rock and roll musings by Tim Byrnes

Stagger Lee Was Three Women

     It's my pleasure to give the 1st Annual Angus MacLeish* Courage of Yr Convictions Award to... (Drum roll, please. Thank you, Bleeker) the Dixie Chicks. As yr probably aware, back in 2003, singer Natalie Maines caught a whole load of static for stating onstage that George W. Bush made her feel "... ashamed to be from Texas."

    Now, in the grand scheme of mistakes and missteps this comment pales considerably when compared to, oh I don't know - let's say lying to the American people about weapons of mass destruction in order to invade a sovereign nation pre-emptively. Or illegal wiretapping. Or secret prisons where illegal torture alledgedly goes on.

    But in the same spirit that caused suppossedly thinking adults to pour champagne down gutters and rename French Fries Freedom Fries when France opposed war on principle, much of the American public responded to this relatively tame exercise in free speech by burning records, posting death threats against Maines on various internet sites and clogging talk radio w/political discourse along the lines of "strap the bitch to a bomb and send her to Iraq."

     Ashamed to be from Texas? It's crap like that that sometimes makes me ashamed to be human. Now in the immediate aftermath of this, Maines and the the Chicks backed off a little, mostly from shock. On the Larry King show last night Maines alluded to a group of protesters outside a show soon after where a mother held her daughter up and instructed her (the daughter) to scream 'Screw you!!!" at the Chicks.

     I'm guessing that's when Maines started formulating the lyrics to the 1st single from their new (#1, btw) record, the surprisingly ballsy 'I'm Not Ready to Make Nice'. In this song I hear the artists' spines, their courage and a potential for career suicide not seen since Sinead O'Connor tore up that picture of the Pope on 'Saturday Night Live' those many years ago.

     The name of this blog is Punk Rock Blues but I've been loathe to find any punk bands willing to risk this kind of fame/fortune over political convictions. I love the Anti-Flag but it's not the same thing really. The Dixie Chicks could very easily have apologized to their mainstream Country audience and really almost did. But somehow these 3 women found the nerve to say, if not fuck you, then at least a tidy fuck y'all to the portion of their Country audience that resides in that part of the Bible Belt that's missed a loop or 2.

     In the Time magazine interview, Maines restates her lack of confidence and respect for GWB and the decisions out Great Decider has been making over the last 6 years. That she will be dismissed and rebuffed (and possibly assassinated) by a large part of her audience has led her to rethink her band's marketing position. Sensing that the Country Music mainstream regards their female artists as little more than eye candy and certainly fluffy little numbers that aren't supposed to think and certainly not speak their minds (although Toby Keith's brand of drunken High School jock on steroids 'politics' are apparently A-OK. We are #1 after all), Maines has decided to distance herself from Country, going so far as to say that she never felt right portraying herself and band as 'Country'. Well, death threats have a way of making one re-examine a lot of things. As Emily Robison noted on Larry King, they weren't a political band then but they are now.

    As we should all be. Political, that is. In this time of fictional wars waged by fictional presidents**, we all have to decide what side we're on and what truly makes us ashamed.

* Angus MacLeish: original drummer of the Velvet Underground who quit the band in 1966 because they were too commercial.

** Please direct all hate mail to timbyrnes@antimusic.net

Posted by: timbyrnes at 16:04 | link | comments (7)

Comments:

#1  01 June 2006 - 16:14

 

Hmmm.... There's a number of places you can go here. Suffice to say I didn't get the furor over their comments two years ago, and I don't get the accolades now. (And "commercial suicide," my butt....) But it's fair to say they've been vindicated.

And any gratuitous slam on Toby Keith is still a good one. :D

Now hand me that Steve Earle album (preferably Jerusalem rather than the rushed counter-jingoistic jingoism of The Revolution Starts Now) so I can hear this done RIGHT.....

burninglight

#2  01 June 2006 - 16:23

 

Ah, my little buck toothed pal, I believe I mentioned a potential for career suicide, not 'commercial suicide' itself. Hey, I respect a band for standing up for themselves. Shoot me.

timbyrnes

#3  01 June 2006 - 16:33

 

yeah and for some reason now, you got me singing bob marley -- get up stand up -- stand up for your rights -- get up stand up -- don't give up the fight.

limine

#4  01 June 2006 - 16:36

 

"Ah, my little buck toothed pal, I believe I mentioned a potential for career suicide, not 'commercial suicide' itself."

Wouldn't that be even more extreme?


"Hey, I respect a band for standing up for themselves."

I absolutely give them that. It just seems a lot (on both sides) over so little.


"Shoot me."

Then I'd be embracing the enemy's tactics, now, wouldn't I? :P

burninglight

#5  02 June 2006 - 16:03

 

Even living in (and living with) some of that Bible belt crowd, when the "scandal" came out I too was shocked at the outrage. Give me a break...everyone has the right to speak their minds and feelings, and just because you are 'star' doesn't mean you have that right taken away.

I've heard the argument that "because the comments were made at a concert in London they were inappropriate" because she wasn't on American soil. Whatever. It would have been the same situation (probably 100 times worse) if she had said them while she was actually in America.

I guess I chalk it up to the Toby Keith crowd, too. After all, he got everyone in the Bible Belt wanting to boot "a boot in your ass". It is, after all, the American Way.

Cannonball14

#6  02 June 2006 - 17:03

 

Limine! Baby, how you been? Never give up the fight. Simmons, I'm as surprised as anybody that 'The Long Way Back' is #1, but I'm just gratified to see a band sticking to it's guns. Cannonball, my friend, it IS surprising how much hoo-hah came out of this brew, but I guess it's wise to never underestimate the stupidity of the mob mentality.
Cheers,
tim

Anonymous

#7  13 June 2006 - 21:38

 

But see what happened to the Dixie Chicks when they opposed Bush: their tour is bombing out. heh heh heh

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060607/music_nm/dixie_dc_2

Jim

Anonymous

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