I was never a huge fan of his music, sharing some of the concerns about it that Henry Rollins puts forward in this letter: sharing also, however, Rollins' appreciation for his faith towards our military and veterans. There's nothing wrong with a playful drinking song, of course; but his was a living made on celebrating the weekend bacchanalia of workers whose lives are otherwise empty of joy.
Still, I will put up my favorite of his songs. It shows humility and the ability to laugh at himself, which are good traits.
Likewise, I trust -- based on his comments about his faith -- that death for him brings about only an end to what must have been significant suffering. It was surely nothing to fear.
UPDATE: I was reminded of this story of Keith stepping in to save Merle Haggard’s final concert, an act of honor for which he deserves remembrance.
Today was the first time I've actually heard "Red Solo Cup" thanks to your link. I knew about it, of course, but Toby Keith has never been the kind of country music I listen to. Having heard it, I'm surprised to say I rather like it. The music is fun with the plucky banjo and the tune is catchy. The lyrics are fairly clever despite the silly topic, and it's clearly done tongue-in-cheek. Plus, Craig Ferguson is in the video.
ReplyDeleteI get Henry Rollins' concerns, but I think his characterization that it's "elitist twaddle" is more on point than he realized. It suggests to me he thinks Keith's audience is full of mindless drones who need their favorite music stars to tell them how to live their lives. I don't think anyone who's going to make something of themselves is going to be put off by Toby Keith's winking celebration of the live to drink on the weekends lifestyle. I'm guessing most people get the joke.
I am not trying to bash on Rollins, either, I just think he's not giving Keith's fans enough credit. I probably would have been right there with him if I hadn't watched the "Red Solo Cup" video before his letter.
It’s hard for me to think of the frontman of Black Flag as an elitist, but I see your point.
DeleteHis music wasn’t really my thing, but it had parallels with a lot of Hank Williams, Jr.’s work. I always liked Hank. Still do.
That's cool that he liked your wife's art and they corresponded.
ReplyDeleteToby was an oilfield worker until the oil industry crashed. The kind of songs Rollins is objecting to probably came out of that time, but that's just a guess.
Rollins account of why he wrote his letter rings true and made me curious if he'd written similar letters to other people, and he has. Ann Coulter, Laura Bush, Carrot Top, Woody Allen, David Beckham, the FCC, and "a Young American." Probably others; those were on the first page of results and I didn't follow it further.
He calls Coulter a fascist and then it gets weirdly sexual and ... well, he gets kinda fascist himself. Maybe he's doing that mirror thing where he gets all fascist to show her what he thinks she looks like, but it's pretty creepy.
https://youtu.be/ZgSBhlw-o9E?si=bJqPiNvOH-Cz6HQk
He writes Ms Bush that he is very concerned for her, as she has to live with Mr Bush, whom he compares to a gorilla and a bowl of wax fruit. Mein Kampf comes up.
https://youtu.be/xRNp2VT1U_U?si=FhmM0h8sVYlgQwje
Wikipedia says Rollins has turned into a "spoken word artist," so maybe these letters are some form of art for him, so it's okay to sexually demean Coulter and throw accusations of fascism around liberally. Given the way poetry and art has gone in the US, it's probably required.
All that said, maybe instead of tearing people down and being fixated on fascism he could spend his time and talents trying to give the working class hope and ways to build meaning into their lives so they don't feel the need to spend their weekends escaping with alcohol or drugs. But then he probably wouldn't have chosen "spoken word art" as his medium. Not really the language of the working class there. So, maybe his real concern is his own ego and dunking on a big name makes him feel big. I suspect his spoken word art pals gave him high fives for this.
But he's right that a number of Toby Keith's songs do promote the party life (not all of them do, of course). So do the songs of many other musicians, but they're okay with him, I guess. Or, maybe Keith was just emblematic of the field and he meant it for all of them. Or, maybe Keith was just too patriotic, given that Rollins thinks Coulter's a sexy fascist and Bush is down with Mein Kampf. Maybe Rollins' real beef with Keith was political -- his patriotic songs, maybe? -- rather than any real concern for the plight of the working class. But what do I know?
Rollins is a mixed bag. He’s done some great work, including a piece on transformational weightlifting and another one on his struggles with Iggy Pop. Of course he was one of the giants of the punk and hardcore era.
DeleteOn the other hand I think he bought into some of the Hollywood crowd’s prejudices during his acting career, which may overlap with the letters you mentioned.
I don't know much about Rollins. I was never into those scenes. I guess we're all mixed bags in one way or another.
ReplyDeleteI see you've posted some other videos from him, so I'll check them out.
I could never get into Black Flag back in the day mostly because of Rollins. He really did hate you (and everyone else). The condescension was always real from him. He also seems to suffer a great deal from a failure to be able to look in the mirror. He recites this letter as he plays the part of a restaurant worker, but he sits at his mac (an elitist symbol- too expensive for me and many people, and probably for most diner dishwashers) and ironically congratulates Keith on his work with the troops. I don't for a second think that wasn't delivered sarcastically, knowing what I do about his anti war stance and opinions about American imperialism, despite his having toured with USO (but that was I think almost admittedly on his part an anti-propaganda effort by him).
ReplyDeleteOr maybe this rant says too much about me, I don't know. I guess I'm as skeptical about him as he is about everything.