Readers respond to the seditious Greenwood essay
by Jack Neely
I’m combating a case of the swellhead. See, I’ve been getting calls and e-mails from readers complimenting me on my courage and guts. I appreciate their compliments, I really do. But I can’t accept them. They’re all based on a misconception, and I need to come clean about it. It takes courage and guts to state opinions that are unpopular. But judging by the response, stating that Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” doesn’t deserve its sanctified status is not an unpopular opinion. That essay may be the most popular thing I’ve written in my 25 years as a journalist.
As you may recall, I’m having a hard time with the fact that this syrupy, semi-coherent song is sneaking into the American patriotic canon. Mr. Greenwood seems to be doing his best to make patriotism corny. With my essay I included a helpful, if incomplete, guide to the song’s manifold offenses to grammar, æsthetics, morality, and history.
Many of these people were writing or calling to console me about all the hate mail I’d gotten. I didn’t get any. I did get a few complaints, yes. Most had to do with the fact that my essay reminded readers of the song, and they couldn’t get Greenwood’s commercial-grade jingle out of their minds.
I knew people disliked that song, but I had little clue of the scope and depth of their revulsion. I’ve heard from elected officials. I’ve heard from college professors and schoolteachers. I’ve heard from veterans. I’ve heard from colleagues working for other papers. I even heard from musicians who worked with Greenwood. They all have one thing in common, and that’s that they would all lead freer, happier lives if they never heard that song again.
Their comments range from the eloquent (“Its banality and misrepresentation... dishonors that which it claims to honor”) to the obscene (“that —— song!”).
One reader observed, “I despise this damned song, and would rather get beaten up than stand up for it.” She’s referring to a reported instance of a Texas rodeo fan who was assaulted when he refused to stand (UP!) for an amplified rendition of it. At rodeos, “God Bless the USA” is a notch holier than Handel’s Messiah.
One reader remarked on “Lee Greenwood’s logically bereft lyrical travesty.” Another man commented, “Where’s the outrage over the decline of secular culture in general, the deification of pop over clear language and clear thinking?”
“I didn’t like ‘God Bless The USA’ the first time I heard it and I don’t like it now,” one woman wrote, adding, “I pray every day that God will bless the USA but I highly doubt this song will do much to persuade Him to do so.”
Another wrote, “Greenwood and his song have always pained and puzzled me. How can East Tennesseans go so ga-ga for the slick Vegas hustler?
One critic assessed it as a “dumb song,” regretting its logical paradoxes and “general cheesiness.” Another bemoaned the fact that “we’re forced to listen to it so much and react with unquestioned reverence to such slop.”
“Yuk,” observed another. More than one reader sent me alternate lyrics they say they sing to themselves when they hear the song.
And one damning critique came from a musician who had repeatedly played on the same bill with Greenwood, and had often had to respond to requests for “God Bless the USA.” “I am one of the many�musicians in Knoxville that has had to play and sing that damn song�countless times at the request of some patron or guest somewhere that I was playing,” he wrote. “I am so sick of it, I have now reached the point where I just say ‘I’m sorry, that song’s not in our book’—and then suggest another REAL patriotic song in its place.... that song sucks! Enough is enough!”
There was more. I feel as if I’ve lanced a painful boil.
Some expressed concern for my safety, wondering whether attacking Greenwood’s song represented a prima facie violation of the Patriot Act and whether I might, therefore, be held without recourse to legal counsel. I’m consulting with my attorney. But, as I mentioned, I haven’t heard directly from anyone who disagreed. I often make people mad without even meaning or expecting to. Three or four times I’ve made worthy entrepreneurs angry merely by saying nice things about their competitors. If readers are unhappy, they let me know.
I’m choosing to believe that whoever attacked my old car with a metal tool two nights after the article came out wasn’t a Metro Pulse reader. Still, it’s possible that that nocturnal caller was a pro-Greenwood voice who was saying, in his own shy, anonymous way, “at least I know I’m free.”
So, this might call for a note of caution for planners of parades and other patriotic events. You’re free to play that song at your event. This is America. Some people will like it. Many won’t. Go ahead, call us “conservative” if you want to—but there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of Americans here in Knoxville alone who would prefer that you play something else.
I, for one, don’t hear “Stars and Stripes Forever” nearly enough.
February 19, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 8
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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