I try not to watch Fox news, but it is at times hard to escape so I have noticed several recent appearances of Country star Larry Gatlin as a political commentator. Much like his music over the past 30 years, he has nothing new to say on issues of politics. His apparent longing to be in the spotlight is just sad for a once great songwriter. As a Grand Ol Opry fan, I have endured his repetitive routines on a number of Opry shows over the past year and he repeats them during his Fox chit chats
The routine is open with “Houston (Means I’m One Day Closer to You,” select an old lady out of the crowd to dance with, ask her religious affiliation, then deadpan; ”You cain’t be a Baptist, you dance too good.” He even managed to shoehorn a few bars of the song in during a recent Fox interview, and since there was no old lady to pick from the crowd, he settled on the female anchor as his prop. The news segment was also sprinkled with his thoughts on Medicare, President Obama and defending large corporations like Exxon. I can avoid Fox News, but I won’t boycott the Opry. I wish Opry management would open up the Gatlin slot to someone willing to put a little more creativity into entertaining and understand its fans are not all right wingers. I doubt even those that agree with Gatlin’s politics do not pay steep prices for Opry admission to hear Fox News political commentary.
Agreed! One of the really great lines in the last presidential election on the subject had to come from Alice Cooper who said something to the effect "who would listen to anything a rock and roller said about politics, don't they know we are all idiots".
ReplyDeleteI think they need validation that they are not one dimensional morons, though many times they are. You hit it right on the head one time when you said that you didn't want Tracey Chapman telling you anything about politics.
I don't think anyone should get a pass based on their politics though, Ted Turner and Sean Penn singing the praises of Fidel Castro doesn't play well here in Miami where more then a handful of folks know different.