I keep waiting for somebody to bring this up somewhere, nobody has (I think,) so I'll finally delurk. It may be another three years before I do it again---
It wasn't the "I'm embarassed" comment that led to the trashing of the Dixie Chicks. That was the excuse. The reason was a piece of art. Remember it?
"Travelin' Soldier" is a sad, quiet bit of Americana about the death of a young soldier in Vietnam, as experienced by a younger girl he barely knew. The Dixie Chicks' version was number one on the country charts as we got ready to go to war. A huge hit, it was on a lot.
That piccolo player sobbing under the seats at the football game after hearing the name of her soldier "boyfriend" read aloud over the PA as one of the week's war dead -- she still gets to me, every time.
There was nothing else like it on TV or radio, as we ramped up for disaster. Nobody else was saying anything. Of all places, country radio! Of all people The Dixie Chicks!
Remember the poll that came out just before we went into Iraq: the US general public had finally worked around to favoring the invasion, or so it seemed-- until you asked them how many American deaths would be justifiable. Ten? Ok, sure, it's worth ten. Fifteen? I guess so. Twenty? MMMmmmmmaaaybe. Thirty? No way, man! (Idiots,)
A scared kid in uniform, a crying girl back home, all mixed up with prayers and flags and football-- how could the Bush/Clear Channel/Country Establishment tolerate such lovely (and lonely) piece of accurate emotional intelligence being number one in the heart of the beast? Well, they couldn't. What to do? no problem, this is exactly the kind of thing they know about. When Maines made her short comment in Germany, they were all ramped up and ready to go.
Sure, they went after the Chicks in a personal manner-- they love trashing people, and it never hurts to show the others what you could do to them-- but the main thing was to get that girly record off the air, it was making people thoughtful.
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Here are the Chicks, playing Travelin Soldier, from the multi-platinum multi-award winning album at the 2003 grammies. It's actually more powerful as radio, but I can't find a free one on the web, and the live crowd reactions are nice. (Also, I play concertina, so it was kinda cool seeing one played during the coda.)
video
http://www.youtube.com/...
(new improved youtube link from comments below, thanks Panda)
lyrics
http://www.cowboylyrics.com/...
wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/...