this just sucks.
I do agree that the threatening letters were over the line. The Dixie Chicks did (and still do, it should be noted) have the freedom to spout off inanities about whatever goes through their leftist noggins, and it was wrong for those who disagreed to write those threatening letters...but, as for that last part, would it be so wrong of me to ask, why in the hell didn't they just shut up and sing in the first place? It's like they jumped right into the turd pile and then started yelling, "back the truck up and dump another load!" They may be mad as hell, as the song's lyrics say, but there are those of us who get more than a little offended at those who use the fame and fortune bestowed upon them -- by those of all political persuasions -- to gain an unearned outlet for whatever political views they espouse, no matter what those views are. Of course, it would seem that the Chicks have also veered away from the path they've trod musically, from the comments here:
Comments like that say a lot on their own. I keep thinking of a comment someone made one morning when I was back in high school and Shania Twain's "Any Man of Mine" came on the TV during the announcements the broadcast journalism department made over the school's network every morning: "This is the only country song I like!" She probably liked all the country-labeled bubble-gum tripe that Shania Twain and her husband foisted on country radio over the next few years, too. I shudder to think of how many people who call themselves "country music fans" think more or less the same thing, which can, for many people, be boiled down to:
...the new single, "Not Ready To Make Nice," takes aim at the band's critics, and the people who wrote threatening letters following Maine's comments.
"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
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over"
I do agree that the threatening letters were over the line. The Dixie Chicks did (and still do, it should be noted) have the freedom to spout off inanities about whatever goes through their leftist noggins, and it was wrong for those who disagreed to write those threatening letters...but, as for that last part, would it be so wrong of me to ask, why in the hell didn't they just shut up and sing in the first place? It's like they jumped right into the turd pile and then started yelling, "back the truck up and dump another load!" They may be mad as hell, as the song's lyrics say, but there are those of us who get more than a little offended at those who use the fame and fortune bestowed upon them -- by those of all political persuasions -- to gain an unearned outlet for whatever political views they espouse, no matter what those views are. Of course, it would seem that the Chicks have also veered away from the path they've trod musically, from the comments here:
"i dont like country songs for the most part, but this wasnt TOO country...so i liked it"
"I've hated pretty much all of their previous singles, but I like this."
Comments like that say a lot on their own. I keep thinking of a comment someone made one morning when I was back in high school and Shania Twain's "Any Man of Mine" came on the TV during the announcements the broadcast journalism department made over the school's network every morning: "This is the only country song I like!" She probably liked all the country-labeled bubble-gum tripe that Shania Twain and her husband foisted on country radio over the next few years, too. I shudder to think of how many people who call themselves "country music fans" think more or less the same thing, which can, for many people, be boiled down to:
"I like country music, just not all that twangy, whiny shit."I'd like to think the Chicks won't take the Shania Twain route here -- indeed, indications are they won't -- but it also looks like the new cd might have more than a little leftist agitprop on it, and while all my Chicks cds are still intact and will remain in my collection and get spun in my disc player now and then, I think I might just have to pass on this one. Shut up and sing, indeed...leave the politics off the stage and out of the studio.
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