Posted on 07/27/2014 5:06:27 AM PDT by Kaslin
I still remember Johnny wearing that “Kill a Commie for Mommy” t-shirt!
:-)
Oh man, this is great. Songs kept popping up in my head as I read. And the irony just drips off the screen.
Except he is right. And correct, moreover. :D
Also, Johnny Ramone was one of the staunchest conservatives in the media world throughout his career. Using the Wikipedia entry to save myself some typing:
Johnny was known within the punk rock community as one of its notable conservatives, and was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party. Johnny made his political affiliation known to the world in 2002, when the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After thanking all who made the honor possibleclad in his trademark T-shirt, ripped blue jeans and leather jackethe said “God bless President Bush, and God bless America”.[9] He said in an interview, when questioned on his conservatism, “I think Ronald Reagan was the best President of my lifetime.” This was evident in 1985 when the band released the UK single “Bonzo Goes To Bitburg”; Johnny pressed for a name change, finding the title insulting to Reagan, and the song was retitled on American releases as “My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)” after a line from the song’s chorus. In this same interview he claimed that “Punk is right wing”.[10]
Johnny is quoted by The Observer as saying: “People drift towards liberalism at a young age, and I always hope they change when they see how the world really is.”[11]
Further, the Punk movement produced Danny Elfman, who may be a libtard now that he’s utterly dependent on Hollywood movie largesse for a living, but in the 80s he and his band Oingo Boingo were some of the most vocal libertarian types, who wrote some scathing lyrics that still hold true today. From: http://www.redstate.com/diary/caiwyn/2010/11/02/music-to-vote-by/
***
2. Oingo Boingo Capitalism
How many full-throated defenses of the free market are put to music? This cut from Oingo Boingos 1981 debut album is often mischaracterized as satire. The truth, according to a 1982 interview with frontman Danny Elfman, is that it was written in response to many punk bands embrace of socialism:
Id been hearing a lot of music from England. Gangs of Four. The Clash. It was all Socialism forever and bring down the government. I thought it was ironic that any group would praise a socialist form of government that wouldnt let them play the type of music that they do. There isnt any socialist government that wouldnt consider it hooligan music
Well said, and its hard to find a lyric that gets to the point better than the refrain:
Youre just a middle-class socialist brat
from a suburban family
and youve never really had to work
***
Further, Elfman and Boingo wrote New Generation whose bridge is oh so appropriate for Obama’s presidency.
***
Do you feel the power
Do you feel the power
Baptized in electronic water
Prodigal sons and beautiful daughters
With smiles and bows and rosy cheeks
And the righteous bath
Death to the freaks
Do you feel the power
Do you feel the power
From the man whose voice sounds reassuring
Completely firm and so alluring, Like’s he’s lived a thousand times before
And seen the world from shore to shore
With the calmness and tranquility that oozes credibility
With the wisdom and the confidence that seem to scream out common sense
And it makes you feel just like a babe
Daddy holding you tight and safe
Hush babe everything’s all right, Daddy’s gonna stay with you tonight
Now he’s got you by the balls, he can sell you anything at all
From morality to diamond rings to genocide to magazines
From religion to cosmology to the end of a democracy
***
Conservatism (and real libertarianism) *is* punk, especially the do-it-yourself ethos that was part and parcel of the movement.
Yeah, man! Right on!
Is this what conservatism’s future will be???
https://sp3.yimg.com/ib/th?id=HN.608045340731704639&pid=15.1&H=129&W=160&P=0
Absolutely nailed it.
Looks like “kicks just keep getting harder to find”..
Yes, the State Fair circuit. The Townhall article does make interesting analogies.
Oops...I didn’t know how small the image of Cheech Marin would turn out...
Nevermind, my bad...
I’ve been saying this for a couple years now. Thanks for posting!
Cheech was never punk. Stoner culture, sure, but not punk.
BTO, Foghat, and Styx — favorites?
I liked BTO and Styx in the day.
I like this angle. OTOH, imagine how cool it would be if constitutional conservatism were the establishment position.
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