evolution of the Dead Milkmen’s political song target to the White House…
I know that Jello Biafro for The Dead Kennedys has, in concert, has over the years changed the subject of the song “California Uber Alles” from Jerry Brown to Ronald Reagan to Arnold Schwarzenager — though Jerry Brown pretty well remains for what has to be the official song.
I’m trying to understand where The Dead Milkmen go with “Right Wing Pigeon”. And understand, some central problem with the song starts at the beginning… it’s a little slap dash.
The town in Georgia’s got a law on the books
Says if we all got guns then we won’t have crooks
Now what could make them think that way?
What could make them act that way?
Hm. In American political parlance, that would make it a left wing pigeon, but never mind…
But the president in office, will be target for changes…
The man in the White House who just don’t care
He starves little kids and he dyes his hair
Now what could make him think that way?
What could make him act that way?
Okay. Standard rhetoric against Reagan. In the live album, with a version from somewhere early in the Clinton Administration, what we have is something a bit perfunctory…
“There’s a man in the White House who’s name is Bill
Probably screwed everybody with that Whitewater Deal”…
I’d hope that as the Clinton Administration rolled on, they came up with something better… except the band called it quits in 1995 so there was I guess I’d hope that they would have.
In this concert we see them toss a bone against Palin — something something luge… Palin jumped out of the race, what a f’ing quitter… no, I don’t understand the news reference.
Here, they refer to Obama as the “Best Republican President that we’ve had in years“… good enough, and I guess where they may’ve gone with Clinton had they had the chance… but as the ad goes — good enough isn’t good enough…
But here we’re getting to some better abrasive political commentary — pointing to Obama’s Noble Peace Prize and actions against Syria… it doesn’t quite fit any meter though.
Skip to 43:50 to get to probably the best line against Obama… “And when he gets bored he just sends out some drones“. I’ll go ahead and consider this the definitive Obama era variant for the song, as it fits the logic of their aim.
The audio for the concert that’s available for the year 2018 is too sour for me to bother with to get to what they are doing for Trump these days.