The Musical is the Political?

The Strib's column about local Springsteen impersonator Tim Sigler starts out interesting enough - and then digs into one of the most profound - and disturbing - cultural dynamics there is.

Sigler is the lead singer of Lucky Town, a local Springsteen tribute band (which is, by the way, a great night out, and highly recommended by Shot In The Dark Labs).

He says:

Tim Sigler, lead singer of the Minnesota Springsteen tribute band Lucky Town, said he won't buy a ticket. He may find a way to sneak in between his own shows, but he doesn't want to pay to support the organizations that will benefit from the concert: progressive organizations MoveOn.org and America Coming Together.

"I won't be buying a ticket out front that will be funding any of those organizations. It's just a personal opinion that I have," Sigler said. "I love Bruce. Kudos to him for standing up for what he believes in. It's just something I have a difference of opinion on."

Indeed, it's something most Republicans under age 55 have to wrestle with. If you're a Republican looking for rock and rollers who don't at least passively detest your beliefs you're pretty much limited to the late Johnny Ramone and the long-passe Ted Nugent (and possibly the wonderful but obscure Franky Perez, although that's unconfirmed). So we divide our musical affections, as our Governor notes:

The First Fan of Minnesota won't be in the audience to see The Boss, either. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a huge Springsteen fan, is also the cochair of the state's Bush-Cheney reelection campaign.

Pawlenty has an autographed painting of Springsteen in his Capitol office, complete with a personal salutation to Pawlenty and his wife, Mary. The couple's "song" - "If I Should Fall Behind" - was written and performed by Springsteen. [If I ever get married again, that's definitely on the program - Ed]

The governor has been to many Springsteen concerts in the state over the years, and he uses Springsteen songs leading into and out of breaks on his weekly radio show.

But Pawlenty has said he is "heartbroken" that Springsteen had gone partisan.

"I really appreciate his music, but I wish he wouldn't interject his music with politics," Pawlenty said during one of his recent radio shows.

I'm not heartbroken, just disappointed. Springsteen had not only managed to thread the political needle for the past twenty years (shutting down Walter Mondale's attempts to co-opt Born in the USA just as abruptly as he shunned Reagan's overtures), but even managed to get himself briefly excoriated by the left-wing media for quietly supporting the liberation of Afghanistan when The Rising came out.

But like Republicans Pawlenty and Laura Ingraham among thousands of others, I keep listening to Bruce. And lots of other rockers whose political beliefs range from inimical to noxious. I've written in the past that Joe Strummer and the Clash, as rabid a bunch of Sandinista-hugging commies as they were, made me a better conservative during the time of my life I first started rejecting liberalism.

Of course the left doens't get it. The Strib starts with a comment from friend of the NARN Bill Tuomala:

Wrote Minneapolis-based blogger Bill Tuomala of www.readexiled.com at the time: "Governor: Ten years ago Springsteen released an album titled 'The Ghost of Tom Joad.' Um, it's 'The Grapes Of Wrath,' get it?"

Er, yeah, Bill. I get it. I got it 20 years ago; I was an English major, I could have written a 15 page paper on the dichotomy (and indeed may have). Didn't care. I loved good music, and then as now, I filtered out the politics. I saw scads of artists whose music was as thrilling as their politics were puerile; from U2 and Bruce to the Butthole Surfers and The Contras and Curtiss A. Didn't care then, don't care much now.

But that hints at something deeper and more disturbing:

The editor of another local Web site, www.howwastheshow.com, mused about Pawlenty's struggle between the political and personal.

"How many staunch Reagan supporters do you think you might have found at Dead Kennedys shows in the early '80's?

The more interesting question is, how many of those not-Republican kids turned into conservatives?

The next question:

And how many Kerry supporters or liberation theologists are you going to find at a Lee Greenwood or Toby Keith show?" asked editor David de Young.

Now, there we're onto something.

You did see conservatives at liberal artists' shows in the '80s, as today; I was one of them. I have long been able to detach my artistic from my political selves. I think most conservatives can; I don't know many Republicans who actively expunge liberal-generated art from their lives.

I know few liberals who can do the same. For too many liberals, the personal and the political are intertwined. I've noted this in the past: Republican guys have no problem dating across political lines, while I have a small but hilarious collection of emails from Democrat women who acted horrified they'd even considered going out with a GOP guy.

For most Republicans, I think, their politics are a reflection of their internal beliefs, G-d or Hayek or Friedman or whatever. For many liberals, it's the opposite; the beliefs and the personal life all are shaped by politics, which serve the function religion (or economics or philosophy) do in the life of most conservatives.

So I'll keep listening to artists whose politics make me chuckle and shake my head. I'll keep voting GOP and writing a conservative blog and hosting a conservative talk show.

I don't know about you, but it doesn't make my head explode from the incongruity of it all.

I called the dynamic "Disturbing" in the lede. It is; when people make the act of selecting a government the central focus of all their lives' passions, desires and energies, it breeds all sorts of caustic byproducts; intolerance, zealotry, and a genuine disdain for cognitive dissonance. There is a large segment of our society that doesnt' regard our experiment as a free association of equals, but rather a bunch of good guys facing off against a benighted horde of bad guys.

That can't last long.

Posted by Mitch at October 4, 2004 07:35 AM | TrackBack