Chrissie Hynde denounces "W" from the stage and causes no ripples:
You are supposed to say stuff like that in rock. If anything, a rock star who started spouting off in defense of America would lose record sales.
I think the reporter misses the point. Chrissie Hynde's celebrity has diminished and the Dixie Chicks had one of last year's biggest selling albums. If an American top 40 pop/rock star (Avril, Sum 41, etc.) had made the same statements as the Dixies, they would have been lambasted as well for speaking their minds.
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Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
I just checked with the Ministry of Consequences, and to the best of their current intelligence, both Avril Lavigne and SUM 41 are Canadian citizens. We are currently in negotiations to transfer Celine Dion to the American Hegemon, however.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
2 - Eric Olsen
Dave, I think you are exactly right - chrissie is merely tolerated at this point and is commonly regarded as an aging malcontent - a "total bitch" as a reporter friend has been known to say.
3 - san
Yeah, what's with that? Now CANADIANS can't express personal opinions about the war? Dear Canadians: we have a short lunatic with a big gun down here; you might keep an eye on the skys.
4 - san
I know: "skies"... I was just so caught up in the moment.
5 - Jim Carruthers
Dear san:
The Ministry of Consequences has no fucking idea what you are talking about.
6 - Nigel Richardson
Us old folk remember when Chrissie Hynde was involved in a fake punk band called The Moors Murderers back in 1977, so I think you can assume that her desire to shock (while playing fairly standard rock music) is nothing new.
7 - san
Dear Jim:
As in madman on the loose named Bush. No sovereign nation is safe. And the original post pointed to Avril Lavigne and SUM 41, as if they should watch their mouths about what they say about the war, and I was kind of dumbfounded since Canada isn't even supporting this war. Sounded to me like more of the no-dissent-allowed rhetoric.
8 - Jim Carruthers
Well, we have an advisory with The Ministry of Consequences, but it seems in the interm, that the USA has officially gone bugfuck nuts.
Please hold on while we readjust the horizonatal.
9 - Al Barger
This cheap anti-American propoganda might also be looked at as a silly and self-indulgent form of career suicide for people who have very little career left. That is, if you've got some aging celebrity with no significant career left, they can tell themselves that they gave up their careers to speak out against war! It's certainly far more glorious than simply admitting that your time has past, and that your recent records really suck and nobody wants to hear them. It's kind of Norma Desmond behavior. Chrissie is now right about the age of Gloria Swanson's infamous aging star from Sunset Strip.
10 - Bill Sherman
Aw, c'mon, it's not as if Chrissie hasn't been known for speaking her mind or even making political comments in her music. Aging diva bitch or not, I still find her entertaining - and her last two albums have been stronger than a lot of other rock 'n' roll survivors can claim. I find it somewhat dismaying that every time a celeb makes a politically "controversial" comment, one of the standard responses in the blogcritical community is to go "Aww, they aren't so hot, anyway." As if there were a hard and fast correlation between their ability to produce good work and their agreement with the hive mind. . .
11 - Eric Olsen
I agree that the last one was pretty good, she's not done yet, but she's still a bitch, and there is a big difference between saying you are against the war for whatever reason and saying you hope we lose. Hoping we lose is like saying you hope there are lots and lots of dead Americans coming home in body bags, and that is about as vile as it gets.
12 - Bill Sherman
Reading the actual comments, I've gotta agree that Hynde comes across pretty idiotic (though no more or less dumb than a lot of would-be punkers have in beer-soaked rant mode), and she deserves to be called on it. I still think that trashing her music because you don't like her politics is a bogus rhetorical ploy. . .
13 - Eric Olsen
Agreed
14 - Spahny
US foreign policy has steadily erroded our reputation around the world in the last five decades. This latest group of zealots and fascists have in a few short years done more than any group that has come before them to transform the US into the most hated and feared nation in modern history. Chrissie Hynde is a world citizen who lives mostly abroad. She would certainly notice such a trend a long time before the self deluded and lost masses of the United States of America who for some inexplicaple reason still believe we have any respect around the world. We don't. We have the fear of the world. There's a big difference. And eventually the worm always turns.
When 911 happened we had the world's sympathy. In three short years the Bush plunderers have spent every cent of the goodwill. It's probably too late to turn that around. So, yes, we deserve to gets our asses kicked. Chrissie Hynde is not a bitch. She's just awake.
15 - SFC SKI
We had the world's symapthy, as long as we sat back and took the hits.
"We deserve to get our asses kicked" you sound like some numbnuts rantbag who hasn't done a damn thing himself but is willing enough to sit on the sidelines and critique. Why don't you join the Peace Corps and see the world, and make a difference rather than sit on your ass and complain.
Chrissy used to be one hell of a great rocker, if she put the smae kind of energy back into her music as she does into her rants, her albums would still be worth buying.
16 - Evan Roberts
[edited] I doubt that your opinions are being expressed from the Iraqi front lines.
[edited] Maybe a stint with the Peace Corps or even a walk around the block could broaden your own horizons.
I am referring your post to the Ministry of Consequences as it is quite apparent that you are publically dissing the very freedoms and the international respect that once made this country great.
17 - Dude
You guys are missing the point. Everybody who listens to pop music knows what side Chrissie Hynde is on. We all know what Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Eddie Veddar, Bob Dylan are on. That's why it should be no surprise about their work leans towards the left.
The Dixie Chicks were pretty much apolitical until one of them made that one remark about Bush, and all hell broke loose.
As for Linda Ronstandt, I knew she was a Democrat, so why the fuss?
Are we not suppose to let artists, rich or not, speak their mind? What do you want -- entertain, is that all? Isn't that what the bug zapper is for?
18 - Duane
"Are we not suppose [sic] to let artists, rich or not, speak their mind [sic]?"
No, we are not. As Zappa has said, "Shut up 'n play yer guitar!"
19 - xcvzxcv
"I hope they get their asses kicked". As if it's a ball game! She is hoping to see dead American soldiers. Isn't that nice?