Bruce Springsteen defends (and SUPPORTS) the Dixie Chicks
Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 8:50 pm
The Boss Rises to Dixie Chicks' Defense
by John Nichols
"America has entered one of its periods of historical madness," argues author John Le Carr, who suggests that the current drive by conservatives in Congress and their media allies to search out and destroy dissent is "worse than McCarthyism."
That may sound extreme to some, but it certainly must ring true for Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines, whose mild criticism of President Bush in the days before the war with Iraq began has made the group target No. 1 for the Elite Republican Guardians of patriotic propriety.
After Maines, a native of Lubbock, told a crowd at a London Dixie Chicks show that "we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas," South Carolina legislators passed a bill declaring those words to be "unpatriotic," disc jockeys organized rallies at which tractors were used to destroy Dixie Chicks CDs, and radio stations across the south barred songs by the group.
Though officials of Clear Channel, the media conglomerate that controls more than 1,200 radio stations across the United States, denied that they had issued a network-wide ban order, Clear Channel's country and pop music stations were among the first to declare themselves "Chicks free." And the chattering class of conservative talk-radio and talk-TV piled on with calls for boycotts of the group's upcoming concert tour.
With the experience of the Dixie Chicks providing a cautionary tale - and with high-profile actors who have expressed anti-war views, such as Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Janeane Garofalo, being branded "casting couch Bolsheviks" and worse - there was a clear signal coming from the entertainment industry in general, and the music industry in particular, about what happens when artists speak out.
While outspoken groups and individual performers such as the Beastie Boys, System of the Down, REM, Lenny Kravitz, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Zack de la Rocha dared to speak out musically, radio playlists have tended increasingly to feature Bush administration-friendly songs like Darryl Worley's "Have You Forgetten" and "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" by Toby Keith, who derides Maines as a "big mouth."
Madonna remade an anti-war video for her new single, "American Life," because, she said, "I do not want to risk offending anyone."
And, against the pressure to make music conform to the conservative agenda of the Bush administration, there has been a whole lot of silence from most of the music industry's biggest names.
But Bruce Springsteen is not one to let his voice be frozen out by a free speech chill. The man whose song "Born in the USA" remains an anthem for patriots of many stripes - including those who see dissent as the truest expression of Americanism - has let rip with a defense of the Dixie Chicks and artistic free speech.
"The Dixie Chicks have taken a big hit lately for exercising their basic right to express themselves. To me, they're terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech. For them to be banished wholesale from radio stations, and even entire radio networks, for speaking out is un-American," Springsteen said in a statement that was set to be posted today on the http://www.brucespringsteen.net Web site.
"The pressure coming from the government and big business to enforce conformity of thought concerning the war and politics goes against everything that this country is about - namely freedom. Right now, we are supposedly fighting to create freedom in Iraq, at the same time that some are trying to intimidate and punish people for using that same freedom here at home," added Springtseen, whose 2002 album "The Rising," a groundbreaking rumination on Sept. 11, 2001, and its aftermath, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and has been certified double platinum.
"I don't know what happens next," Springsteen said of America's current moment, "but I do want to add my voice to those who think that the Dixie Chicks are getting a raw deal, and an un-American one to boot. I send them my support."
As usual, Springsteen has his finger closer to the pulse of America than the ranting right and those over-cautious celebrities who have shied away from the controversy. Of the 59 shows on the upcoming Dixie Chicks tour of major arenas, 53 are sold out and the remainder are on the verge of being fully booked.
Copyright 2003 The Capital Times
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Time to boycott Bruce, no? Thoughts? Comments?
by John Nichols
"America has entered one of its periods of historical madness," argues author John Le Carr, who suggests that the current drive by conservatives in Congress and their media allies to search out and destroy dissent is "worse than McCarthyism."
That may sound extreme to some, but it certainly must ring true for Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines, whose mild criticism of President Bush in the days before the war with Iraq began has made the group target No. 1 for the Elite Republican Guardians of patriotic propriety.
After Maines, a native of Lubbock, told a crowd at a London Dixie Chicks show that "we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas," South Carolina legislators passed a bill declaring those words to be "unpatriotic," disc jockeys organized rallies at which tractors were used to destroy Dixie Chicks CDs, and radio stations across the south barred songs by the group.
Though officials of Clear Channel, the media conglomerate that controls more than 1,200 radio stations across the United States, denied that they had issued a network-wide ban order, Clear Channel's country and pop music stations were among the first to declare themselves "Chicks free." And the chattering class of conservative talk-radio and talk-TV piled on with calls for boycotts of the group's upcoming concert tour.
With the experience of the Dixie Chicks providing a cautionary tale - and with high-profile actors who have expressed anti-war views, such as Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and Janeane Garofalo, being branded "casting couch Bolsheviks" and worse - there was a clear signal coming from the entertainment industry in general, and the music industry in particular, about what happens when artists speak out.
While outspoken groups and individual performers such as the Beastie Boys, System of the Down, REM, Lenny Kravitz, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Zack de la Rocha dared to speak out musically, radio playlists have tended increasingly to feature Bush administration-friendly songs like Darryl Worley's "Have You Forgetten" and "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" by Toby Keith, who derides Maines as a "big mouth."
Madonna remade an anti-war video for her new single, "American Life," because, she said, "I do not want to risk offending anyone."
And, against the pressure to make music conform to the conservative agenda of the Bush administration, there has been a whole lot of silence from most of the music industry's biggest names.
But Bruce Springsteen is not one to let his voice be frozen out by a free speech chill. The man whose song "Born in the USA" remains an anthem for patriots of many stripes - including those who see dissent as the truest expression of Americanism - has let rip with a defense of the Dixie Chicks and artistic free speech.
"The Dixie Chicks have taken a big hit lately for exercising their basic right to express themselves. To me, they're terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech. For them to be banished wholesale from radio stations, and even entire radio networks, for speaking out is un-American," Springsteen said in a statement that was set to be posted today on the http://www.brucespringsteen.net Web site.
"The pressure coming from the government and big business to enforce conformity of thought concerning the war and politics goes against everything that this country is about - namely freedom. Right now, we are supposedly fighting to create freedom in Iraq, at the same time that some are trying to intimidate and punish people for using that same freedom here at home," added Springtseen, whose 2002 album "The Rising," a groundbreaking rumination on Sept. 11, 2001, and its aftermath, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and has been certified double platinum.
"I don't know what happens next," Springsteen said of America's current moment, "but I do want to add my voice to those who think that the Dixie Chicks are getting a raw deal, and an un-American one to boot. I send them my support."
As usual, Springsteen has his finger closer to the pulse of America than the ranting right and those over-cautious celebrities who have shied away from the controversy. Of the 59 shows on the upcoming Dixie Chicks tour of major arenas, 53 are sold out and the remainder are on the verge of being fully booked.
Copyright 2003 The Capital Times
_____________________________________________________________
Time to boycott Bruce, no? Thoughts? Comments?
You definitely have me there j, but I am just saying that everyone going to see the Dixie Chicks are not anti-troop, anti-American. I understand a lot of people are upset and I see why, but let us not stoop to the low level of criticizing the FANS of the Chicks now.