I was disappointed to find that a Google image search on “Joanie Phonie” turned up only one relevant hit, and that one an Italian translation.
Of course, that was my point. The army brass trotted out acts that they liked from the distant shadowy past when they were kids, nevermind what the teenage grunts liked or didn’t like. This is the same thing, except, you know, the opposite, the brass banning acts they hated when they were kids, nevermind what today’s teenage grunts like or don’t like.
But of course as has been pointed out, the people seeing a concert at Walter Reed hospital probably aren’t just teenage grunts.
Hey, google joan baez spit, and you’ll get 39,200 hits! There’s your proof right there, Punoqllads.
Well, I think that assuming that people at Walter Reed want to listen to hip-hop might be wrong also.
I don’t know about you, but there’s plenty of music my parents listened to that I enjoy listen to also. That would include the Beatles and, yes, Joan Baez. Just because it’s before my time doesn’t mean it’s crap. Heck, I even enjoy Beethoven’s symphonies! I like the White Stripes and Nine Inch Nails and Bright Eyes but I would be happy to see Joan Baez.
I see. :smack:
Never mind - misread.
My apologies, Lemur, my sarcasm detector is in the shop right now. I thought you were being serious.
Yeah, that was my take on it too – someone along the chain of command got their panties in a wad because of some half-remembered/half-invented incident, and now everyone’s in CYA mode.
I have this vision of Doug Neidermeyer jumping up and smashing Joan Baez’s guitar a la Bluto.
Well, sure. That is why the folks who run Armed Forces Entertainment book rock, alternative, country, R&B, Latin, hip-hop, reggae, dance, comedy, sports, cheerleaders, and family friendly acts.
These folks have been doing this for a long time, and they know that they need to get entertainment in for the enlisted club at night and for military kids during the day as well.
I’m not sure I’d put Bob Hope in the same category as Joan Baez in that sense. He was still retty relevant and active at that point, wasn’t he? Bob Hope had a long history of doing those shows, right? (I ask those questions because I’ve always taken that as a given, but now I realize I truly don’t know). What I do know is that he damn well brought the eye candy. Joan Baez strikes me as having none of those attributes.
He had a long history of doing such shows because he did them during WWII. And never stopped. That doesn’t mean that he was relevant, just that he was a doddering fossil trotted out because he was Bob Hope and that’s what Bob Hope did, he entertained the troops.
If she were merely singing a duet with JM, I wouldn’t be arsed to attend. OTOH if she were alone I’d take her over your random hip-hop any day. (Has her voice held up? 33 y.o. male here.)
She’s more “now” than Mellencamp, at least. Mellencamp was like a lot of the sucky 80’s artists: even when I was growing up, I thought that since everyone else thought they were cool, they must be, and it must have been something I just wasn’t seeing. Ditto with hair metal. Now I realize they’re just crap and have been crap all along. (Then again, ditto with a lot of 2nd wave New Wave, but that’s just an enthusiasm thing: I really did like the stuff but not as much as the preteen girls in my classes did. But as pop as they are, give me Duran Duran over JCM any day.)
– Ludovic,
who is seeing Heart in concert this Sunday,
and Saves the Day next Friday.
Dude, why all the Hope-hate? Bob Hope was hugely popular in the US for decades. I suspect the troops were quite grateful that he took the time to put together those trips (and as someone said, he brought some great supporting acts with him). He did this in WWII, Korea, Vietnam and even Gulf War I.
Sorry, it was the nit-pickiest of nit-picks and just an excuse to post the otherwise never usable cite,
so I’ve always read that as, it’s from the novel and maybe there’s a folk song.
Mostly I was trying to get ya kicked off the lawn, so I’d have some space for my bean bag rocking chair and my lava lamp! 
CMC fnord!
Wayne Newton is carrying on the Hope tradition. And before anyone goes off about how soldiers don’t want to see Wayne Newton, which might well be true, keep in mind that in his tour after 9/11 he brought along Shaggy, Jessica Simpson, and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.
Newton performed in a USO show for the first time when he was 8 years old. President Truman was in the audience.
Absolutely agree. I would bet that most of the wounded soldier’s *parents * wouldn’t even want to see her. She just wanted to throw shit in a fan.