THE second inauguration of President George W. Bush this week has already shaped up to be nothing less than a show stopper. Tickets, initially costing $250, are currently changing hands for up to $1,000. Thursday’s presidential parade, with an on-site audience of 140,000, will be augmen-ted by several nights of ceremonies, concerts, galas, dinners and large-scale private parties everywhere from New York via Washington to the President’s home state of Texas.
With a $40 million price tag and the tightest security in living history, the celebrations are expected to be audacious. Even though the President’s speech will last only a minute, companies such as AT&T, Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Fed Ex, Pfizer and Marriott have contributed $250,000 each towards running costs.
But who will be on hand to sing the President’s praises? Premier league artists such as Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, John Mellencamp and the Dixie Chicks — all of whom spent the vital weeks before last year’s election playing nine key swing states on a pro-Kerry ticket called the “Vote For Change” tour — will be conspicuous by their absence. The deeply felt antipathy to Bush throughout the liberal-leaning music and entertainment industry means that A-list performers offering to participate are thin on the ground. When Bush was inaugurated in 2001, the bill included Ricky Martin and Charlotte Church. This time the biggest names on the bandstand are Macy Gray, Lyle Lovett, Gloria Estefan and ZZ Top. Not exactly a resurrection of Woodstock. In fact, inauguration 2005 is a far cry from when William Jefferson Clinton arrived at the White House in 1993: an era that represented the elevation of the anti-Vietnam generation from the political sidelines into the political mainstream.
The cream of the pop world turned out to welcome Clinton. Stars included Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, LL Cool J, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Elton John and Chuck Berry. Fleetwood Mac — whose song Don’t Stop, with its anthemic lyrics, had been adopted as a campaign anthem — were actually persuaded to re-form to play at the event.
“The high level of participation by so many popular performers crystallised the positive feelings people had towards Clinton,” says Sidney Blumenthal, an adviser to Clinton at that time. The celebrations lasted four days and cost $35 million — as much as Clinton had spent securing the Democratic Party’s nomination the year before.
A keen fan of the saxophone, he was quickly and eagerly embraced by the rock’n’roll generation. His inauguration goes some way to explain the liberal leanings of an American entertainment industry unsympathetic to the prospect of four more years of Republican rule.
Bush may have been shunned by the stars, but one constituency of popular entertainers remains unaffected by fashionable disapproval. Performers from Texas will be on hand to welcome Bush back at the Black Tie & Boots Ball. This party at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel is organised by the Texas Society of Washington DC, which has seen its membership double since Bush was first elected to the White House. Among the dozens of artists appearing will be country stars including Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, Clay Walker and Asleep at the Wheel. The bands play for a fee described by organisers as an “honorarium”.
“The gig is very comfortable for us,” says Dusty Hill, the bass-playing longbeard in ZZ Top (the only member of the band who doesn’t sport a long — and real — beard, ironically, is the drummer, Frank Beard). “It’s a Texas thing, so everybody there knows the band real well. And they’re there to have a party, a celebration, so it’s not about politics. It’s not uptight.” As far as Hill is concerned, it is a straightforward honour to be invited to the event.
Hill continues: “He’s the President, and he’s from Texas and he asked us. We knew him from when he was Governor of Texas. It’s my understanding that he listens to our music on the big plane, on Air Force One. He’s a very nice person. We talked about baseball when we met. He doesn’t tell me how to play bass guitar or sing and I don’t tell him about politics. We have an understanding there.”
The Texan country singer Neal McCoy is another musician who regards being invited to play for the President as a serious honour. “I will be taking a lot of photographs to show my grandchildren,” McCoy says. “I’ve been fortunate enough to go to Iraq three times to entertain our troops, and they’re doing terrific work over there. If the President contacts you to play at his ball, it is your duty to do it. I don’t know if he likes my music, but I sure hope he does.”
Other pro-Republican stars do not enjoy quite such a straightforward relationship with Bush. The Detroit rapper Kid Rock, who has attended Republican events in the past and supported Bush in last year’s presidential race, was apparently chosen to appear at a youth concert hosted by Bush’s twin daughters Barbara and Jenna yesterday, but this prompted a furious reaction from some influential quarters on the Right.
“If this sex-crazed animal is allowed to sing at Bush’s inauguration,” said Randy Thomasson, president of an organisation called Campaign for Children and Families, “it will send a clear message to pro-family Americans that the Republican Party has taken them for a ride and ditched them in the gutter”. Rock’s invitation to perform, never officially confirmed, has apparently been quietly withdrawn.
The balls are in theory a non-partisan event, and there will be some acts whose political outlook is far removed from that of the Republican cause. The Gourds, an alternative country group from Austin, whose politics are described as “hardcore Democrat”, are one of several bands performing who declined to comment on their involvement.
Asleep at the Wheel, who played at both the Clinton inauguration balls and at the previous Bush inauguration, are keen to emphasise that by once again playing at the Black Tie and Boots Ball they are not endorsing the policies of either side. “I know George and Laura Bush personally,” says Ray Benson, the group’s singer and guitarist. “But I voted for John Kerry. There is no justification for the Iraq war. Hell, I didn’t even vote for Bush as Governor and he knows that. But the greatest thing about democracy is the transition of power. It is one of the greatest accomplishments of the American system. I am not playing at the Black Tie And Boots Ball to endorse the policies of George W. Bush. I am there to play for Texans in Washington DC who are celebrating their victory. I am not there to support politics.
“It’s a tough thing, because since the 1960s so much of music has been associated with political change and I applaud that. I think when musicians can make a difference, it’s great. I applaud Bruce Springsteen, I applaud the Dixie Chicks and all the people who have put their beliefs on the line. That’s what this country is all about. I just think that once the fight is over, you shake hands. Unfortunately a lot of people don’t go along with that. It ’s a very fractious time in American politics. But the populace has spoken. My guy didn’t win. I still think the office commands respect.”
Not all Texans are so accommodating of the current Administration. There is no likelihood of an appearance by the country singer/political activist Steve Earle unless it is in the ranks of those protesters who have threatened to disrupt the event, or at one of the anti-Bush balls such as the Noise Against Fascism event at the Black Cat nightclub, headlined by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth.
Even less welcome among the Republican revellers would be the Dixie Chicks, the Texan country-rock group who publicly voiced their disavowal of Bush at a concert in London — and suffered a furious backlash among hardcore country fans, particularly in Texas, as a result. In Washington, the days of the Bill Clinton/Fleetwood Mac love-in, when pop stars and politicians wallowed in a mutual admiration society, seem more distant than ever.
