It’s half time at the culture wars

The football was more relaxing.

We turned off Bad Bunny about one minute into his Super Bowl halftime show Sunday. The indentured servants were among over one in five who did so, we read. Wasn’t the politics. We just didn’t need to see female fannies wagging in our faces, or so the Missus ruled. We didn’t mind the Spanish; Jose Feliciano was pretty big in his day.

Clicked over to Turning Point USA — the MAGA approved alternative — but the flashing lights and frantic calisthenics only worsened our cardiac arrhythmia, already redlining due to the football game itself — dud though this one turned out to be. (This time, Drake Maye looked like he was seeing ghosts.) Instead, we took a sanity break.

If Bad Bunny hates America, he expressed it only in a “passive aggressive” sense. That’s the best Fox News can do, catering to its audience. Mr. Bunny was more overt at the Grammy Awards, where he declared, “We’re not savages. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens.” Sorry, that wasn’t the rant, unless you’re riding vicarious shotgun with Greg Bovino. But Mr. Bunny did “go there” interjecting “I.C.E. out!” thereby violating the Ricky Gervais rule.

Americans do not like being preached to whether religion or politics unless the sermon emanates from a pulpit of their choosing. But when has our entertainment been this divided into political, echo-chamber silos? if you’re not boycotting the likes of Springsteen, DeNiro, Clooney, and Taylor Swift, your loyalty is suspect. Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood? Fascists!

Artists are a little whacky, anyway

Neil Young is part of the soundtrack of our youth. Asked the lovely lady who would become my wife to listen to our newly acquired album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, in the early 1970s. 

Down by the river, I shot my baby
Down by the river
Dead, ooh
Shot her dead, ooh

The Lovely Lisa wanted to know why Neil Young killed his “baby.” The troublesome thought occurred that girlfriend was suspecting homicidal tendencies in the man spinning this vinyl. “Aren’t you digging this guy’s guitar?” we parried.

Lisa still doesn’t worship guitar solos, which speak a universal language whether Santana or Jimi.

Many years later checked off a bucket list item to see Neil Young in concert at Milwaukee’s Summerfest. The artist apparently thought his live show should have some sort of political theme so he took aim at agricultural chemicals, even name-checking Monsanto. Young women opened his set by waving empty watering cans over artificial flowers. As absurd as it sounds.

His audience had to endure a couple message songs before getting to the good stuff, when he absolutely shredded his guitar in furious soloes. We Are Not Worthy!

Sound checks

The Canadian-born Californian who summoned “bullwhips cracking” in Southern Man prompted Lynyrd Skynyrd to respond, in Sweet Home Alabama, that “In Birmingham they love the governor.” That governor being George Corley Wallace. Why, not even Watergate bothered them. Did Neil Young’s conscience bother him?  

Both artists sold millions to draft dodgers and ‘Nam grunts, alike.

Frank Sinatra modified his song High Hopes for JFK’s campaign before palling around with the Reagans (especially Nancy!) and suffered no blowback. The Searchers remains well regarded despite John Wayne’s support for Joe McCarthy. Richard Wagner made Hitler’s hit parade. John Lennon Imagined there was no religion. We’re not giving up our Beatles catalog.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Maybe the culture wars started with the Dixie Chicks. The “Dizzy Chicks” hated on Dubya and the President’s supporters returned the disfavor. Today, even Big Bird is suspect. If the music is good or the story sings or the humor bites, we’ll pay the piper regardless of the politics. But would like to see an entertainment where, for once, the businessman is not the ogre polluting Opie’s fishing hole.

Who are YOU boycotting?