| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
The Unessential Willie Nelson
"There's so many things going on in the world/ Babies dying/
Mothers crying/ How much oil is one human life worth/ And
what ever happened to peace on earth" --- Willie Nelson in his
new anti-war ballad which he recently debuted at a
fund-raising concert in Austin, Texas for Democratic
presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.
Willie Nelson, my favorite Texas troubadour--or should I
say my former favorite? Why'd you have to go and join the
parade of know-nothing celebrities with a pathological
compulsion to publicly mouth off about complex geopolitical
matters way over their heads? You've always been a pretty
good ol' boy. I would have figured you were down-to-earth
enough to know better than to believe that your celebrityhood
automatically imbues you with some special wisdom not
possessed by lesser, fame-deprived mortals.
Wouldn't be the first time I figured wrong.
Anyway, if you want to know "what ever happened to peace
on earth," you might begin by asking the Islamo-nutzoids
whose religious duty obligates them, or so they believe, to kill
every infidel that draws a breath of life and dares to defile
Allah's green earth without bowing to Mecca five times a day.
You might ask them because they would blow you and the rest
of Texas to kingdom come in a heartbeat if they could pull it off.
Look, I don't mean to put a damper on your poetic license.
You're a very fine musician and songwriter. When you ask in a
song, "what ever happened to peace on earth," I understand
that it's more an expression of a longing for peace on earth
than it is a literal question about what ever happened to it
since we all know there's never really been any peace on this
earth. So that rhetorical question set to music is fine.
But here's where you really mess up: "How much oil is one
human life worth?" Willie, I love you, but how can you be silly
enough to put to music one of the most vacuous cliches of the
doggedly obstinate and always wrong antiwar crowd?
If you believe our Middle Eastern policy is only about oil,
here's something to think about. Israel has no oil and yet we
have supported them through thick and thin. Why? Could it
be because it is the only democracy in the region and because it
is a tiny country surrounded by murderous enemies whose
anti-Semitism makes that of Adolf Hitler seem almost mild by
comparison? Could it be that America simply thinks it's the
right thing to do and isn't that the America that most country
music fans and musicians believe in?
It ain't about oil, Willie, it's about trying to make the Middle
East a better place, which in turn would make the world a
better, and safer, place. Right now the Middle East, as you
could not fail to know, is a land of oppressive dictatorships,
religious fanaticism, technological backwardness, virulent
anti-Semitism and virulent anti-anything-that-ain't-Islam-
ism, all of which combine to make it the outlandishly oversized
incubator of terrorism that it is. We're trying to change that.
But wait, I can almost hear new lyrics forming in your head:
". . . I love the red, white and blue, but what gives us the
right. . ."
My answer song would ask, what gives them--the Middle
Eastern despots and the terrorists--the right to do the things
they do? What gives them the right to withhold freedom from
hundreds of millions of people? What gives them the right to
publicly, and without equivocation, rhapsodize over their
desire to see the destruction of Israel? What gives them the
right to threaten civilization with their mass murder and
nihilistic mayhem? You want to write a meaningful protest
song? There's plenty of serious material here.
So I'm wondering, why Kucinich, of all people? Kucinich, of
course, is the most utopian, unrealistic and downright flaky of
the Democratic candidates/appeasers. He likely wouldn't
make a decision about anything more significant than mohair
subsidies or White House coffee klatches without first checking
with the vaunted international community. That's the same
international community, by the way, that was perfectly
content with Saddam Hussein in power where he could
perpetuate a reign of bloody terror over his own citizens, pay
bounties to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers and
generally contribute to the continued instability of that entire
unhappy region so mired in self-destructive futility.
Willie, you said you became interested in Kucinich because
of the Ohioan's support of family farmers. If one had to become
interested in Kucinich, I guess that's one of the least offensive
reasons. Nonetheless, nothing against family farmers, but the
presidency is almost certain to go to the guy who's going to
catch and/or kill the most terrorists, not the guy who's going to
subsidize an activity that, sadly, time has pretty much passed
by.
When asked if you were concerned that your new song might
cause a backlash with conservative country music fans, you
replied, "I sure hope so. I don't care if people say, 'Who the
hell does he think he is?' I know who I am."
What is this, the any-publicity-is-better-than-no-publicity
strategy? I'm not so sure you've thought this all the way
through. On the other hand, you're a couple of decades beyond
your peak popularity and you know that. (Funny how time
slips away, isn't it?) Not to be unkind, but you're a geezer and,
unfortunately, geezers don't play well in contemporary country
music. The industry will honor you and the George Joneses
and the Merle Haggards all night long at awards ceremonies
and such, but contemporary country stations wouldn't be
caught dead actually playing y'all's music on the air. That's
because it sounds too damned country for today's hip young
country fans who are used to having their country music
diluted with pop and/or rock.
The point is, you don't really have anything to lose.
Therefore, you can write left-wing protest songs and campaign
for the ultra-liberal Kucinich until the cows come home
because in truth, the cows just about have come home for you
and your career.
It's not the way a fan like myself would have preferred to see
you spend your golden years, but I have the rest of your
extensive and mostly delightful musical catalogue to enjoy
until my own cows come home, even if you have joined the
parade of obnoxious, antiwar celebrities. Woody Harrelson
and Janeane Garofalo I can live until doomsday without.
Why'd you have to be so likable?
"There's so many things going on in the world/ Babies dying/
Mothers crying/ How much oil is one human life worth/ And
what ever happened to peace on earth" --- Willie Nelson in his
new anti-war ballad which he recently debuted at a
fund-raising concert in Austin, Texas for Democratic
presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.
Willie Nelson, my favorite Texas troubadour--or should I
say my former favorite? Why'd you have to go and join the
parade of know-nothing celebrities with a pathological
compulsion to publicly mouth off about complex geopolitical
matters way over their heads? You've always been a pretty
good ol' boy. I would have figured you were down-to-earth
enough to know better than to believe that your celebrityhood
automatically imbues you with some special wisdom not
possessed by lesser, fame-deprived mortals.
Wouldn't be the first time I figured wrong.
Anyway, if you want to know "what ever happened to peace
on earth," you might begin by asking the Islamo-nutzoids
whose religious duty obligates them, or so they believe, to kill
every infidel that draws a breath of life and dares to defile
Allah's green earth without bowing to Mecca five times a day.
You might ask them because they would blow you and the rest
of Texas to kingdom come in a heartbeat if they could pull it off.
Look, I don't mean to put a damper on your poetic license.
You're a very fine musician and songwriter. When you ask in a
song, "what ever happened to peace on earth," I understand
that it's more an expression of a longing for peace on earth
than it is a literal question about what ever happened to it
since we all know there's never really been any peace on this
earth. So that rhetorical question set to music is fine.
But here's where you really mess up: "How much oil is one
human life worth?" Willie, I love you, but how can you be silly
enough to put to music one of the most vacuous cliches of the
doggedly obstinate and always wrong antiwar crowd?
If you believe our Middle Eastern policy is only about oil,
here's something to think about. Israel has no oil and yet we
have supported them through thick and thin. Why? Could it
be because it is the only democracy in the region and because it
is a tiny country surrounded by murderous enemies whose
anti-Semitism makes that of Adolf Hitler seem almost mild by
comparison? Could it be that America simply thinks it's the
right thing to do and isn't that the America that most country
music fans and musicians believe in?
It ain't about oil, Willie, it's about trying to make the Middle
East a better place, which in turn would make the world a
better, and safer, place. Right now the Middle East, as you
could not fail to know, is a land of oppressive dictatorships,
religious fanaticism, technological backwardness, virulent
anti-Semitism and virulent anti-anything-that-ain't-Islam-
ism, all of which combine to make it the outlandishly oversized
incubator of terrorism that it is. We're trying to change that.
But wait, I can almost hear new lyrics forming in your head:
". . . I love the red, white and blue, but what gives us the
right. . ."
My answer song would ask, what gives them--the Middle
Eastern despots and the terrorists--the right to do the things
they do? What gives them the right to withhold freedom from
hundreds of millions of people? What gives them the right to
publicly, and without equivocation, rhapsodize over their
desire to see the destruction of Israel? What gives them the
right to threaten civilization with their mass murder and
nihilistic mayhem? You want to write a meaningful protest
song? There's plenty of serious material here.
So I'm wondering, why Kucinich, of all people? Kucinich, of
course, is the most utopian, unrealistic and downright flaky of
the Democratic candidates/appeasers. He likely wouldn't
make a decision about anything more significant than mohair
subsidies or White House coffee klatches without first checking
with the vaunted international community. That's the same
international community, by the way, that was perfectly
content with Saddam Hussein in power where he could
perpetuate a reign of bloody terror over his own citizens, pay
bounties to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers and
generally contribute to the continued instability of that entire
unhappy region so mired in self-destructive futility.
Willie, you said you became interested in Kucinich because
of the Ohioan's support of family farmers. If one had to become
interested in Kucinich, I guess that's one of the least offensive
reasons. Nonetheless, nothing against family farmers, but the
presidency is almost certain to go to the guy who's going to
catch and/or kill the most terrorists, not the guy who's going to
subsidize an activity that, sadly, time has pretty much passed
by.
When asked if you were concerned that your new song might
cause a backlash with conservative country music fans, you
replied, "I sure hope so. I don't care if people say, 'Who the
hell does he think he is?' I know who I am."
What is this, the any-publicity-is-better-than-no-publicity
strategy? I'm not so sure you've thought this all the way
through. On the other hand, you're a couple of decades beyond
your peak popularity and you know that. (Funny how time
slips away, isn't it?) Not to be unkind, but you're a geezer and,
unfortunately, geezers don't play well in contemporary country
music. The industry will honor you and the George Joneses
and the Merle Haggards all night long at awards ceremonies
and such, but contemporary country stations wouldn't be
caught dead actually playing y'all's music on the air. That's
because it sounds too damned country for today's hip young
country fans who are used to having their country music
diluted with pop and/or rock.
The point is, you don't really have anything to lose.
Therefore, you can write left-wing protest songs and campaign
for the ultra-liberal Kucinich until the cows come home
because in truth, the cows just about have come home for you
and your career.
It's not the way a fan like myself would have preferred to see
you spend your golden years, but I have the rest of your
extensive and mostly delightful musical catalogue to enjoy
until my own cows come home, even if you have joined the
parade of obnoxious, antiwar celebrities. Woody Harrelson
and Janeane Garofalo I can live until doomsday without.
Why'd you have to be so likable?