Hey, musicians, stop preaching and just entertain us

New Hampshire Union Leader ^ | December 26, 2005 | Jack Heath

[Past Your Eyes]

ON THE WEEK before Christmas, I was excited to take my family to go to our great Verizon Wireless Arena to see James Taylor in concert. I paid a little extra for closer seats. Like any big entertainment venue these days, it is not cheap, but I was happy thinking this would be a fun and memorable family moment.

Old James T. is quite a musical talent. He has a long list of hits that folks from 10 to 90 years old can enjoy, songs ranging from "Sweet Baby James" to "Fire and Rain." The Verizon had a great crowd on hand, nearly 8,000 fans.

The first chance Taylor had to welcome the New Hampshire audience, he said, "It's great to be back home in 'blue' New England . . ." The comment did not really hit me, as I was not in a political mood. But as the show played on, J.T. slipped between songs his comments criticizing our presence in Iraq and the administration, and he even took some cheap shots at the late President Nixon

[Past Your Eyes]

Well, Jack, since Mr. Taylor had no care for what you thought, you should not have been so polite to him. He deserved to have people shout in protest as they walked out. And it would also have been nice if you had said "I wouldn't care less...", since that is what you really meant to say.

[Clara Lou]

Sweet Baby James is going to give the audience a bonus--his personal politics. He's just an aged hippy.

[fifthestate]

Sweet Baby James was great about 30 years ago. Since then, he's been living off his reputation. Why he thinks anyone would care about his politics is beyond me.

[Mears]

I would expect nothing less from James Taylor and wouldn't go see him if the admission was free.

He's locked in sixties mode.

[reasonisfaith]

“I think what (James Taylor) did was not only arrogant, but ignorant.”

“What really irked me were that his words and tone showed total disrespect for the America I know and love.”

I agree.

[BluH2o]

Attended a Santana outdoor concert a couple of summers ago.
Enjoyed the warm up band then Santana came on stage and gave a great show. At the end unfortunately he went into a nearly ten minute liberal spiel ... which for many was a complete turn off. I can assure you it will be the last time I spend good money to attend a Santana concert.

[Bon mots]

You should have walked out. James Taylor? Who cares what he thinks. Shut up and sing!

Another big candidate for the "Shut Up and Sing Award" has got to be "Boner" (Bono) of the band "U2".

I tell ya, for a group of Socialists and whiney lefties yakking about a litany of leftist causes, Boner and those guys from U2 really don't give a hoot about ripping huge holes in the ozone with all their jets, do they?

Pictured here are two different jets flown by Boner and U2.
One has two humungous fuel guzzling jet engines, and the other has THREE.
Looks they they should just STF up.

Ole Boner ("Bono") from U2 can't stop piping off and pontificating over leftist causes such as poverty and the environment. He somehow thought that because he was a popular crooner for little girls, that this skill somehow meant that he was a brilliant economist. Soon he became very full of himself and so began strutting around with politicians and economists from Washington and Kyoto to Davos mouthing bromides and lecturing all on economics. How he fits in with leftists is somewhat puzzling, since he lives like a fat capitalist pig. Behold one of his many homes:

Yessireeee, this 20 room palace is in Ireland, so probably needs to be heated 10 months out of the year. Why, just the heating bill alone could probably feed a small African country were the same money to be spent on food.

Then there's the issue of Boner's behemoth of a jet, well, I'm not sure which one is current, because I know of three...
Anyway, the one pictured below has FOUR Avco Lycoming ALF 502R-5 engines. Each one weighs over half a ton.
This flying beastly behemoth burns plenty of jet fuel too!
Fuel capacity: 9,300Kgs
Fuel consumption: 470Kgs / engine / hour
At a cruising speed of 400 knots, that works out to more than a kilogram of fuel for each mile traveled.
By my calculation, this profligate fuel guzzler gets about 3 miles per gallon.
"Hybrid for thee, but not for me!"

---

This jet consumes about 1 Kg. of Jet fuel per mile, so...
Jet A-1:
1,274 Liters per M.Ton
1,254 Liters per E.Ton
331.2 Liters per gallon

---

But I'm sure that Boner really CARES about the environment and the ozone layer, whales, Kyoto and all that.


Just firing up those four Lycoming engines probably rents a huge hole in the ozone.
But Boner is IMPORTANT!

"Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird... it's a plane... no... it's Boner ripping a huge hole in the ozone with his four-engined jet..."

---

Man, I really wasted my time studying economics. Years to get a Master's Degree, and nobody invites me to pontificate at Davos. What I should have done is to learn how to sing to little girls. Then I would be able to lecture the worlds' politicians and Economists at summits.

I blew it.

It's kind of funny that Boner is portrayed walking on water when as a young lad his nickname was "The AntiChrist".

[BradyLS]

On top of being expensive, live shows are another opportunity for "artistes" to let you down by ruining an evening of talent with interludes of unheralded, unsolicited political/religious opinion.

They really should just: "Shut up and sing!"

[pickrell]

He played Columbus, Ohio a few years ago. What remaining regard I had for his work evaporated then, under the vapid glare of his arrogance and his overt disdain of our "flyover" community. As Cartman would say to Stan and Kyle, "Lock 'em up in the basement..."

[pitbully]

Couldn't you have asked for your money back during the concert.You could have said you came to listen to music not political banter.Maybe a letter to your local paper would make your fellings known that being a pawn to his power of being a popular singer was not what you paid to hear.

[PGalt]

Great comments bump! Nattering Nabobs of Narcissism.

[GW and Twins Pawpaw]

331.2 liters (L) does NOT equal one gallon. 0.946 L equals one quart and four quarts (3.784 L) equals one gallon. Fuel burn in aircraft is expressed as pounds per hour per engine.

[rcocean]

Cut James Taylor some slack.

Downloads have rendered him penniless, which why he has to give concerts with expensive ticket prices.

Its tough being a millionaire singer/songwriter.

[Casloy]

why do so many entertainers think we actually want or even care what they have to say politically?

Because they are arrogant. Because they have a lot of sycophants around who agree with everything they say. Because they are completely out of touch with the rest of the country. Because being a musician does not require any brains so they need to get validation for their deep thoughts. Because they are stupid.

[Nea Wood]

I don't understand these singers. If I owned a hardware store, I wouldn't put a big sign in the window saying, "I'm glad this is a red state and anyone who voted for Kerry is an idiot," (even though that's how I'd feel.) I wouldn't insult my customers like that. I'd shut up and sell them hardware. If I did put up such a sign, and customers got insulted by it, they'd have every right to boycott me and shop at some other hardware store. Why don't these singers understand this? They're in sales, too...they're selling concert tickets and CDs. I've gotten to the point where I won't support the career of any entertainer who insults my judgment and tries to tell me who I should vote for. Laura Ingraham said it well..."shut up and sing."

[dfwgator]

Years of heroin abuse sure did a number on James' brain.

[geezerwheezer]

The only reason Boner is portrayed as to "walking on water" is that crap like he is, floats!!

[Bon mots]

331.2 liters (L) does NOT equal one gallon. 0.946 L equals one quart and four quarts (3.784 L) equals one gallon. Fuel burn in aircraft is expressed as pounds per hour per engine

Ooops! You're right. I meant to put 3.312, but I guess that wasn't accurate either. My bad.

So then... how many miles per gallond does Boner's four engined jet get?

[xmission]

We're barely a blue state. You'd think he'd know that he was going to insult a large portion of his audience. If he were playing one of the college towns it might be different.