Posted on 07/01/2005 7:39:31 AM PDT by bourbon
Sunday, June 26, 2005
In his 1974 song "Rednecks," Randy Newman lays a trap for the listener. Calling up the most boorish images of white Southerners ("We talk real funny down here/ We drink too much and we laugh too loud/ We're too dumb to make it in no northern town"), Newman invites the superior laughter of northern white liberals, the folks who'd bristle at pickaninny dolls but smile at Bubba jokes.
And then he unsheathes his knife. His proclamation that good old boys are "too ignorant to realize" that the North has given blacks their freedom is followed by a litany of every major northern ghetto: "He's free to be put in a cage in Harlem in New York City/ And he's free to be put in a cage on the South Side of Chicago and the West Side ..." By then, any laughter has choked on itself; the final chorus, "We're rednecks, we're rednecks," has no takers.
Unfortunately, the complexity of those lines, and the rich tangle of pop culture in the American South then and now, are far too often lost on the Northeastern critical elite. For evidence, look no further than the recent New York Times essay on the TV hit "American Idol," in which critic Virginia Heffernan displays the same sense of superiority that Newman skewered.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
"Well yeah :>\"
LOL!
That "smirk" is cute. ;o)
There's one in every crowd, B
The rest of the article was decent, but one misstatement can put a damper on the whole thing.
but one misstatement can put a damper on the whole thing.
and so can one mealy mouth Freeper
How big of you to reply again....
Your welcome
"and so can one mealy mouth Freeper"
That's the truth.
No need in gettin' nit-picky.
The article is very good.
"I have long ago determined that Southern bashers are not worth my time."
Good words.
"His remarks about "Dixie" :
"The old chestnut about the longing for a mythical homeland is ... a lie, because the place was never as idyllic as it's envisioned..."
How wrong he is!"
You are being disingenuous.
You have excerpted the quote to your satisfaction.
The actual quote is thus...
"The old chestnut about the longing for a mythical homeland is both a lie -- because the place was never as idyllic as it's envisioned and because it ignores those for whom it was never meant to be idyllic -- and so beautiful that you want to believe the land described in the song had to exist at some time, just as you want to believe the "patriots' dream" of "America the Beautiful" can someday be realized."
Your agenda is now known.
Why don't you put something on your
homepage so that we will know a bit
about you?
At the very least...fly your flag.
"You are being disingenuous."
Is that a lady like word for "lying through your tooth"?
My old stand-by is Old Charter.
Booker's is hard to beat at the high end, but I also like WT's Rare Breed.
yup. I'm off the wagon again. And, it's only 9am. (sigh.) :-)
fwiw, Elvis may be the king of rock & roll, but BOB WILLS is still THE KING. period. end of story!
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
"Is that a lady like word for "lying through your tooth"?"
LOL!
Yep. ;o)
"fwiw, Elvis may be the king of rock & roll, but BOB WILLS is still THE KING. period. end of story!"
As I would tell my daddy when he put his foot down,
"YES, SIR!"
;o)
fwiw, i'm likely as old as your dad.
free dixie,sw
"fwiw, i'm likely as old as your dad."
LOL! I wouldn't be too sure of that.
I have three grandchildren. ;o)
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