Green History Song Loop
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 03.29.07
Some of you may recall summer of 1983, when Wayne Newton replaced the Beach Boys at the White House Fourth of July party, after US Interior Secretary James Watt reportedly deemed the band unsuitable. Ancient history right? Actually the circumstances then seem, in retrospect, oddly reminiscent of those surrounding this contemporary story. Via LA Times:- "Promoters of "Live Earth" — which they describe as "a 24-hour concert on 7/7/07 across all 7 continents" — wanted to use Washington's National Mall as the North American venue. When the Interior Department rejected the proposal, questioning whether planners could get enough portable toilets for the expected crowd, the promoters turned to Congress. In partnership with Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection, "Live Earth" organizers sought a congressional resolution allowing them to hold the concert...on the steps of the Capitol." That's where the plans changed. ""While it's unfortunate for the American people that we are being blocked from staging the U.S. concert in our nation's capital, the show must go on," Chad Griffin, a "Live Earth" advisor, wrote in an e-mail to supporters on Capitol Hill." What happened? See the whole Inhofe, er. the whole article here. Image credit: Beach Boys Band
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Watt mounted his campaign against those decadent Beach Boys in the early 1980s, and I was just a kid but even I saw immediately what a public relations disaster it was. Was this the mistake for which Ronald Reagan presented Watt with the 'foot-in-mouth' trophy?
I remember Reagan had to hurriedly issue a press release saying that he and Nancy regularly listened to the Beach Boys themselves.