tuba city

Reagan is the Pres, But So Was Harry Truman

A listserv that I'm on is currently abuzz with remembrances of the many anti-Reagan songs that came out during the 80s. Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Kennedys, and all sorts of other hardcore and punk songs like these. Let's face it, one of Reagan's unsung accomplishments was helping to galvanize the whole independent/underground rock movement of the 1980s. I'd hate to think what The Minutemen might have sounded like during the second Clinton term.

Earlier today I was trying to think of Reagan references in hip-hop. There are definitely a few out there, but my personal favorite is still Biz Markie's classic "Nobody Beats the Biz" verse:

Reagan is the Pres, but I voted for Shirley Chisholm.

Of course if The Annotated Biz Markie ever comes out, it will probably point out that U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972 and that she ran her last Congressional race in 1980 when a young Biz Markie was only 16 years old. But still, it's an awesome line. On "Biz is Goin' Off", Biz used the very similar Truman line that serves as the title to this post. I know he probably just needed something to rhyme with "boomin'", but the line does a really good job at summing up the way I am already starting to feel about the media deification of Reagan vis-a-vis other presidents.

It's a little odd that Reagan's legacy was just being debated last fall because of that controversial CBS/Showtime mini-series The Reagans. Anyone who missed it the first time around should read the brilliant reminiscing-about-the-Reagan-years letter that U.S. Representative John Dingell (D-Mich) wrote to CBS President Les Moonves about seven months ago in response to the overly loud outcry from the right.

Oh, and it'll never ever happen, but I'd love it if one of the cable news talk shows would go out and get Melle Mel to be a guest commentator on one of these remembering-Reagan panels so that he could bust out that equal-time-provision verse from 1984's get-out-and-vote anthem "Jesse":

See Ronald Reagan speakin' on TV
Smilin' like everything's fine and dandy
Sounded real good when he tried to give a pep talk
To over 30 million poor people like me
How can he say that we gotta stick it out
When his belly is full and his future is sunny?
I don't need his jive advice
But I sure do need his jive time money!

CHORUS: Vote! Vote! Everybody get out and vote!

Maybe people will this year, Mel. Maybe people will.

Posted by Tim at June 7, 2004 01:16 AM