...or maybe they finally realized she hasn't made any music of redeeming value since her "Heart Like A Wheel" Lp.
LAS VEGAS - Singer Linda Ronstadt (news) not only got booed, she got the boot after lauding filmmaker Michael Moore and his new movie "Fahrenheit 9/11" during a performance at the Aladdin hotel-casino.
Before singing "Desperado" for an encore Saturday night, the 58-year-old rocker called Moore a "great American patriot" and "someone who is spreading the truth." She also encouraged everybody to see the documentary about President Bush (news - web sites).
Ronstadt's comments drew loud boos and some of the 4,500 people in attendance stormed out of the theater. People also tore down concert posters and tossed cocktails into the air.
"It was a very ugly scene," Aladdin President Bill Timmins told The Associated Press. "She praised him and all of a sudden all bedlam broke loose."
Timmins, who is British and was watching the show, decided Ronstadt had to go — for good. Timmins said he didn't allow Ronstadt back in her luxury suite and she was escorted off the property.
Ronstadt's antics "spoiled a wonderful evening for our guests and we had to do something about it," Timmins said.
Timmins said it was the first time he sent a performer packing.
"As long as I'm here, she's not going to play," Timmins said.
Ronstadt had been booked to play the Aladdin for only one show.
Calls to Ronstadt's manager were not immediately returned.
In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal before the show, Ronstadt said "I keep hoping that if I'm annoying enough to them, they won't hire me back."
Looks like she got her wish.
Linda Ronstadt praises M. Moore, so she must hate America
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Rspaight
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From NRO, so caveat surfer:
Ryan
From a reader:
Mr. Goldberg --
My wife & I were at the Linda Ronstadt performance in question, at the Aladdin in Las Vegas, and quite frankly, Aladdin President Bill Timmins' account of what happened is complete crap. There was mixed booing and cheering at Ronstadt's pro-Michael Moore comment, and that was about the extent of the "bedlam" that supposedly broke out. I saw no posters being torn down or cocktails being thrown in the air, and if people stomped out of the theatre unhappy, it was because 1) that was the last song Ronstadt performed; it was her encore; and 2) she mainly sang her standards repertoire, with the Nelson Riddle orchestrations, and a large part of the crowd wanted to hear more of her rock-'n'-roll stuff; she got the biggest round of applause for doing a lackadaisical run-through of her version of "Blue Bayou."
Frankly, my suspicion is that Timmins is way overdramatizing what happened, in order to justify giving Ronstadt the boot. It simply wasn't that big a deal.
Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney
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lukpac
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I think she should just shut up and sing...
Entertainers: Shut Up and Sing
Politics
Author: Jeff Crouere | 7/23/2004
It is so distressing to read the continual reports of entertainers entering the field of politics. When are these celebrities going to learn? The Dixie Chicks were taught an expensive lesson last year after they made disparaging comments about President George W. Bush. Country music fans revolted and their Cd´s were destroyed in massive public demonstrations throughout the country. The Dixie Chicks were never the same and have now left the country music genre.
The latest singer to jump into the political arena is over-the-hill entertainer Linda Ronstadt. Ronstadt started praising Michael Moore before her encore song at a concert at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. The crowd became so upset that they started throwing drinks, ripping down posters and booing. The Aladdin President Bill Timmins had Ronstadt escorted out of the hotel and did not even let her return to the suite. He also said she would not be welcome back at the hotel. Ronstadt did not back away from her comments and added fuel to the fire. She claimed that people were too ignorant of politics. She said that people should "get their heads out of their mashed potatoes" and go vote. Who really has their head in mashed potatoes? Have you seen Linda Ronstadt lately? We are talking about lots of mashed potatoes.
Mr. Timmins should be commended for decisive action. Entertainers are paid to entertain, not delve into controversial politics. So many leftists are spouting their hatred of President Bush that it is almost impossible to keep count. What was different at the Aladdin was the strong response of not only the crowd, but also of Bill Timmins. Entertainers need to realize that there could be a price to pay for their leftist views. Whoppi Goldberg certainly discovered that lesson after being fired by Slim-Fast, which did not want her as a spokeswoman after she mocked and insulted the President of the United States.
Entertainers have the right to speak about politics. However, corporate leaders, hotel executives and fans have the right to object. If more people started objecting to asinine comments from entertainers, then maybe more of them would just "shut up and sing." We can only hope and pray!
Entertainers: Shut Up and Sing
Politics
Author: Jeff Crouere | 7/23/2004
It is so distressing to read the continual reports of entertainers entering the field of politics. When are these celebrities going to learn? The Dixie Chicks were taught an expensive lesson last year after they made disparaging comments about President George W. Bush. Country music fans revolted and their Cd´s were destroyed in massive public demonstrations throughout the country. The Dixie Chicks were never the same and have now left the country music genre.
The latest singer to jump into the political arena is over-the-hill entertainer Linda Ronstadt. Ronstadt started praising Michael Moore before her encore song at a concert at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. The crowd became so upset that they started throwing drinks, ripping down posters and booing. The Aladdin President Bill Timmins had Ronstadt escorted out of the hotel and did not even let her return to the suite. He also said she would not be welcome back at the hotel. Ronstadt did not back away from her comments and added fuel to the fire. She claimed that people were too ignorant of politics. She said that people should "get their heads out of their mashed potatoes" and go vote. Who really has their head in mashed potatoes? Have you seen Linda Ronstadt lately? We are talking about lots of mashed potatoes.
Mr. Timmins should be commended for decisive action. Entertainers are paid to entertain, not delve into controversial politics. So many leftists are spouting their hatred of President Bush that it is almost impossible to keep count. What was different at the Aladdin was the strong response of not only the crowd, but also of Bill Timmins. Entertainers need to realize that there could be a price to pay for their leftist views. Whoppi Goldberg certainly discovered that lesson after being fired by Slim-Fast, which did not want her as a spokeswoman after she mocked and insulted the President of the United States.
Entertainers have the right to speak about politics. However, corporate leaders, hotel executives and fans have the right to object. If more people started objecting to asinine comments from entertainers, then maybe more of them would just "shut up and sing." We can only hope and pray!
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD
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lukpac
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Hey, rockers, keep protests in your songs
IF I WANT A LECTURE, I'LL GO TO A COLLEGE CAMPUS
By Joe Rodriguez
Ages ago, there was just no cure for the summertime blues. But that was before rock stars started politicking on stage.
Linda Ronstadt pushed a little too hard the other day at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. Bedlam broke out in the audience after she dedicated a song to leftist filmmaker Michael Moore.
She called him, ``a great American patriot'' and ``someone who is seeking the truth,'' and then urged everyone to see his documentary film, ``Fahrenheit 9/11.'' As you probably know, the film accuses President Bush and his Daddy Warbucks pals of war-mongering and profiteering. It's also a box office hit.
Apparently, Ronstadt's two thumbs-up were too much for the patriotically correct in the theater. They hissed, booed, threw cocktails and tore down posters as they stormed out. Hotel bouncers promptly escorted Ronstadt off the property.
I just want to know two things: Don't conservatives ever read the program? And, why can't musicians just shut up and play?
I remember Ronstadt's ``Canciones de Mi Padre'' tour some years back. At one concert in New England, a bunch of yahoos finally figured out she is Mexican-American and that every song would be sung in Spanish, so they started yelling, ``You're in America, talk English!''
This raises a fair question: Do liberals ever disrupt concerts by politically conservative performers?
If I want a lecture, I'll go to a college campus. If I want a movie recommendation, I'll look up a critic or ask the nearest teenager.
Sure, rockers and other celebrities have the right to stick their free speech in our ears. And it's perfectly legal for concert managers to cancel shows for fear of violence, just as it is for corporate sponsors to end endorsement deals with superstar athletes who are charged with rape.
The Ronstadt incident in Vegas brings up a lost and honorable tradition: If musicians want to stop a war or start a revolution, they should do it with a song -- not a political speech.
``All we are saying, is give peace a chance!''
Does anyone remember the lectures John Lennon and Yoko Ono issued in bed against the Vietnam War? No, but thousands upon thousands could sing their nine-word chorus in tune and without missing a step in anti-war marches.
Pro-war conservatives also had a hit or two to sing along with. I couldn't stand the ``Ballad of the Green Beret,'' but I didn't throw my transistor radio at every Vietnam vet I saw on the street. I changed the channel.
Things seem much clearer when musicians express their politics in song. You have your political anthem. I have mine. Sing it loud, sing it proud, but please don't throw cocktails, molotov or on ice.
Maybe only the young have the emotional and intellectual balance to truly appreciate the blending of politics and music. Maybe the real problem for Ronstadt in Vegas was that baby boomers, conservatives and liberals, have become the generation that can't sing and think at the same time.
JOE RODRIGUEZ's columns appear Tuesday and Friday. Contact him at (408) 920-5767 or jrodriguez@mercurynews.com.
IF I WANT A LECTURE, I'LL GO TO A COLLEGE CAMPUS
By Joe Rodriguez
Ages ago, there was just no cure for the summertime blues. But that was before rock stars started politicking on stage.
Linda Ronstadt pushed a little too hard the other day at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. Bedlam broke out in the audience after she dedicated a song to leftist filmmaker Michael Moore.
She called him, ``a great American patriot'' and ``someone who is seeking the truth,'' and then urged everyone to see his documentary film, ``Fahrenheit 9/11.'' As you probably know, the film accuses President Bush and his Daddy Warbucks pals of war-mongering and profiteering. It's also a box office hit.
Apparently, Ronstadt's two thumbs-up were too much for the patriotically correct in the theater. They hissed, booed, threw cocktails and tore down posters as they stormed out. Hotel bouncers promptly escorted Ronstadt off the property.
I just want to know two things: Don't conservatives ever read the program? And, why can't musicians just shut up and play?
I remember Ronstadt's ``Canciones de Mi Padre'' tour some years back. At one concert in New England, a bunch of yahoos finally figured out she is Mexican-American and that every song would be sung in Spanish, so they started yelling, ``You're in America, talk English!''
This raises a fair question: Do liberals ever disrupt concerts by politically conservative performers?
If I want a lecture, I'll go to a college campus. If I want a movie recommendation, I'll look up a critic or ask the nearest teenager.
Sure, rockers and other celebrities have the right to stick their free speech in our ears. And it's perfectly legal for concert managers to cancel shows for fear of violence, just as it is for corporate sponsors to end endorsement deals with superstar athletes who are charged with rape.
The Ronstadt incident in Vegas brings up a lost and honorable tradition: If musicians want to stop a war or start a revolution, they should do it with a song -- not a political speech.
``All we are saying, is give peace a chance!''
Does anyone remember the lectures John Lennon and Yoko Ono issued in bed against the Vietnam War? No, but thousands upon thousands could sing their nine-word chorus in tune and without missing a step in anti-war marches.
Pro-war conservatives also had a hit or two to sing along with. I couldn't stand the ``Ballad of the Green Beret,'' but I didn't throw my transistor radio at every Vietnam vet I saw on the street. I changed the channel.
Things seem much clearer when musicians express their politics in song. You have your political anthem. I have mine. Sing it loud, sing it proud, but please don't throw cocktails, molotov or on ice.
Maybe only the young have the emotional and intellectual balance to truly appreciate the blending of politics and music. Maybe the real problem for Ronstadt in Vegas was that baby boomers, conservatives and liberals, have become the generation that can't sing and think at the same time.
JOE RODRIGUEZ's columns appear Tuesday and Friday. Contact him at (408) 920-5767 or jrodriguez@mercurynews.com.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD
They're completely blowing it out of proportion. You think she was letting it fly like Mussolini on the balcony. She played a whole set. Minimal conversation, according to most accounts, then comes back for the encore and says two measly sentences, TWO SENTENCES. What's that? 15 seconds? So she says she saw Farenheit 9/11, and people should go see it because she thinks it's the truth, end of the 'big speech.' You weigh that against a whole, complete set of music already performed with one more song for the encore coming up, and screaming for Linda Ronstadt (who, again, I'm not a big fan of anyway) to "shut up" is excessive. The sentiment may be a polarizing issue, and there are plenty of musicians who go on and on and on about political issues in their concerts, but any columnist who's using the Linda Ronstadt incident as proof that performers should "shut up" are overreacting.
I was going to use Patti Smith as an example of a performer who may justify people asking performers to sing instead of preach, but even then you have to wonder what a person expects if they're supposedly a true fan, i.e. familiar with Smith's work. If it was Madonna, sure I can understand because she hasn't said jack about anything for 20 years and all of a sudden is jumping on the Bush-hating bandwagon. But take someone like Patti Smith: this is a woman who just released an album called "Radio Baghdad." The whole album is politically charged. She's been active in anti-war campaigns for the last year or two. And her shows, even before Iraq or Bush, have often included lots of talk. Any fan of a performer like that can't possibly claim to be surprised by any political rants that may take place at her shows.
A friend of mine was at Morrissey at the House of Blues in Chicago, and a funny thing happened there. Morrissey mentioned Farenheit 9/11 (and remember this is a man who has always been active in everything from vegetarianism - he even had the House of Blues remove meat from the menu the night he performed - to sexual politics to war, etc., etc...he makes Bono look quiet) and about a quarter of the audience booed. Morrissey seemed surprised and AMUSED at the reaction, he even started a dialogue with the audience. "Why are you booing? Does this mean you actually are going to vote for Bush?" Bear in mind, there a ton of Morrissey devotees there, many of whom waited hours to get in. Supposedly at that point, the booers mellowed out a bit, but my friend said he got the feeling that people were booing for several reasons. They either did support Bush (which was most likely a minority), didn't like Bush but didn't like Michael Moore either, or something about that specific topic didn't sit well with them. Again, this is a quarter of the audience, so it's unsure what the rest felt, assuming they weren't neutral.
I was going to use Patti Smith as an example of a performer who may justify people asking performers to sing instead of preach, but even then you have to wonder what a person expects if they're supposedly a true fan, i.e. familiar with Smith's work. If it was Madonna, sure I can understand because she hasn't said jack about anything for 20 years and all of a sudden is jumping on the Bush-hating bandwagon. But take someone like Patti Smith: this is a woman who just released an album called "Radio Baghdad." The whole album is politically charged. She's been active in anti-war campaigns for the last year or two. And her shows, even before Iraq or Bush, have often included lots of talk. Any fan of a performer like that can't possibly claim to be surprised by any political rants that may take place at her shows.
A friend of mine was at Morrissey at the House of Blues in Chicago, and a funny thing happened there. Morrissey mentioned Farenheit 9/11 (and remember this is a man who has always been active in everything from vegetarianism - he even had the House of Blues remove meat from the menu the night he performed - to sexual politics to war, etc., etc...he makes Bono look quiet) and about a quarter of the audience booed. Morrissey seemed surprised and AMUSED at the reaction, he even started a dialogue with the audience. "Why are you booing? Does this mean you actually are going to vote for Bush?" Bear in mind, there a ton of Morrissey devotees there, many of whom waited hours to get in. Supposedly at that point, the booers mellowed out a bit, but my friend said he got the feeling that people were booing for several reasons. They either did support Bush (which was most likely a minority), didn't like Bush but didn't like Michael Moore either, or something about that specific topic didn't sit well with them. Again, this is a quarter of the audience, so it's unsure what the rest felt, assuming they weren't neutral.
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0407/22/lkl.00.html
KING: What do you make of the girlie men comment? A comment he had made previously on Saturday Night Live?
MAHER: We talked about this issue before, called fake outrage. I mean I'm no big fan of Governor Schwarzenegger, but this is nothing. It's fake outrage. Anyone who really is outraged that at comment is a girlie man! you should wear a plaid skirt if you're outraged.
Just the way they were outraged at Linda Ronstadt the other night in Las Vegas.
KING: She praised Michael Moore.
MAHER: And people rioted at the Aladdin Hotel. And the Aladdin Hotel was like, you know what, we're not in the business of political activism. No, you're in the business of getting people drunk and losing the rent money.
And see, again, I have to say this is the difference between conservatives and liberals. I can't see liberals rioting if Lee Greenwood dedicated a song to Sean Hannity. I just think they would have went oh, that's nothing and they would have moved on with their life. It wouldn't have been a cause celebre.
To throw this woman out of the hotel without even letting her go up to the room and pack her stuff? It's astounding.
KING: And so Arnold was perfectly all right to make that...
MAHER: Of course.
KING: Didn't offend anyone?
MAHER: Fake outrage.
KING: Fake outrage.
MAHER: It's -- if anyone, I'm telling you, if they're really that offended at that, at Linda Ronstadt, at Janet Jackson's breast falling out of her thing, at the Dixie Chicks, any of this stuff, it's all on you. Because, this stuff is not really what is so important in this country right now. We have an ability to have in the room an elephant and a fly, and think somehow that they're of equal stature.
KING: What do you make of the girlie men comment? A comment he had made previously on Saturday Night Live?
MAHER: We talked about this issue before, called fake outrage. I mean I'm no big fan of Governor Schwarzenegger, but this is nothing. It's fake outrage. Anyone who really is outraged that at comment is a girlie man! you should wear a plaid skirt if you're outraged.
Just the way they were outraged at Linda Ronstadt the other night in Las Vegas.
KING: She praised Michael Moore.
MAHER: And people rioted at the Aladdin Hotel. And the Aladdin Hotel was like, you know what, we're not in the business of political activism. No, you're in the business of getting people drunk and losing the rent money.
And see, again, I have to say this is the difference between conservatives and liberals. I can't see liberals rioting if Lee Greenwood dedicated a song to Sean Hannity. I just think they would have went oh, that's nothing and they would have moved on with their life. It wouldn't have been a cause celebre.
To throw this woman out of the hotel without even letting her go up to the room and pack her stuff? It's astounding.
KING: And so Arnold was perfectly all right to make that...
MAHER: Of course.
KING: Didn't offend anyone?
MAHER: Fake outrage.
KING: Fake outrage.
MAHER: It's -- if anyone, I'm telling you, if they're really that offended at that, at Linda Ronstadt, at Janet Jackson's breast falling out of her thing, at the Dixie Chicks, any of this stuff, it's all on you. Because, this stuff is not really what is so important in this country right now. We have an ability to have in the room an elephant and a fly, and think somehow that they're of equal stature.
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Rspaight
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Patrick M wrote:Does Charlie Daniels qualify as an "entertainer"?
Yeah, exactly. The pundits only get upset about entertainers voicing opinions if those opinions are left-wing.
Maher's right -- this fake outrage thing is getting tiresome.
Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney