Good Morning America! (e)

Art and Society

For the U.S. presidential inauguration and to ward off the transatlantic hangover. A morning greeting to sing along to

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„Yeah, there's a monster on the loose, It's got our heads into the noose
And it just sits there watchin' …“ Songtext © 1969 Steppenwolf

By “the monster on the loose,” I don’t mean the yawning Steppenwolf – it just reminded me again of the California band of the same name, with their extra-long song “Monster,” which still has pretty decent lyrics even by today’s standards. Over the past four frustrating years, I’ve occasionally found solace in the American music of my youth, listening to Woodstock on repeat, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, CCR, and the brilliant musical “Hair.” The pop culture of the ’60s and early ’70s did have a certain supposedly progressive edge. You could hang the Stars and Stripes decoratively in your bedroom and use it to protest the Vietnam War at the same time. Even potential draft dodgers carried their textbooks in U.S. Army duffel bags and walked around in NATO olive-green parkas. Teenage infatuation and anti-Americanism rolled into one, from the perspective of our own little, idyllic world. Perhaps people thought the rough-and-tumble rock bands would take care of it with their pithy statements from the stage.

Rock music and jazz seemed to us like the cool voices of a new, more just society – free of chauvinism and racism. Too good to be true – Miles Davis always had nothing but sarcasm for such sentimental outbursts. And the idea that there would one day be Nazi bands never even crossed my mind. After a long period of complaining without actually suffering, the reckoning is probably coming. In any case, the visionary heroes on the record shelf have little to do with sober reality; art and musical art are, after all, just vain parallel worlds. Still, I’d be curious to know what soundtrack has been clouding people’s minds these past few years. The Age of Aquarius is long gone.

Good Morning Starshine!

Anyway, one scoundrel is off the air starting today, and that’s something to celebrate! After the shocking events of the last few days and four years of Trump’s reign of terror, the world needs to relax—no big speeches, just “Gliddy glub gloopy” … Let’s sing:

The '68 anthem from “Hair” isn't easy to get out of your head—but that's okay.

Gliddy glub gloopy, Nibby nabby noopy, La la la lo lo, Sabba sibby sabba, Nooby abba nabba, Le le lo lo, Tooby ooby walla, Nooby abba naba – Early morning singing song …