(I admit this post is the product of spring cleaning, made easier by a good soundtrack.)
Back in 1979 or so, the band Supertramp warned us about opposing the President: "Now watch what you say, or they'll be calling you a radical, a liberal, fanatical, criminal."
They foretold the Bush dynasty: "You say it all depends on the money, and who is in your family tree."
They even honed in on the hypocrisy that abounds nowadays...
Could we have kippers for breakfast, mummy dear, mummy dear
Gotta have 'em in Texas, 'cause everyone's a millionaire
I'm a winner
I'm a sinner
Do you want my autograph?
I'm a loser
What a joker
I'm playing my joke upon you
While there's nothing better to do
Ok, maybe all this sounds a little silly (remember, I've been spring cleaning all day). But then I think seriously about the course of popular music over the last decade, with Live ("warm bodies, I said, are not machines that can only make money") being usurped by the Backstreet Boys and 'NSync.
And I think about older bands, like the Moody Blues, who asked, "how can we understand lies by the people for the people who are only destroying themselves?"
And I think of my daughter telling me how cool it was to have Billy from Green Day call the kids to action against the Bush regime during one of the band's concerts.
And I wonder why I felt like the only person on planet Earth to be offended when a Gap (is it "GAP"?) commercial featured Supertramp's "Give a Little Bit," converting a band that obviously had something on its collective mind into a purveyor of capitalism.
And I think about how much I miss John Lennon and Freddie Mercury.
I'm sure I've added little to political debate with this post, what with news lately that Bush authorized the leak that has Scooter Libby's freedom hanging in the balance, or that we might actually drop a nuke on Iran.
But as I go back to my Dirt Devil and the rest of my day in, day out, life, I sure feel better.