Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Tuesday Tuneage
Paul Revere & The Raiders - "The Great Airplane Strike"
1966

I read Time because I secretly aspire to be part of The Establishment. But perusing its pages means taking them with a grain of salt. They've been on a hagiography kick lately, more so than usual. In the same issue that Walter Isaacson gushed over how Apple's technology was going to turn our society into a man-machine Utopia, they also used Big Walt to gush over Henry Kissinger with a piece hilariously titled "The Lion in Winter." Here we found out that Kissinger was for the invasion of Iraq but now thinks it was a bad idea, and has a similar flip-flop on Afghanistan. Hindsight's always twenty-twenty, right? The funny thing is that Isaacson with a straight face writes that Kissinger has always been correct on foreign policy. Apparently, an alternate meaning of realpolitik is that changing your mind years later equals foresight.

Another knee-slapper was in the next issue, when we got another Time reminder that U2 are the saviors of rock 'n' roll. (Time's been on this kick with U2 for damn near thirty years.) U2 teams with Apple, so the collective Time brain trust's, uh, brains might just yet explode! Sure, the new U2 album is nice, and the price is right, but it's like every other U2 album since Achtung Baby: It sounds earnest, even great. Then you listen to it a second time and realize no song sticks because they are so precisely crafted that there is no grit, no friction, nothing to grab on to.

I wanted to love this new U2 album, mostly because of the backlash to their TV ad where they play "The Miracle Of (Joey Ramone)" and interpose photos of Ramone, Patti Smith, and whatever other Class of CBGB Nineteen Seventy-Something icons we're supposed to idolize. Admittedly, the ad was dumb, but it's funny when humorless punkers get worked up about their precious Punk Mythology. Clods like these is why Rob Reiner had to make This Is Spinal Tap about a metal band: if it'd poked fun at a punk band, the punkers would have gotten as upset as folks around here do about the accents in Fargo.

And we heard nary a peep from the punkers when Paul Revere died earlier this month. As I wrote back in 2006 about "The Great Airplane Strike": Fuzz-drenched Dylan imitation complete with Bob-like vocals. Great fun and the opening riff was ripped off by the Dead Kennedys, who weren't nearly as funny or as cool or as punk as the Raiders. Similar sentiments could be made about a bunch of other singles The Raiders released 1963-68, songs that sealed them as one of the greatest punk bands ever. I'd rather track them than The Ramones or Patti Smith or Television. Learn a lesson, punkers. And U2 fans, listen to some music that isn't so safe. And dammit Time magazine, if you need some truly bitching hagiographies, hire me!