I didn't write much patriotic stuff for this year's Fourth. In fact, I was so whipped from traveling, I didn't even play my traditional Sousa on iTunes all morning. But that evening, my daughters did spontaneously start singing patriotic songs after the fireworks show.
Just cruising around on the web this evening took me to Lawrence Welk. I always knew he had problems spickin de English, but I was never curious why. It turns out that he was quite the unintegrated farmboy and spoke only German until the age of 21. In fact, Welk came from the poorer side of bohunkdom. In his successful days, he must have represented bling for any number of folks with similar backgrounds.
Now I'm one of those people who actually does like all kinds of music. I may gravitate towards a few thousand songs given my druthers, but I know these singers have more pure vocal skill than the Pussycat Dolls. Which brings up an interesting question of talent vs style, as well as one of taste. But I'm going straight for the jugular which is basically cultural revulsion. You know and I know that watching these folks is pretty painful and for a younger version of me, basically unbearable.
When I was growing up I would have looked at these people on television and thought to myself, if that's what America is, I don't want to go there. There didn't seem to be, when I was a bohunk from the 'hood, any indication to me that these people would be considered anything but 'normal' by 'America'. They certainly suffered a deficit of soul, which no self-respecting popular entertainer this side of the opera would dare expose. Even the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is more gutsy than these doofs. And yet, doofus is about the most true knuckleball you can toss at these folks without being unnecessarily foul. They're innocent and singing of innocence - or at least genuinely trying to be nothing more than that. Sure there's a polish and shine going on, but these are the simple dreams of simple people being humble with all their might. You want to hear a crazy parallel? Listen to the sweet voice of the woman singing 'Special' on De La Soul's AOI Bionix.
I paste this video tangential to the sociolinguistic discussion. Who integrates which way? Which is America? That which survives, I think.
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