Ten words: Metal-folk protest music from a guy in his 60’s.
Oh come on, stop cringing. It could be fun. I own several of Neil’s albums, some on vinyl, and some have been replaced with cassettes, and then CD’s (Rust Never Sleeps still plays often here), so I feel I’ve paid for the right to comment… at least a little.
Neil Young’s new album, “Living with war”, including the song “Impeach the President” (lyrics here), will be released tomorrow through Young’s website.
It has been written that Young was a big backer of the President shortly after 9/11, and was a former supporter of Presidents George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan.
Now, since Young says that the war has gone bad and Bush’s poll numbers are down, Young is anti-Bush. Honest coincidence, or is Neil Young simply riding on waves of public sentiment, no matter where they are or what they’re for or against? Duh! He’s an entertainer. It’s what they do.
That said, the value of this activism in achieving whatever it is said celebrity is trying to accomplish is usually minimal at best, completely counterproductive at worse.
How effective are celebrity protests and anti-war songs?
Remember John Lennon’s “Give peace a chance”, “Imagine”, and Yoko Ono’s… whatever that is she’s squawking about. Since then, we had a continuation of hostilities in Vietnam, the tragedy at the Olympic games in Munich, the hostage crisis in Iran, embassy bombings, hijackings, continuous violence in the Middle East and constant terrorist attacks around the world. We might want to give peace a chance, but it would appear others don’t. Maybe the problem is that despots and terrorists don’t listen to enough FM radio.
For the last couple of decades, many celebrities have petitioned presidents and others to release from prison, or at least get a new trial for, Leonard Peltier, who was convicted in 1975 of killing two FBI agents. Peltier is still using soap-on-a-rope and padlocked briefs to this day.
In 1998, celebrities from around the world signed a petition calling Kenneth Starr’s investigation into Bill Clinton’s perjury an “inquisitorial harassment by a fanatical prosecutor.” Clinton was impeached soon after.
In 2002, many of these same entertainers signed a petition asking U.S. senators to vote against a plan to bury the nation’s nuclear power waste at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. The petition so impressed Congress that they immediately started dumping nuclear waste in the Yucca Mountain (now known as “Enrico Fermi’s Port-A-Potty”).
Last year, Hollywood heavyweights, musicians, and others, turned out big time to protest the death penalty for Crip founder Stanley “Tookie” Williams. What happened? To use Hollywood vernacular, “Tookie” was canceled.
The protests don’t seem to work, and often, the opposite of what is sought is the result. Maybe a change in strategy is in order.
The limo-liberal left should realize that, if they’re truly interested in getting us out of Iraq and avoiding confrontation with Iran, they should form a group called “Actors For A Radioactive Teheran.” The general public would turn pacifist virtually overnight. Nobody in their right mind would want to start a war if Mia Farrow and REM thought it was a good idea, right?
Hollywood and Neil Young would have their anti-war objectives achieved with one final phone call from President Bush:
“General, Dubya here. Got some entertainers who think we should stay in Iraq, and invade Iran and North Korea after that’s done. I just wanted to let you know, because as soon as I get ‘thumbs up to attack’ votes from Conrad Bain, Reese Witherspoon and that guy who played ‘Screech’ on ‘Saved By The Bell’, we’re standing down. Time for a re-think.”
So, if Neil Young’s “Living with War” album, and it’s song “Impeach the President” doesn’t get us out of our global troubles and get rid of Bush, I’d suggest that his next CD be entitled “Nuke Iran and Don’t Impeach Bush!”
That combined with backing vocals from George Clooney, Rob Reiner, The Dixie Chicks, Alec Baldwin and Martin Sheen on the song “Vote Republican in ‘08″ should help ensure that the public will assist them in seeing to it that absolutely none of that ever happens.
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BlogWonks » Doug Powers said,
May 1, 2006 at 9:20 am
jjtaup said,
Ordinary people that put in their time, pour their sweat, and pay their bills are the true activists. They are the rebels and non-conformists the airbrushed empty suits and skirts only play-act, because they refuse to fold. It is the fathers and mothers who work and feed children, and the producers and laborers and providers who pilot this ship of humanity on a hostile sea of defeatism and spiritual vacuity. Ordinary non-celebrities who live and die in obscurity contribute to the medicines that heal, the foods that sustain, and the machines that form the tenuous bulwark against hunger, disease, and the maw of decay.
The funny man on stage only acts.
May 1, 2006 at 11:57 am
Disaffected said,
(Neil, not George. I hear The Shrub is more into coke and booze.
Daddy likes viagra…)
If Bush Jr. could make even one speech as coherent as a Neil Young lyric, we’d at least have a pretty average President.
May 1, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Sean said,
Post a picture of your mother, Powers. I want to see if she looks like Helen Thomas.
May 2, 2006 at 6:53 am
Doug Powers said,
Oh, we’re doing “mother” jokes now? That narrows it down. You’re either under 20 and trying to crack your buddies up in the dorm, or over 35 and living in your parents’ basement and definately not cracking them up.
May 2, 2006 at 8:19 am
DcFather said,
May 2, 2006 at 8:23 am
Sean said,
Certain people have contibuted to the public good, in ways out of proportion to the effort. Neil Young was one; Jan Egeland probably holds the record for the most accomplished with the least effort. If nothing good comes from a good deed, I don’t dump on it. I say try another day.
May 2, 2006 at 12:07 pm
fourthwire said,
He’s an entertainer ferchrissakes! Whether or not I enjoy his music, I give him (and other musical entertainers) approximately the same degree of respect for their “contributions to the public good” as I would give any porn stars for being talented during their performances.
If anything is “ways out of proportion”, it’s likely to be the credit you give him or other entertainers for doing anything “for the public good”.
A year or so ago, Shirley MacLaine and some other aging “divas” posed naked for some laudable, politically correct cause or another. I don’t remember specifically which one, nor do I particularly care.
She was 75 years old at the time. If she had done so a half century ago, no doubt the aesthetics would have been more pleasing, but that’s still not a particularly rational reason for bothering to listen to her “sales pitch” for whichever politically correct cause she espoused.
I could sum up the political and social “clout” of entertainers with the phrase: “By the artistically talented or aesthetically pleasing - for the weak-minded.”
May 2, 2006 at 9:08 pm
Sean said,
Ahnold entertains me even though he shaves his legs. I know that he parrots the thoughts of others, but dammit, I’m weak-minded enough to see the inner Ted Nugent in his schtick.
How about Will Rogers? Mark Twain? Were they just entertainers, forgotten before the lights dimmed?
Colbert makes me laugh, and Colbert telling Bush a few home truths to his face: priceless.
May 3, 2006 at 6:02 am
fourthwire said,
May 3, 2006 at 1:21 pm
fourthwire said,
May 3, 2006 at 1:24 pm
tai said,
May 11, 2006 at 1:23 pm
onlylivin said,
May 15, 2006 at 9:55 am
Staff said,
**MND Editor’s Note**
dear onlylivin: President Clinton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998 is, of course, an historical day for most Americans, but given wide reportage in the British press, I expect you may have heard of it. Why don’t you try this Wikipedia article for a little background?
BTW - when you write ‘dingus‘, what ‘thing’ are you referring to? Just curious.
May 15, 2006 at 11:53 am