A Playlist Series
American Crisis Playlist #30
Holy F**K
I might still be in shock. And it doesn’t help that the variant strain of Covid is raging and scientists warn that we’ll be blindsided if we don’t act. Fortunately, a responsible set of adults will be taking leadership soon. The question is: can we wait for responsible leaders for another 13 days, and, during that wait, will the cretin-in-charge destroy what’s left of us?
I have almost laughingly referred to Trump as the Orange Plague, and plague, he is. But let me be even more clear:
He should be impeached, arrested, thrown in jail as an inciter to riot, as a subverter of the Constitution, as a traitor to our country. This should happen now, and while we’re at it, the Hawley’s and Cruz’s, and Tuberville’s need to be exorcised from the Senate. Treason is Treason. Tyrants are Tyrants, and what we have had for four years is a drift and then a locomotive toward Authoritarian Dictatorship.
Why anyone would invest so much in one mortal man, I’ll leave to the historians and theologians.
I have never seen, nor imagined I would see, what transpired at the US Capitol yesterday.
Donald J. Trump is unhinged. He is a psychopath, and to believe anything else is to continue believing that the world is flat, and that QAnon conspiracists are playing with a full set of brains.
I remember this summer seeing the bunker of Q, Trump Train, and Don’t Tread on Me beachcombers set up in a compound near us on Edisto Beach. They drove trucks with Trump banners and were raising children in their mold. They looked normal and very white.
They aren’t normal, though. I understand that they believe that they are victims and aggrieved and somehow their world is slipping from them.
I have no sympathy for them, no bond with them, and I do not share, support, condone, nor am willing to tolerate any longer their delusion.
That doesn’t mean I’m up for physical conflict, but that I’m tired of mincing words.
I have written on The Bad Influence that I want music to be my saving resolution for this year. Music, sadly, will not save us.
But maybe it will sustain something of our collective sanity and help our better angels to appear and serve us.
The crisis continues; it worsens, and so…here’s coping.
AMERICAN CRISIS PLAYLIST #30
- “The Man Who Sold the World,” David Bowie, from the remastered version of The Man Who Sold the World, a record that originally appeared in 1970. How on earth did so many believe such a charlatan, such a huckster, such a lying cheat? How did he sell his followers such a distorted nightmarish vision of us? Why are so many still following him as if he’s Jesus or something, and make no mistake, many Christians somehow believe he is.
- “Tell Me Lies,” The Black Keys from 2019’s Let’s Rock. Widespread fraud: “We won in a landslide and everybody knows that, The other side knows that?” Really? You lost, you keep losing, you keep lying, and no punishment is too severe for you. You will, however, go down as the worst president the country has ever seen. No lie. And I’m glad. I hope you know it, and I wonder just what Kellyanne Conway and her “alternative facts” is feeling now? They’re only lies and always have been.
- “Burning Down the House,” Talking Heads from 1983’s Speaking in Tongues. I watched six straight hours of news yesterday. I had intended to answer some mail, to dust and vacuum our house, but I was mesmerized by history. At the point I started watching, it was certainly possible that someone was going to torch the Senate chamber, or set off a bomb, or be caught up in a mass gunfire exchange. I couldn’t leave my TV and felt like a prisoner of events that both did and did not seem real. The People’s House: that’s what I kept hearing. Those thugs on camera seemed like the undead, though, or the guys back when I was in high school who terrorized the corridors of my sight and mind because they hated longhairs, and black people, and anyone who didn’t share their stupid and limited testosterone view of manhood.
- “Armagideon Time,” The Clash, from Black Market Clash (1979 or thereabouts). “Remember to kick it over…no one will guide you…not Christmas time, but Armagideon Time…Lotta people won’t get no supper tonight…no justice tonight.” This is when I fell in love with The Clash. It still ranks as one of my 3 favorite Clash songs. And it’s the first song I thought of last night as I watched Washington stumble into darkness. It resonates this morning, too, as I wonder if those who want to “just move on,” who say “Nothing to see here” are crawling out from their caves again.
- “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” Bob Dylan, from 1964’s The Times They Are A-Changin’. Thirty years after he shot and killed Medgar Evers, Byron de la Beckwith still walked the streets of Greenwood, Mississippi, a free man. Imagine that, in America. A member of my institution just wrote that he believes ANTIFA infiltrated that “peaceful” mob yesterday, so of course, blame yesterday on black people. White people can’t be wrong or misguided or lying killers, right? Until we confront racism and our legacy of coddling racists, right here is where we’ll rot.
- “The Silver Tongued Devil and I,” Kris Kristofferson, from The Silver Tongued Devil and I (1971). Except Trump isn’t exactly silver tongued. He uses words like “tremendous’ and “sad” over and over. You know, empty words from an equally empty head. I mean, the guy has a vocabulary of about thirty words anyway, but maybe that’s America right now: sound bites, clips. I think I heard Josh Hawley use the made-up word “irregardless” last night. Not a word Mr. Stanford and Yale graduate. But don’t let accuracy stop you.
- “What’s Going On” Marvin Gaye from 1971’s What’s Going On. Oh Marvin, what is going on right now? I have such high hopes for this year, despite the plagues and chaos. Am I crazy? Have I been smoking again? Do I remember a time when AM radio was a sanctuary for the music of my life? Do I want to go back, way back in time? Is reading the news healthy anymore?
- “Love Train,” The O’Jays from 1972’s Back Stabbers. I could have used the title song, because after all, Brutus, no one knows how it feels to have your country “insurrected” like we do right now. Do I call my Trump friends and ask them “how does it feel...to be a complete unknown?” Anyway, my daughter played this song as we counted down the New Year last week. She’s only 26. This song predated her by 22 years. And yet she has it hot on her playlist. So now, I have it on mine.
- “Tubthumping,” Chumbawamba from 1997’s Tubthumper. She also played this one, remembering it from her childhood. Don’t you love that? My daughter remembers me playing “Tubthumping” as part of her childhood nostalgia. Hell yeah. We get knocked down but we’ll get up again. They’re never gonna keep us down. Democracy does not include authoritarian dictators, Donald. Please. Leave.
- “Keep on Rockin in the Free World,” Neil Young, from 1989’s Freedom. This one seemed an easy choice, back when some feared Jessie Jackson. Imagine. Everyone says they want freedom, but clearly, what we mean by it isn’t the same. What will our world look like next week, or even tomorrow? Or January 20? I still have faith, somehow, though my psyche feels beaten up right now.
Oh man, if it weren’t for forums like The Riff and those who have joined and written like If Ever You’re Listening, Steven Hale, Jessica Lee McMillan, Kevin Alexander, Rob Janicke, Mike Marolla, and creator Noah Levy, where would I be?
Here is last week’s if you missed it:
