What classic song can the DNC ruin this time?
Remember the 2020 "For What It's Worth" catastrophe?
Over the decades, a fragile consensus had started to emerge among us oldsters that the single coolest rock song of the 1960s was Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth (Stop, Children, What’s That Sound?):”
But then at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, the Democrats ruined a lot of memories by bringing out an ancient Stephen Stills and an ultra-effeminate black guy named Billy Porter who had won a Tony for playing Lola in the Broadway musical Kinky Boots:
Note, that this wasn’t a live performance gone wrong. It was the Covid Summer of 2020, so the Democrats had it on video beforehand, looked it over, and gave it the thumbs up.
Alright, here’s a question. How can the Democrats, using their enormous appeal among over-the-hill celebrities, top their Stills-Porter version of “For What’s It Worth” in 2024?
The nominees are:
Melissa Etheridge and Jill Biden perform Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party (And I’ll Cry If I Want To)”
A hologram of the late Helen Reddy joins Biden-Harris Administration officials Admiral Rachel Levine and Sam Brinton on-stage in “I Am Woman” and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “I Enjoy Being a Girl”
Any surviving Doobie Brother and Tim Walz rock out on “China Grove”
Dick Van Dyke and Joe Biden sing "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
Bruce Springsteen and Elliot Page perform "Rosalita"
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Art Garfunkel duet on “Bridge Over Troubled Water”
Bob Seger, Tim Walz, and Lia Thomas perform "Night Moves"
John Fogerty, Rep. Rob Menendez Jr. (D-NJ), J.B. Pritzker, Gavin Newsom, Beto O’Rourke, Michael Bennet, Richard Blumenthal, Bob Casey Jr., and Sheldon Whitehouse cover Creedence’s “Fortunate Son”
Neil Diamond, UB40, and Kamala Harris belt out a medley of Neil’s oenophile classics “Cracklin’ Rosie” and “Red, Red Wine”
A Hologram of Prince sings with Willie Brown and Montel Williams on "Little Red Corvette" while Kamala parks her car sideways across two spaces
Stacey Abrams with Pete and Chastain Buttigieg doing “It’s Raining Men”
Pharrell, Robin Thicke, Emily Ratajkowski, and Bill Clinton re-enact the “Blurred Lines” video [okay, admittedly, I’d watch that]
A hologram of Marvin Gaye and a confused Joe Biden duet on “What’s Going On?”
Willie Nelson, Joe Biden, and Jimmy Carter sing the late Townes Van Zandt’s alt-country classic “Waitin’ Around to Die”
In the grand finale, Kamala calls all the celebrities and politicians onstage to follow her in jamming to the new Democratic anthem:
Any more suggestions?
Ship of Fools, by World Party is appropriate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2nCugGQZO0
"Avarice and greed are gonna drive you over the endless sea
They will leave you drifting in the shallows
Or drowning in the oceans of history
Traveling the world, you're in search of no good
But I'm sure you'll build your Sodom like you knew you would
Using all the good people for your galley slaves
As you're little boat struggles through the warning waves, but you don't pay"
Trump could do the Helen Reddy number: "I am the Donald, hear me roar"