bit.ly/2M7VXiX
This is more like it.
The right is working the refs. I never see this story in the media, but I experience it every time I mention Trump's name, the usual suspects inundate me with blowback, putting me down as a "progressive," telling me about their "facts," laughing at me.
This is not easy to take, but I soldier on.
But it's why so many others stop. The right is organized. With their Fox News and talk radio. Hell, if it weren't for Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh the government would be open and the wall would be just another talking point.
This is the way it used to be before the youth woke up their brethren back in the sixties. The United States was the greatest country in the world, we could win any war, especially in backwater Vietnam, all hail the Red, White & Blue!
Until suddenly the artists took a different path.
You see we need leaders. And oftentimes they're those who think a little different, who don't get up at six to go into the office, who contemplate what's going on and lay it down in song, film or prose.
But it's hard to triumph in media these days. Where it takes years for a song to bubble up, where we're all in our own different silos.
But still, take a stand and you're gonna get blowback.
The Killers have taken a stand.
Of course they've got something at risk. This is not the seventies, when the youth was completely left, you can no longer tell someone's political bent by the length of their hair, music fans can be as right as Abbie Hoffman was left. And since today's "artists" believe that first and foremost they're a brand, a business enterprise, they don't want to offend any potential customer.
But that's not what they are, they're artists. Which side are you on, the truth or the dollar? You get to decide. And the further up the food chain you are, the more momentous the decision.
It's easy to be a nobody and take a stand, but when you're somebody...
And the classic acts have given up. No one wants to hear their new music and they don't want to offend the baby boomers who've accrued their fortune and have swung to the right, so they stay silent.
And, once again, if you don't, it's gonna be news in the right wing blogosphere. And the left wing will report it but not defend you, you'll be hanging out there alone.
So who is gonna take a risk?
Sure, rappers have. But so many people ignore rap the same way they ignored the exploits of R Kelly and his African-American victims. And in hip-hop, cash is king. Then again, African-Americans have been victimized throughout our history, screwed in the music business by Atlantic Records and so many more companies that didn't pay royalties.
And the hook here is supposed to be the Spike Lee film.
But in this case, unlike how it's been for decades, the song eclipses the video.
In this era where you've got to hook 'em quick and hook 'em good, "Land Of The Free" has got a long, instrumental intro, starting off quiet and building, it's more classic rock than Spotify.
"Washing his truck at the Sinclair station
In the land of the free"
That roots it, personalizes the song, the gas station with the dinosaur. In a song that seems like it's going to be about platitudes, it ends up intimate.
"His mother Adeline's family came on a ship
Cut coal and planted a seed
Down in them drift mines of Pennsylvania
In the land of the free"
That's why we came here, for the freedom, everything at risk in D.C. And we all came, almost nobody was here already, except for the Native Americans who've been abused for centuries.
"Land of the free, land of the free
In the land of the free"
If you're aged, you'll be reminded of Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is," with its anthemic chorus supported by a full choir. It makes the song important, that's the power of the voice in an era ruled by machines.
"But if you're the wrong color skin
You grow up looking over both your shoulders
In the land of the free"
Truth. So simple, but so right.
And like Leonard Cohen sang, everybody knows.
"We got more people locked up than the rest of the world
Right here in red, white and blue
Incarceration's become big business
It's harvest time out on the avenue"
CAN'T HE STAY IN HIS LANE! That's what the right wing agitated will say. Musicians can't talk about politics, and how many issues do you want to embed in one song. But the Killers are not holding back, once you break out of the restraints, freedom feels so good. And that's the problem in America today, the chilling effect, where a President says not to trust the media and if you cross him, you're gonna pay.
"So how may daughters, tell me how many sons
Do we have to put in the ground before we just beak down and face it
We got a problem with guns"
Whew, now he's singing about guns too? And isn't the NRA just too powerful? But the Parkland kids put a dent in 'em, and why do we need the guns anyway? The same nitwits who think a wall will solve immigration problems are the same idiots who think by owning a gun they can stand up and overthrow the government, in an era of drones, where you fight with software.
"Down at the border, they're gonna put up a wall
Concrete and rebar steel beams
High enough to keep all those filthy hands off of our hopes and our dreams
People who just want the same things we do
In the land of the free.
The message of the song, the message of the video. What does America stand for? But that wall hasn't been built yet and the Killers don't want it to be. They're making a statement that will reach their fans more than anything in the "New York Times," never mind Fox News. That's the power of art, to change minds.
And if this were the eighties, this video would be all over MTV, the talk of the nation. But in the teens, it's impossible to reach everybody. But disruption never sleeps, it's just a matter of who is willing to fight.
We've been overwhelmed with the innovation of the techies for two decades. But we've learned in the past few years that the majordomos have no moral center, which is why artists need to take the reins and make a statement.
Like the Killers.
spoti.fi/2CoO6ZG
--
Visit the archive: lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-TuneIn: tunein.com/lefsetz
-Apple: apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, Unsubscribe
To change your email address this link
