You’re no good

Way back in the 70s, Linda Ronstadt was a beloved West-coast singer. At one time there was even talk she could become 'First lady' of the USA, if she married one-time California Governor (1975-1983) and Presidential-hopeful and nowadays Mayor of Oakland, Jerry Brown. Well that was then and now in July 2004, fifty-eight year old Ronstadt was expelled from her own concert in a Las Vegas casino (see: http://www.artistsnetwork.org/news13/new... ).

Now as then, her political attitude was, too American for her own good. The audience booed her off stage when she dared to suggest that film-maker Michael Moore pf 911-fahrenheit fame, was a genuine patriot. Apparently those so outraged in the audience, presumably historically illiterate, could not come to accept the implicit suggestion, that right-wing and conservative US-citizens are thus by definition unpatriotic. Music, Movies and Minimum-wage labour free time, is expected to be apolitical, no-brainer entertainment, period.

So the show truly must go on, as both the democratic and now the Republican so-called conventions prove. Only when and where the mainstream media is part and parcel of a political event or itself produces the punch lines, will your average Joe and Jane audience applaud, always dutifully, just happy to be part of it all.

It is hardly any wonder that news in the US and 'political coverage' is 95% show-business and marketing before anything else. When John Kerry sailed into the Boston harbour, in the fashion of an early Byzantine Emperor, applause from the celebrity worshiping citizens is assured. Poor Linda, never attained imperial heights and what is perhaps worse, she hi-jacked the show, not hers to define, rather to deliver as expected.

Clearly the tight to make any, even modest political statement befalls to those who stage the shows, just like Romans were to applaud in the Coliseum, regardless of whatever brutalities were put before them. The entertainer is akin to the gladiator, a vehicle in the greater order of things, never to be in charge of the show. Had Ronstadt only released what she was up against, of all places in Las Vegas. She could have boldly stepped on to the stage and performed only one song, before leaving the stage on her own account: "You're no good. - Good night everyone."

Go To Page: 1

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic