Category: Music

That Ain’t Country Music

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I’m not one of these hard-core purists, who denounces any artist who strays too far from the original formula, despite my hereditary Old School tendencies. (My mother worked for the Atlanta office of RCA Records when I was a kid and used to bring home authographed records by Eddie Arnold, etc.) And I’m OK with the general trend toward rockin’ country that has developed ever since Mutt Lange moved to Nashville.

All that being said, Carrie Underwood’s “Cowboy Cassanova” is not country music. A fine song by a fine singer, but it ain’t country.

If you’re the argumentative type, feel free to argue. But you’re just wrong.

Chris Cassone’s Tea Party Anthem Ripped Off by the New Yorker

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Can you say “copyright infringement,” boys and girls?

A gray-haired man in a blue velvet jacket and sneakers started inching toward the center of the room with an acoustic guitar. He had a “Reagan for President” button on his shoulder strap and a “Hoffman for Congress” sticker on his case.
[T]hey invited the guitarist to play, and before long Hank from Gravesend and Julie from Chelsea and Kellen from Morningside Heights were singing along to the chorus of a folk anthem in that great American tradition:
Take it back,
Take our country back.
Our way of life is now under attack.
Draw a line in the sand, so they all understand
And our values stay intact.
Take it back.

The editors of the New Yorker can be excused for not knowing that the “gray-haired man” is Chris Cassone, a professional singer-songwriter and recording engineer — he used to jam with Ace Frehley of Kiss back in the day — whose song “Take Our Country Back” is (a) available on CD, (b) copyrighted, and (c) soon to be featured in a book that Chris is writing about the Tea Party movement. And guess what? Chris Cassone has a blog:

The New Yorker refused to give me credit for the chorus of my song which they reproduced without a copyright notice.  And their authors rant about the big bad monolithic Republican-Wall Street cabal, yet it is THEY who are steamrolling over my rights.

The editors of the New Yorker didn’t know all that when they published Ben McGrath’s story — without any credit whatsoever to Chris Cassone — but I think they’ll recognize their error when they get a letter from Chris Cassone’s lawyers. Here’s the original video for the song:

P.S.: Chris Cassone parties with cool bloggers.

Patton: A Real American Hero

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CubaChi on Twitter:

Alright! @MarkLevinShow is playing the Patton music now! You know this is going to be good!

Great taste in music, ma’am!

This is super-cool — Francis Ford Coppola describes how he got fired for writing the Oscar-winning screenplay:

The original theatrical trailer:

Here’s another version of the trailer:

My cousin Mark and I were always big war-movie fans as kids and when we were 11, Mark’s mom (my Aunt Pat) took us to see Patton. She was mortified by the profanity and was quite apologetic to my mother for having inadvertantly exposed us to this. But there was no need to apologize to Mark and me — we loved it!

For all his faults, his arrogance and stubbornness and irascible temper, Patton is a great role model because of his firm faith and single-minded devotion to his profession. He was aristocratic by nature, and didn’t sit around worrying about what some rear-echelon type might think of him. He desired a soldier’s true glory — the prestige of victory — not the sort of “popularity” that is false and transient, gained by fawning sycophancy.

Patton is a one of the most inspiring films in history, a celebration of a uniquely American hero.

What’s Another Harmless Lie Between Friends?

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by Smitty

Little Miss Attila points to Real Clear Politics where, under the skilled hand of Robert Gibbs, Operation Assclown staggers forward, at a medium pace*.

But, in a rare moment of musical oversight, LMA’s “What Are a Few Broken Promises. . . between friends?”, sadly, misses the correct musical linkage: Continue reading What’s Another Harmless Lie Between Friends? →

Band at JSU Banned at LGF:
Time for a Neo-Confederate Music Fest!

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Fight on, fight on for ole Jax State
We’re proud that we’re from Alabama . . .

The lyrics of the fight song at my alma mater, Jacksonville (Ala.) State University, would almost certainly result in immediate banishment from Little Green Footballs.

“Proud that we’re from Alabama“? It would be worse than down-dinging a comment by Sharmuta.

The latest Johnsonoid insanity at LGF escaped my notice because of the new site launch. But we got linked by one of the commenters at an Ace of Spades thread discussing Charles Johnson’s latest madness. CJ accuses Jim Hoft of “a textbook case of libel” for a Gateway Pundit post that describes Johnson “Supporting Child Porn in Classrooms.”

This is another of those “Bwaaahahaha Heard ‘Round the World” moments of unintentional irony. Johnson, who called Pamela Geller a “poster girl for Eurofascists,” suddenly decides that he is the victim of defamation?

Tonight, Johnsonoia is all over Memeorandum — American Power,   iOwnTheWorld,  Weasel Zippers, JustOneMinute,  Snooper Report, Big Government and Conservatives for Palin — and I feel like I’m not doing enough to drive CJ nuts nuttier. When even Patterico is joining the LGF beatdown, if I’m not in on the action, it could erode my Right Wing Crazy-Hater street cred. So tonight I Twittered this:

Yeah. I’m considering posting something neo-Confederate just to distract CJ from Jim and Patterico ;=)

Hmmmm. It took me about two seconds to think to myself: Who  do I know that plays a really fine version of “Dixie”?  If you click “read more,” brace yourself for the finest sound on the planet. Ladies and gentlemen, the Jacksonville State University Marching Southerners!
Continue reading Band at JSU Banned at LGF:
Time for a Neo-Confederate Music Fest! →