The Populist Moment
The Populist Revolt
The Socialist Party of America
The American Socialist Movement (1892-1932?)
The Social ?????? Of American ????? (Communism?)
The Invention of the American Political Parties
Posted on 06/18/2010 6:56:29 AM PDT by rhema
In a famous scene from the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night, a reporter asks Ringo Starr whether he's a Mod or a Rocker. Starr answers, "I'm a mocker."
Apparently, so is Paul McCartney.
To be fair, nobody ever called McCartney the Smart Beatle. (That was John Lennon.) But nobody ever called him the Stupid Beatle either (that was Ringo), not even when he behaved like one (filming Give My Regards to Broad Street, marrying Heather Mills).
But when he took the occasion of accepting the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song to insult George W. Bush—"After the last eight years," McCartney said in a quip heard 'round the world, "it's great to have a president who knows what a library is"—one couldn't help wondering whether the Cute Beatle's decades of smoking marijuana and not eating meat had taken a toll on his brain.
"There are many things of which Bush may be fairly accused," blogged the Washington Post's Charles Lane. "[But] those who smugly deride his ostensible ignorance often inadvertently demonstrate their own." Lane went on to point out that Bush, besides marrying a librarian, had made increased library funding a top priority as both the governor of Texas and the president.
Of course, neither marriage nor money makes one a bookworm. Reading, however, does. "Mr. Bush's 2006 reading list shows his literary tastes," wrote Karl Rove in a 2008 editorial. "Fifty-eight of the books he read that year were nonfiction. Nearly half of his 2006 reading was history and biography, with another eight volumes on current events . . . and six on sports."
Rove should know: Besides being Bush's deputy chief of staff, he competed with him twice in year-long reading contests. Bush lost the first one 110 to 95, in part because the Bible only counted as one book. His other excuse, wrote Rove, was that "he'd been busy as Leader of the Free World."
Therefore, McCartney was not merely wrong but egregiously so. Unfortunately, among rock stars such cluelessness gushes forth like BP oil.
On the same day that McCartney mocked Bush, the band Los Lobos—four of whose five members are of Mexican descent—announced it was canceling its June 10 performance at the Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz. The reason: the recent passing into law of Arizona's anti-illegal-immigration Senate Bill 1070.
"The new law," read Los Lobos' statement, "will inevitably lead to unfair racial profiling and possible abuse of people who just happen to look Latino. As a result, in good conscience, we could not see ourselves performing in Arizona."
Los Lobos' twinges of conscience followed hard on the heels of similar ones recently suffered by Elvis Costello. "It is a matter of instinct and conscience," wrote the bespectacled singer-songwriter in defense of his decision to cancel two concerts in Israel. The cancellations, he said, were his way of respecting the "sensitivity" of Palestinians "in the wake of so many despicable acts of [Israeli] violence perpetrated in the name of liberation."
Perhaps, like Helen Thomas, Costello would like to see Israel's Jews "go home" to the very countries in which they were once threatened with becoming (to quote the title of an old song of his) "Pills and Soap." And perhaps Los Lobos really does think Arizona police are now authorized to abuse people who "look Latino" the way the Gestapo once abused, well, Jews.
But it seems more likely that they're simply not thinking very hard. Until they do, they should probably quit making like Paul McCartney and start making like George Harrison—the Quiet Beatle.
As I recall: Bush was married to a librarian!!
Maybe Paul should have done some research in a LIBRARY before he made those comments.
Well, he just proves you can be one of the rich and ignorant.
ROFLOL!!
We had one waiting on customers in our local Rite Aid convenience store. An Irish-German face, with Lennon glasses, and a long burka and head scarf practically down to the floor. About a year later, apparently the romance was over, because I saw her in her native garb -- a dirty sweatshirt and grubby jeans with bed-head hair.
...”There were birds in the sky, but I never soar them winging.” CUT!! Dammit, Paul, for the 50th time it’s SAW...SAW them winging...not Soar or sore but SAW!!. OK, let’s try it again...take 51.
HEY! You give Forrest a bad name comparing him to liberals.
Lennon was so smart he thought that Marxism could work and that the world would be a peaceful place if we were all atheists living for today.
The Populist Moment
The Populist Revolt
The Socialist Party of America
The American Socialist Movement (1892-1932?)
The Social ?????? Of American ????? (Communism?)
The Invention of the American Political Parties
It could be that James Taylor and Carol King invested their money with a Bernard Madoff and now they don’t have the option to be insulting.
James Brown would be a better example......hee hee
Don't know how it was 'arranged' but it was published years before he ever sang it.
It was written by Meredith Wilson for his musical “The Music Man” which came out in 1962. The Beatles didn’t steal it any more than they stole Twist and Shout or Long Tall Sally, they just covered it.
Thank you, I thought I saw it as a “Lennon-McCartney” in songbooks over the years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Costello
Costello's standing in the U.S. was bruised for a time when in March 1979, during a drunken argument with Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett in a Columbus, Ohio Holiday Inn hotel bar, the singer referred to James Brown as a "jive-ass n___r", then upped the ante by pronouncing Ray Charles a "blind, ignorant, n___r". Costello apologised at a New York City press conference a few days later, claiming that he had been drunk and had been attempting to be obnoxious in order to bring the conversation to a swift conclusion, not anticipating that Bramlett would bring his comments to the press. According to Costello, "it became necessary for me to outrage these people with about the most obnoxious and offensive remarks that I could muster."
Interesting juxtaposition considering that James Taylor was once signed to Apple Records...
Not a bad idea come to think of it.
James Taylor was certainly making himself heard during the 2004 election. I wonder why he’s so quiet now...he couldn’t be wising up. ;’)
On 15 May 2010, Costello announced he would withdraw from a concert performed in Israel in opposition to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. In a statement on his website, Costello wrote, “It has been necessary to dial out the falsehoods of propaganda, the double game and hysterical language of politics, the vanity and self-righteousness of public communiqués from cranks in order to eventually sift through my own conflicted thoughts.”
******
3 hours ago
TEL AVIV, Israel — Pounding his piano in blue-tinted sunglasses before nearly 50,000 screaming fans, Elton John took center stage in a battle over Israel’s image.
The legendary British rocker’s concert on Thursday night followed a string of cancellations by artists like Elvis Costello and the Pixies. Resisting a growing wave of calls from pro-Palestinian activists to boycott the Jewish state, John gave Israelis a rare reason to smile amid their increasing sense of international isolation.
“Ain’t gonna stop me from coming here, baby,” he told the cheering crowd in Tel Aviv, saying he believed music should spread peace and bring people together: “That is what we do. We do not cherry-pick our consciences, OK?” he added, in an apparent swipe at the artists who have canceled concerts in Israel.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ivnlatFCThfhNue46HkDA0jhWIcgD9GDMQQO0
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