Did you see the story the other day about George W's iPod? Seems he's had it since July, when his freewheeling twin daughters gave it to him as a birthday present. Dubya has some 250 songs on it--a paltry number given the 10,000 selections it can hold.
As the New York Times reported, "Mr Bush, as leader of the free world, does not take the time to download the music himself; that task falls to his personal assistant who buys the individual songs and albums." (And you can bet there's no file sharing.) As for an analysis of Dubya's playlist, it's interesting that the president likes artists who don't like him. He has John Fogerty's "Centerfield," which was played at Texas Rangers games when Bush owned the team and is still played at ballparks all over America. However, Bush hasn't gone so far as to include "Fortunate Son"--the anti-Vietnam war song about who has to go to war that Fogerty sang when he fronted Creedence Clearwater Revival. (Remember how that goes: "I ain't no Senator's son...some folks are born with a silver spoon in hand.")
Reading the Times report did evoke one sheepish confession: I share something in common with George W. Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" is a top ten fave on my iPod playlist too. Seems the Irish folk-rocker is a Bush favorite going way back.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Did you see the story the other day about George W’s iPod? Seems he’s had it since July, when his freewheeling twin daughters gave it to him as a birthday present. Dubya has some 250 songs on it–a paltry number given the 10,000 selections it can hold.
As the New York Times reported, “Mr Bush, as leader of the free world, does not take the time to download the music himself; that task falls to his personal assistant who buys the individual songs and albums.” (And you can bet there’s no file sharing.) As for an analysis of Dubya’s playlist, it’s interesting that the president likes artists who don’t like him. He has John Fogerty’s “Centerfield,” which was played at Texas Rangers games when Bush owned the team and is still played at ballparks all over America. However, Bush hasn’t gone so far as to include “Fortunate Son”–the anti-Vietnam war song about who has to go to war that Fogerty sang when he fronted Creedence Clearwater Revival. (Remember how that goes: “I ain’t no Senator’s son…some folks are born with a silver spoon in hand.”)
Reading the Times report did evoke one sheepish confession: I share something in common with George W. Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” is a top ten fave on my iPod playlist too. Seems the Irish folk-rocker is a Bush favorite going way back.
So, thinking of those thousands of empty slots on Bush’s iPod, I’d like to nominate a few new songs for the leader of the free world’s playlist. Here’s my top ten:
Kid Rock, “Pimp of the Nation”
Eminem, “Mosh”
Beastie Boys, “It Takes Time to Build”
John Mellencamp, “To Washington”
George Thorogood, “I Drink Alone”
The Castaways, “Liar,Liar”
REM, “The End of the World As We Know It”
Steve Earle, “The Revolution Starts Now”
The Clash, “I’m So Bored with the USA”
And that old jazz standard, “My Heart Belongs to Daddy”
I’m sure you readers have lots of better nominations. Please click here to let me know what you think and we’ll see what we can do about getting Dubya’s IPod some new music.
P.S. Judith Regan Goes West: What was that story about Regan and her new West Coast, Murdoch-financed, multimedia empire/salon doing on the front page of the Gray Lady yesterday? If the New York Times is going to do second-rate versions of New York Observer stories, could they at least drop in a graf about Regan’s trsyt with Bernie Kerik down near Ground Zero.
Katrina vanden HeuvelTwitterKatrina vanden Heuvel is editorial director and publisher of The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture. She served as editor of the magazine from 1995 to 2019.