I know that I'll be dating myself here, but I remember the year 1984. I was in fourth grade in the first half of it, and then in the fifth grade in the second half. The Boston Celtics were the NBA Champions, and Larry Bird was already well on his way to becoming Larry Legend. In hockey, the Edmonton Oilers and New York Islanders would meet again in the Stanley Cup Finals, with the Oilers exacting a measure of revenge for the previous loss to the Islanders by defeating them soundly in 1984. Young Wayne Grezsky and Mark Messier finally had their first championship. The Raiders, who at the time were the Los Angeles Raiders, shocked the mighty Washington Redskins, the defending champions and a team that looked the part of the league's powerhouse team, scoring early and often en route to a 38-9 romp. In the 1984 regular season, the Dolphins started the season 11-0 with explosive young quarterback Dan Marino at the helm, en route to a 14-2 regular season record and a Super Bowl berth. The 49ers would go 15-1 and also would reach the Super Bowl, yet many felt the Dolphins to be the team of destiny, and that Dan Marino was the new breed of quarterback. Montana had enjoyed his Super Bowl run, but nobody could keep up with Marino. Early in the Super Bowl, they seemed to be following that script, more or less. But then the 49ers took over the game, and left the Dolphins in the dust. Despite having a stellar career, Marino and the Dolphins would never make it back to the Super Bowl. For the San Fransisco 49ers, on the other hand, this was their second Super Bowl victory in four seasons, and they would go on to win two more back-to-back later in the decade behind Joe Montana, who nowadays is widely considered to have been the greatest quarterback in history.
The Transformers were the latest and greatest toys to have come out, capturing the imagination of many little boys - and that includes a younger version of me. True, the Gobots came first, but they were really geared for little kids. The Transformers tended to be a lot cooler, frankly. The toys were quite popular, and so was the television series. They had a fairly successful run with comic books, as well. It seemed just so cool, having two toys in one. The idea that you could get a car or a jet or a gun or a tape player/recorder toy to transform into another toy seemed so new, and a truly novel idea!
There were other popular toys of the time, as well. GI Joe was on the rise, and in fact, there were strong enough parallels that existed between GI Joe and the Transformers, that there would be collaborations later on - particularly with Marvel comics. While the Gobots and the Transformers were really cool for the novelty of to different toys at once, something with a similar idea, although not precisely the same, was enjoying some strong success as well. There were three different versions of Voltron, but the most popular one was the five lions that combined into one giant and all-powerful robot, Voltron. There was another version that made the air waves, as well, and it consisted of fifteen vehicles that assembled into yet another Voltron. I even remember a third version of Voltron, but the toys were never available, and neither were the commercials. Can't even say much about it now, in fact, because I can hardly remember that other, obscure Voltron. Even the second one that I mentioned, the one with fifteen vehicles, I can only remember as if through a haze. It was not as popular as the wildly popular version with the five lions. In the meantime, Star Wars, while still popular, was beginning to fall, at least in terms of the popularity of the Kenner toy line. Yet, it proved to have a longer lasting success waiting for it - but that would come later on.
In the world of American politics, Ronald Reagan was king. It was an election year, and Reagan dominated the election like very, very few ever do. He won 49 of the fifty states, leaving only Minnesota to vote for their hometown Democrat, Walter Mondale, the former Vice President during the Presidential Administration of Jimmy Carter.
And that will be my rather long segue into the point of this piece. You see, there was a kind of "misunderstanding", if you will, involving the Reagan campaign, and someone else who was on top of the world at the time in his own field - Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen was enjoying some phenomenal success in 1984, particularly with his latest hit, "Born in the USA". This song became hugely popular, and it was used by the Reagan campaign, even. But Springsteen took exception, and told Reagan and his campaign point blank not to use the song again.
You see, Reagan used it in a jingoistic manner, turning it into a mindless, patriotic anthem. In reality, the song and the lyrics suggest a deeper meaning, one quite a bit more cerebral than mindless beating of the chest. It is actually quite critical of the United States, but it takes a more serious reading into the lyrics and the meaning of the lyrics and the context of the song to understand that, and that was something that Reagan and his supporters did not apparently understand. Springsteen had been highly critical of "Reaganomics", of course, and was livid when his own work was utilized by Reagan to support policies and an overall ideology that Springsteen simply could never agree with, and was, in fact, vehemently opposed to.
That was a famous little incident, but it is not even close to being the only time that politicians have used popular music and culture without apparently taking a closer look, to perhaps see if there were not any glaring contradictions between the artists and their work on the one hand, and the politician and the policies and ideology that he or she supports, on the other.
Springsteen was involved in another such episode more recently, although he himself had little to do with it. This involved Chris Christie, our beloved and soft-hearted governor here in New Jersey. He attended a concert himself, seeing Bruce in the flesh. But at one point, he seemed to have fallen asleep. He retorted by claiming that he was contemplating, thinking about the song being played - I forget what song it was. But it looked like he was asleep in the middle of the concert. Of course, the fact that Bruce is also opposed to Christie and his policies and approach was lost on Christie himself. Either that, or conveniently ignored.
But politicians have proven quite adept at ignoring such things. Four years ago, the Republicans introduced Sarah Palin to the world, and tried to portray her as a witty and capable candidate with a very bright future. It had been a gamble by the McCain campaign to pick her as his running mate, but the convention speech went well enough. She was amazing, all the Republicans could have asked for - at least for that one night. There were comparisons to Ronald Reagan, by now long the demigod of the faux conservative cause here in America. It was eventually revealed that she had had the nickname "Barricuda" when younger, and sure enough, they played "Barricuda" by Heart. For a short while, it seemed like the unofficial anthem for Sarah Palin, until the news broke out that Heart themselves did not appreciate Palin's using their song to endorse ideas that they themselves were opposed to. Eventually, Palin & Co. did desist. Also, in due time, it was revealed to the world that, while Sarah Palin played the part of a capable young candidate on the rise perfectly during the 2008 Republican Convention, in real life, she was not that strong and, in fact, would prove to be a liability. She could not name any newspapers that she read when asked to do so, and could not even show an understanding of the Bush Doctrine. Things like that seem, for some mysterious reason, pretty important to a good number of people when you are running for a very high public office, and she was going to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.
Now, very recently, there was yet another awkward situation involving yet another Republican Vice Presidential candidate. This time, it is Paul Ryan, who became Romney's controversial pick for his running mate. Perhaps Romney picked him to reenergize a campaign that had experienced difficulty in getting people enthused to begin with, as few faux conservatives even seemed to like Romney much. Plus, he was taking an absolute beating by the Obama campaign, that relentlessly hounded Romney's financially elite status, and the fact that he had offshore accounts, and refused to release his tax documents to the general public. Romney needed some kind of change in momentum and a new focus. He wanted something more positive, and his pick of Ryan as running mate seemed to many to be just that.
Paul Ryan is a young candidate who is often seen as the brains behind the Republican Congress these days. He is an ideologue in a way that Palin never could be. His approach is more engaging, and he is willing to debate based on the merits, or the lack thereof, of his ideas. Palin was never like that, and she proved to be a liability to the McCain campaign. Ryan, in the meantime, seemed to be a boost, and to hold promise for the Romney campaign. Of course, time will tell.
But Paul Ryan recently revealed that his favorite band is Rage Against the Machine. That was reminiscent on many levels of Reagan using Springsteen in his campaign, or Christie being a fan of "The Boss", and Palin's use of the Heart song, "Barricuda".
You see, Rage is one of the most politically conscious bands out there. They were angry and protesting, at a time when that was, pardon the pun, not all the rage. It was their political outrage that informed them, and they utilized their angry music as a form of protest against the political establishment. Anyone who really knows anything about the band knows that much.
Which is why it was so puzzling to see Ryan mention that this was his favorite band, because one cannot simply divorce the music and the band from the politics that all of that revolve around. Politics is not just an aside with this band, it is perhaps the most crucial part of their identity. And the fact that Paul Ryan cited them as his favorite band thus proved quite ironic.
Tom Morello called Ryan's love for his band "amusing", and railed against the GOP Vice Presidential candidate. He said, "Ryan claims that he likes Rage's sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don't care for Paul Ryan's sound or his lyrics. He can like whatever band he wants, but his guiding vision of shifting of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is antithetical to the message of Rage."
"I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta "rage" in him: a rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically, the one thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for campaign contributions."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement, is it? Apparently, Ryan's love of "Rage" is not being reciprocated.
Morello continues:
"My hope is that maybe Paul Ryan is a mole. Maybe Rage did plant some sensible ideas in the extreme fringe right wing nut job. But I'm not betting on it."
To sum up, Morello dismissed Ryan and his declared love of Morello's band, claiming that "he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades."
I just wonder why it is that politicians, and particularly right wing candidates, always seem to feel so comfortable wearing their preferred musical tastes on their sleeve, when it is so often performed by people that stand in complete opposition to what the right wingers stand for in the first place. I am guessing (but it is only a guess) that he was trying to appeal to younger voters, to show that he is just a normal guy, with normal tastes that fit in perfectly with this day and age, in this country. But these are not normal times, and a large part of the reason for that is Ryan's crusade of "rage" against everybody but the most privileged among us. Morello hit the nail right on the head. Just don't bet on the message being hammered home to Ryan. He is a career politician, after all, and is likely to continue ignoring the transparent contradictions between what he stands for, and what he claims that he listens to, supposedly. Clearly, he is not listening closely enough.
Here is Morello's article directly:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tom-morello-paul-ryan-is-the-embodiment-of-the-machine-our-music-rages-against-20120816
Here is a related article, one of quite a few that you can find on any search engine, if you want to read more on the subject matter:
http://www.spinner.com/2012/08/20/tom-morello-paul-ryan/
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