For Your Listening Pleasure
Neil Young – Freedom
News to You
I read some cool news the other day (from AP):
Band Buys Trees to Offset Tour Emissions
Tue Apr 29,11:35 AM ET
NEW YORK – Pearl Jam are buying trees to make up for their tour. Pearl Jam has cut a deal with Conservation International to buy a 1,400 square-mile area of rainforest in Madagascar.
The band has figured out their tour will create 5,700 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s from the trucks, buses and airplanes that will move their tour through its 30,000 mile route, plus the 1 million fans who will drive to see them. In addition, the forest is in a biodiversity hotspot and includes rare plants and animals, including three species of endangered lemurs.
The band recently caused a controversy when dozens of fans walked out of a Denver concert after lead singer Eddie Vedder took a mask of President Bush and impaled it on a microphone stand to express his opposition to the war in Iraq and Bush.
Say what you want about the last paragraph, this is just one of the coolest examples of rock stars putting their money where their mouths are.
Bush Leagued
Needless to say, my week started off on a positive Pearl Jam tip, as I psyched myself up for the April 30 concert at Nassau Coliseum (Uniondale, Long Island, NY). I brought Riot Act into work, checked out old set lists on the Internet, and then went to one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. I’m talking GREAT set, practically all the songs I was hoping to hear, great crowd, the band was really into it, good seats, and I was just feeling it from beginning to end… well, from beginning until the beginning of the second encore….
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Pearl Jam, Wed 30 April: Uniondale, NY
Nassau Coliseum
THE LONG ROAD
RVM
ANIMAL
SAVE YOU
GET RIGHT
I AM MINE
CORDUROY
PRESENT TENSE
IN HIDING
EVEN FLOW
SMALL TOWN
JEREMY
YOU ARE
I AM A PATRIOT
BLOOD
NOT FOR YOU
BETTERMAN
PORCH
ENCORE BREAK
LAST KISS
THUMBING MY WAY
CRAZY MARY
DOWN
DO THE EVOLUTION
DAUGHTER
ALIVE
ENCORE BREAK
BU$HLEAGUER
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD
(Set list courtesy of TenClub.net)
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Now, I have no problem with protest music, with free speech, or personally with Eddie Vedder.
But man, was that a buzzkill. I was on a high — loving a rock concert, having a blast, singing along, etc. And he goes and plays this song — only the THIRD TIME EVER playing “Bu$hleaguer” on this tour! In highly Republican Long Island!
He walks out wearing the Bush mask, dances around, puts the mask on the mic stand, kisses it on the lips, spits, then tosses the mask aside…
And a good number of fans in the crowd start booing. Amazing.
“Ass-hole! Ass-hole!” I felt like I was at a WWE show. And I admit it. I even joined in. I was pissed. And I figured: hey, he has free speech… and so do we. We paid to see the show; we can boo if we don’t like something we see.
Unfortunately, some assholes started throwing garbage on stage. Didn’t seem like too much, but I wasn’t very close to the front, so who knows? But boy was Eddie pissed.
The “USA!” chants broke out, and he started being a REAL prick. I think he was mad that the fans didn’t just applaud and act like sheep. He talked about free speech, and how “good, honest debate” is what we need… which I agree with. But… debate? He’s being BOOED. No one’s debating!
I see his point. He wanted to push buttons, and he did. But I hope he realizes that free speech goes both ways, and sometimes people just want to listen to some rock and roll music — and if they feel like they’re being preached to (and if they disagree with the message), they have every right to boo, walk out, or stop buying tickets, CDs and t-shirts.
But what WAS his message?
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From www.azlyrics.com:
“Bu$hleaguer”
How does he do it? How do they do it? Uncanny and immutable.
This is such a happening tailpipe of a party.
Like sugar, the guests are so refined, (look like melting mice)
A confidence man, but why so beleaguered?
He’s not a leader, he’s a Texas leaguer
Swinging for the fence, got lucky with a strike
Drilling for fear, makes the job simple
Born on third, thinks he got a triple
Blackout weaves its way through the cities
Blackout weaves its way through the cities
Blackout weaves its way…
I remember when you sang
That song about today
Now it’s tomorrow and
Everything has changed
A think tank of aloof multiplication
A nicotine wish and a colossus decanter
Retrenchment and foolishness
“What’s the buckos?”
The haves have not a clue
The immenseness of suffering
And the odd negotiation, a rarity
With onionskin plausibility of life,
And a keyboard reaffirmation
Blackout weaves its way through the cities
Blackout weaves its way through the cities
Blackout weaves its way…
I remember when you sang
That song about today
Now it’s tomorrow and
Everything has changed
—–
His message is clear: George Bush is bad, and not too smart. A “Texas Leaguer”. A confidence man… that has not a clue. OOOOH, what a strong message! How does he support this claim? Alluding to how he’s failed in the oil and baseball business? How he was born rich? Please.
At least Pearl Jam closed the show with a passionate, awesome version of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” which is a GREAT protest song. It speaks to issues, it’s intelligent, and it for the most part steers clear of ad hominem attacks.
Those who are against this administration, its policies, and especially the war in Iraq, would get more respect if they constructed their arguments more intelligently. Bill Maher, who had come out quite a bit against this war early this year, has said it time and time again: you can’t start with “I hate Bush”, and build from there.
Okay, well, you CAN do that, ’cause you have the right to free speech. But — I can only speak for my feelings on the matter — the chance you’ll getting booed aren’t as high if you argue your positions in a smart, even respectful, manner.
Either way, though, it was a great show. Even the bad taste in my mouth didn’t ruin it for me — and to be quite honest, looking back at it, the back and forth exercise in free speech between Eddie and the part of the crowd that disagreed with him was indeed a “moment” to be witnessed, so no regrets here.
But I donno… as I said in my column last week, sometimes I just want to rock out….
—–
“If people want to go for the guns and booze aspect of rock and roll, then it’s there. And it should be. One of the best ways to deal with some problems every once in a while is to dance all over them. At the end of the day, you’ve done all your thinking–maybe you voted that day or you held a sign up, and you’ve talked with your friend and you’ve kind of got as far as you could get with the issues. You’re not going to be able to do anything about it at 1 in the morning. So you’re splitting a twelve-pack with a friend, so what do you do now? You rock out. There’s a time and a place for everything.” — Eddie Vedder, from the December 2002 issue of The Nation
Fun With Spellchecker!
I didn’t really think I’d have a good entry for this week’s spellchecker segment… but then I saw that “Vedder” kept getting corrected, with Microsoft Word trying to get me to replace it with “vender”… I guess that could work, depending on what he’s trying to sell….
peace. love. moe.
– Matt
Till My Head Falls Off can be found weekly on 411 Music (old columns are archived in the pull-down menu below). Already hit everything on 411? You can find more from Matthew Michaels at moodspins and 1-42.
