Springsteen Fortunate Son at Veterans Day Concert

texas_ex2000

texas_ex2000

2,500+ Posts
FYI, I was there and it was awesome. 3 favorite acts were Metallica, Rihanna, and YES Eminem. if I didn't here at least 5 f-bombs by my sailors and marines before morning chow, I would be worried something was wrong with them. My goodness folks, the lineup said Eminem...by definition it is not a family concert.

The worst act, by far, was Bruce. I like Springsteen a lot. Streets of Philadelphia, Santa Clause is Coming to Town, Born to Run, Dancing in the Dark, Glory Days...it's all good. But the song choice of Fortunate Son (joined by ZBB and Dave Grohl) was, imho, not appropriate. It's a fine song for a classic rock radio station, but not a Veterans Day concert. Probably 400k concert revelers on the Mall, and the song dropped like a piano. A collective Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment.

1) I don't care what spin Fogerty or Bruce put on it, this song has come to represent a protest on the essential mission of the military in this day and age...expeditionary operations - to go to some ****** place and possibly die so people back home can have their happy hours. Whatever your politics on the matter, common sense and discretion would lead that this is not an appropriate song for people who dedicate their lives to execute expeditionary missions.

2) It's divisive class warfare. Sadly, they sang this song only a few minutes after the story of Lieutenant Commander Bill Krissoff, USNR - an orthopedic surgeon from Pebble Beach, California. LCDR Krissoff's son, 1Lt Nathan Krissoff, a Marine, died in an IED attack near Falujah. 1Lt Krissoff and his brother Austin Krissoff were both prep school and Williams College kids and volunteered for the Marines after 9-11. After Nathan's death, LCDR Krissoff left his cozy practice in Pebble Beach and pursued a commission in the Navy. He had to fight for an age waiver at 62 year old to get accepted. He got one from President Bush, and served two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Huffington Post - LCDR Krissoff

Like other kids of all economic classes, rich, privileged, Ivy League, "fortunate" sons have volunteered to serve and have died for their country so some people can enjoy the Rock Star lifestyle. Unlike Bruce (who in the 3rd verse defiantly proclaims he, "ain't no military son"), they are veterans. They were there on the Mall and they are buried in Arlington. Whatever intentions of a subversive message, as Rolling Stone put it, it's an affront to the values of fidelity and selflessness that military members uphold.

Incidentally, he also sounded like crap - tired and and over the hill. I expected a better act. He disappointed a lot of people.
 
First, Springsteen is a no-talent *** clown. I've never understood the appeal - nothing special at playing any instrument and can't sing worth a ****.

And Fortunate Son is an inappropriate song for a Veteran's Day concert for all the reasons you described. In addition, the class warfare angle of the song is really pointless today. When CCR put out the song, it made some sense. Because of the college exemption, the sons of wealthy people and politicians could easily and legally avoid the draft. If you were poor, you were ******. It also disproportionately screwed the black man. It was a horribly unfair and unjust system.

Nowadays, nobody has to join. If you want to risk going to fight in wars, you join. If you don't, then you don't join. No one has any right to complain.
 
I think it's a good song. And there's nothing wrong with having different opinions. Certainly, the politics of war are worthy of a song. But that's just not the time nor place. These veterans serve because they wanted to - poor and rich. People don't seem to understand that we celebrate Veterans Day because service and fidelity are virtues, hence the valor and honor (as in the good old fashioned sense). These are values we want our children to appreciate and emulate. They are not sacrifices to be patronized which seems to be Bruce's misguided perspective.

I love NASA, as a Houston kid always have. I'm not going to make a statement about whether the science behind climate change is settled in front of a whole bunch of NASA folks.

I believe in the NEA. Preserving and promoting our art history and cultivating artists is actually something I think worthy of taxpayers investment..it's fundamental to our society, but not something the free market can independently support. However, I'm not going to make a diatribe at an NEA fundraiser criticizing the unimaginitive shock "art" some folks try to pass off as meaningful.

Likewise, liberal politicians courting Hispanics are probably smart to hold back the "clinging to religion" rhetoric when stumping.
 
Its one thing to be a dick but also be good at what you do. I can respect that to a certain extent. Springsteen sucks at what he does and is still a dick. The guy needs to go away. His mom must have shoved a rabbit foot up his *** when he was born.
 
Why the Palen hate? You should be commenting on what Obama is doing to you. I doubt Sarah has harmed you in any way..........but go right ahead. That's what dem/libs do.
 
It's dem talking points. Kind of like Libs calling in complaining about what the Koch brothers say or the "war on women." As Gruber points out, they represent dumb people.
 
Dillo,

I wasn't commenting on her beliefs, only how annoying her voice is because that's the context of the thread and who I was replying to. Imagine if I read into your post as much as you read into mine. What could I come up with? Hmm.

From your post I can deduce that all conservatives are always trying to label people liberals that aren't for stupid reasons like not liking the voice of a conservative.

I can deduce that all conservatives have trouble understanding the context of conversations and possible have reading comprehension issues.

And finally I can deduce that all conservatives have knee jerk reactions to falsely perceived criticism of conservatives and respond with something about blaming Obama.

Fun little game.
 
Springsteen is a no talent ***-clown and he hogged the stage at this years Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. He yammered so long that they had to edit his speech to fit the TV program into the allotted time. It was disgusting to watch.
 
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