Papert 1!
Rachel Papert
MUS 261
Musical Protest in the US
Prof. Maria Sonevytsky
Navigating Protest Music of the Iraq War
Protest music in the United States came to its height of popularity during the Vietnam
War and the Civil Rights Era in terms of popularity and as a specific genre, folk music. However, in the early 2000s, there seems to be a lack of music dealing with the Iraq War. There were certainly protest songs released, but no cohesive or concise anti-Iraq War protest movement. The
War came on the heels of the attacks of September 11th, making the war a touchy subject for if one was not with the war, they could have been seen as a sympathizer of the attackers.
Altogether, the main subject of protest was the President of the United States, George W. Bush.
Anger at the Bush presidency was legitimate in many ways, not the least being the fact that he was not elected President, but appointed by the Supreme Court, leaving many feeling dismayed, let down by the very system of democracy which was supposed to make America so uniquely great.
The Dixie Chicks accidentally became the face of anti-Bush sentiments while playing a
March 2003 concert in London, Natalie Maines commented to the crowd that the band was
"ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”1 The Chicks themselves are from
Texas, and were one of the biggest country music acts of the late 90s and early 200s, with
1 "Dixie Chicks Pulled from Air after Bashing Bush,” CNN, March 14, 2003. Papert 2! multiple songs on the Billboard chart for numerous weeks at a time,2 up until Maines made that comment. The full quote, as a History Channel “This Day in History” article points out the full quote is actually, “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence. And we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas,” though it is typically abbreviated, only including the final words of her statement.3 What ensued was an enormous amount of backlash to the point that people called into radio stations to request the
Dixie Chicks no longer be played.4 People gathered up the Chicks’ CDs and stomped on them, as seen in footage during their interview with Diane Sawyer.5 In that interview, the Chicks claim the comment was “off the cuff,” Maines says she didn’t think ahead of her comment.6 The song the
Chicks were about to play was “Travelin’ Soldier” from their 2002 album Home which narrates the story of a soldier who goes off the Vietnam and gets killed before he can return home to his sweetheart. The song itself is against sending soldiers abroad to fight in wars due to the tragedy it causes at home. The problem people had with Maines was not the fact that she was anti-war, but the fact that she had the gall to criticize the American president and while outside of the US. The context of Maine’s comment is incredibly important to consider, this was within weeks of
Congress approving Operation Iraqi Freedom. Plus, people were still hurt, angry, and fearful of the Middle East following September 11th, 2001. Lesley Pruitt, in her study “Real Men Kill and
2 "Dixie Chicks- Chart History,” Billboard.
3 "The Dixie Chicks Backlash Begins." History.com. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ the-dixie-chicks-backlash-begins.
4 "Dixie Chicks Pulled from Air after Bashing Bush,” CNN, March 14, 2003.
5 Diane Sawyer, interviewer., "Primetime Thursday Interview with The Dixie Chicks,” In Primetime Thursday, ABC, April 24, 2003.
6 Ibid. Papert 3! a Lady Never Talks Back: Gender Goes to War In Country Music”, discusses the difference in reactions to the Dixie Chicks and Willie Nelson’s acts of anti-war protest. She notes that while gender is not the only factor that contributed to the differences in treatment, the way people spoke out against the Chicks was through highly gendered rhetoric, whereas Nelson was lauded for his “moral” fiber.7 Whereas the Dixie Chicks received death threats for saying one line against the president, Nelson was “nomin[ated] in 2004 as a Dallas Morning News readers’ choice for Texan of the year.”8 This shows for Pruitt how acceptable it is for a man to use his will to speak out against the injustice he sees. Even though the band and the musician both called out the same things they saw as turning sour in the country, The Dixie Chicks were not respected for years because of that one comment.
Another form of live protest came from Conor Oberst when he performed the song
“When the President Talks to God” for the first time on May 2, 2005 on The Tonight Show with
Jay Leno. This was a highly planned out segment of television, there was no mistake as to what would be played or said, as in the Dixie Chick’s case. The performance consisted of Oberst on a stage alone but for his guitar, similar to protest singers of the past like Bob Dylan or Pete
Seeger.9 It was simple, uncensored though directly calling out the President, unlike Seeger’s attempted performance of “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” on the Smother Brothers Comedy
Hour in 1967, which was in fact on the same network, CBS. Oberst's song was so well like that,
“The respected music website Drowned in Sound even ran an article headlined Sick of Conor
7 Lesley Pruitt, “Real Men Kill and a Lady Never Talks Back: Gender Goes to War in Country Music,” International Journal on World Peace 24, no. 4 (2007), 96-97.
8 Ibid, 95.
9 Conor Oberst, performer, "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” In The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, May 2, 2005. Papert 4!
Oberst,”10 after he told a radio station he didn’t want to play “When the President Talks to God” anymore because he was sick of playing the song. In a Vanity Fair interview about a later album,
The People’s Key from the band Bright Eyes which he is the lead singer of, Oberst commented on his big protest song: “The whole point was to have like a commercial more than it was a song
—I don’t think it’s a particularly good song. But just to say something that needed to be said.”11
Oberst did not feel that his song would change the world or do much other than advertise against
President Bush and his administration. At the time of the song’s release Bright Eyes “toured the swing states in 2004 on the Vote For Change tour” and the song “got a lot of media attention,”12 but nothing close to the wild outrage against the Dixie Chicks.
Perhaps an even more complex case is Steve Earle’s Grammy award winning album The
Revolution Starts Now. Much like Oberst, and Maines, Earle sent his album out into the world because he “desperately needed to say something before that 2004 election,” as he told Adam
Sweeting in an interview for The Telegraph.13 The album starts with the song “The Revolution
Starts…” and ends with “The Revolution Starts Now,” both rousing songs of hope, making it clear that Earle wishes for his listeners to take action. However, the songs in between those bookends are more controversial. The sixth track “Condi Condi" is a love song directed at
Condoleeza Rice who served as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under President
Bush. Earle sexualizes Condoleeza Rice attempting to be humorous, making her into an object of
10 Laura Barton, "'I'm Not Gonna Be a Tool for Anyone,’" The Guardian, March 26, 2007.
11Marc Spitz, "Q&A: Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes Talks The People's Key,” Vanity Fair, February 08, 2011.
12 Ibid.
13 Adam Sweeting, "Steve Earle: Eight Wives, a Play, a Novel and a Grammy,” The Telegraph, October 06, 2007. Papert 5! the narrators desire such as in the lines: “People say you're cold but I think you're hot” and
“Sweet and dandy pretty as can be/You be the flower, I'll be the bumble bee.” This song does not put forward any agenda, but rather debases the image of Condolezza Rice by making her into a sexual object. Another song that takes on the subject of former Secretary Rice is punk band
Against Me!’s song “From Her Lips to God’s Ears (The Energizer)” from their 2005 album
Searching for a Former Clarity. The lyrics address the former Secretary of State: “The presidents giving a speech in Georgetown/To remember the voice of a slain civil rights leader/Do you understand what the martyrs stood for?/Oh Condoleeza do you get the fucking joke?” To the speaker there is an obvious disparity between the veneration of a civil rights leader who sacrificed themself for a movement whereas Rice promoted false intelligence about weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq, starting a unjust war. Both these songs take issue with a person. The attacks are made on Secretary Rice in Against Me’s song, however, criticize the greater system that she represents rather than just make fun of her in a sexual way. When Mother
Jones contributor Jeff Fleischer interviewed Earle about the album, he asked about former
Secretary Rice’s response. He recalls an article in the New York Daily News: “the end of article says something like, “A spokeswoman for Ms. Rice, herself a classical pianist, said ‘I don’t believe we’ll be commenting on that.’” But I think she digs me, and she’s just playing hard to get.”14 Earle is coy in his response; he knows Secretary Rice had no interest in him, but in calling her "hard to get" he dismisses her agency. She isn't the big powerful woman making huge policy decisions, but the girl turning away his advances even though he somehow knows she wants him. Another song on the album, “Rich Man’s War” uses three stories of men who fight in
14 Jeff Fleisher, "The Revolution Starts Now,” Mother Jones, October 14, 2004. Papert 6! a war to evoke sympathy. While the first two verses deal with good old American boys, the final verse is about “Ali” who “grew up in Gaza throwing bottles.” Earle breaks away from criticizing only American issues and attempts to humanize those in the Middle East who would otherwise be cast as enemies of the United States. This album won the Grammy for best Contemporary
Folk Album, yet it both lauds a Muslim who “praised Allah” before he went off to war and sexualizes then National Security Advisor.
There is no lack of critical songs from the Iraq War and Bush presidency. Even Eric Idle, of Monty Python fame, took it upon himself to say some strong words about the Bush administration. Idle released “The FCC Song” after he was fined by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) for saying “fuck” on a radio program.15 His response was to protest the FCC’s act of censorship through monetary consequence, but the song he wrote had a more developed message. On the Monty Python website where the song was published, Idle gives some context: “Here’s a little song I wrote the other day while I was out duck hunting with a judge… It’s a new song, it’s dedicated to the FCC and if they broadcast it, it will cost a quarter of a million dollars.”16 The first part of this statement alludes to the hunting accident in 2006 when Vice President Dick Cheney shot attorney Harry Whittington in the face. This story was ridiculous when it was announced, and frames the humor of the song. Idle digs into the Bush administration:“So fuck you very much dear Mr Bush, /For heroically sitting on your tush.” The song uses the word fuck over and over again, exactly what the FCC was fining him against and attacks the US President. He digs into Cheney again as well:“So fuck you Mr Dickhead Cheney
15 Wikipedia contributors, "FCC Song," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
16 "Eric Idle Presents... The FCC Song,” Pythonline, July 28, 2004. Papert 7! too,/Fuck you and fuck everything you do,/Your pacemaker must be a fake, you haven't got a heart,” and Condoleeza Rice “And as for Condoleeza, she's an intellectual tart.” Idle really shoves his anger into the ears of his listeners, there is no doubt where he stands politically. While this song is not a sophisticated act of protest, the whimsical musical tone combined with the incredibly harsh lyrics make the song hilarious. Idle is originally from the United Kingdom, but even he feels the need to speak out.
Though there is a plethora of music out there that speaks out against the Iraq War and
President Bush, there was no cohesive anti-war movement. It is not easy to find the exact reason for this. Of course there was the sensitivity of 9/11 looming large over the country, but numerous musicians spoke up nonetheless. It is peculiar that the Dixie Chicks would be so hated for one small comment considering this. It was not until 2006 the Dixie Chicks would finally reclaim their place in country music with their album Taking the Long Way. The album won every
Grammy it was nominated for, five altogether. The biggest hit off the album was the song “Not
Ready to Make Nice.” The song speaks to not only standing their ground, but also calling out those who would say hateful things about them without even knowing them “I made my bed and
I sleep like a baby/With no regrets and I don't mind sayin’/It’s a sad, sad story when a mother will teach her/Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.” While their first, unplanned attempt, at calling out President George W. Bush failed, the Dixie Chicks made it clear that they stand by their beliefs. Though all of the songs discussed agree on the things that they are dissatisfied there was never a cohesive movement as there was during the Vietnam War. While there was perhaps as much dismay with the war, the backlash against the Dixie Chicks was perhaps the most career demolishing of them all. Papert 8!
Works Cited
Barton, Laura. "'I'm Not Gonna Be a Tool for Anyone'" The Guardian, March 26, 2007. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/mar/26/usa.folk.
"Dixie Chicks- Chart History." Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/artist/301033/dixie-chicks/ chart?sort=timeon.
"Dixie Chicks Pulled from Air after Bashing Bush." CNN. March 14, 2003. http://www.cnn.com/ 2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/14/dixie.chicks.reut/.
"The Dixie Chicks Backlash Begins." History.com. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ the-dixie-chicks-backlash-begins.
"Eric Idle Presents... The FCC Song." Pythonline. July 28, 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/ 20040628083802/http://www.pythonline.com/plugs/idle/index.shtml.
Fleischer, Jeff. "The Revolution Starts Now." Mother Jones. October 14, 2004. http:// www.motherjones.com/media/2004/10/revolution-starts-now.
Oberst, Conor, performer. "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." In The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. May 2, 2005. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1tzgw_b-e-when-the-president-talks-to- god_music.
Pruitt, Lesley. “Real Men Kill and a Lady Never Talks Back: Gender Goes to War in Country Music.” International Journal on World Peace 24, no. 4 (2007): 85-106. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/20752803.
Sawyer, Diane, writer. "Primetime Thursday Interview with The Dixie Chicks." In Primetime Thursday. ABC. April 24, 2003. Papert 9!
Spitz, Marc. "Q&A: Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes Talks The People's Key." Vanity Fair. February 08, 2011. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2011/02/qa-conor-oberst-of-bright-eyes-talks-the- peoples-key.
Sweeting, Adam. "Steve Earle: Eight Wives, a Play, a Novel and a Grammy." The Telegraph. October 06, 2007. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3668357/Steve-Earle-Eight-wives- a-play-a-novel-and-a-Grammy.html.
Wikipedia contributors. "FCC Song.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed October 14, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=FCC_Song&oldid=737645195.