Tenth Academic Freeze Out

Is the Boss Lost or is the Prof Lost?

punditman says ...

Punditman sometimes wonders why he didn't become an academic when he could have. Then he finds himself reading some over-the-top poppycock by some ivory towerist, and he is glad he did not join the academy lest he'd be spending his many off hours composing similar feats of mental masturbation. A prime example is this baffling piece on Counterpunch, entitled "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Springsteen," (translation: One People, One Reich, One Springsteen). The author, David Yearsely, draws a direct parallel between Bruce Springsteen's performance at the Super Bowl and the Nazi Party Congress of 1937:

A darkened stadium massed with tens of thousands of fanatics in precise formation, marching in place to patriotic music of the homeland. Powerful searchlights sending their columns up into the inifinity of the night sky in a display seen for miles around and in striking shots from an overhead Zeppelin to be used for propaganda. Nuremberg 1937 and the Nazi Party Congress?

No, it’s Tampa 2009 and the Superbowl halftime show.

As you can see folks, the resemblance is uncanny ;-)

Seriously, Yearsely sees a direct lineage from Nazi architect and Armaments Minister Albert Speers' Cathedral of Light to the modern half-time show. It begs the question: what is with the omnipresent Nazi fixation anyway? Why does everyone reach into their quiver for this broken old arrow whenever they don't like something? "You're a Nazi." "That's fascist." "That's what Hitler would do." When are we ever going to move on?

So there I was some eight days ago, enjoying the half-time show for a change because the stage was given to a great rock n' roll artist whose kick-ass music and socially conscious lyrics have touched millions for decades. How dumb of me and millions of other "plebes" to not realize that "The Boss" was actually in the pay of the Dark Side.
Alas, all fans of low culture, we apparently lack the great insights of the esteemed music professor from Cornell.

Do not misunderstand: Punditman certainly recognizes that the Superbowl -- with all its militarism and jingosim -- is largely superficial capitalist hype heavily laden with American propaganda. You have to be an idiot not to see it. In fact, under his real name, Punditman wrote a piece for Counterpunch back in 2002 that questioned the meaning behind Paul McCartney's song "Freedom" at that Super Bowl. I am certainly not the first to see the propaganda value of the event, and I suspect that's why many don't watch; but let's get our accusations on target, shall we? In this case, why go after Bruce and the lighting crew?

Why not go after the symbolism of General David Petraeus ("Betray Us") as the ceremonial coin tosser? That's pure propaganda given his role in the Iraq War. But Bruce Springsteen singing Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out>Born To Run>Working on a Dream>Glory Days? That's high energy, heartland rock n' roll? Why does it have to mean more? Sometimes a guitar is just a guitar and a light show is just a light show. Aren't they?

"Working on a dream" is a new Springsteen song, but for Yearsely, "The Boss’s decision to include the title track from his new album was canny product placement."

A Bruce fan, Yearsely clearly is not.

The good professor, it turns out, has written a book about Bach, and is a performer himself with a new CD out. One wonders, does he not play new material in concert?

Is Yearsely inferring that any musician who performs at the Super Patriotic Bowl is, wittingly or not, an accomplice to the military-industrial complex and fascism? Are "tens of thousands of [football] fanatics" no different than Nazi storm troopers? This thesis may get a passing grade in Music & Culture 101, but Punditman gives it a failed leap-of-logic grade in Philosophy 101.

If I was to presume something, I may think that this Springsteen-rock-bashing episode is simply the rantings of a classical music snob, the likes of whom are right up there with jazz snobs. Everyone else knows you just can't talk to these people about music. But then again, such a presumption would be unfair.

It's a football game. It exists because gamblers bet on it, corporate America wants to sell more junk and some actually like the sport. The half-time show is often the best (or the only part) worth watching -- when the musicians can deliver.

But Yearsely says that "mass spectacle is by definition ideological." I find that to be a stretch (the county horse show, pub darts and dragon boat races come to mind), but okay, I will pretend I'm back in Grad school and for sake of argument, say, "Point well taken." But then Yearsely goes seriously off the rails when he hyperbolizes to the 10th degree:

With one eye on the past and the other on the future, the Superbowl strove to outdo Nazi precedent with the massive effusions of fireworks that punctuated the show at the climax of songs, then finally and orgasmically after Springsteen and co’s twelve minutes were up and the mock referee ran on stage to throw a penalty flag and bring the show to a close. That was when all hell broke loose in a mighty fusillade. With the Nazi imagery clearly in one’s head, the rockets’ red glare was pure Eastern Front.

Nazi imagery clearly in one's head? Well, inside the head of at least one professor with a big imagination -- that much is clear. I can just see the Superbowl planning committee sitting around watching Festliches Nürnberg and trying to figure how to out-do it.

Perhaps the issue here is that in the endless search for non-existing inferences, many an acadamic's career can inadvertandly careen into an abyss of obscurity, absurdity, obsolesence and ...see what happens?

Never mind that every rock show since Pink Floyd has used pyrotechnics and has done so for the same simple reason that any fireworks show exists: people like to watch things go boom in the night sky. It's been happening since 12th Century China.

Yearsely makes the broad claim that Springsteen and the E-Streeters were faking it along with a pre-recorded tape. But wait, not so fast! While Jennifer Hudson taped the National Anthem and Country star Faith Hill, who sang "America the Beautiful" was also prerecorded (the NFL has asked for prerecordings for pregame performers since 1993), Bruce's vocals were not taped. But in fairness, it does remain unclear whether or not his songs were prerecorded (a common practice for big events with no time for soundchecks when stages have to instantly appear and then quickly disassemble).

Yearsely concludes by saying, "That all must go down exactly as planned in mass public spectacle is something the Nazis understood better than anyone."

Perhaps. But if I was a choreographer, I may feel insulted by the inference.