On Veterans Day, HBO broadcast live from Washington, D.C.’s National Mall ‘The Concert for Valor,’ a star-studded tribute concert for the nation’s veterans. The show was capped by a performance of Credence Clearwater Revival’s classic protest song ‘Fortunate Son,’ performed by Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl and Zac Brown. Immediately, social media was ablaze with outrage from conservatives who felt that the song was inappropriate for the venue due to its content. Apparently, as the song was written at the height of the Vietnam War and highlighted the class disparities in the draft, they thought it was completely anti-soldier.
Eventually, many of those who commented on Twitter about the song pointed out that not only wasn’t it anti-vet, but that the song was actually quite appropriate to play in front of veterans considering its subject matter.
Yeah, dummies, they played “Fortunate Son” at the #ConcertForValor. It’s pro-soldier & anti-chickenhawk. As usual, outrage over nothing.
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— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) November 12, 2014
“Fortunate Son” decries warmongering politicians, but has tremendous empathy for soldiers. So actually, it’s perfect. http://t.co/nHP3GsLpAy — Radley Balko (@radleybalko) November 12, 2014
FIXED: 40+ yrs after “Fortunate Son” was written, culturally clueless (chickenhawk) conservatives are still clueless abt message. #ZacBrown
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) November 12, 2014
This Fortunate Son silliness is a reminder that “supporting the troops” can also mean opposing impetuous decisions to send them off to die. — Radley Balko (@radleybalko) November 12, 2014
However, Wednesday morning, despite the clear evidence that the song is NOT a dig at soldiers, conservative outrage flowed deep. John Nolte at Breitbart penned a screed claiming “left-wing millionaire and welfare queen” Springsteen politicized the concert with an “anti-troop song.” Nolte stated that the song might be about how the wealthy were able to avoid service, but the song itself also mocks soldiers as “unthinking dupes.” Not sure how one can get that from the song, but its written down so it must be true.
Meanwhile, over at Fox & Friends, the hosts decided to weigh in on the ‘controversy.’ As one would expect, Doocy and Co. weren’t quite knowledgeable about the actual lyrics of the song. Co-host Anna Kooiman, filling in for Elisabeth Hasselbeck, claimed the song was “a slap in the face” to veterans. After another fill-in co-host, Clayton Morris, sort of pointed out that the lyrics really aren’t against the troops and more about class struggles, Doocy chimed in that they should have added “historical context” instead of just playing a song that everyone knows to be anti-war.
Below is video of the segment, courtesy of Raw Story:
Below are the entire lyrics of the song for reference:
Some folks are born, made to wave the flag
Ooo, their red, white and blue
And when the band plays “Hail to the Chief”
Ooo, they point the cannon at you, LordIt ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senator’s son, son
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate one, noSome folks are born, silver spoon in hand
Lord, don’t they help themselves, y’all
But when the taxman comes to the door
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yeahIt ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no millionaire’s son, no, no
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate one, noYeah, yeah
Some folks inherit star spangled eyes
Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord
And when you ask ’em, “How much should we give?”
Ooh, they only answer “More! More! More!”, y’allIt ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no military son, son
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate one, one
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate one, no, no, no
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate son, no, no, no
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
