The Other McCain

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So, Does This Mean Bono Should Be The Front Man For Rammstein?

Posted on | September 12, 2011 | 15 Comments

by Smitty (via Insty)

Surber ojects vigorously to rock stars ascribing American citizenship to themselves:

No, Bono, is not an American — one day a year or 365. Who in the heck does this pompous Irish think he is standing in Canada and presuming that he is an American? When did he stand in line to get the paperwork done so he could establish a residency? When did he take and pass the Citizenship Test? When did he raise that right hand and swear to God and everyone else his allegiance to the Greatest Land Of All?

He is not even a Bono. His name is Paul David Hewson. He does not even pronounce the name right. That is a long O as in Sonny Bono, who was a true American son of legal immigrants who worked his way up from nothing, learned the music business, built an entertainment empire and then became mayor of Palm Springs and a congressman.

In defense of Hewson, at least he was never romantically linked to Cher.

But Bono is not the first to make this claim. One predecessor was the German thrash outfit Rammstein:
Something about dudes in space suits rocking on the moon just strikes me as funny. Sharp-eyed Twitter users may recognize my avatar, mooched from this video. (Follow me, please: it’s embarrassing that RMS has four times the followers that I do.)

But, hey: if Rammstein is living in America, and Bono is an American, should Bono go ahead and front the band? Maybe they could go on a tour performing Grateful Dead material through a squishy-Christian/thrash filter. Is there a career for me managing musical acts?

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Comments

15 Responses to “So, Does This Mean Bono Should Be The Front Man For Rammstein?”

  1. Joe
    September 12th, 2011 @ 8:42 pm

    Bono saying he was an “American” on 9-11 is not what I put in the offensive catagory.   Bono may be a tiresome pretenious knucklehead at times, but I am not going to criticize him for saying that. 

  2. Joe
    September 12th, 2011 @ 8:44 pm

    I sort of liked the Rammstein video.  And a Paki terrorist smoking Lucky Strikes, how 9/11 is that? 

  3. Matt Lewis
    September 12th, 2011 @ 8:47 pm

    That’s awesome.  I’d never seen the video (though the song shows up regularly for me on Pandora).

    So, has ICE declared that it won’t deport Bono, then?

    Filed under: Singing songs that Americans won’t sing

  4. Anonymous
    September 12th, 2011 @ 9:10 pm

    I was wondering when you’d find an excuse to feature that video, Chris.

    Heh.

  5. Who asked Bono to be an American? « Don Surber
    September 12th, 2011 @ 5:27 pm

    […] by Robert Stacy McCain. Thanks. Many people think The Other McCain looks like Rod Stewart. All I can say is the two have […]

  6. Dave C
    September 12th, 2011 @ 9:38 pm

    OT but had to share my  favorite by Rammstein. 

  7. Shawn Gillogly
    September 12th, 2011 @ 10:18 pm

    And Bono actually pronounces it right, since it’s LATIN pronunciation. *facepalm*

    Short for a nickname he had as a teen: Bono Vox (perfect voice).

  8. TR
    September 13th, 2011 @ 12:05 am

    Smitty:
    Du Hast
    (or is it)
    Du Hasst

    (Bono = Nein)
    The greatest live show ever produced (and I fear to ever attend!)
    Luckily we have Youtube #Rammstein

  9. Anonymous
    September 13th, 2011 @ 2:10 am

    DEMOCRACY! WHISKEY! SEXY!

    Also, this.

  10. Nospam
    September 13th, 2011 @ 2:44 am

    Schmaltzy… but the right kind of schmaltzy.

  11. LILT
    September 13th, 2011 @ 8:13 am

    Latin being a dead language there is no correct pronunciation.

  12. Dave C
    September 13th, 2011 @ 11:18 am

    You know, for as much as they criticize and scorn all things ‘American’, Rammstein has no problem taking America’s money. 

  13. Aerie01
    September 13th, 2011 @ 12:37 pm

    @Dave, it’s not America, per se, that Rammstein object to in the video — it’s the insidious spread of our culture all over the world and not always for good.  The song was written at the beginning of the Iraq War and expressed their dislike of our hawkish tendencies, hence the lyric, “sometimes war”.  Otherwise, they really have no problem with us.

  14. Paul Joslin
    September 13th, 2011 @ 1:12 pm

    It’s right up there with JFK going to Berlin and declaring that he was a jelly doughnut.

    I’ll show Bono a little respect when he declares he’s an American on April 15th!

  15. Dave C
    September 13th, 2011 @ 10:21 pm

     You’re right..

    How much better would the world have been if, say, the USSR had become the lone world power.

    I’m sure they would get that protest song out right away and make lots of money off of that too.