A Proposed Musical Bridge To Join The Gaping Wound Of Boomer/XYZMMM Whiny Wanker Wars

omega minimo

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Sun Aug-16-09 10:03 PM
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A Proposed Musical Bridge To Join The Gaping Wound Of Boomer/XYZMMM Whiny Wanker Wars

Edited on Sun Aug-16-09 10:52 PM by omega minimo

It used to be called "The Generation Gap" and that's also one of the things people of the Boom persuasion would have been dealing with at the time, man. Or dude. Or post-feminist, We're Not Exploited Because We Chose To Be women. And everybody else, of all genders and cultural tastes.

There was this thing called "The Rat Race," too. No one talks about that any more, or "Subliminal Advertising."

Maybe that's because it's all In Yer Face now, nothing subliminal about it. Thing is, the In Yer Face thing succeeds in causing the respondent (viewer, victim, consumer) to do what used to be the work of the perpetrator (corporate branding delivery system consumer confidence pusher) -- to Suspend The Sense of Disbelief.

Our national Sense of Suspended Disbelief has been at full throttle since Reagan's earliest arrangements with the Iranians and subsequent bogus "landslide."

Since then, some of those in between the generational factions have had great success: Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Jello Biafra. Slightly younger, Thomas Frank (The Baffler, the New York Times), Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert -- not to mention my favorite cheeky monkey, Craig Ferguson -- have built careers on lucidity amidst the madness. Not coincidentally, three are professional court jesters and all four are smart AND funny. Oh, and President Barack Obama.

While we were driving into Gold Country to see Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, DU was hosting at least three threads on the Boom/XYZMMM wars. (Tonight there are more!) Will ya'll get over your damn selves?!! There are a few lucid posts amongst many more that have their heels dug firmly in. The younger tend to be more hostile for whatever variety of reasons and the older tend not to help the younger understand what they can't see, because it's never been presented to them. It has, but in ways that rankle and reinforce really stupid, chauvinistic misinformed ideas. This is exacerbated by those who think they know because they LEARNED about it, in versions that are several degrees of separation from reality and have had ALL the life and imagination sucked out of them.

Here's the thing: THE MUSIC WAS INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT AS A CULTURAL FORCE.

Yes, you think you know that. Did you also know that:

THE MUSIC WAS INTENTIONALLY DESTROYED AS A CULTURAL FORCE?

So. My proposal is that we bridge the gap, we build a bridge that was intentionally blown up. IT'S ALREADY THERE! We need to clear the rubble and remove the moat from our own eye and start walking toward each other, casting lyrics ahead like flower petals and living vid links behind like a trail of bread crumbs.

On one of these threads, some lucid comments from Erin Elizabeth, who I quote with permission:
# 271
"And a lot of us who were teenagers in the 80s got pretty sick of hearing about how awesome and incredible and wonderful and magical and AMAZING Woodstock was! Now that I'm older (pushing 40--pushing it REAL hard) and have had some respite from all the 60s fatigue of earlier years, I can appreciate what it was for a lot of people.

"But I think it's been one of those things that's been oversold and overhyped quite a bit. I do think the Baby Boomers are used to everything they do being reported, examined, re-examined, discussed, discussed, discussed, one hour news specials, three hour news specials, etc. I feel like I grew up in the shadow of the 60s. But whatever, time marches on."

IS THAT SO FRIGGIN HARD? Could that be a starting point? Erin Elizabeth get it AND this:

# 275
"I think there are just a few times when people collectively feel an unabashed unironic emotion and actually have the opportunity to express it en masse. - That's very rare."

FUCKING BRILLIANT!!!

That's it fools. Quit bickering. Quit pretending that it's Either/Or, it's Your Generation or My Generation. IT'S OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE.

My overgeneralizations: Boomers, ya went ta sleep and LIHOP and have a lot of splaining to do. Gen XYZMMMers get over yer damn selves, yer petty spokesmodels come off TWENTY TIMES more self absorbed than the golden Boomers ever have.

Disclaimer: I have ALWAYS given a lot of credit to those who grew up and came of age after Reaganism's insanity took hold. It's crazy to have to sort it out. Gawd help the victims of acts like Columbine and the illegal wars, the education system treated like a prison lockdown, the corporatization of media that robbed you of the kind of glorious, mad freedom that Woodstock was.... don't think those older don't give you a break for growing up when propaganda and media control were the top priorities of our "democratic" government.

So. I saw Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine. It was all ages, it was all kinds, there were punks and hippies and kids and old farts, including those on stage BLOWING THE ROOF OFF THE PLACE. There was incredidble rock n roll and vital lyrics, the new stuff and the old. Anyone who gets a chance has to see them just for the update of "California Uber Alles."

I propose a musical bridge. I'll go first. This is an attempt to give the Gen XYZMMM folk a sense of what it FELT LIKE to be young in those days, the atmosphere, the messages coming at you from every angle, even the cynical, post Woodstock marketing machine angle and the "star making machinery" that finally devolved to American Idull.

If you've read this far, please watch and listen. If you are so inclined, please add your list to the bridge, wherever you're coming from.

:yourock:

War - Edwin Starr
"War Ughh What is it Good For Absolutely Nothin' "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d8C4AIFgUg

Wonderful World, Beautiful People - Jimmy Cliff
Can't you see? Everbody wants to Live And Be Free"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGXBSIkyUBU

Yes We Can Can - Pointer Sisters
"Yes We Can Can"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v894vHM5L4M

Staple Singers - Respect Yourself
"Take the sheet off your face, boy, it's a brand new day"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD0jQH9OdwQ

John Lennon - Working Class Hero
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njG7p6CSbCU&feature=related

California Uber Alles
The Hippies won't come back you say, Mellow out or you will pay"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW8UlY8eXCk

Grandmaster Flash - The Message
"It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4o8TeqKhgY

1979 - Smashing Pumpkins
"We feel the pull in the land of a thousand guilts, And poured cement, lamented and assured"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD0jQH9OdwQ

Gimme Shelter - Sterophonics
"War, children, Yeah It's just a shot away, it's just a shot away"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aylb94HLMg0&feature=related

Fortunate Son - Bruce Springsteen and John Fogerty
"But when the band plays Hail to the Chief, they're pointin' a cannon at you"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogTYe1XuQDs

Crazy - Gnarls Barkeley
"It wasn't because I didn't now enough, I just knew too much"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-sb6mfR9lQ

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Patti Smith
"Here we are now, Entertain us"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwpLqrh19Ws&feature=fvst

Working Class Hero
John Lennon

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so ------- crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still ------- peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me

New Feudalism
Jello Biafra

Now it�s signed
Text classified
Nations are now corporate colonies
Robber barons
In high castles
Have the nerve to call this free trade
Unh Unh

DDT
Gill net kills
Fought so hard to stop it all for years
Sweatshop kids in Nike Town
Globalize means downsize
Your rights to theirs
Tweet-tweet-tweet tweedle-de-da
Tweet-tweet-tweet tweedle-de da
A ha-ha-ha!

NAFTA GATT-cha
�We are being farmed�
NAFTA GATT-cha
Every time we buy
NAFTA GATT-cha
We are their serfs

New Feudalism
Remember the name

Forced loans from the World Bank
Soon your country�s sank
No food or medicine
Just factories, mines and dams
Peasant revolts arise
Like pesky little flies
We swat �em down,
Pull off their legs
One by one

NAFTA GATT-cha
�We are being farmed�
NAFTA GATT-cha
Every time we buy
NAFTA GATT-cha
We are their serfs
New Feudalism
Remember the name

New Feudalism

Jello Biafra and the GSM ended the show with "I Won't Give Up," an amazing anthem from a veteran punk rock icon. Jello had the underage mosh pit eating out of his hand and singin a capella, on a fade out....... "I won't give up, it's not an option....I won't give up, it's not an option...."

Bonus track for whoever dissed Melanie

Melanie - Brand New Key
"You got something I need"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p02DgHeGdyI&feature=related