‘I don’t feel he is owed any respect whatsoever’

May 22, 2006

I admit that I didn’t follow the “controversy” surrounding the [tag]Dixie Chicks[/tag] very closely in 2003, but I can’t help but enjoy seeing how the country group isn’t backing down now.

Now that [[tag]Natalie Maines[/tag] is] truly notorious, having told a London audience in 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, “Just so you know, we’re [tag]ashamed[/tag] the [tag]President[/tag] of the United States is from Texas,” Maines has one regret: the apology she offered George W. [tag]Bush[/tag] at the onset of her infamy. “I apologized for disrespecting the office of the president,” says Maines. “But I don’t feel that way anymore. I don’t feel he is owed any [tag]respect[/tag] whatsoever.”

The country music industry in turn shunned the Dixie Chicks in ’03 after the Bush criticisms, which in turn limited the group’s ability to reach country radio stations. (Some of the more colorful country critics hosted protests in which the groups’ records were smashed.) The Dixie Chicks could have reversed course. They did the opposite. Not only is Maines now telling reporters that Bush isn’t owed any respect at all, the first single from the group’s new album is called, “Not Ready to Make Nice.”

The industry is still angry — Clear Channel’s Steve Gramzay described the new single as showing “arrogance and disrespect” — but the group doesn’t seem to care. Good for them.

CB, as you know I’m no exemplar of typing and editing, but I thought you might like to correct this:

the country group isn’t back down now.=the country group isn’t backing down now.,br/>

The country music industry turned shunned The country music industry in turn shunned

BTW, tough weekend?

  • OK. I’m a musician from Texas.

    I agreed with Natalie then, and I agree with her now.

    I don’t listen to country music.

    I’m gonna buy the new CD just to make up for one of those ignorant clear channel guys.

  • Is that the same Clear Channel who owns billboards that can’t be purchased by liberal activists? Or, am I mistaken?

  • “The industry” may still be angry, but performers — Merle Haggard, “Rebuild America First.”; Neil Young, “Let’s Impeach the President,” ; Willie Nelson, “Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)”) — don’t seem to give a damn what “the industry” thinks. Three cheers for the Dixie Chicks and all who oppose the Bush Crime Family.

  • Yup, their the ones that own a lot of billboards and restrict content, though I wonder how much that is ideologically driven, or just driven by concern for ingratiating itself with the powers that be so that its consolidation in the radio industry goes smoothly. I imagine it’s probably both, but they are very good at making crap music popular, so it’s probably just as well for the Dixie Chicks to be left out by them.

    Also, while I’m here and to my shame, I’d like to plug a kinda political music video I put up over at the HuffPo for their Contagious Fest on Saturday, please take a listen. I’m not very musical, so I’d describe it as more enthusiastic than talented, but you all might get a kick out of it.

  • CB, as you know I’m no exemplar of typing and editing, but I thought you might like to correct this…

    Picky, picky. (I’m kidding.) Getting going on a Monday morning can be tricky.

    It’s fixed.

  • “The Industry” seems to be little more than a strawman-in-reverse; naming a large group that supports Kid George when, in fact, their heavyweights are coming out more and more against the idiot. I remember the anti-Chicks movement that was going around (I told people then that they were being both (1) childish, and (2) puppets of an incompetent political bum)—and I’ve still got the CDs I bought then (never cared for country music before then, but I’ll sure spend a few bucks to support someone who has the gumption to say it like it is).

    It also speaks volumes that these three women have more cojones than Steve Gramzay—or should I rephrase that, and say that Steve Gramzay has less cojones than a woman?

  • Clear Channel complains that the Dixie Chicks song shows “arrogance and disrespect”? So they approve of music like Toby Keith’s “Ah’m gonna kick Saddam’s ass fer 9-11!” song because it’s polite and obsequious? If I worked for Clear Channel, I wouldn’t say *that* to Toby Keith šŸ˜‰

  • What’s discouraging is that the mainstream attitude, after five years of lies, corruption, fear mongering and staggering incompetence, is that critics of the Bush administration are radical, leftist whackos who should be ignored by the overwhelming majority of real Americans.

    Case in point: cover of Time Magazine. Dixie Chicks pictured, with caption below, “Radical Chicks.” How can it be radical when 65% of the people believe this president to be a disaster?

    But that’s what we’re up against. The establishment. And it just ain’t budging an inch.

  • What scares me is that the Dixie Chicks got death threats.

    That’s how bad the conservatives are in this country. Let someone they think are supposed to be on their side (country singers) come out against Boy George II, and they start sending death threats.

    Not very American of them. Not that they would understand that.

  • The new album isn’t just that one song. Burro made a lot of good points in yesterday’s discussion about the issues facing “Nascar Woman,” and that appears to be exactly what this new album – which is made, according to Rick Rubin “like a great rock band doing a country album, rather than a country group doing a rock album” – is about, with songs about a matriarch facing Alzheimers, a single mother trying to decide whether to buy medicine or food for her child, etc. There is a really good article in yesterday’s LA Times Calendar (I’m not sure if the Sunday Calendar section is available without a paid subscription online, but check at http://www.latimes.com) about the group and their music.

    They got so many “credible death threats” that Natalie Maines left Texas and moved to California, and their performances have metal detectors and “special security” to take care of the Freepers and Little Green Hairballs.

    The critical “buzz” on the album is that it’s great for both music and content.

    The one thing about Texas that I’ve always liked (as a Texan-in-exile) is that the place is a magnifying glass. People are REALLY whatever it is they are, from Goat Roper Asshole to Very Cool Folks, like Davis Bragg, our attorney in Killeen when I was running The Oleo Strut Coffeehouse. The first time we had dinner at his house, I took note of how far back the very rural house was from the county road, to which he responded, “Yes, it’s out of range.” And he’d been fighting the good fight since the mid-50s there outside Fort Hood, not a place that was then (or now) friendly to progressives. The Dixie Chicks are definitely in this mold. More power to them!

    Show Clear Channel, “Nashville” and every Goat Roping Asshole who still supports King George how far they have their heads up their ass by buying this album. I know I will.

  • I’ve long liked the Chicks for their talent and their ability to craft truly good songs. I have newfound respect for their bravery. Few people in the creative world have had to put up with so much crap to speak their mind … and they still have the guts to believe in themselves and their words. Imagine if our political leaders had such conscience and spine!

  • The girls are welcome to their (wrongheaded) political views. They have the right to express them.

    Country music fans are well within their rights to shun them — and country music stations are within their rights to refuse to play their music because it is no longer a commercial draw.

    After all, the Chicks have thei rightt o free speech — but they don’t have the right to anyone else’s dollars.

  • Iā€™ve published a different theory about the lack of country radio play on my blog (liberalcountryfan.blogspot.com). Basically, I donā€™t think ā€œNot Ready to Make Niceā€ was meant to do well on radio. It was, however, meant to get the Chicks on 60 Minutes and the cover of Time, which it did.

    Also, I take a whole lot of issue with saying that country radio has been biased with the Chicks new song. The song did just as well on non-country radio as country radio, indicating zero evidence for bias.

  • Of course, most of non-country radio, just like most of country radio, is owned by Clear Channel. Which has its collective corporate lips all but surgically connected to BushCo’s ass.

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