A rock star is not someone who takes the temperature, who gauges the marketplace before he creates his "art".\u00c2\u00a0 A rock star is someone who needs to create and is willing to tolerate the haters along with the fans.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s someone who incites controversy just by existing.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what we lost in the dash for cash.\u00c2\u00a0 Unique voices.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not saying we haven’t ended up with some pleasant music, but it just hasn’t hit you in the gut, it’s the aural equivalent of Splenda, it might do the trick, but it’s not the real thing.\u00c2\u00a0 The real thing grabs your attention, drives down deep into your heart and lodges itself there.\u00c2\u00a0 A rock star doesn’t follow conventions, doesn’t go disco or add drum machines just because everybody else does.\u00c2\u00a0 A rock star exists in his own unique space, and if you met him you probably wouldn’t like him.\u00c2\u00a0 Because he tends to be self-focused to the point of being narcissistic.\u00c2\u00a0 Because he cares.\u00c2\u00a0 He needs to get his message out.<\/p>\n
We’re angry, that’s what pisses us most off about this financial crisis.\u00c2\u00a0 That the fat cats took all this money and hosed the economy simultaneously.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re sitting on piles of cash while we’re struggling.\u00c2\u00a0 And now we’ve got to bail them out, we’ve got to insure the credit markets in order to get the economy moving.\u00c2\u00a0 And America is pissed.<\/p>\n
America is pissed about so much.\u00c2\u00a0 And feels too often that politicians don’t care about them.\u00c2\u00a0 And there’s scads of ignorance, purveyed by biased talk show hosts and bloviating, supposedly neutral, TV talking heads.\u00c2\u00a0 And everybody’s afraid.\u00c2\u00a0 You get people saying Sarah Palin won the Vice Presidential debate and you wonder if you watched the same show.\u00c2\u00a0 When I didn’t answer the questions in school, I flunked.\u00c2\u00a0 And suddenly, by going to school, working damn hard, studying to get good grades to get into a good college, I’m an elitist, my opinion is to be discounted.\u00c2\u00a0 I shouldn’t have gone to public school, I should have gone to a parochial institution, to be indoctrinated in viewpoints that don’t square with reality. Worse yet, be home schooled.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s code for "Christian Right Education".<\/p>\n
Hate me all you want.\u00c2\u00a0 Tell me you can get infections hanging with the underprivileged in regular high schools, that you can teach your kids better than those underpaid teachers.\u00c2\u00a0 But what about socialization, what about opposing viewpoints?\u00c2\u00a0 How can there be a dialogue when there’s not another side?<\/p>\n
And that’s what we have in America today, only one side.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody’s on his own side, only speaking to himself, like-minded people.\u00c2\u00a0 Who’s going to change the equation?\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly not politicians, elected officials.\u00c2\u00a0 Obama’s got to say he’s for drilling to get elected, because the person paying four bucks a gallon doesn’t know that it’ll take eons for said oil to reach the pump.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got the businessmen raping and pillaging, the politicians lying, at best being expedient, and the only people we can count on to speak the truth have abdicated their power, their duty, their role.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what the job of the artist is.\u00c2\u00a0 To question authority, challenge convention, speak the unpopular, if it’s the truth.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s what Art Alexakis and Everclear have done in "Jesus Was A Democrat".<\/p>\n
Jesus Christ didn’t have blue eyes or blond hair<\/span> Them’s fighting words.\u00c2\u00a0 But Art Alexakis doesn’t care.<\/p>\n look, if this song offends you….then dont listen to it<\/span> That’s what he says on his MySpace page.<\/p>\n Music like this isn’t going to be played on Top Forty radio.\u00c2\u00a0 MTV doesn’t even air any videos.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to give music like this away for free. Which is exactly what Everclear is doing.<\/p>\n
He looked just like all those people that you want to kill<\/span>
Spin your hell into a heaven you can sell<\/span>
Make it look like California with a bible belt<\/span>
Jesus didn’t look like the boy next door<\/span>
Unless you live in Palestine<\/span>
I wonder what you mean by the golden rule<\/span>
I think it is a scary play on words<\/span>
I wonder what they taught you back in Sunday school<\/span><\/p>\n
if you think i am wrong in my convictions…..and this upsets you<\/span>
then please dont come to the page<\/span>
if you do not believe that everclear is the proper forum for political opinons,<\/span>
then you havent been paying attention<\/span><\/p>\n\n