Nuge again; protest music

Ted Nugent approached Green Day recently and proposed a collaboration. Green Day apparently laughed in his face.

Green Day has fascinated me since Dookie. Here was a band--arguably, the fathers of the genre I so fondly refer to as "nerd rock"--that revelled in their awkward dorkiness. These guys would have been beaten to a pulp when I was in high school, and that made me feel old. They seemed to reject the mainstream while chasing success.

When American Idiot came out, I was again transfixed. Post-Dixie-Chicks (and "I'm not changing my fucking show*" Madonna, pansying out with the video for "American Life"), here was an album and a series of videos that had the huevos to address the perception of Americans abroad and question the war in Iraq itself ("Wake Me Up When September Ends"). In an era that is sadly lacking protest music, this was the closest thing I had seen or heard. (Hello? "Fortunate Son" by CCR, anyone? Anyone?)

Of course, the caustic political climate in the United States today is enough to scare even the most rebellious of pop stars. In Madonna's case, I suspect it was more about money. (Note to Madge: American Life remains the only one of your albums I did not purchase. Yes, it was out of principle.) The safety of her children might have been part of it, but she does live in the UK, after all. The Dixie Chicks--some of them mothers as well--came through their ordeal smelling a little better. The inclusion of "Travelin' Soldier" on Home, and the innocuous (and now infamous) remark at a European concert was protest-y, and I respected them for it.

So, thank you, Green Day, for giving Nuge a 'thanks but no thanks.' You guys might not be Bob Dylan, but you're a start.

* Madge uttered this phrase in Truth or Dare. She was facing objections from the uptight Toronto police, who were threatening to arrest her for indecency if she faux-masturbated on stage for a concert in my city.

Comments

Jason said…
You can never go wrong with my good 'ole John Denver (actually it's now getting on my nerves...)
Crucible said…
Shouldn't laugh at the Nuge - apparently he has quite the gun collection. And it would have been quite the coup had he pulled it off. But gotta love Green Day - AI is one of the best albums in a long time.
Jason said…
I bet Green Day likes St. Patrick's Day! Get it!!??? Ha ha ha ha.
Anonymous said…
you're faux masterbating.

and madge.
Anonymous said…
Picture the meeting between Teddy N. and the kids of Green Day. Seriously, can you imagine? The young kids versus the crazy old dude!
tornwordo said…
Lol at Jimmy's comment.

Sorry can't really relate, never really paid much attention to lyrics. (Yes, i know that makes me a freak.)
toobusyliving said…
Who's Ted Nugget?

What's Lyrics?

What's Madge soaking in?
The Persian said…
How can you not pay attention to Lyrics? I mean what's the point?

I have always loved Greenday, even after they starting sleeping with the mainstream fairy.

:)
Miss Thistle said…
Ugh, The Nuge.

This douche is so desperate to be relevant he'll latch on to anyone, anywhere. Then, after Green Day dissed him, his retort was that "their social ignorance, their historical vacuity and their knee-jerk condemnation of American things and the Bush administration is nothing short of embarrassing." Sour grapes, much?

I seem to remember Courtney Love claiming on Stern that she gave Nugent a BJ when she was 12. Probably a drunken exaggeration, but I choose to believe it as further fodder for my hate.
St. Dickeybird said…
Lol, good for GD! I recently came to respect them.

Nice blog, by the awy.
teh l4m3 said…
Rilo Kiley and Jenny Lewis have been doing a lot of protesty music. But no one listens to them.

Also, my neighbor went to high school with Billy Joe Armstrong.
sirbarrett said…
True, when September ends sticks out as a song that's saying something. The video has good drama too.
Balloon Pirate said…
It ain't me.
It ain't me.
I ain't no Senator's son, no.

In the late '60's and early '70's, there was far more latitude in what was played on the airwaves. FM was the bastard stepchild, because the signal (although acoustically superior and had enough space to insert a subcarrier, thus allowing stereo broadcasting)was weaker. The FM jocks were younger, hipper, and more politically aware (tends to happen when at any time you could get called away to kill people in a rice paddy), and their selections reflected this.

Today, all the choices are made in the corporate world, so the only place to find much protest music is on the web.
www.protest-records.com

Some of it's good, some of it sux. But all of it reminds me of late-nights listening to FM radio in the '70's.

Getting old has its advantages.

Yeharr

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