Many Democrats are upset about the cancellation of James Taylor on the first night of the Democratic National Convention. The DNC is claiming that the legendary singer was canceled because there wasn’t enough time for him to perform due to the “raucous applause” that interrupted previous speakers. If you look at DNC tweets, you will see that folks are bringing the fire and the rain against the convention organizers. It was also a bad political move. Everyone knows that Democrats have to keep Carolina on their minds in order to claim an Electoral College victory in November. Taylor could have helped on that front. The DNC also needs to worry about all those “walking men” who coming over the border from “Mexico.” Again, Taylor could have helped. Does the DNC still have a friend in Sweet Baby James, or will the popular musician decide to “steamroll” them in the future? Whatever the case, the DNC let Taylor “be lonely” last night.
Here is NBC-Chicago:
Big-name politicians aren’t the only ones slotted to take the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week — some celebrities and other entertainers are expected to appear as well. But one highly anticipated performance Monday from acclaimed singer-songwriter James Taylor was scrapped from the schedule not long before the star was set to perform.
According to a schedule released Monday by organizers, Taylor, singer-songwriter Jason Isbell and country artist Mickey Guyton were all slated to perform on Day One of the convention at the United Center.
Those performances were in addition to a list of more than two dozen scheduled speakers, including President Joe Biden, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Guyton was the first to take the stage and was slated to appear just before 7 p.m. following a speech from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Isbell then performed, following a speech from reproductive rights activist and content creator Deja Foxx.
Taylor, known for hits like “You’ve Got a Friend” and “How Sweet It Is,” was set to take the stage later in the night, after a speech from First Lady Jill Biden but before Biden’s daughter Ashley Biden introduced her father, President Joe Biden.
But as the evening went on, DNC officials released a statement regarding a change of plans.
“Because of the raucous applause interrupting speaker after speaker, we ultimately skipped elements of our program to ensure we could get to President Biden as quickly as possible so that he could speak directly to the American people,” the statement said. “We are proud of the electric atmosphere in our convention hall and proud that our convention is showcasing the broad and diverse coalition behind the Harris-Walz ticket throughout the week on and off the stage.”
The schedulers apparently did not do a great job in scheduling. Maybe one or two of the people speakers could have been rescheduled for another day. And in defference to president Biden, they let the speaches run on so that he was stuck speaking at Midnight. His was the big speach of the night and he was being honnored. Not to mention the Big Egos who wanted to be seen and heard on the opening day.
It took awhile for “Fire and Rain” to make it to AM radio, but you heard it incessantly once it did. Grim times. That Christmas every teenager in America got at least three copies from relatives, which, even if they didn’t already have it, was four too many. As Robert Christgau said, “Taylor’s vehement following bewilders me; as near as I can discern, he is just another poetizing simp. Even the production is conventional. For true believers only. C PLUS.” Generous. If the Dems had any sense of real poetry, they’d invite Iggy and the Stooges.
In ’68, John Sinclair–the pope of Detroit-area radicalism, guru to the MC5–delivered an ultimatum: the Stooges had to come to Chicago for the convention. Iggy’s apoliticism was so complete, he wouldn’t even say “no.” He just started doing somersaults till Sinclair left in disgust. Santiago Ramos comments: What was Iggy protecting? “The adults in the room might say: Iggy should have performed at the DNC. He should have outgrown his teenage rebellion. A true rebel sets a car on fire or takes a nightstick to the face for the sake of stopping a war. A mark of maturity and growth is a healthy moral conscience and political awareness. An adult would be awake to the injustice around them. An adult would take up a Cause. An adult would use their talent, music, platform, and popularity to support doing something good for the world.” But at what price? “If he got involved in politics, he’d be involved in trying to make the world better, rather than to hold up a mirror to it. He would not have been fulfilling his calling as an artist. His actions would be compromised in one of two ways: either his art would be measured against the standard of political usefulness, or his politics would become the pretext by which to praise or attack his art.”
One can only hope he’d still not show.
but, did Jason Isbell make it on? Let’s keep the focus here John.
😉
Edit to add: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci-6Au1Gnrs
Will do.