Punk Rock and McCain
One of the things that bugs me the most about this election is how divisive it's become. I can only speak as a McCain supporter but I have never seen such vitriol come from a good chunk of folks on the other side. It will be over soon.
Back in the day when a lot of us had major issues with Ronald Reagan (I was wrong, but hey I was young) we all still got along. A great example of that was within the legendary punk rock band, The Ramones.
Johnny Ramone (real name John Cummings) was a born and bred Republican from Forest Hills in Queens, New York, one of a few conservatives in the rock music world. Cummings recalled growing up Republican in a union dominated, mostly Democratic, Irish Catholic community where he had his first political epiphany during the Nixon-Kennedy race in 1960.
Along with Tamás Erdélyi (Tommy Ramone), Jeffrey Ross Hyman (Joey Ramone), Douglas Glenn Colvin (Dee Dee Ramone), Cummings in 1974 founded the band that the readers of Spin Magazine would vote as the second greatest rock band of all time, second only to The Beatles (ironically, Colvin was inspired by an early pseudonym of Paul McCartney, Paul Ramone, in choosing the group's stage name).
The Ramones' 1986 album Animal Boy contained a track that Cummings didn't really like: Dee Dee Ramone, Jean Beauvoir, and Joey Ramone's My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg) a protest song against Reagan's 1985 visit to Bitburg Cemetary in Germany.
Cummings was outvoted by the rest of the band to include the track on the album and graciously went with the decision saying "The band is a democracy." Friends say he played that song "like the professional that he was."
Cummings died in 2004 of prostate cancer following Hyman's death in 2001 of lymphoma and Colvin's in 2002 of a heroin overdose.
Cummings' widow Linda continues on in her husband's conservative tradition most recently campaigning for John McCain alongside his daughter Meghan in Nevada. The 24 year old McCain recalls that Beat on the Brat was the song playing when she had her first kiss.
Cummings tolerance of divergent views, particularly when he was under tremendous peer pressure as a minority in the entertainment world, is a lesson for all of us. Can't we just agree to disagree?
Back in the day when a lot of us had major issues with Ronald Reagan (I was wrong, but hey I was young) we all still got along. A great example of that was within the legendary punk rock band, The Ramones.
Johnny Ramone (real name John Cummings) was a born and bred Republican from Forest Hills in Queens, New York, one of a few conservatives in the rock music world. Cummings recalled growing up Republican in a union dominated, mostly Democratic, Irish Catholic community where he had his first political epiphany during the Nixon-Kennedy race in 1960.
Along with Tamás Erdélyi (Tommy Ramone), Jeffrey Ross Hyman (Joey Ramone), Douglas Glenn Colvin (Dee Dee Ramone), Cummings in 1974 founded the band that the readers of Spin Magazine would vote as the second greatest rock band of all time, second only to The Beatles (ironically, Colvin was inspired by an early pseudonym of Paul McCartney, Paul Ramone, in choosing the group's stage name).
The Ramones' 1986 album Animal Boy contained a track that Cummings didn't really like: Dee Dee Ramone, Jean Beauvoir, and Joey Ramone's My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg) a protest song against Reagan's 1985 visit to Bitburg Cemetary in Germany.
Cummings was outvoted by the rest of the band to include the track on the album and graciously went with the decision saying "The band is a democracy." Friends say he played that song "like the professional that he was."
Cummings died in 2004 of prostate cancer following Hyman's death in 2001 of lymphoma and Colvin's in 2002 of a heroin overdose.
Cummings tolerance of divergent views, particularly when he was under tremendous peer pressure as a minority in the entertainment world, is a lesson for all of us. Can't we just agree to disagree?
Labels: john mccain, johnny ramone, meghan mccain, Ronald Reagan, the ramones
Posted by Michael Higby @ 10/28/2008 09:26:00 PM
5 Comments:
I thought it was interesting that when Brian Williams asked Sarah Palin recently if she was a feminist, she didn't answer yes or no, but said that she didn't like labels.
And she said this while spending all of her time on the campaign trail labeling Obama as a socialist, a celebrity, a friend of a domestic terrorist, and the worst may be yet to come.
That's divisiveness, and it's one of the main reasons that so many Republican and conservative newspapers, elected officials, and prominent leaders have switched to Obama.
So now McCAin is brainwshing former Punk Stars whore girlfriends? Wow! What a stupid whore!
You are a fucking joke.
all I do say is
PUNK ROCK SAVED MY LIFE
Video Louis
Higby,
You are so correct about the, Anti-American, mud-slinging, Kool-Aid drinking dummy-crats who worship Barack Hussein Obama. And you comparison of Barack Hussein Obama supporters to Hitler supporters was fantastic and so accurate. Also you many posts about the Obama Bin Biden terrorist team are also very true and accurate. You also need to re-post the lobster receipt which Michelle Obama signed at the Waldorf hotel, the liberal press never mentioned it !!!!
So we need to get the word out about Barack Hussein Obama in these last few days.
1) Baby killer
2) Arab and Muslim
3) Will be killing Jews with Osama Bin Laden
4) Domestic terrorist who is planning U.S. attacks with Ayers
5) Hates Americans especially whites and is planning to attack whites with Rev. reverend Jeremiah Wright
6) Is planning to steal rich white kids’ lunch money and give it to black crack heads in the ghetto.
Sarah Palin please keep telling the real Americans in the small towns about the ant-American, gay loving, socialist, dummy-crats in states like California.
Higby, I also agree with you about Sarah Palin being really hot, I also fantasize about her, remember your post about all the ugly democrats like Hilary Clinton and the good looking republicans. hahahaha
Higby is a man of intelligence, class, reason and fairness who would never resort to name calling and stupid comments like the vile divisive democrats.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home