the membership fee is so reasonable (like $300 a year compared to $3,000 a year at Crunch down the street) that I can put up with Neil Cavuto, Falfalel Man and Britt every so often.
The one time I had a problem with the TVs at my gym was last year during Katrina when one woman asked to have both CNN and MSNBC turned off during the height of the disaster because she found the hurricane coverage "depressing". Plus she was missing "her show" on MTV.
I said to her "I bet you'd find it even more depressing if you were sitting outside the convention center without food and water for three freaking days."
She didn't respond. She just enjoyed "her show" (happened to be The Real World, how's that for irony!!!) on MTV while she peddled away on the stationary bike.
She just enjoyed "her show" (happened to be The Real World, how's that for irony!!!) on MTV while she peddled away on the stationary bike.
Brilliant image!!
Another prediciton: attacking one of the greatest (many say the greatest) rock musicians of all time backfires horribly.
Brilliant image!!
Another prediciton: attacking one of the greatest (many say the greatest) rock musicians of all time backfires horribly.
I would say that it is Fox News that hates America if they purposely lie, twist and distort the news to suit their agenda -- which, by the way, is a corporate one owned by a foreigner. The banner could have read "Aussie Murdoch hates America as he tries to restrict Free Speech." Yes, NY said something about restricting some freedoms for a short time in 2001 under the Patriot Act, but this observer could easily surmise from his Greendale tour, that he grew tired of that abomination a long time ago...
You're right about Murdoch, jimdc821. Talk about hurting America, between the Fox news division and the Fox entertianment division, I can think of very few worse influence on America.
Good point about Greendale too. It didn't take long for Young to realize just how harmful the administration's policies have been for both the country and the world.
Post a Comment
Good point about Greendale too. It didn't take long for Young to realize just how harmful the administration's policies have been for both the country and the world.
<< Home
