W. James Antle III
When the United States went to war with Iraq for the first time in 1990, there weren’t many protest songs. At most, some of the songs that were supportive of the troops expressed ambivalence about the mission. The supergroup pop hit “Voices That Care,” a sort of “We Are the World” of the Persian Gulf War era, featured Will Smith rapping: “Right or wrong / We’re all praying you remain strong / That’s why we’re all here and singing along.”
One surprising exception was the singer-songwriter James Taylor, who in 1991 released an uncharacteristic rockabilly tune titled “Slap Leather.” The man may have seen fire and rain, but on the day he wrote this song, he was seeing red:
Get all worked up and we can go to war / We’d find something worth a killin’ for / Tie a yellow ribbon around your eyes / Big mac, falafel and a side of fries, yeah / Big Mac falafel / Stormin’ Norman / I just love a parade.
No comments:
Post a Comment