Yeah, it's a lame song, but what did the culture it critiques produce? The "Great American Songbook" of mid-century rarely gets beyond chasing sex (or, when it's "sophisticated", drunken sex). The lefties at least had a few other themes. Imagined superiority, moral or intellectual, is a fallback position the powerless may assume, and a slight salve for our alienation. The kicker is that these Movement songs were convincing enough to have a big impact on both high and low culture. The right is still whining about it, and using every opening (like the present "war") to attack the moral achievement of the left.
Irving Berlin is dead (God Bless America notwithstanding).
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Irving Berlin is dead (God Bless America notwithstanding).
- alex 1-04-2002 1:10 am