The Lonely Goatherd Blog And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats - Matthew 25:32
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All original content on MoreThings.com copyright 2008 Albert Barger or the respective authors
October 31, 2004
Eminem's limp SNL attack on George Bush Obviously, putting Eminem on live network television some scant few hours before the presidential election demanded an attack on the president. It wouldn't matter much who the president was, or what he had done. It's Eminem. Fair enough.
I will give Eminem credit for a good honest attempt at directing his attack in a song. I'll give protesters generally more credit for applying their criticisms through their art, rather than just flapping their gums. Rather than some cheap cursing, or calling the president a homo or some such thing as I might have feared from this guy, he actually did try to address his concerns seriously in music.
Thing was, he flopped very badly. It just sucked. Leaving aside the politics, there was no SONG. I defy anyone to sing me back anything from this first song. There's nothing there that could even be mistaken for a hook. Nor could I discern the title from the lyrics. That's a real bad sign, too. There's just nothing here that could even be generously mistaken as a melody. Thus, there's NO SONG.
Now, if you had a brilliant lyric, but the melody, rhythm, and harmony just weren't there, then you've got nothing. This "song" of Eminem's would suck even if he were saying something interesting in the lyrics.
He's not, though. The lyrics are bitching about Bush getting us into a war. We should put a gun in his hands and make him go fight the war himself, and please his daddy that way. This sentiment manages to be both 1) totally cliched, and 2) totally cheap and demagogic and just stupid.
Plus, it's just not interesting. It's mere left wing boilerplate, not evincing any unique individual thought on politics, nor any kind of interesting new way of expressing the common sentiments. All he did was get himself so hung up on coming up with an Important Statement that he didn't have in him that he blew the musical part that he is sometimes quite skilled at.
In short, then, Eminem doesn't have anything to say about Iraq, Bush or politics in general from anything I can tell. He very badly WANTS to be an opinion maker and power playa, much like Lonesome Rhodes. It's just that he's got nothing to say.
