Among the crap that took place last week was your aunt Edith visiting the White House. Wait, that's not your aunt, it's Paul McCartney. He was there to pick up a prize and to stir up a lot of criticism for himself, the Library of Congress and the White House.
At NPR, Tom Cole tackled the John Lennon aspect -- the man who would not be mentioned in the the press releases: "It's understandable that McCartney would like the credit that's due him, but this seems petty, and I truly hope that Lennon's omission from the Gershwin Prize has nothing to do with this lingering bitterness. But the Library's website does not even mention John Lennon's name, citing McCartney as 'the writer and co-author of The Beatles' greatest songs.' That's it? No mention of the other 'co-author' by one of the most vaunted research archives in the world? I have to be blunt here and ask, Did Paul McCartney write anything after he split with his partner that holds even a dim candle to what they wrote together? I welcome your suggestions -- but think really hard."
Cole's blistering essay may get some results, the award may next go to John Lennon.
But should it?
We'd argue Lennon is far more deserving than McCartney but we'd also argue that the Gershwin Prize, handed out by the US Library of Congress and named for the US songwriters George and Iraq Gershwin, should go to US citizens. (Lennon fought for -- and won -- his Green Card. We'd honestly have no problem with Lennon receiving the award.)
This is the third winner of the award -- Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon were the previous two -- and there's been no award given to a woman. No one has a problem with that?
Carole King, Carly Simon, Valerie Simpson and a host of other outstanding female songwriters spring to our minds but apparently not to the minds of others. Diana Ross also springs to mind and while we love a number of songs she co-wrote ("Fight For It," for example), we're aware that she's not considered a songwriter.
And so what?
It's not a songwriting award. Did anyone know that? From the Library of Congress, "The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song will honor either a songwriter, interpreter, or singer/songwriter whose career reflects lifetime achievement in promoting the genre of song as a vehicle of artistic expression and cultural understanding."
So Diana Ross would certainly be a worthy choice and she is a US citizen.
It's not a minor thing. The Library of Congress also names a Poet Laureate. Guess what? Everyone of them? US citizens.
Why in the world, with no woman recognized, and all the American singers and songwriters and singer-songwriters to choose from, was Paul McCartney selected for this honor?
Paul McCartney.
We don't bow to foreign leaders, we're Americans. So we don't add "Sir" before "Paul McCartney." But damned if Barack Obama could follow that logic. He couldn't stop slobbering over "Sir Paul McCartney" in his idiotic speech. And there's something really sick about since this award go to a British citizen and seeing the White House issue statements about "Sir Paul McCartney." Does no one realize that nobility in America forever ended with the outcome of the Revolutionary War?
In the crap fest of last week, the stink of this award never stopped supplying laughs. Most especially during Barack's speech which included this:
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But the Beatles, they weren't the first rock stars. They'd be the first to say that others had opened that door for them. But they blew the walls down for everybody else. In a few short years, they had changed the way that we listened to music, thought about music and performed music forever. They helped to lay the soundtrack for an entire generation -- an era of endless possibility and of great change.
Oh, yes, remember those days before the Beatles? How hard it was to be a rock star? How there were separate water fountains -- one marked "Normal" and the other marked "Rock Star"? Thank goodness for the Beatles breaking down the barriers. They weren't the first rock stars, as Barack reminds, no, they were part of many on that cold November 1964 morning, marching on Washington, declaring, "I have an electric guitar!"
In a week of dumbness, Barack may have carried it to a new level and, more and more, we're starting to think that's his real purpose in life.