Neil Young was honored at the Juno Awards last night for his humanitarian work.
Hey, you want humanitarian I just offered my coordinator to bring her kid to my daycare for free so I can negociate a lower salary until we hit our numbers. Where's my fricken Juno?
Wait. I can't sing. Right.
Mind you, it's not like all musicians can sing.
Young is a master. A legend. We all know that. Nor do I question his sincerity. So it pains me a little to call him out here but in the interest of Canadian patriotism and unhypocrisy I must.
When he was singing protesting the Bush administration mostly for its clamp down on freedom and the Iraq war (if memory serves me correctly), I didn't care much. It's a free continent. So long as their consistent with their message I warned.
Well, it's not like President Obama has improved anything on the transparency level and has been equal to the task in restricting freedoms (although it still remains a point of contention to what degree he and his predecessor actually did) and well, doing the war thing.
So.
Can we expect a concert anytime soon?
Yeah. Right.
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The same for my personal favorite singer John Cougar Mellencamp. He will always be Cougar to me.
He was pretty vocal in his opposition to Bush. Again. It's all good. I mean, I'm Canadian right so who am I to blog against the ironic Mr. Pink Houses?
But when you go political you leave yourself open to criticism. I own everything he ever put out (except one album I still have to get to. We're talking pre-1978 here I think) including his most recent box set. In it he takes a decidedly political turn. The problem is I found it to be extremely selective, and well disappointing. I wasn't impressed because I know he knows better. There was no search for a political truth. Just partisan complaining passing off as "just" politics.
Same for Springsteen.
The aforementioned singer songwriters have earned the right to sing, write and comment about politics. Just don't be surprised part of your fan base doesn't agree. Some of us are really, really, really well-informed and read. Too much so even.
Celebrities are partisan in their views, just like journalists, business executives, and you, and me (except that my views are always correct, of course). As long as we all a) know this to be the case b) don't let these people pretend that they are above partisanship c) feel free to reply from our own standpoints then I see little problem here.
ReplyDeleteI agree. As I said in the post, it's all cool with me.
ReplyDeleteThe only problem I see is they take to the streets when it suits them and depending who is in power. I would prefer if they were a little more up front. They come off as guilty with B.