American Crisis Playlist #12

Convention(al) madness

Guess what? Mary Trump’s Aunt Maryanne, the orange plague’s older sister, told Mary that our current president “has no principles.” I just read that in Politico’s weekend roundup. Not that I needed to read it or hear it from TOP’s older sister. But it’s good to get family affirmation, right? If my brother ever said that about me…but then he wouldn’t, because I do have principles, and so does he.

And the latest of these is that I am not watching one nano second of the RNC this week, which will feature TOP every night, at his request, demand, brutal dictate. Because that’s what he is or wants to be:

A Brutal Dictator.

I’m not sure why anyone thinks otherwise these days, though I know we’re also still worried about street scenes in big cities, the virus up-ticking through colleges (c’mon Alabama students. Did you really need to stand in line for bar openings and without your masks? I guess you don’t want to be healthy or to have football).

Am I angry? Yes.

Am I worried? Yes.

So what will I do this week instead of watching the republicircus?

Maybe watch the Yankees play ball.

Maybe start watching HBO’s “Lovecraft Country” now that “Perry Mason” has ended.

Teach my classes, and, oh yes.

Listen to my homemade playlists.

Hope you’ll join me.

AMERICAN CRISIS PLAYLIST #12 (the convention[al] madness version)

1.“Him or Me (What’s It Gonna Be?),” Paul Revere and the Raiders, 1967 (Revolution!). “If it’s so, I got to know…what’s it gonna be, him or….” Right down to it at the start. If you love me, you can’t love him, vote for him, think he has normal human qualities, much less the ability to lead or unite a country. Who knew the Raiders could be so prescient? So kick-ass! I bet TOP can’t even name a Raiders’ song, the jerk. Get the record, and also listen to “Tighter.” wow.

2.“The Devil’s Right Hand,” Steve Earle (1988) from Copperhead Road. So is TOP the devil or his right hand? Please don’t spend too much time trying to decide — your brain cells can’t take it — kind of like staring at the RNC on any night. I mean, what can they even say at this point? They started the darkness “Caught a man cheatin’, shot the dog down, shot the dog down, watched the man fall, never touched his holster, never had a chance at all.” Not that I advocate violence, you understand. I DO NOT ADVOCATE VIOLENCE, not even against the devil.

3. “Sympathy for the Devil.” Now in 1968, The Rolling Stones recorded this one on Beggars Banquet. Maybe an obvious choice to follow another devil song, but potency is potency, even though what we’ve seen from this current administration is a lot of limp responses to our many crises. That 500 feet of wall that Bannon helped “finance” through a GoFundMe. Do you feel safer, freer, more enlightened and democratic? He should rot in jail; got no sympathy for his kind, and extrapolate that on out to the orange guy he “worked” for.

4. “Savior Complex,” Phoebe Bridgers, from this year’s Punisher. Both the song title and the album title fit the bill. I’m not sure that TOP thinks he’s anyone’s savior, but apparently that base out there imagines that he’s gonna save their souls, or at least keep white males from ever feeling like they’re not in power. Sorry to associate you, Phoebe, with this sea of madness, because you’re so much better than the sycophants who surround this agent of our undoing. I know you’ll rise above it — Phoebe, that is — and I hope all voters will, too.

5. “Ambulance Blues,” Neil Young, way back on On the Beach (1974). “I never knew a man could tell so many lies; he had a different story for every set of eyes. How can he remember who he’s talking to? Cause I know it ain’t me, and I hope it isn’t you.” That was about Nixon, who seems like a poor forgotten Shakespearean tragic hero/villain now — worthy of MacBeth, I think, or even Richard III. What we have now is a guy trying to appropriate Neil’s tunes for his own purposes. The least of his crimes, of course, but not to be forgotten. Almost picked Neil’s “Sea of Madness,” a worthy second placer.

6. “Drive Me, Crazy,” Orville Peck, from this summer’s Show Pony. I know this song is not about our current politics, but when I ran across the title this morning, I thought, “Yep, that’s what I feel.” I had just read the news today, oh boy, and I imagined going batshit crazy with worry and anxiety over all that I cannot control. All that’s emanating from a man who absolutely did not get more votes than his rival back in 2016. Still. We got another chance, and so, what we have to, MUST do, is…

7. “Fight the Power,” Public Enemy, from 1989’s Fear of a Black Planet. What else is there to say? Except that it’s too sad that what Chuck D and the guys were shouting back in ’89 sounds just like what many of us are shoutin’ today — about the planet, about racial discrimination, about the power against us coming from the seat of it. The back end of it. The butt of it. “Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps.” Think there will ever be a stamp with the orange plague on it? Let’s cancel that before it’s ever plate-blocked.

8. “Your Lies,” Shelby Lynne, from I Am Shelby Lynne (2000). I guess I’ve already mentioned all the lying coming from Pennsylvania Avenue’s 1600 block. So I’ll venture into happier terrain. My wife and I got to see Shelby in Greenville at the old Handlebar. I think we might have taken our girls who probably couldn’t appreciate this modern country sound back then. Bet they’d love her now. She was incredible, and back then, I had no idea she was Allison Moorer’s older sister, or what they went through as sisters together when they were too young to know how to cope with lying and abuse.

9. “Bad Weather,” Allison Moorer, from Blood (2019). As in so many pieces of art, the title of the record has a double meaning. We’ll stick to the positive, though. Moorer also wrote a memoir of the same title that I’m reading right now. Her blood, her sister Shelby, is at the book’s heart, as she attempts to reclaim all that she lost, or if reclaim is not the best word, to rise above it and declare her love for her soul, her sister. Bad weather, stormy weather, and please look out New Orleans…and Charlotte.

10. “All I Have to Do is Dream,” The Everly Brothers, back in 1958, on any Best of compilation you want. I am dreaming of a day when I can see someone else in the White House. For the next four years, it’s definitely Joe Biden, and then after, we can talk, keep dreaming, and find out more about America’s better side, better angels, and more empathic best self.

Sorry (but not really) for all the ranting, but listen along, please, and as always thank you. Oh, in another plug, not only would it favor me if you’ll listen to other American Crisis Playlists like this one:

But please look for the music writing elsewhere on The Riff and especially from Jessica Lee McMillan.