Wednesday, August 22, 2012

First Tom Morello, Now Dee Snider

Paul Ryan keeps getting dissed by musicians.

First Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine scoffed that Ryan could be a fan of his former band by listening only to the music, not the politicized lyrics:

Paul Ryan's love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. Charles Manson loved the Beatles but didn't understand them. Governor Chris Christie loves Bruce Springsteen but doesn't understand him. And Paul Ryan is clueless about his favorite band, Rage Against the Machine.

...

I wonder what Ryan's favorite Rage song is? Is it the one where we condemn the genocide of Native Americans? The one lambasting American imperialism? Our cover of "Fuck the Police"? Or is it the one where we call on the people to seize the means of production? So many excellent choices to jam out to at Young Republican meetings!


Now comes word that Dee Snider of Twisted Sister told Ryan to cut out playing "We're Not Gonna Take It" at rallies without permission:

Dee Snider isn't going to take it any more.

The singer and reality-TV star Wednesday demanded that presumptive Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan stop using Snider's Twisted Sister anthem "We Aren't Going to Take It" at his campaign rallies.

"I emphatically denounce Paul Ryan's use of my song 'Were Not Gonna Take It' as recorded by my band Twisted Sister," said Snider in a statement. "There is almost nothing on which I agree with Paul Ryan, except perhaps the use of the P90X."

Both of these smack downs are cool, but they still rank just a notch below my all-time favorite smack down of a politician by a musician:

Almost a quarter century after their band split up, Morrissey can agree with Johnny Marr about one thing: David Cameron is not allowed to like the Smiths. Following Marr's recent comments "forbidding" the prime minister to like their band, the former Smiths frontman has echoed the sentiment, citing Cameron's support for hunting.

"Stop saying that you like the Smiths," Marr said last week, "no you don't." Whereas the guitarist made his remarks on Twitter, restraining himself to just 76 characters, Morrissey used the blog True to You to issue 11 paragraphs of vegetarian vitriol. "I would like to, if I may, offer support to Johnny Marr who has spoken out to the media this week against David Cameron," he wrote. "David Cameron hunts and shoots and kills stags – apparently for pleasure. It was not for such people that either Meat Is Murder or The Queen Is Dead were recorded; in fact, they were made as a reaction against such violence."


Now that's great - "I love your band!" "No, you don't - I forbid you to like my band!"

Something for Paul Ryan to aspire to.

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