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Tony Bennett: 'America is culturally void'
Contact Music ^ | 8/22/06

Posted on 08/22/2006 12:27:52 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

Legendary singer Tony Bennett has slammed his home country of America for not contributing anything other than jazz music to world art and culture.

The If I Ruled The World crooner feels that Europe and Asia offer far more culturally than America does.

Bennett says, "I have travelled around the world to Asia and Europe. They show you what they have contributed to the world. The British show you theatre, the Italians show you music and art, the French show you cooking and painting, and the Germans show you science.

"The only thing that the United States, which is still a young country, has contributed culturally to the world is jazz - elongated improvisation. It's tragic."

And Bennett feels that Americans don't even appreciate the impact of jazz in popular culture.

He says, "Fifty years from now people will be bowing to Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, just like impressionist painters like Monet, who were starving in their day. The Americans don't even know what they have come up with."


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Music/Entertainment; Society
KEYWORDS: america; culturally; culturewar; tonybennett; void
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1 posted on 08/22/2006 12:27:52 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge

And comics. And the mystery novel.


2 posted on 08/22/2006 12:30:11 PM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: NormsRevenge

And Blues. And Country. And Rock and Roll.


3 posted on 08/22/2006 12:30:28 PM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: NormsRevenge

Maybe Bennett should bestow himself on another country.


4 posted on 08/22/2006 12:30:49 PM PDT by cripplecreek (If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?)
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To: NormsRevenge

Gotta tell ya, when you look at the hip-hop culture and the music, I think Tony has a point.


5 posted on 08/22/2006 12:30:51 PM PDT by NRA1995 (Zarqawi died, liberals cried....)
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To: NormsRevenge
Bennett says, "I have travelled around the world to Asia and Europe. They show you what they have contributed to the world. The British show you theatre, the Italians show you music and art, the French show you cooking and painting, and the Germans show you science.

Moron, if it wasn't for the U.S., they'd all be showing you their portraits of Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini.
6 posted on 08/22/2006 12:31:22 PM PDT by A Balrog of Morgoth (With fire, sword, and stinging whip I drive the RINOs in terror before me.)
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To: All

Bob Dylan says modern music is worthless

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1688105/posts


7 posted on 08/22/2006 12:31:28 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ......Help the "Pendleton 8' and families -- http://www.freerepublic.com/~normsrevenge/)
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To: NRA1995

Tony Bennett was as suprised as anyone when he got to appear on MTV in the 1990s.


8 posted on 08/22/2006 12:31:28 PM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: NormsRevenge
The British show you theatre... and we gave the world moving pictures. ...the Italians show you music and art... I thought we gave the world jazz? Oh, and don't forget the blues, rock n' roll, and I apologize for rap. ...the French show you cooking and painting...three words: bar-b-que ....and the Germans show you science...and we give the world the microprocessor, etc.
9 posted on 08/22/2006 12:34:50 PM PDT by randog (What the...?!)
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To: NormsRevenge

Hey, Bennett idiot: if it weren't for the US, they'd be lampshades or bars of soap!

Hells bells, we gave the world Fluff & PeanutButter Sandwiches, Jello, Spam, soap operas, game shows... I could go on and on.

Heh.


10 posted on 08/22/2006 12:35:29 PM PDT by butternut_squash_bisque (The recipe's at my FR HomePage. Try it!)
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To: NormsRevenge

If it can be called "a slice of Americana" then it is culturally significant and a contribution to the world.


11 posted on 08/22/2006 12:38:04 PM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: randog

Some French brothers invented moving pictures but the science and technology were improved, refined, and perfected in America, the land of opportunity.


12 posted on 08/22/2006 12:39:55 PM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: weegee

And technology. and photography. and the ability to travel to the moon and stars. and long slow, deep seductive kisses that last thru a rainstorm.


13 posted on 08/22/2006 12:40:26 PM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: NormsRevenge

He's gonna be doing a duet with the Banana Boat Man?


14 posted on 08/22/2006 12:40:34 PM PDT by traditional1
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To: A Balrog of Morgoth

That "moron" fought in the Battle of the Bulge.


15 posted on 08/22/2006 12:41:32 PM PDT by LN2Campy
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To: A Balrog of Morgoth

He's a singer. We don't expect singers to be political geniuses or philosophers except Dylan. He's trying to point out something that we know already but keep ignoring since it didn't happen in the past five minutes.


16 posted on 08/22/2006 12:44:47 PM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the law of the excluded middle)
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To: traditional1

He's gonna be doing a duet with the Banana Boat Man?


I wouldn't go quite that far.. lol


17 posted on 08/22/2006 12:45:16 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ......Help the "Pendleton 8' and families -- http://www.freerepublic.com/~normsrevenge/)
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To: NRA1995

I agree,
the man has a point.

We don't create lasting art or great music anymore.


18 posted on 08/22/2006 12:45:57 PM PDT by najida (The internet is for kids grown up-- Where else could you have 10,000 imaginary friends?)
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To: NormsRevenge
BZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTT. He's wrong:

AlGore invented the Internet....

Of course, whether he's an "American" or not is subject to interpretation.

19 posted on 08/22/2006 12:48:52 PM PDT by traditional1
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To: NormsRevenge
I'll give Bennett the benefit of the doubt that he's getting senile. However, this non-existing American culture he's going on about sure seems to be sweeping the world.

Start with the culture of representative democracy. The United States of America was the first and is the oldest functional representative democracy in the world.

Then think of the culture of political parties. We may or may not think this is so wonderful, but the good old USA gave birth to modern political parties.

How about "little" cultural things like the steam engine, electric lights, the assembly line, the polio vaccine, personal computers, skyscrapers, and similar things that Americans have contributed to the modern world? How about that good old brash American can-do spirit that yanked Europe and the world back from the brink in WWI, WWII and the Cold War?

How about the American musical theater, early Hollywood, the golden age of Hollywood, and television? How about the great songwriters who literally invented popular music and gave Bennett his material to sing? The Gershwins, Jerome Kern, Jonny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein...the list is very long indeed.

How about Gable, Stewart, Wayne, Cooper, Grant, Bogart, Hepburn (both Audrey and Katharine), Garland, Monroe, Astaire and Rogers, and the whole panoply of stars who defined the very essence of what it is to be a movie star.

How about Sinatra, Garland (again), Crosby, Elvis, and the whole long list of great singers who made American popular music the most pervasive musical form in the world?

How about the moon landings, the space race, and all consumer items that resulted from it?

How about interstate highways, mass marketing of automobiles, the modern advertising industry, bikini bathing suits, transistors, the list of American inventions and cultural contributions goes on and on and on.

So Bennett should sit down and shut up, because he's making a fool of himself.

20 posted on 08/22/2006 12:50:15 PM PDT by Wolfstar (Suffer the little children to come unto Me...for of such is the kingdom of God. [Mark 10:13-14])
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