Hey Gabba Gabba
By Mitch Berg
Andrew Breitbart says Republican is the New Punk rock – by which he presumably means less “Richard Hell passing out in a puddle of his vomit in the dressing room at CBGB”, and more “anti-establishment”.
And the premise makes sense:
Johnny Cash was punk rock. The birth of rock came when Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Cash toured small towns and set the youth on fire. Parents were outraged. The long dippity-doo hair atop gyrating men “dancing like the negroes” before frothing young girls set mainstream culture against this rebellious little movement. It was our first smell of anarchy and it scared the establishment.
“God Bless Ronald Reagan and God Bless America” – Johnny Ramone, longtime closet Republican on his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Never before has rock been so central to the inauguration of a president. Bono is an ambassador in sunglasses who still knows how to pull a string and get an audience of thousands to put their fist in the air.But rock cannot be both establishment and anti-establishment. It can’t be a rebellious underdog while endorsing and distributing the status quo. And yes, President Obama is the status quo of unlimited spending and government expansion he supposedly opposed during the election…This is the mainstreaming of the bad boy, complete with rat-pack suit and cigarette in hand. A snappy skin spread over the boring, failed, liberal Democrats of the sixties. Hope and Change was nothing more than a repackaging of policies that have no right to be associated with hope or change.
I’ll cop to it: I initially thought Breitbart had a stretchy thesis.
But one of the conceits “artists” cling to is that they give people a different approach to perceiving the world around them – both physically and intellectually. And for much of recent Western history, art in its various media and genres (to say nothing of the culture of the “artist”) was by nature critical of the “establishment”, whatever that was. This predates rock and roll, by the way; Beethoven thought that societies needed, and needed to exalt, artists precisely because they were uniquely qualified to look beneath the surface of society’s institutions.
Of course, in the past two years America’s “artistic” community has pretty much abandoned that role to serve as shills for Barack Obama. Indeed, American “art” follows three tracks: academic “art” is beholden to a politically-correct academic establishment that is inextricably tied to the left; non-commercial art has turned itself largely into an entitlement-driven industry that is financially beholden to, and uncrically supportive of, the left; commercial art (think music, movies and publishing) have been in the bag for, and uncritical of, Obama all along. Beethoven may have had a point in 1815 Berlin; what passes for America’s artistic community today is little but cheerleaders for the newest incarnation of the Establishment.
Breitbart:
The arts have failed. They no longer keep mass culture in check with thought-provoking art that challenges the establishment. Now they’re in charge of spreading the mainstream mandate of the Liberal Vatican. There isn’t an original thought among them, just a thousand-mile stare, a blue logo and the drone-like vocabulary of emotive, vaguely inspiring chants.
I was about to write “think Socialist Realism” – but then Obama-based art basically resembles the old official genre of the Soviet Union anyway:
Breitbart:
We’re the new rebellion against the majority juggernaut that doesn’t take kindly to dissent. Make a fist and show them what happens when they tell you what to think, feel and believe.
(Uh oh, Andy – that’ll get you labelled an “extremist”).
If you want me to unite to your cause, then end abortion, give the people back the money they earned, fight terror, keep your hands off free speech on the radio and enable job creators to make more jobs. Until then, screw your hope and screw your change.
I’m totally the Mick Jones of conservatism.
But I digress. Read the whole thing.
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:04 am
I understand Rear Admiral Lou Sarosdy (Ret.) is a big Sex Pistols fan.
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:12 am
Oh dear, Mitch, that’s an embarrassing mistake. At the 2002 induction, Johnny didn’t say: “God bless Ronald Reagan and God bless America.” Look it up.
He said: “God bless President *Bush* and God bless America.”
Kinda different, don’t you think?
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:13 am
Rush is totally into second-wave ska.
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:24 am
Square.
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:31 am
“Hey Gabba Gabba”?
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:55 am
Hey, B-O, I don’t want to go down/to the basement
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:22 am
Yeah, Master. Caught that one too. Figured he hadn’t had his coffee yet. Mitch knows better.
But come on, Mitch, who are you kidding? This is about as cutting edge as Republican music gets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFmMGYv3mag
“Off the hook!”
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:08 am
Rush is into second-wave ska, and Nancy Pelosi was caught calling Nickelback “Da Domb” on C-SPAN.
Of course, the GOP may be punk but at times I think they’re circa 1986 instead of 1976…sure there’s a revival on the way but it may take awhile. No one cherishes their late 80s Clash and Ramones albums, but as metal got more and more unintentionally hilarious punk started looking good again.
Meanwhile the Dems are MTV. All of the faux-drama, all of the screaming fangirls, all of the boybands, and all of the self-important reality shows. It used to be about the music, man.
To complete the trope: The Greens are performance art-rock, Libertarians are Nerd Rock, and Jesse Ventura is kind of like finding out Jeff Foxworthy wants to star in an opera.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:09 am
“Caught that one too. ” what, no end-zone dance?
At my BPOU meeting last night, after the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance, we cranked Green Day till the neighboring meeting complained to management.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:09 am
We ain’t going to take it!
And Janet, I don’t give a damn about my bad reputation.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:15 am
On the one hand, I did write this at about 3AM.
On the other, there is at least one Ramones song (and I’m blocking it now because, hey, I was up at 3AM) where the line is “Hey Gabba Gabba”. I think. Anyway.
As to Ramone’s actual line; I’m using dramatic license. Although it was Johnny who insisted Joey change “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” to “My Head Is Upside Down”. So I think if Johnny’d had three more seconds to talk, he’d have tossed in Reagan, too…
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:26 am
Rock You, We Will, We Will
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:42 am
On the other, there is at least one Ramones song (and I’m blocking it now because, hey, I was up at 3AM) where the line is “Hey Gabba Gabba”. I think.
I remember it well. Yoda Ramone sang it. 😉
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:46 am
I didn’t know that…Johnny is now my fave Ramone. And Bono wears those sunglasses to hide his red, glow-y eyes.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:19 am
And Bono wears those sunglasses to hide his red, glow-y eyes.
He sold his soul to get that singing voice.
Got a good deal, too.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:39 am
Interchanging the greatest Republican president since Teddy Roosevelt with the worst president in U.S. history, bar none, is “dramatic license,” eh? Are you shooting for an entirely fictional SitD sometime in the near future?
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:05 am
RE: greatest and worst president in U.S. history
Assuming AssClown thinks Teddy was a great President, then they are both Roosevelts.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:08 am
” . . . the worst president in U.S. history, bar none”
Oh fer Gawd’s sake. Buchanan wanted to buy Cuba from Spain & make it a slave state. He also thought that the whole pesky ‘slavery issue’ was settled by the Dred Scott decision.
But keep up the hyperbole, AC. Thinking that Bush — who got more votes in 2004 than any other candidate in America history — was the the ‘worst president evuh’ shows the country who the real extremists are.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:41 am
You’re right, Terry, that was an overstatement. Buchanan and Andrew Johnson are definitely in Bush’s class. Worst two-term president, though, hands down. Grant’s the only possible counter-argument, but then he accomplished something before he became president.
“Bush — who got more votes in 2004 than any other candidate in America history”
A record broken by one B. Hussein Obama in November, you silly volcano dweller. Not much of an accomplishment, of course, when you consider the voting population tends to get bigger from one election to another. And when you consider he was following George Worst Bush.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:54 am
I’ve had this fight with my friends I call “the Marx Brothers”. No because they are funny, because they are leftist.
Who is more of a rebel a rock concert or an art gallery or a college campus, or a record store or a book store or at a zoo?
A guy wearing a “Che” or “Obama” shirt or a guy wearing a “W stands for women” t-shirt?
Rebel, rebel.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:55 am
oops “rebel at a rock concert”
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:57 am
Are you shooting for an entirely fictional SitD sometime in the near future?
Er, what part of “Up at 2AM” did you miss?
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Hope you were awake in the wee hours for a pleasant reason, not a bad one….
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Eating his heart out over the most recent presidential election, Dog Bone. It’s a 24/7 job.
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:03 pm
for a pleasant reason, not a bad one…
Kinda in the middle.
Eating his heart out over the most recent presidential election, Dog Bone. It’s a 24/7 job.
Hardly! It’s a target-rich environment! After eight years of pining about “incompetence”, you send us Jan Napolitano!
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Interchanging the greatest Republican president since Teddy Roosevelt with the worst president in U.S. history, bar none, is “dramatic license,” eh?
No, inserting the greatest president of the second half of the 20th century into Ramone’s remarks was.
I’ll write slower.
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:46 pm
“God bless Ronald Reagan,” means he’s a conservative. “God bless President Bush,” means he’s an idiot.
Tomato, tomahto?
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Tomato, tomahto?
Liberal, wacko.
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:09 pm
“God bless President Bush,” — (3/18/2002) means he was asking for blessings on the sitting President, about six months after 9/11. Bush’s approval ratings was nearly 80% at this moment in time.
Seems pretty reasonable, unless you were secretly wishing he would fail.
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:40 pm
“God help President Bush” would have been a more useful sentiment. Or maybe “God, make President Bush an instrument of Thy will. And while Thou art at it, perhaps Thou couldst make President Bush one of the sharper, rather than the duller, of the instruments in Thy Holy Tool Shed. Amen.”
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:54 pm
“God, make President Bush an instrument of Thy will. And while Thou art at it, perhaps Thou couldst make President Bush one of the sharper, rather than the duller, of the instruments in Thy Holy Tool Shed. Amen.”
That’s longer than most Ramone’s lyrics.
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School would do pretty well as Bush’s personal theme song.
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I want You to be Sedated
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:32 pm
You’ve made Angryclown laugh, Master. You win a prize.
April 23rd, 2009 at 6:32 pm
AssClown loves shit tacos. Looks like MoN is going to get a sphincter polishing. Win – win?