Or of Bush “supporting the troops” by leveraging them to wage an unprovoked war under false pretenses, then cutting VA funding and extending their tours in order to sustain his now unwinnable quagmire!
Oh, I think I just split my sides!
Don’t forget, not everyone fighting this war is a youngster. There are a lot of folks in their 30s, 40s, and even 50s out there on the battle lines – and they get wounded, too. So you can’t just dismiss a musician as totally irrelevant to every patient based on age.
To put things in a generational perspective, this is like the brass arranging for Bob Hope and Bing Crosby to entertain the troops in Vietnam. Except, you know, it’s the brass arranging for them not to entertain the troops.
Heck, it’s worse than that. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby had their heyday in the 40s, Vietnam was only 20-30 years later. Joan Baez had her heyday in the 60s, and it’s now 2007, 40 years later. John Mellancamp who had his heyday in the 80s is more analgous to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.
As a matter of fact, the demographic does include old, broken down geezers:
Since only ~24,000 have been wounded in Iraq, the clientele at WR includes a much wider variety of ages and tastes than some here believe; some might even appreciate Ms. Baez.
Y’know, that’s a fair point. It was a mistake for me to assume the crowd would consist mostly of soldiers wounded in the recent unpleasantness, but old soldiers do take some time to fade away.
OK, I’ll admit that there might be enough broken down old geezers who still remember the 60s who might appreciate Joan Baez as they suck on their dentures and sit in rocking chairs.
You know my politics. And yet I have no axe to grind with Joan Baez. So you can take this however you want, but I assure you it is the truth.
Soldiers today do not care what Joan Baez did forty years ago. That is some twenty years before they were born, for the most part. They have not heard of her, do not appreciate her, and have no interest in her style of music. Period.
The folks who book acts for soldiers and sailors work for an office in the Pentagon called Armed Forces Entertainment, nominally an Air Force activity but with joint staffing. They keep close tabs on what their members want to hear, what acts actually want to fly to places like Iraq and Afghanistan or play to a military burn unit, and try to match up the two. They then get feedback from the hospital, enlisted club or forward base and see if that band would be popular enough to play elsewhere.
Right now one of the most successful acts they have in their stable is a young Maryland based rock musician named Niki Barr. You have probably never heard of her. But she seems to be willing to go nearly anywhere to perform, from Japan to Diego Garcia to Kyrgyzstan, and she also seems to have a very good connection with her audience.
Now, why would they screw around with Joan Baez when they could work with a Niki Barr?
What “guilt”?
You know. Being wrong about Viet Nam, and stuff.
Ok, in the interest of knowledge, I listened to some clips off iTunes. So, besides apparently doing a lot of crappy covers of everyone from the Beatles to Bob Dylan, and a lot of public domain songs, her own stuff sucks as well. Man, I’m going to have to clean my ears out with actual good music.
Subjecting the wounded to this should be a war crime.
And the Civil War. Don’t forget “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”
(And yes, I KNOW The Band did it first.)
[…shaking you about the neck and shoulders…] Stop it, dammit! Stop it! […clutching strained back and wheezing for breath…]
Hell, I remember him when he was Johnny Cougar:
“Come over here baby and sit on my face”
If it makes you guys feel any better, I’m 21 and I only just heard about Joan Baez last quarter in a history class. I actually read the title of this thread, paused, and thought, “Oh, that’s that hippie singer we learned about in history class.” History class.
Yeah, I’d say the youngsters probably aren’t going to even know who she is, let alone want to hear her sing Where Have All The Flowers Gone (ok, that’s probably not one of her songs, is it?). Mellencamp is also an old guy that most people my age have heard of, but likely don’t listen to.
I think that’ll make a lot of people in this thread feel worse, actually.
The Stars & Stripes is an overseas publication. Walter Reed is a hospital in the Continental United States.
Ah, the young! They knife you with such sweet innocence.
I know, the beginning there was said more jokingly than anything.
While I may learn about the people of your youth in history class, I’m sure you know little about the music of my generation (except that it’s “crap” and “rubbish”- the lot of it, I’m sure).
And don’t worry, someday my kids will be like, “Britney who? Ew, she dressed like a school girl and danced with a snake? That’s so STUPID, mom!” Then you will have your sweet revenge. Then and only then.
Can it chickie, and go get me a seltzer water, would ya?
Seriously, this an asterion pretty much nail part of it for me. Joan Baez is a non-starter to most of that crowd. Hell, Mellencamp might be bordeline.
Besides which, at her very best, she sucked ass.
I’d probably fling my walker at her if she started singing at me, regardless of her politics.