I have this friend Len who really needs a blog but doesn't have one, that's OK because I've published his correspondence before. Herewith some amusing discourse for the weekend. Warning: contains a rock & roll anecdote that is in extremely callous bad taste.
I'm not close enough to US politics or culture to have strong feelings about the Chicks one way or another, but I sure like Len's writing. He calls this Stories From the Musicians' Corner:
I for one was very proud that the people of South Carolina demonstrated their native American good sense last night and went to the Dixie Chicks concert anyway. They proved they knew the difference between politics and entertainment. Way to go.
A close friend of mine used to tour with the road crew for KISS. When the band bus would pull up on a demonstration where people were burning their images, records, or other KISS paraphernalia, the band would sit in the bus and laugh. As they said, it's good to be in a business where the consumer is reducing supply while increasing demand. When The Who had the concert in Cincinnati in which ten concert goers were crushed in a mad frenzy to get through a door into the auditorium, a bad feeling swept through the industry. The next day, the bass player for KISS, Gene Simmons, called all of the band and crew together at the rehearsal before that night's concert. As he stepped to the microphone, everyone was hushed expecting something dreadful. Simmons said simply, “I want eleven.” In rock, there is no such thing as bad publicity.
And so we come back to the three girls from Texas. In the business that is entertainment, they have done their jobs. They are immortal. If you ask the Marines, they will tell you that the only thing they want to hold against them is their sweaty bodies. So maybe it just comes down to job performance. In two years, when George W. Bush comes up for his job performance review with his boss, we will see if he gets half the raise the Dixie Chicks are going to get, or keeps his job at all.
The gals from Texas kept theirs.
