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September 27, 2004
Earth to The Boss – the wisdom of separating Pop and State
Moving from childhood through adolescence and then adulthood is like moving outward through concentric circles, where as a child you inhabit the center. As you mature your awareness moves outward to encompass immediate family, friends, school, community, country. I was pretty typical as a teen, my focus mainly on family, friends and school. Regardless of the fact of growing up with the Vietnam War and its profound impact on my life, it did not dominate it. Everyday conversations revolved around boyfriends, fashion and music. Music was an integral part of my life as it is any teen’s life. I found it both a communal and individual experience. I can hear a song today and it’s a time machine. I’m suddenly in the place and time that most emotionally resonates with me.
During adolescence, I indulged in hero-worship of my favorite pop/rock stars. I bought magazines with their pictures, memorized their birthdays and astrological signs, knew their “likes” and “dislikes” by heart (yes, I confess, I bought Tiger Beat!) displayed posters in my room and sighed with sadness when gossip had them “seriously dating” someone besides ME (there is not a teenaged girl alive that hasn’t daydreamed of a chance meeting with her teen idol where he is stricken by her shy, but earnest, manner and falls madly in love). As I grew out of adolescence, I knew that musicians, like all people in the entertainment business had lives outside of their “art.” I realized that sometimes one had to separate the artist from the person, to compartmentalize as it were the art one might admire from the person one might not even respect. It can be really nice when one can admire both aspects of the person, their art and their private character, but I certainly don’t expect to. I’m pleased when I hear of a music entertainer who has quietly been involved in community or charity work, even if it doesn’t cause me to suddenly like their work. And I’m not about to through out cherished CDs if I’m confronted with the revealed indecency of the person who made them.
However, it gets harder to keep this compartmentalized when entertainers insist, very publicly and very loudly, on mixing their “art” with their “message.”
A perfect case in point of an entertainer who has internalized his pop-popularity as license to hold forth as a political pundit and prophet is Bruce Springsteen. Rolling Stone Magazine has an interview with The Boss that is a fascinating read of a man with enormous musical talent and little self-reflection.
Do read the whole thing. I’ll wait.
Now, let’s look at a few things.
I always felt that the musician's job, as I experienced it growing up, was to provide an alternative source of information, a spiritual and social rallying place, somewhere you went to have a communal experience.
As I said before, I accept music as a communal experience. Attending a live concert and swooning with your friends over the hunk on the stage is a lot of fun, but “alternative information?” Do you collaborate with Steven Hawking on the side and you’re going to sing about the possibility of warp speed? I’m sorry, Bruce, but looking for “alternative information” from a pop-concert or album went out of fashion when Charlie Manson listened to the White Album backwards and acted on what he saw as “alternative information.”
I don't know if someone is going to run to the front of the stage and shout, "I'm saved" or "I'm switching," but I'm going to try. I will be calling anyone in a bow tie to come to the front of the stage, and I'll see what I can do.
Oooo… The Boss as Billy Graham! Get real, Bruce, conservatives don’t wear bowties as the Mark of the Devil. Didn’t Karl Rove cc you on the memo?
Basically, the concerts are raising money specifically for America Coming Together …
A George Soros’ production, associate with the execrable Moveon.org
... basically, I wanted to remain an independent voice for the audience that came to my shows.
So why are you raising money for “America Coming Together” and billing your concerts “Vote for Change?”
Our band is in pretty much what I think of as the center.
Don’t get out much, do you, Bruce?
I tried to build a reputation for thoughtfulness.
Goodness, and here I just thought of your music as mostly fun, feel good stuff, or even sad emotional stuff. Dancing in the Dark, Glory Days… if I play them backwards, will I find “alternative information” on them?
There are a portion (sic) of your fans who do quite a bit of selective listening. That's the way that people use pop music, and that's part of the way it rolls.
Doah!
The upside is that there has been an increased definition about the things I've written about and where I stand on certain issues.
Considering what you just said, don’t you find this just a tad contradictory? You don’t mind pushing issues in your music you know many of your fans are not going to want to hear about?
The example I've been giving is that I've been an enormous fan of John Wayne all my life, although not a fan of his politics. I've made a place for all those different parts of who he was. I find deep inspiration and soulfulness in his work.
Why haven’t you followed that example? John Wayne didn’t stick a political subtext in the Quiet Man. Why don’t you respect either your “art” or your audience enough to separate out your music from your politics?
Pop musicians live in the world of symbology.(sic)
Whaaa….?
Artists are always speaking to people's freedoms.
Bruce, ever hear of Leni Riefenstahl*? Shall I go on to list other “artists” who have not spoken to “people’s freedoms?” Just because someone self-identifies as an “artist,” it does not automatically anoint them into some special place in the cosmos where they can “speak to freedom” and be freed of criticism or ridicule.
I felt we had been misled. I felt they had been fundamentally dishonest and had frightened and manipulated the American people into war. And as the saying goes, "The first casualty of war is truth." I felt that the Bush doctrine of pre-emption was dangerous foreign policy.
The key word in that whole passage is “felt.” Bruce, “feelings” are not the way people are supposed to come to conclusions about the most effective way to combat evil. Eisenhower didn’t sit around with his staff and talk about what he “felt” was the best way to topple Hitler… you know that “sovereign leader” of a foreign nation that had never attacked America?
It was something that gestated over a period of time, and as events unfolded and the election got closer, it became clearer. I don't want to watch the country devolve into an oligarchy,
Wow … “oligarchy” no less. From the guy who used the word “symbology.”
watch the division of wealth increase and see another million people beneath the poverty line this year.
I love it when someone who lives in one of the most tony areas of New Jersey waxes emotionally about poverty and the “division of wealth.” Excuse me while I guffaw.
People are always trying to shut up the people they don't agree with -- through any means necessary, usually. There certainly was an attempt to intimidate the Dixie Chick … But it's one of those sad paradoxes that in theory we're fighting for freedom, and the first thing people are willing to throw out is freedom of speech at home …
Wait, now. Let me get this right. An “artist” has the right to say whatever they want, but if the fan doesn’t like it, if the fan criticizes the artist and refuses to buy the “art” or tickets to view the “art” that constitutes intimidation? An abridgement of freedom of speech? The “artist” has the right of free speech but the fan does not? Oh. No double standard here. Nothing to see. Move along.
One of the most disturbing aspects of this election is that the machinery for taking something that is a lie and making it feel true, or taking something that is true and making it feel like a lie …
Oh, you mean like CBS trying to smear President Bush with fraudulent memos? Or a “reporter” from AP inventing a “report” that Republicans “booed” when President Bush said President Clinton was in the hospital? Is that the machinery you’re talking about?
I am a dedicated [New York] Times reader,
That explains a lot.
I've found enormous sustenance from Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd
And that explains the rest.
And as you can see from the balance of the interview, its just more of the same. Kerry is the white night, the Old Media isn’t sufficiently on Kerry’s side [excuse me, a moment while I fall on the floor laughing], too much of the media is concerned with ratings [no Bruce, can’t have people decide for themselves what they want to watch. Your role is to provide them “alternative information” whether they want to buy your stuff or not], too much “patriotism” in the media …
Sigh. Bruce, don’t take this as “intimidation” or an attempt to curb your “freedom of speech” to act as dumb as you sound in this interview; but, in the words of Laura Ingraham, “Shut up and sing.”
UPDATE: Thanks, Brad. I have made the correction.
Posted by Darleen at September 27, 2004 12:56 PM
Comments
Some all-hot half-shot was headin' for the hot spot snappin' his fingers clappin' his hands...
Bummer.
Posted by: Rev. Churchmouse at September 28, 2004 12:41 AM
If you consider that Bruce's entire musical career has been about addressing the ignored plight of the working man, then his position on this election shouldn't come as a surprise. But let me ask: If Bruce had come out in support of Bush, would you be condemning him? In other words, is it his mixing of art and politics that bothers you or simply his worldview?
P.S. It's Leni Riefenstahl.
Posted by: Brad at September 28, 2004 08:57 AM
Brad: rock stars are either know-nothing morons like Bruce Springsteen or power-hungry, hypocritical partisans like Moby.
Why should anybody care what they think about politics?
Posted by: JB at September 28, 2004 10:51 AM
Brad
Thanks for correcting my mistake. I've done the correction and given you credit. Thanks to all of you keeping me on my toes.
On to your point. I have little problem with entertainers getting involved in whatever activity outside of their "art" they wish to get involved in. However, they should not whine if some of their friends or fans get upset and decide no longer to support them.
The amusement I got from The Boss's interview is the self-image he has of himself as this "prophet" out to "bring to the fold" the benighted masses (with bowties) who haven't seen the light. He writes decent music and entertains well, but I don't want to hear Dennis Prager sing rock-n-roll and I don't want to hear Springsteen talking about issues where he is clearly out of his depth.
Springsteen is raising money for Kerry, whose wife could fund his campaign with one manicured hand behind her back; but why hasn't Springsteen gone to Iraq and played for the troops, if he is so concerned about them?
You see this thing now where like Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi- like I love all these guys as musicians - they're gonna raise money for John Kerry. God bless 'em," rate the music quoted Kid as saying, while he was hosting an MTV barbecue for a group of soldiers returning from Iraq at his ranch home in Detroit, Michigan.
"But, before you go and do that, why don't these motherf**kers go over there and play for our soldiers in Iraq? I'm not vocal about my views on the war. I'm just vocal about my views on the troops," he added.
Rock, whose real name is Bob Ritchie, went on to say that pop stars have no right to actively participate in politics.
"I do not believe that artists or actors and people should be out there like voicing their full-blown opinions on politics because, let's face it, at the end of the day, I'm not that smart of a guy. I play rock 'n' roll, that's what I do. Who would you trust to make your decisions, (US Secretary of Defence) Donald Rumsfeld or the Dixie Chicks," said Kid.
Posted by: Darleen at September 28, 2004 01:01 PM
Wel, FWIW I have no problem with Bruce in terms of his being a musician.
My problem with Bruce's coments on politics and world affairs is that he has no idea what he's talking about.
I actually hold Bruce in higher regard overall than the empty heads in Churchland who spout the same emptyheaded nonsense. They are not only idiots, they are idiots who know nothing about either the world or rock and roll.
At least with Bruce and other worldly idiots of Rockland I can always hope they'll just shut up and play.
Posted by: Rev. Churchmouse at September 30, 2004 11:12 PM