Pick A Side

 Fighting continues in Ukraine. The Gaza strip is under heavy fire. And the culture war here in the good ol' USA rages on. 

Most wars make it easy to pick a side. The Good Guys. Not the defunct personal electronics chain, but the side that has all the good people on it. Once upon a time, there was a fight about the ungodliness of rock and roll music, with Vice President Al Gore's wife Tipper at the center of a movement to censor all the naughtiness found at your local record store. 

Back in 1985, Tipper got her then-senator husband Al to get some time on the Senate floor to kick up her fuss, and a bunch of very stodgy folks sat in a chamber and were treated or subjected to lyrics from Prince, Sheena Eastin, and Judas Priest, depending on your point of view. None of those folks were around to defend their music, but Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, Frank Zappa, and John Denver showed up to argue for artistic freedom. Yes. That John Denver. It was John who compared the PMRC's mission to Nazi book burnings of another age. 

And nobody ever said bad words on rock and roll records ever again. 

Not really.

Like all good governmental proceedings, nobody ended up getting what they wanted. The PMRC got a label stuck on records warning of explicit content, and artists got bigger album sales for having that sticker on their record. 

Fast forward to 2004, when pop punk band Green Day released their album American Idiot. Nineteen years after the Senate hearings, the boys from the East Bay got one of those stickers plastered on their record. Sixteen million records, tapes and CDs later, they continue to play the songs in sold out stadiums and on television shows across the globe. 

Like when they showed up on Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve just a few days ago. They played the title track from that album, and made a slight change in the lyrics. The original had Billie Joe insisting that he wasn't "a part of a redneck agenda." Instead, he freshened it up a bit by singing "not a part of the MAGA agenda."

And the MAGAts lost their tiny little minds. "Recording Artist" Lara Trump lashed out at this slight divergence insisting that this was “not punk rock” and claimed that he was “controlled by the corporate political agenda.” She went on to take a wide swing at Neil Young, who pulled his music from Spotify because of their continued support of Joe Rogan's podcast full of right wing babble. “These are the people who are supposed to be the rockers that we look to, like, fight back against The Man. They are in lock step with The Man. It is amazing to see.”

Meanwhile, down at Mar A Lago, at a non-televised party, Lara's father-in-law's New Years Soiree featured the star power of "rapper" Vanilla Ice. No word on whether or not the estates of Freddie Mercury and David Bowie were paid for Ice's lame rip-off of their song. 

So, if we're picking sides, they've got Lara Trump and Vanilla Ice. I'll even toss in Kid Rock and an Elvis impersonator or two. We've got Green Day, Tom Petty, Freddie Mercury, David Bowie and Neil Young. And, I'm willing to bet, John Denver.

Game Over.