Saturday, June 05, 2010

Shut uP AND sING

Last year I went to a music festival in the Coachella Valley. The night we went Paul McCartney headlined and was really awesome as a musician. The show was great, and the night was beautiful. Almost perfect except for my friend being unable to attend. But Paul McCartney after lionizing Linda and her love of the desert and his emotional tribute to her, it was her birthday after all, went a little too far for me and I am sure a decent percentage of people just there to see him sing his songs. On the big screen there was an image of a flock of birds and they turned(morphed) into an image of Barack Obama. Personally I was horrified. I never knew Paul McCartney to be a political hack. I didn't even want to know what his feelings were about American politics. He went on and on about this great man, and I almost wanted to throw up right there. It could have just been the inconsiderate guy smoking right beside me who was holding his cigarette like an incense stick, IDK, but I had to leave my really good position near the stage anyway. At the time Obama had done little to improve the economy or race relations or really anything in this country. I knew McCartney had to be a hopey changey zealot of some sort and I lost so much respect for him right then and there. As we walked to the parking lot after the show I wondered aloud to Tony what could McCartney see in Obama and why on earth would he make a big deal of it at a concert? Tony shot me a look like quiet down, this place is crawling with liberal, dreamy, dope smoking, intolerant types. I just didn't get it, and that one thing Sir Paul did lost me as his fan forever. He can go on and on on his own about how much he loves the possibility of Obama uniting the world, but it was supposed to be a fun time, not a political rally.

Fast forward to earlier this week, and McCartney getting his award at the Whitehouse. Barry probably just invited him there to sing Michelle to Michelle, jk. Well, I have no problem with those two getting along and loving each other and supporting one another, its a free world. But McCartney went on and disrespected former President Bush right there in the White House in front of Obama. Now Obama is a smart guy, smart enough to get elected to President anyway. But he has never shown any scholarly papers, college transcripts, or, for that matter, even a birth certificate. Heck , take Obama off his teleprompter and he is a stuttering stammering gaff prone pedestrian intellect. Bush got an MBA in Harvard Business School, is married to a Librarian, and also has a BA in History at Yale. Where does McCartney get off making such a rude comment that Bush doesn't even know what a Library is? And why would McCartney jump in and give Obama all this credit for being so smart? Something doesn't add up here, I guess the international leftists must all stick together. McCartney didn't go to college what makes him think he's all that smart himself? They are all true believers and here in America the bloom is off the rose, but I guess the international leftist community still needs America down a couple pegs more, and Obama is just the guy to do it. Its all so pathetic. I wish musicians would learn to keep their politics to themselves because all of their listeners do not necessarily agree with their world view. You would think they would want to keep all their fans, and not alienate about half of them.

I have nothing against anybody expressing their viewpoints or ideas or anything they see about any political figure or philosophy. However when I am a paying customer I pay for the music not the politics. And so said musicians should not be surprised when their condescension shatters their image as just a minstrel. Putting their own reputation on the block. Credibility is a terrible thing to waste.

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