Mixing Music and Politics
by Marc A. Levin

From the civil rights movement to the Vietnam War, popular music has struck a chord in America's political consciousness. Now, an amalgam of artists including Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks, and Bonnie Raitt, has announced that they will tour under the banner "Vote for Change" with the express purpose of defeating President George W. Bush and electing Senator John Kerry. Musicians are, of course, free to donate their talents to any political cause, but there are several pitfalls they would be wise to avoid.

The first and most obvious is to be respectful to our country, our current President, and our men and women in uniform. Springsteen's August 5, 2004 op-ed in the New York Times was a tasteful and restrained expression of political dissent. But there have been many other instances where musicians' sentiments have been shrill and crude.

In April of 2003, Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, impaled a mask of President Bush at the group's Denver concert while singing his composition "Bushleaguer." The song declares, "He's not a leader, he's a Texas leaguer." At the July 8, 2004 Kerry-Edwards fundraiser in New York City that brought in $7.5 million for the Democratic ticket, the normally classy John Mellencamp sang his new ditty "Texas Bandido," which intones, "He's just another cheap thug that sacrifices our young." This is a far cry from Mellencamp's laudable Farm-Aid work.

Perhaps the nastiest anti-Bush material appears on the new albums from roots-rocker Steve Earle and singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones. Earle's album "The Revolution Starts Now" is entirely devoted to politics, and offers plenty of Bush-bashing. Among the songs are "F the CC," a profanity-laced rant that exclaims "F*** the FBI, F*** the CIA, Livin' in the motherf*****' USA."

Arguably the worst number on Earle's latest album is "Condi, Condi" in which National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice is depicted as nothing more than a sexual object for President Bush. Just to make sure everyone knows who he is talking about, Earle uses Rice's full name Condoleeza once in the tune. Written from Bush's perspective, this shameful song includes the line, "Skank for me Condi show me what you got." The definition of skank is "One who is disgustingly foul or filthy and often considered sexually promiscuous. Used especially of a woman or girl." While Earle fashions himself a progressive, this song reeks of sexism and racism. Earle's last album featured "John Walker's Blues," which sympathetically portrayed American Taliban Johnny Walker.

On her new album "Evening of My Best Day," Rickie Lee Jones penned the song "Ugly Man" about President Bush. Her shallow lyrics include, "He's an ugly man, He always was an ugly man, He grew up to be like his father, An ugly man." Last year, Jones told the British newspaper The Guardian, "I think 9/11 gave this generation an identity, and its identity is potentially fascist. My skin crawls when I think of the first week after 9/11. I was looking out of the window and there were people marching down the street carrying flags. It reminded me of spontaneous, angry Nazis and I thought, 'Oh, man, we are in a lot of trouble'. There's a whole bunch of people who have flags hanging from their cars and who are mistaking fascism for patriotism."

This type of paranoia about domestic fascism, including the frequently heard hallucinations about Attorney General John Ashcroft burning books, is ironic when those who so much as questioned the Taliban or Saddam Hussein were imprisoned or killed. The Baltimore Sun reported on July 7, 2004 that poets silenced under Saddam are finally having their creative voices heard. Although Jones said she didn't have capacity to murder President Bush, she added, "But would I feel sorry if someone killed him? No, I wouldn't. It would depend on who killed him, I guess." Similarly, British artist Morrissey at a June 2004 concert in Dublin, Ireland announced the death of Ronald Reagan and then said he wished that George W. Bush had died instead.

In addition to tempering their rhetoric and taming their paranoia, musicians must not be so arrogant as to believe that they should be immune from criticism for their political exhortations. Earle stated in an August 3, 2004 Los Angeles Times article, "We as artists are citizens, too, and in a democracy you're supposed to be able to say anything about anything...We're supposed to be able to do that without being criticized or intimidated."

Linda Ronstadt, after being booted from Aladdin Casino on July 17 for using her concert to praise Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9-11," claimed it was unfair that she was criticized for her statements. She later revealed the limits of her own tolerance in the San Diego Union-Tribune, complaining, "It's a real conflict for me when I go to a concert and find out somebody in the audience is a Republican or fundamental Christian. It can cloud my enjoyment. I'd rather not know."

Earle and Ronstadt are entitled to express their views, but it is hypocritical and arrogant of them to demand that others refrain from criticizing them. Artists like Ronstadt who have made millions from fans of all political views buying their music and attending their concerts must be willing to pay the price for injecting politics into their performances. Just as they have the right to their views, their fans have a right to demand good music for their money, not political diatribes.

The most socially powerful music speaks in universal terms like Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," John Lennon's "Imagine," Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer" and, more recently, many of Springsteen's compositions on "The Rising" that draw inspiration from 9-11. In contrast, the trite and trashy tunes bashing Bush seem destined to have little lasting impact. It is often argued, with much merit, that government involvement in religion imperils religious institutions as much as government. Similarly, the crass use of music to accomplish specific, partisan political ends may do as much damage to the quality of modern music as it does to the tenor of America's political debate.

Marc A. Levin, an Austin, TX attorney, is President of the American Freedom Center (www.americanfreedom.org), a public policy institute advocating free-market ideas, and Associate Editor of The Austin Review (www.austinrvw.com), a conservative magazine.