Media Musings with Jake Davison

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9245.html

I can't believe this article missed the most important, insightful, activism inspiring protest song of the intra-Vietnam/Iraq era. I am talking, of course, about "Panama" from Van Halen's "1984" (George Orwell tribute) album. Van Halen was proved right during operation Just Cause in 1989 when Miguel Noriega was overthrown. Like many Hollywood liberal elitists, David Lee Roth was opposed to Reagan's support of the Contra's in Nicaragua.

Roth's deep and sober study of if international affairs led him to believe that the nation of Panama would be the next target of American Imperialism. In order to garner cross over appeal, Roth used various metaphors that came across as merely crass double entendres. Roth's imagery of cars ("power steerin', pistons poppin', ain't no stoppin now!") clearly represents the American War machine while "model citizen, zero discipline" was often said to be the perfect description of Reagan's popularity with the unwashed masses despite the Gipper's reckless, Soviet-challenging foreign policy.

This followed the general theme of the 1984 album, which criticized Reagan's "Jump" into the "House of Pain" that was Sandinista controlled Nicaragua, all the while underfunding priorities such as education ("Hot For Teacher") and the growing influence of James Baker ("Top Jimmy"). *Editor's Note: This posting is exactly as plausible as the idea that the Iraq protest songs are failing to sell do to anything other than the fact that the market for American popular music is flooded with tunes people ACTUALLY WANT TO LISTEN TOO.