Sacred Tribal Chants

by digby

So I hear the the Wilson Sisters have told the McCain campaign they can’t use Barracuda and Brooks and Dunn told the Obama campaign that they couldn’t use “Only In America.”

I think this is a pretty good illustration of the tribal divide in this country. I could tell that the people at that convention last night didn’t have a clue about Barracuda and didn’t relate to it at all. Same thing with the Brooks and Dunn tune at Invesco. We all waved our flags in time to the music but it was a little bit incongruous after listening to our own sacred tribal chorus of Stevie Wonder and Cheryl Crow earlier in the evening. It seemed a little bit literal.

The fact that these artists don’t want their songs associated with the “other side” is really telling. They identify with us as much as we identify with them.

I actually like that Brooks and Dunn tune and if using it is Obama’s way of reaching out, then count me in. I’d be willing to share Barracuda with the other side in exchange, although I don’t think they’d like the lyrics if they could understand them:

If the real thing don’t do the trick
No, you better make up something quick
You gonna burn burn burn burn it to the wick
Ooooooohhhh, barra barracuda.

I guess this sweet merging of our ritual hymns is not to be. They’re a little bit country and we’re a little bit rock and roll and never the (Shania) Twain shall meet. So much for post-partisanship.

Let us pray:

Update: Oooops. The report I heard on the radio was incorrect. So sorry. It seems Brooks and Dunn didn’t object after all. I take that to mean they are nothing but bleeding heart liberals who are voting for Obama. (Actually, I guess one is and one isn’t, which mean they are a mixed marriage. Only in America!)

It was still an oddly literal choice for the “Promise of America” speech, especially since it was Bush’s theme song in 2004. But maybe that’s what makes it a true post-partisan anthem.

I would have preferred Melissa Etheridge’s “I Need To Wake Up” which, to me, is the true liberal anthem. She was in Denver and I heard her on the radio the day of Obama’s speech sing it on acoustic guitar in the studio and it made me choke up — again:

And if they wanted country, this one certainly expresses my feelings, although it certainly isn’t post-partisan: