RECENTLY Fred Barnes reported that the film industry is not overly eager to enlist in the war effort. Studios have produced patriotic, “America-the-Beautiful” public service announcements, now showing after the trailers at theaters everywhere, but how Hollywood responds content-wise–if at all–to September 11 remains to be seen.
We should give Hollywood a break, at least at first. It does take several months to make a film people will actually watch. But trends in the music industry suggest Americans want to wave the flag now.
A plethora of songs about the terrorist attacks has emerged from all corners of the music industry, rising up out of writers’ impressions of that fateful day. And where it counts–on the charts–many of these songs are faring quite well.
The latest, Neil Young’s “Let’s Roll,” was released last week. The song, a tribute to the heroes of Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania, marks a kind of grass-roots effort by Young to get his musings on the war out. Young’s label, Warner Bros/Reprise, burned copies and shipped them to radio stations immediately upon hearing the song, saying that they considered it important to get it on the air as soon as possible.
“Let’s Roll” opens with the sound of jet engines and the (unanswered) ringing of a cell phone, an allusion to celebrated Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer’s call to his wife. Neither the tempo nor the lyrics are mournful, just earnest and businesslike:
“One’s standing in the aisle way / Two more at the door / We got to get inside there / Before they kill some more / Time is running out, let’s roll”
Because “Let’s Roll” has not been commercially released, it is ineligible to appear on the Billboard charts until it reaches the top 75 of Billboard’s Hot 100 airplay chart. Young plans to include the song on his next album, though it may become a hit long before then.
Alan Jackson is another artist intent on getting his commentary out before his next album is released. Jackson wrote a promotional single, “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning,” and performed it for the first time at the Country Music Awards on November 7.
“Where Were You” is less war-mongering than “Let’s Roll,” zeroing in on the average Middle American’s reaction to the attacks. Here’s a snippet:
“Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day / Were you in the yard with your wife and children / Or working on some stage in L.A. / Did you stand there in shock at the sight of that black smoke / Rising against that blue sky / Did you shout out in anger, in fear for your neighbor / Or did you just sit down and cry?”
“Where Were You” quickly scaled not just the country charts, but Billboard’s Hot 100 as well. After just four weeks it sits at number 33 and promises to climb higher still. Jackson’s ballad also earned him a spot in U.S. history–officially. The congressman from his former district, Mac Collins of Georgia, read it into the Congressional Record last month.
Before doing so, Congressman Collins called Jackson a “great American who has used his gifts as a songwriter and performer to lift the American spirit in this great pursuit for justice.”
Like Jackson and Young, country artist Aaron Tippin rushed his new single to the studio. Tippin is not all that familiar to non-country fans, but his latest, “Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly,” is now one of the most-played tunes in America.
Creed, a rock band known for its religious overtones as well as its conservative politics, has also joined in homeland defense. The band reworked portions of its latest album just before it was released in order to speak to America’s attackers. The song “Freedom Fighter” on the album “Weathered” asks:
“Can’t you hear us coming? / People marching all around / Can’t you see we’re coming? / Close your eyes it’s over now / Can’t you hear us coming? / The fight has only just begun / Can’t you see we’re coming?”
The world’s war on terrorism may be colloquially called “Bush’s War,” but he has an army of soldiers in the music industry strumming to make September 11 come alive for us over and over. Bush never called them up. They rose to the occasion without being asked.
Beth Henary is an editorial assistant at The Weekly Standard.
