Let’s Stay Together – True Story
I was having dinner at Klondike Kate’s tonight where a combo was playing and getting polite applause after each song. It was all very chill until the singer sang the first few notes of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” and a cheer went up. To me it was pretty obvious that the crowd was cheering for the President. It was a neat little moment. Anyway, turns out…Al Green is a threat to the American way of life.
Gary Silverman makes a remarkable catch. He asks why the Romney counter-attack on the “America the Beautiful” ad featured Obama singing Al Green, and pretty well too. Well, it turns out that this is how the other .01% think:
One of the better answers I have found comes from a well-known supporter of Mr Romney – Suzy Welch, former editor in chief of the Harvard Business Review, and wife of Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. In an appearance on CNN with her husband, Mrs Welch suggested that Mr Obama’s personal style and choice of musical material define him as a member of a “different America”. I would imagine this is why Mr Romney’s campaign included the snippet of Mr Obama singing “Let’s Stay Together” at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. They hoped it would convey his otherness.
“It’s the difference between the songs that they’re singing,” Mrs Welch said. “Mitt Romney didn’t exactly do a beautiful job on that song, but think about what he’s singing, OK? I mean it’s that patriotic song and he goes all the way through it. Then you’ve got the very cool Barack Obama singing Al Green. That is the two different Americas. Isn’t it?”
How “other” is Al Green? So other, so alien, that, well, he’s included on the Muzak they play in Red Lobster restaurants.
Somebody is alien and out of touch with America here, that’s for sure. But I don’t think it’s the president.
“To me it was pretty obvious that the crowd was cheering for the President.”
Or maybe they just liked the song. Not everything is political.
LOL… the Romney ad got hit by a takedown notice (copyright) and is off Youtube.
It’s obviously bogus because Obama only sings six words of the song, and it’s also in the context of news, so it is clearly legal fair use. But according to the law, if Youtube gets a letter claiming copyright violation, they have to take it down first and ask questions later. Which makes this also a great teachable moment for how fucked up the DMCA is.
I wish I could say DMCA was a Republican abomination, but it was signed by Clinton and supported by many Democrats.
Update: The Romney ad is back up. That was quick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIajeW6xPnI
It is clearly racist. The ad says, basically:
“The economy sucks, but who is Obama helping? His friends” (Obama starts singing as his Harlem audience cheers)
It goes on to explain that his “friends” are lobbyists and big donors, but even I heard that dog whistle.
“I wish I could say DMCA was a Republican abomination, but it was signed by Clinton and supported by many Democrats.”
And that’s the problem with looking at our politics through a partisan prism: neither party’s politicians look much beyond what lobbyists are paid to tell them.
Just for those who did not know, the new version of the ad, has only two lines of the song, or 8 measures,and the lyrics make absolutely no sense at all, because the key words are now missing. If you saw it right now you would say “wtf, that’s a pathetic ad.” This thought would no doubt subsequently follow: “I sure wouldn’t want to vote for the guys who made that ad, why from the looks of it, they going to mess up the country as bad as they messed up that ad?”
And if you put an ‘fro and some facial hair on Obama, he could probably pass as Al Green in a Walmart camera.
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0002/467/MI0002467635.jpg?partner=allrovi.com