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Mark Ronson And Amy Winehouse Doing “Valerie” » The Macho Response

Crack,

I don’t know if you remember me or not; we’ve had some conversations over on the Althouse blog, and I dropped some comments over on your old blog. Hello again!

I have the Beatnigs album on vinyl and, in my teens, I wouldn’t miss a Fugazi show when they rolled into town. I’m guessing that we had similar tastes in the late 1980′s and early 1990′s. However, looking back on the music that I listened to then (and still revisit from time to time), I always feel weird because the politics are so fucking appalling.

How do you deal with that, personally? Do you still listen to the stuff you did back then? Do you revisit the stuff that’s less political? Or do you just say “Fuck it!” and appreciate other aspects of the music and ignore the politics?

Here’s another question: If I recall correctly, you’re fond of President Reagan, while probably 99.9999% of the people in the scene back then loathed him. Were you a conservative back then, or did you have a conversion moment later? If so, what was it?

Sorry to hit you with so many questions, but I’m genuinely curious.

Youngblood – Hey, Buddy!

How I deal with the politics of the past is the same way I deal with everything else:

Honestly and head-on.

We were young. We didn’t know what was correct, or what was just propaganda and/or cultural conditioning. Like, I grew up in South Central, Los Angeles – exactly where Reginald Denny got clocked with a brick during the Rodney King riots – and hating/distrusting whites was woven into the fabric of life. What did I know? I was raised by former slaves and sharecroppers! I had to parse race on my own and, because I was a conservative, I got there before my peers but, truly, it took a long time – and a lot of experiences – for me to even admit to myself it was wrong.

I look at other artists, now, through that framework. They’re all working it out, in their own time, and I take what’s good about their creations and feel proud, and what’s bad, I laugh at or feel disgust. But, unless they step away from the mic and start speaking as people and not artists, I let it go. I’ll accept any message in art. (T.S.O.L.’s “Code Blue” for instance.) Once they confuse their art with real life – becoming Sean Penn – that’s when I check out.

Mark Ronson Songs, Valerie

Billboard

Amy Winehouse Songs, Rehab, You Know I'm No Good, Valerie, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Back to Black, Tears Dry on Their Own

Billboard

Vibe