Songs for Strong Men
so-called strong, anyway
I took last week off, which only matters in my own distorted reality. We had my daughter’s wedding to enjoy, and as a first pass into music, I’ll reveal that there are videos floating around of our father-daughter dance. In case you don’t find one, then use your imagination to see the two of us — me in black suit, she in gorgeous white gown — dancing to this:
I’d like to think that the future of our democracy is safe as long as we can dance to songs that “remind us of the good times” and songs “that remind us of the better times.” Last Saturday was both a good and a better time, and no one that we know of was “pissing the night away.”
Of course, we don’t know The Orange Blimp, who keeps pissing on all of us. I swear, I don’t know how he cavorts around in all his bloated charm. Likely he combines his whiskey drink, his vodka drink, his lager drink, and his cider drink in one big stein, guzzling and slurping and then belching the entire concoction throughout his so-called campaign speeches.
And speaking of lagers and steins, did you catch his speech this past Saturday night down in the glorious Mar-A-Lago? No? Well, among other notable reminders that this isn’t your grandmother’s Republican Party, or at least I don’t think so, the OB had this to say to assure the faithful that he’s a true and accurate student of history:
“These people [the Bidens] are running a Gestapo administration…And it’s the only thing they have. And it’s the only way they’re going to win, in their opinion, and it’s actually killing them. But it doesn’t bother me…” (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/04/us/politics/trump-donors.html).
Oh it doesn’t? Actually, I’m not sure which part above is the part that’s not bothering him. What I do know is that he really wasn’t bothered walking into the event, so triumphantly, to the strains of our National Anthem, the version he made with the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.
I’m feeling all Reichstag at the moment. You?
Apparently, he also cried for a strong, potential attorney general in his future, one with “courage” as opposed to Bill Barr, who lacked such, proven by his recent endorsement of the man who says he lacks courage. This is all very dizzying, which is part of the formula for erasing democracies.
And. I hate it when I have to say “And.” But I have to.
And:
“He praised House Speaker Mike Johnson, who, in his own remarks, said the nation needed “a strong man” in the White House.”
Did Johnson mean a strong man, or a “strongman?” Are we talking the circus, the Mafia, or, you know, the Black shirts?
It was explained to me last night that people all over our land are indeed looking for a strong man to lead us against the increasingly overwhelming tide of illegal immigrants, Islamicists, transgenderists, and all those other ists who are turning our fatherland into a mongrel (and not Mongol) horde. From their point of view, I was told, they have a point, a long and broad view, for indeed, there are crazy people out there who want to completely wipe out the planes of freedom holding us up.
Someone else I read recently said to think of the OB as more of a Juan Peron figure and not so much a Mussolini figure, though this writer also said that Viktor Orban was a model, too.
Well. Now I feel comforted.
What we might mean by “strong man” scares me. Not that I’m scared of random strong men, but if the past is anything to go by, things don’t go so well for certain peoples when the strong man wears a funny mustache, dresses in military garb, or…sweeps his orange hair back into some semblance of forgotten youth, if there ever was a youth to be forgotten.
We have six months to see what the world will do. So let’s get to Tubthumping while we still can.
ACP, week of 5/5/24
“Only the Strong Survive,” Jerry Butler. It’s about a love affair, not a terminal case of I wanna be a Nazi blues. I think, though, that we’re talking about another kind of strong here, a kind that eludes the Repubs of today who think wearing fatigues to state of the union speeches makes them men (looking at MTG here).
“Strong,” London Grammar. “I excused you for a while, but I’m so …caught in the middle.” Do you suppose songs like this will be tolerated in the years to come? They’re so soulful, so vulnerable. They make you want to look deeply into your own feelings and try to figure out what went wrong, where you failed, and you know, failure is seen as weakness by those who understand only one way of feeling.
“Strong Enough,” Sheryl Crow. “Are you strong enough to be my man?” Can you imagine Stormy Daniels singing this to…Michael Cohen? And we have to wonder whether juries listening will understand how some respond to power, whether it come in a blue pill or a terrycloth robe.
“Strength and Doubt,” Son Volt. There should be doubt, especially considering that once the strong men pass, what do they leave in their wake? Doubt? When you’re so strong that you cheat on three wives, when you find satisfaction in the arms of a porn star, and when you wrap yourself in the embrace of people who shoot their dogs, well, go ahead and make my day.
“Lola,” The Kinks. From Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneyground, and I don’t know about you, but I’m all in on Lola winning the battle and making whomever she wants into a man. But you can only squeeze spines of those who have them, and as I look into the soul of the present day freedom Caucus/MAGA movement, I don’t see much at all.
“George of the Jungle,” friend to you and me. Isn’t this inspired? “Strong as he can be….” But when the elephant sits on him, what to do now? Who will survive? The Strong? The Dirty? The Decadent? I think of cartoons when it gets to this point, though maybe I’m just losing it and will soon be…
“Stranded in the Jungle,” The Cadets. Or maybe we’ll all get lucky and the gestapo will banish itself and the one who thinks he knows what a Nazi is (and please, if you think Joe Biden is a Nazi, then you must also believe that Elvis, Buddy Holly, and Jerry Lee Lewis were Black).
“Vigilante Shit,” Taylor Swift from Midnights. “I don’t dress for women, I don’t dress for men. Lately I’ve been dressing for revenge.” Is this an antidote to the would-be strong men? In our culture, when the truly oppressed seek their revenge, I’d be careful of whom I want to be standing next to, and I’m thinking of you, Tim Scott, because, you know. “You did some bad things, but I’m the worst of them.” Spoken to or by Stormy, Karen, or Tim’s wife?
“Take It Like a Man,” Amanda Shires, from a place of security and strength now that she knows whom to trust, whom to count on, and how to face the reality that going it alone is often the only thing to do and the only thing that matters. Strong woman and that’s what scares the OB and his tribe the most, even if they’re all white and all right.
“I Don’t Know,” Beastie Boys from Hello Nasty, and it’s the LP’s title that caught me as I searched for power and strength and belonging this morning. It feels like an ample benediction for this land of confusion (and yeah, that Genesis song could also fit), but as we climb out of our tubs, let’s try to keep some even footing on our mats of choice. What we don’t know is still there and coming. Thump on.
What’s pleasing to the eye this week might be full of pollen next week, so come on back and see if what’s lost can be found. And welcome my daughter and son-in-law, back from their honeymoon, too!