Some folks are born silver spoon in handFollow

Well, it is a song about unpatriotic draft dodging slash side stepping written by a guy who scrambled to side step his own draft notice to avoid Vietnam, so it's got that going against it. But, you know, end of the day it's a song so it's not like we should be holding it up as anything other than just that. Quite the catchy tune.

I kind of want Ted Nugent's input on this topic. Because, you know, if there's anyone who represent patriotic integrity from that era, it's Ted Nugent.

Edited, Nov 12th 2014 10:28pm by lolgaxe

I always liked CCR and Fogerty especially. It's great music. The song is not anti-war or anti-military, it's anti-privilege. The reaction in many corners was knee-jerk. The various articles online are clear evidence of that. Anti-war screed?

Fogerty admits he "finagled" to avoid Vietnam. He may be anti-war, but Fortunate Son is not. The song lyrics contain a powerful message. If you want to throw him in the pot with the "fortunate son" in the song, by all means, be my guest. It doesn't lessen the message, it only strengthens it by displaying his own hypocrisy.

As for why have Springsteen play at a concert like this, why not? Why do we have to live on a diet of pablum? Springsteen isn't anti-veteran although he too may be anti-war. What's wrong with exposing the inequities veterans have suffered through? And an artist plays for the pleasure of his audience? Do you know many artists?

Saying that it misses the point to say that they're wrong to be offended, itself misses the point. I never said they were wrong to be offended, I am saying they're (the talking heads) fools to be offended. They are offended because they believe the song is anti-war and anti-military, which means they never listened to the words. Which means they're fools. How can you be offended by something you do not understand? And let's face it, there aren't a lot of words to the lyrics, and they aren't very long words either. Any 10 year old who sat down and read the words would be able to tell us the song is about people with money and power avoiding something the average joe has to endure.

The people who are offended probably identify a little too closely with the people in power.

And I have to say, that is simply shocking.

As for being offended by things we don't understand, I'd hazard a guess that we're more offended by things we don't understand.

Anyway, here are the lyrics; judge for yourself.



Some folks are born made to wave the flag
Ooh, they're red, white and blue
And when the band plays "Hail to the Chief"
Oh, they point the cannon at you

It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no Senator's son
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no fortunate one, no

Some folks are born silver spoon in hand
Lord, don't they help themselves, oh
But when the tax men come to the door
Lord, the house look a like a rummage sale, yes

It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no millionaire's son, no, no
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no fortunate one, no

Yeah, some folks inherit star spangled eyes
Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord
And when you ask them, "How much should we give?"
Oh, they only answer, more, more, more, oh

It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no military son
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no fortunate one

It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no fortunate one, no, no, no
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no fortunate son, no, no




Edited, Nov 13th 2014 4:52am by Samira

Uh... "Born in the USA" isn't what I'd call a shining example of patriotic fervor.

Exhibit 2:

Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Got in a little hometown jam so they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says "son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said "son don't you understand now"
Had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there he's all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a long gone daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a cool rocking daddy in the U.S.A.

My fb feed showed me the The Rolling Stone article about the Veteran's Day show. It was quite favorable.

Really, it sounds like it would have been a fun show to see.

Let's not let the song's message blind us to the writer's action. You had to have a pretty impressive referral to get into the Reserves back then. While Fogerty might not have had an automatic in like some people, he still got an in into the Vacation Corps and only did a year in Georgia. Good message, sure, but the writer is not righteous. Maybe he wrote the song because he felt guilty, who knows. Well, in 1984 Springsteen told Rolling Stone magazine that “…his “crazy” behavior at induction and refusing to take the tests was enough to get him a 4F.

Is it not righteous to live the life you wish to lead, rather than the perhaps shorter life others wish you would?

How seriously can we take it, though? Neither Bono nor Willie Nelson was involved.

This is your brain. This is your brain on heroism. Heroism, not even once.

#concertforvalor

Now it's a movement.

You're correct, of course. I should have been more clear in what I was trying to say, which is that they are fools for being offended by something so easy to understand and so readily available to them. But yes, misunderstanding is at the root of a large percentage of things people find offensive. I would make up a statistic to support my statement but I haven't finished my coffee yet.

I'm sorry again for not being clear. I was using "righteous" in the sense that we used it in the late 60s and early 70s. Really, we misused it if you go by its strict definition. It was often used as a synonym for "cool" and almost always coupled with "dude". In that sense I stand by my statement. (Actually, I just looked it up, its primary definition is morally right or justifiable, its secondary definition is very good or excellent, so maybe we didn't misuse it after all, if we go by the secondary definition.)

Ugh. Admitting I was wrong. Twice. This took a lot out of me.

In that sense I can dig it. Like I said, great song, great message.

Also, Coke commercials are about destroying the American fabric and locking immigrants into ethic ghettos, car commercials are secret Obama propaganda narrated by deceived movie stars and no one has ever heard of that black woman from the Super Bowl shows.

Gbaji, as always, has his fingertips on the pulse of culture and artistic interpretation.