Why did they boo Eddie?

brianlux said:

Thoughts_Arrive said:

I just found it surprising given the band's and their fans' leftist leanings

Bentleyspop said:

Thoughts_Arrive said:

I just found it surprising given the band's and their fans' leftist leanings

Then you might also be surprised to learn that there are some "right" leaning people on here who claim to be fans of PJ.
People who are openly....
Racist
Homophobic
Xenophobic
White supremacists
Anti-Semitic 
Anti same sex marriage
Etc etc

Agreed, both (but of course, not singling anyone out- no way.)  That always surprises me but I guess I'm dumb or naive that way.  I don't know why someone would support a musician or artist well known to be strongly opposite of one's own viewpoints.  For example. if I found the work of right-wing street artist Sabo  interesting-- and looked at strictly from an art basis, I suppose you could say it is (Google "Sabo art" and go to "images" to see what I mean)-- I would still find the message far too much to my disliking to be a fan, support his art, show up to an exhibit, spend time on his fan site, etc. 

But that's just me. 

HughFreakingDillon said:

mace1229 said:

brianlux said:

Thoughts_Arrive said:

I just found it surprising given the band's and their fans' leftist leanings

Bentleyspop said:

Thoughts_Arrive said:

I just found it surprising given the band's and their fans' leftist leanings

Then you might also be surprised to learn that there are some "right" leaning people on here who claim to be fans of PJ.
People who are openly....
Racist
Homophobic
Xenophobic
White supremacists
Anti-Semitic 
Anti same sex marriage
Etc etc

Agreed, both (but of course, not singling anyone out- no way.)  That always surprises me but I guess I'm dumb or naive that way.  I don't know why someone would support a musician or artist well known to be strongly opposite of one's own viewpoints.  For example. if I found the work of right-wing street artist Sabo  interesting-- and looked at strictly from an art basis, I suppose you could say it is (Google "Sabo art" and go to "images" to see what I mean)-- I would still find the message far too much to my disliking to be a fan, support his art, show up to an exhibit, spend time on his fan site, etc. 

But that's just me. 

I've been pretty surprised to hear a number of people say this on here. I'm struggling to understand what difference it makes. There are pretty much zero political songs from Yield and earlier, which most agree is their prime/best era. After that, there's what, only like 2 or 3 on each album that are strong political songs? A lot of which aren't good anyway. Lets be honest, no matter how you feel about Bush, Bushleaguer still sucks as a song. So why ignore literally dozens of songs that are amazing songs and the best of their generation and completely unrelated to any political stance just because of their personal views?
If every song was Bushleaguer, then I can understand. But I can name my top 50 favorite PJ songs and maybe 2 or 3 have anything to do with politics (and they'd be towards the bottom of that list).

fair enough. good points (except bushleaguer, I admit it's not a typical song, but I dig it for its creativity). judging strictly on a recorded music basis, yes, I agree. But when you go to their live shows, and disagree with all or most of what ed is saying between songs, doesn't that put you off?

if Billy Corgan was as political at his shows as Ed is, it might ruin the experience for me. If he brought out alex jones to play tambourine I'd probably walk out. 

mace1229 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mace1229 said:

brianlux said:

Thoughts_Arrive said:

I just found it surprising given the band's and their fans' leftist leanings

Bentleyspop said:

Thoughts_Arrive said:

I just found it surprising given the band's and their fans' leftist leanings

Then you might also be surprised to learn that there are some "right" leaning people on here who claim to be fans of PJ.
People who are openly....
Racist
Homophobic
Xenophobic
White supremacists
Anti-Semitic 
Anti same sex marriage
Etc etc

Agreed, both (but of course, not singling anyone out- no way.)  That always surprises me but I guess I'm dumb or naive that way.  I don't know why someone would support a musician or artist well known to be strongly opposite of one's own viewpoints.  For example. if I found the work of right-wing street artist Sabo  interesting-- and looked at strictly from an art basis, I suppose you could say it is (Google "Sabo art" and go to "images" to see what I mean)-- I would still find the message far too much to my disliking to be a fan, support his art, show up to an exhibit, spend time on his fan site, etc. 

But that's just me. 

I've been pretty surprised to hear a number of people say this on here. I'm struggling to understand what difference it makes. There are pretty much zero political songs from Yield and earlier, which most agree is their prime/best era. After that, there's what, only like 2 or 3 on each album that are strong political songs? A lot of which aren't good anyway. Lets be honest, no matter how you feel about Bush, Bushleaguer still sucks as a song. So why ignore literally dozens of songs that are amazing songs and the best of their generation and completely unrelated to any political stance just because of their personal views?
If every song was Bushleaguer, then I can understand. But I can name my top 50 favorite PJ songs and maybe 2 or 3 have anything to do with politics (and they'd be towards the bottom of that list).

fair enough. good points (except bushleaguer, I admit it's not a typical song, but I dig it for its creativity). judging strictly on a recorded music basis, yes, I agree. But when you go to their live shows, and disagree with all or most of what ed is saying between songs, doesn't that put you off?

if Billy Corgan was as political at his shows as Ed is, it might ruin the experience for me. If he brought out alex jones to play tambourine I'd probably walk out. 

Not put off in the least. And how many political comments does Ed make, not usually more than 2-3 times throughout a show if that. Most often they go right from one song to the next, and when he stops to interact it isn't always about politics, most of the time it isn't and probably totals 5 minutes or less in most cases. It's what they are passionate about and I get that. I'm definitely in the camp of I'd rather hear another song than a 5 minute talk about politics, but it doesn't put me off.
It isn't like he's talking about promoting ISIS or something. Sometimes I get the impression from people that if you disagree with them on politics then you're a disgusting human. I don't have that belief. Don;t most people have a variety of friends, or does everyone on here only hang out and associate with people just like them? I can believe in religion, pro-life and all sorts of things and I can also appreciate and respect other opinions that are the opposite. I know it doesn't make someone a bad person to disagree with me, so why would I be put off in the least with someone expressing their opinions? The only time I was bothered was when he pretended to get a BJ from the devil. And it wasn't because he was wearing a Bush mask, it was because I'm not in Jr High and it just wasn't funny, kinda weird actually. But in 17 PJ shows and 3 solos, there's only been 5 minutes that bothered me in the slightest, that isn't too bad.
Now something you said earlier I completely agree with. I think Ed talking about these things opens the door, and if he wants to use his microphone to pass his message, I think the fans can express their opinion as well. I'm not saying I'm in favor of booing, personally I would prefer to just ignore it and move on faster. But I agree that taking that microphone opens the door to that. If you don't want the audience to express their opinion, then keep quite about yours.

RYME said:

It just sort of dawned on me that we're talking about one concert that happened 15 years ago.  The question was why did they boo?  Because a few people at that show didn't appreciate Bu$hleager & the mask thing.
I don't think booing at PJ concerts has become any kind of a regular occurrence.  I remember hearing about it, or reading about it back when it happened in 2003, but I hadn't given it 2 thoughts since then.
Seems to me it was kind of a isolated incident.
I think the people booing at that show took that song & dance way to seriously.
Let the boo debate continue.

brianlux said:

I thinks its important to develop one's own view point about things based on knowledge and critical thinking, not what one person says.  One of may favorite authors is Edward Abbey.  I love his stuff and the stand he took on environment was solid.  But I didn't agree with everything he said.  I know a guy who was a good friend of Abbey's and he said it drove some of his friends nuts how Abbey hated rock and roll which he described as industrial noise to pound out dented fenders to.  Just about everything he said about rock and roll goes against my views but if I went to see the man speak (I wish I had!) and he berated rock and roll which I love, I would not have booed him.  I would consider that childish.

brianlux said:

I thinks its important to develop one's own view point about things based on knowledge and critical thinking, not what one person says.  One of may favorite authors is Edward Abbey.  I love his stuff and the stand he took on environment was solid.  But I didn't agree with everything he said.  I know a guy who was a good friend of Abbey's and he said it drove some of his friends nuts how Abbey hated rock and roll which he described as industrial noise to pound out dented fenders to.  Just about everything he said about rock and roll goes against my views but if I went to see the man speak (I wish I had!) and he berated rock and roll which I love, I would not have booed him.  I would consider that childish.

brianlux said:

PJ_Soul said:

brianlux said:

I thinks its important to develop one's own view point about things based on knowledge and critical thinking, not what one person says.  One of may favorite authors is Edward Abbey.  I love his stuff and the stand he took on environment was solid.  But I didn't agree with everything he said.  I know a guy who was a good friend of Abbey's and he said it drove some of his friends nuts how Abbey hated rock and roll which he described as industrial noise to pound out dented fenders to.  Just about everything he said about rock and roll goes against my views but if I went to see the man speak (I wish I had!) and he berated rock and roll which I love, I would not have booed him.  I would consider that childish.

I don't know a single soul who develops their view point based on what one person says. Maybe there are some dimwits out there who do this, but nobody with half a brain.

I guess what I mean is that there are people, especially young people who have not developed a good sense of critical thinking,who will cling to every word their heroes utter.  This is not so much a put-down as a suggestion to be more inquiring and at least a bit skeptical of what we hear people say. 

For example, everyone should be very skeptical of anything I say. 

HughFreakingDillon said:

brianlux said:

PJ_Soul said:

brianlux said:

I thinks its important to develop one's own view point about things based on knowledge and critical thinking, not what one person says.  One of may favorite authors is Edward Abbey.  I love his stuff and the stand he took on environment was solid.  But I didn't agree with everything he said.  I know a guy who was a good friend of Abbey's and he said it drove some of his friends nuts how Abbey hated rock and roll which he described as industrial noise to pound out dented fenders to.  Just about everything he said about rock and roll goes against my views but if I went to see the man speak (I wish I had!) and he berated rock and roll which I love, I would not have booed him.  I would consider that childish.

I don't know a single soul who develops their view point based on what one person says. Maybe there are some dimwits out there who do this, but nobody with half a brain.

I guess what I mean is that there are people, especially young people who have not developed a good sense of critical thinking,who will cling to every word their heroes utter.  This is not so much a put-down as a suggestion to be more inquiring and at least a bit skeptical of what we hear people say. 

For example, everyone should be very skeptical of anything I say. 

honestly, brian, I think in the information age, it caused more people to grow up doing just that, thinking critically and skeptically about everything, since the veil has been taken down from all "our heros" being worthy of the worship they got in, say, the 70's.