I learned most of what I know and love about music from 2 people. One is Vin
Scelsa, original WNEW-FM DJ and the other is Bruce Springsteen. Vin is the
guy who was on the awful night John Lennon was shot. Vin, to me, has the
greatest ear of any DJ ever. Springsteen, we all know the story. I was at
the Springsteen show the night John Lennon was shot. They told the band at
the break what happened and they still came out and performed, we in the
audience didn¹t find out until after the show.
Through al these years of listening to these 2 guys do their music I never
had any idea what their politics were and I had no care. The last election
changed that. Suddenly, Scelsa started every show with an anti-Bush rant
that harbored on hateful. Even more distressing was Bruce playing guitar on
John Kerry¹s stage and also bashing Bush and pleading for every vote for
John Kerry. According to Springsteen, the last election was the most
important of our lives and our history and, it seemed, Bruce foresaw an
awful world if the evil Bush got re-elected.
Back then I felt that Bruce had the right to speak his mind and express his
political point of view. Many of us who had never jumped into the political
arena were doing the same thing. I am pretty sure this is all a fallout from
911. It wasn¹t until I saw Springsteen on-stage at that Kerry rally playing
our sings that we grew up with that we made famous that I lost that
overwhelming zeal for Springsteen. I know a lot of people who feel the same
way. We still respect the man, we hold him in the highest esteem as the
reigning king of rock and roll, but it¹s simply not the same, the blind
devotion suddenly could see past the darkness on the edge of town and quite
frankly, it wasn¹t as inviting a place as it once was.
With Scelsa it was a lot different. I tried like hell to get past the
political rants but couldn¹t and eventually, and still, I no longer listen
to this great musicologist who is on WFUV on Saturday nights and also on
Sirius.
Why, simply it all boils down to a simple fact. I don¹t agree with him
anymore. Another simple fact, if Bruce was ranting for McCain, Tommy never
would have said shut up and sing. Bruce is playing his guitar, this time for
Obama, but at least he is not using HIS stage to politic. Scelsa uses his
stage, I guess Madonna is also, and it simply sucks to pay big bucks to get
entertained by a musician and end up being [reached to, especially when you
don¹t like what the preacher is saying.
The the ladies on The View, and the pop stars like Bruce and Madonna have no
more political credibility than any of us I feel is an undeniable fact. That
they are Americans and are therefore entitled to state their point of view
also applies to every one of us.
That they were so simple minded as to not realize they could be turning off
1/2 of their audience is a great surprise to me.
Meanwhile, I find it a shame that we can¹t carry on a heated, in-depth
political debate about this major election that has the entire world
watching what we Americans will do. This election is undoubtedly going to
affect each and every one of us. The more information we have and the more
we kick that information around, the better the chances of our getting it
right.
So far, I have not heard one person convince me that either of the
candidates is even close to being the right person to lead America out of
this fiscal crisis in the age of global terrorism. Any thoughts?
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
