re: #188 Rev_Arthur_Belling

They’ve obviously not heard much John Prine before.

As I recall, it wasn’t too long after the Iraq war started; they may have conflated “Flag” as being against the Iraq war and not an anti-Vietnam song.

It’s not the first time I’ve seen that happened — about a year or so after I moved to the DC area, a bunch of the “Jimmy’s Tavern” regulars went to see Steve Earle in concert at the 9:30 club. Steve had recently released “Transcendental Blues,” which featured the song “Over Yonder,” an anti-death penalty song.

During the concert, Steve spoke about his opposition to the death penalty, and I’d guess about 20 or 30 people walked out of the concert right then and there.

I didn’t understand it myself — a leftist singer is going to sing leftist songs, and you’re going to get upset enough to walk out? — but I suppose a lot of them still thought of Earle from his mainstream country western “good ol’ boy” days.