The other day my sixteen year old son and I were talking about Bob Dylan’s 75th birthday. I told him how back in the '80s, the city council of Duluth, MN (where I lived then, and where Dylan, né Zimmerman, was born) tried to change the name of Skyline Drive to “Robert Zimmerman Drive” in his honor. But a bunch of uptight fogeys got bees in their bonnets and protested that he was some scuzzy rock-and-roller unworthy of being on a street sign in the Zenith City–even though he was well into being a living legend by that time–and the move was scuttled.
I explained to my son that back then, there were old people who still hadn’t accepted “this newfangled rock and roll” and the cultural changes that came with it, but that those kinds of people were pretty much all dead by now. Today on NPR, I learn “au contraire”. This is really best *heard *rather than read (and I’m referring to the audio in the first minute of the story, specifically from :25 to :53); but if you are at work or something and can’t do audio, I’m also including the relevant segment of the transcript, spoiler tagged, for your convenience.
One reason to listen, rather than read, other than it being hilarious (especially his pronunciation of “hair”), is that on paper it reads like a crude and unrealistic liberal parody of some outdated idea of what conservative sticks-in-the-mud sound like:
I suppose this goes hand in hand with the fact that when Trump fans are asked by pollsters “when *was *America great, exactly?”, they often give “late 1950s” as an answer. :rolleyes:
I’m not surprised. In fact, I’m fairly sure there are still people out there who are upset about the evil and pernicious influence jazz has had on Western culture.
You think? Wouldn’t such a person have to be well into their second century of life?
Yes. This rancher seems to believe everything went downhill starting with “that bunch of Beatles that come[sic] ashore in the '60s…and had that long hair on them”. It’s not mentioned in the written story, but it’s there in the audio and the transcript.
Not necessarily. There are still a fair number of people below the age of 100 from fundamentalist religious backgrounds who are suspicious of any music that sounds remotely secular. Also, some listeners of classical music think jazz represents the first wave of a discordant barbaric assault on established Western culture that continued through the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st.
Hard for a bunch of musical buggers that never existed to turn into environmentalists.
I also have a bit of a “what are they thinking?” directed at NPR by not interviewing any of the many farmers and ranchers that did oppose the Bundies and their ilk. It was almost like if the media is sad to find that it is really covering and giving a voice to what it is in reality a very pathetic movement.
Bummer! Well, in case you were curious, “hair” is sort of like “har” to this guy.
And yeah, I was trying to figure out how people who “don’t want to work” (which, hey, I’m the last person to criticize such people, obviously!) are causing him such trouble. Environmental lawyers certainly work, even if it’s not a kind of work he would appreciate. Or does he just think it’s layabouts and slackers voting for the politicians that go to Washington and vex him so?
For some reason that play button in the top left wasn’t showing up for me at work, which is why I questioned the link.
I’m not sure what to think of this. It sounds like they used to have federal support, but that’s dwindling and his way of life is changing. I don’t think it was the fault of The Beatles though.
Aside from the three listings in the White Pages, there are dozens of other articles and other references to him on Google, including hisfarm subsidies.
Heh. I’ve known and am related to people who don’t sound and think in a significantly different manner from the person in the OP.
Some people get stuck in a moment, and never leave. They find their enemy, and hold on long after that enemy is dead or has already vanquished them and moved on to other conquests.
