Political singing

Okay, this is going to ramble. Deal with it.

Goes Without Saying Thang #1: If you have a political opinion in this country, the government has no right to suppress it, or oppress you.

Goes Without Saying Thang #2: Things not the government (e.g., individuals, corporations, other private entitites) are not the government.

I made a couple of comments of Loudon Wainwright III singing an anti-Bush song at the concert we went to last night. Now, it was absolutely his right to do so, and had the Denver PD or the FBI suddenly shown up to drag him off, I like to think I would have been in the forefront (by my seat if for no other reason) in fending them off.

That said, it still bugged me, and put a pall on an otherwise enjoyable experience.

It was a good tune, mind you, with all of the hallmarks of Wainwright’s style. And he certainly feels strongly about it, enough so to make it available as a free MP3 download, after he’s been extremely critical of music file sharing and the like.

But … but …

So I’ve read the newpaper stories about recording artists who make an anti-Bush statement, and get booed off-stage. And I know that’s by no means a universal thing because, frankly, aside from some scattered boos and cat-calls, Wainwright got pretty much solid applause from the congregation. Which makes sense because, well, he’s the kind of guy who you’d expect to be anti-Bush, and to actually say something about it, and it’s likely that most of the folks who would go to one of his concerts would feel similarly.

I didn’t, though I’m rarely a decent bellwether for popular culture or opinion. Not that I’m a huge fan of Bush’s, no matter what impression I may have given here at times — there are things he’s done (Iraq) I strongly agree with, and others I don’t, and the former are tending to outweigh the latter (especially given the candidatorial alternative), but it’s not like I’m going to be naming any hypothetical sons George or anything. I’d give a bright shiny nickel to have a candidate I could vigorously support; instead, I’m stuck with one I grudgingly and irritatedly am willing to go along with because I find the alternative less attractive and the opposition deeply aggravating in their condemnation of everything Bushy.

But I digress.

I think I would have felt better if Wainwright had inserted the song into the middle of his set. It would have made his point, and yet wouldn’t have been the final point made. I daresay most if not all of the folks there (for at least his half of the show) are willing to go along with his auctorial viewpoint for the most part. Yet politics in this election year has, for whatever reason, become such a polarizing thing that it seems to me that a creator who wants to make a political point needs must do so carefully, because it’s just as easy to alienate a bunch of fans as it is to jazz them up, and while Bush-bashing is certainly popular in many crowds, speaking for myself I’d just as soon go to a concert and not hear bashing of either candidate.

Which lack, of course, I got with David Wilcox, even though I didn’t care for him as much. So I name my poison and take my chances, I suppose, but while I defend to the death any artist’s right to express their opinion, I don’t commit to supporting them commercially if their opinion is, to me, irksome enough.

That’s not censorship — that’s patronage. And artists may rail against that all they like, but it’s, for most artists, a fact of life. Just as it is, socially, for all of us.