The Rolling Stones have a new album out, including a single called “Sweet Neo Con” which lambasts the Bush administration.
Conservatives likely won’t find tune so sweet (Chicago Tribune)
The Rolling Stones are taking aim at elements of the American right with a new song on their upcoming album. The track, “Sweet Neo Con,” boasts the line, “You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/You call yourself a patriot, well I think you’re full of …” Newsweek reports.
“It is direct,” Mick Jagger was quoted as saying, adding that bandmate Keith Richards was “a bit worried” about a backlash because the guitarist lives in the United States and Jagger does not.
The song also includes the line: “It’s liberty for all, democracy’s our style/Unless you are against us, then it’s prison without trial.” “It is certainly very critical of certain policies of the [Bush] administration, but so what! Lots of people are critical,” Jagger told TV’s “Extra” on Wednesday.
“Sweet Neo Con” is one of 16 tracks featured on the Stones’ new album, “A Bigger Bang,” which drops in the United States on Sept. 6.
Mick Jagger has apparently decided that he wants to be more like Bob Dylan.
I haven’t heard the song, so have no opinion of its artistic quality. Certainly, Jagger and company are entitled to express their views in their work, although doing so always runs the risk of alienating fans.
However, if a band is going to get into politics, they should at least have the fortitude to stand up for their statement.
Jagger: ‘Neo Con’ song isn’t anti-Bush (AP – MSNBC)
The Rolling Stones’ upcoming album contains a song seemingly critical of President Bush, but Mick Jagger denies it’s directed at him, according to the syndicated TV show “Extra.†“It is not really aimed at anyone,†Jagger said on the entertainment-news show’s Wednesday edition. “It’s not aimed, personally aimed, at President Bush. It wouldn’t be called ’Sweet Neo Con’ if it was.â€
The song is from the new album, “A Bigger Bang,†set for release Sept. 6. There is no mention of Bush or Iraq. But it does refer to military contractor Halliburton, which was formerly run by Vice President Cheney and has been awarded key Iraq contracts, and the rising price of gasoline.
Stones’ latest album takes political turn (NYDN, Seattle Times)
The normally apolitical Rolling Stones have no sympathy for President Bush. In the refrain of the 13th track on their upcoming album, frontman Mick Jagger belts out the refrain: “How come you’re so wrong, my sweet neo-con?”
[…]
Fans have been buzzing about the tune for months, with many up in arms over rumors that Virgin Records cut it, fearing America’s conservative-owned radio networks and big box-chain stores would refuse to play or stock it. But it’s there, even though Jagger told Newsweek magazine that Connecticut resident Keith Richards is “a bit worried” about the song because he lives in the United States.
Even though nothing sells a new album better than a little splash of controversy, the wrinkled rockers’ people seem a mite jumpy, too. Stones publicist Fran Curtis told the Daily News the song doesn’t mention Bush by name. Amusingly, she told The Washington Post it isn’t even about Bush, though the term neo-con is indelibly linked to the neo-conservative policies behind the invasion of Iraq.
The album — “A Bigger Bang” — isn’t even out, yet right-wing Internet discussion groups were already fizzing with anti-Stones vitriol. “The Rolling Stones’ main audience these days is that segment of the Boomers that has refused to recognize that the 60s have been over for almost 40 years, and so they’ll lap this slop up and beg for more. … while they tie their hair back into gray ponytails and stretch those old tye-dyed t-shirts over their pot bellies,” wrote one particularly vivid poster at Free Republic.
Heh.
