This made me cringe:
Maybe the French have a thing for James Taylor like they do Jerry Lewis, but I watched this and all I could hear was a sad trombone sound. This would have been cool:
Probably would have played better domestically, at least.
by John Cole| 60 Comments
This post is in: Because of wow., Foreign Affairs, Clown Shoes
This made me cringe:
Maybe the French have a thing for James Taylor like they do Jerry Lewis, but I watched this and all I could hear was a sad trombone sound. This would have been cool:
Probably would have played better domestically, at least.
Comments are closed.
RepubAnon
Isn’t this sort of thing outlawed by the Geneva Convention?
xenos
Everybody in the Berkshire had a Christopher Reeve story, discussing their encounter with him and how much they found they liked the gUK as a result. The stories of Taylor are not so heart- warming…. They are, in fact, reminiscent of the John Kerr stories that circulate around Martha’s Vinyard.
Baud
Ok. I thought that would be a video of James Taylor singing with John Kerry. I am relieved.
dedc79
Reminds me of James Taylor’s other, equally-awkward serenade. Of course, that was in a cartoon.
Bobby B
If it’s James Taylor you know there’s a PBS pledge drive near.
raven
James Taylor – Sunshine Sunshine
Tokyokie
Had America not failed to appreciate Willard Romney’s obviously superior breeding, France would be suffering the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
BGinCHI
After the song Kerry thanked the nation for teaching the rest of the world to kiss with their tongues.
He then vowed to try it some day.
kbuttle
Nah – the French actually loved it. Response over there has been pretty much uniformly positive, cheesy though it feels on these shores.
I think it was Kilgore who talked about this the other day: James Taylor was awarded the Order of French-Something-Special two years ago, and is widely loved.
I think this is one where we see it as tone deaf and cringe worthy, and they see it as a really nice gesture from an old friend.
John Cole +0
@kbuttle: That’s about what I thought.
wasabi gasp
“I Melt with You” would’ve been nice, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfVOJzLmbuM
Amir Khalid
It’s not a cool gesture, but it didn’t need to be that. This is a nice song everyone likes, performed by a popular and uncontroversial singer with a pleasant voice. And saying “Ton ami est là” was, after all, the point of the exercise.
sharl
@kbuttle: That all makes sense.
Lots of Americans respond otherwise, as the OP demonstrates. And as Weigel showed in one of his tweets, we may be more likely to be reminded of John Belushi’s guitar smashing scene in Animal House (0m47s, after 15s ad).
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
I’m not surprised. The French seem to have a soft spot for the cheesiest of American culture. There’s a reason it’s Disneyland Paris and not Disneyland Munich.
They also love Samuel Fuller’s films, which can be almost embarrassingly earnest in a hard boiled way, but it’s an affection I share, so I can’t mock them for that.
raven
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): James Taylor is cheesy. WTF?
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):
I’m not sure an American Idol contestant would have had the same positive impact as James Taylor, though.
Debbie
Jeez, there’s a lot of hippie hating going on in this thread.
mai naem mobile
Well, just remember this country picked Dumbya over Kerry so who are we criticize French taste?
mai naem mobile
I’m glad Teresa Heinz Kerry looks like shes recovered from the seizure or whatever it was.
gogol's wife
Wow, I’m not a James Taylor fan, but that made me cry. You guys are cynical.
Steve from Antioch
Not even fucking fleas in the lion’s mane, more like herpetomonas parasites on fleas.
Bex
“People can be so cold/they’ll take your soul if you let them” and he added “don’t let them.” I heard “don’t let fear do to you what it did to us.”
Joseph Nobles
In 2012, James Taylor was given the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, one of France’s highest cultural honors.
http://www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a403104/james-taylor-to-be-given-french-cultural-honor.html#~p1FgeCCdTM2Jik
From the video, it appears to have gone over just fine.
Amir Khalid
@gogol’s wife:
You’ve Got a Friend is a classic, for this kid who grew up on the songwriter’s own version.
debit
@John Cole +0: How’s Ginger?
Mike G
Now that Kerry has expressed his admiration for France, how long before the wingnutosphere swing back to sneering at France, mocking Kerry for speaking their language, “surrender monkeys” and “Freedom Fries”?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike G: my favorite was Dickie “Only a fool, or a Frenchman…” Cohen sniveling about Obama snubbing our greatest ally
Ripley
À chacun son goût. And I like Jerry Lewis; maybe not a genius but a pretty reliable hoot in his older films (those without crying clowns in concentration camps).
Bobby Thomson
@Amir Khalid: Heh.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@raven: Indeed. Are we suddenly aged out of this too hip crowd? Now I feel old. Nothing to do with an upcoming birthday; that’s strictly coincidental.
@Debbie:
Yes there is, and it’s rather impolite, if predictable.
Amir Khalid
@Mike G:
I remember, back in 2004, that Kerry spoke French was held against him as evidence of a foppish sophistication and too much sympathy for the cheese-eaters. Unlike Mitt, whose command of French showed that he was smart.
Amir Khalid
@Ripley:
Ahem. Google Translate can be pretty sloppy with word order. It’s Chacun à son goût.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Amir Khalid: That gave rise to one of Chris Matthews’ tweetiest, muppetiest moments ever, screeching “He looks French! He looks French! Bwah-hah-hah!” He was still enamored of the Shrubb’s sunny nobility at that point, though he says he voted for Kerry.
nancydarling
@BGinCHI: Hey! I have it on good authority from someone who was a neighbor of an actress (whose name you would all recognize, but I’m not telling) who dated Kerry a couple of times before he married Teresa. The actress said he “was a pretty good kisser”.
nancydarling
@nancydarling: testing
SRW1
@Mike G:
Would claiming that there are more than 750 no-go zones for non-muslims in France qualify for going back to calling the French ‘surrender monkeys’? If so, that going back has already happened.
The stupidification by FOX is stupefying.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@raven:
Yes, James Taylor is cheesy. You know it’s true.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Debbie:
Honestly, James Taylor has become such an easy-listening staple that I don’t people think of him as a hippie, but as that guy whose music your dad likes to play in the car. YMMV.
Tokyokie
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): The way you started your comment about the great Sam Fuller, I thought we were going to come to blows. My most prized possession is The Naked Kiss 3-sheet he autographed: “You like this film. Don’t try a sequel unless your head likes the thud of a phone.”
Kylroy
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Well, a lot of his best known hits are cheesy. Then again, his breakout single was about a friend dying in rehab. Sappy, maybe, but Anne Geddes it ain’t.
PIGL
Someone and by someone I mean John who seems to only listen to 70s music would ordinarily like JT. I have knowledgeable friends state that he was a very influential guitarist. And anyone who can write a lyric “whatcha gonna do with folks like that?” may be forgiven for Sweet Baby James.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Tokyokie:
Did you ever see “The Typewriter, the Rifle, and the Gun”? It’s a pretty solid Fuller documentary that they did before he died. At one point, he goes through his garage with Quentin Tarantino’s help to look at old props. (Or Tim Robbins — they were both in it.)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118004/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_6
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Kylroy:
Cheesy =/= bad. Cheesy things can be enjoyable. They’re just … cheesy.
Bobby Thomson
If loving this is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
BGinCHI
@nancydarling: Witness tampering!
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@efgoldman:
You didn’t see how packed this garage was. Jimmy Hoffa was probably stashed away in there somewhere.
Tree With Water
Richard Nixon once suggested that a jazz giant be invited to perform at the White House, “someone like Guy Lombardo”.
Dance around in your bones
@Debbie:
People just bash on us ol’ hippies cuz they are bummed they didn’t get to be one.
Cmon, y’all know its true!!!! Free Love and no deadly STD’S yet? It was awesome!!
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
That’s just how it has come to be used in English; whereas in French one can say (à) chacun son goût, where the initial à is optional. You also hear it in the plural sometimes.
keestadoll
Sadly they cut away when the two started weaving beads in each other’s hair.
Cervantes
@Tree With Water:
I’m no fan of Nixon but I’m not sure about that remark or the way it was recorded by one of the Prussians. It’s quite possible Nixon was joking.
Remember, it was Nixon who chose to celebrate Duke Ellington’s 70th birthday with a party in the White House. In addition to the guest of honor, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman were there, and others.
Cervantes
@Dance around in your bones:
Not sure they even need a real reason. To some people, cheap shots are fun precisely because they are cheap — and that’s as far as the thinking goes.
chrome agnomen
JT has always been cheesy.——/aging hippie
Poopyman
@Dance around in your bones:
Say WHAT? Lemme ask zombie Al Capone over here about that ….
Radio One
if the GOP is really going to go for criticizing James Taylor as being too cheesy/tacky for mainstream America, good luck with that.
Cervantes
@Radio One:
It’s not the GOP. Did you read the comments above?
Piquoiseau
@Cervantes: Where do you see any evidence that Nixon joked around or had a sense of humor? The White House tapes reveal a very funny man, but unintentionally so.
Cervantes
@Piquoiseau:
Impossible to prove that someone is funny except perhaps by telling a few of his jokes. Nixon had rather a dry sense of humor and he did not show it very much in public. To some extent it’s subjective but here are some examples.
When he wanted to nominate Rehnquist to the Court, some of his advisers complained that Rehnquist wasn’t a woman, or a Catholic, or a Southerner. Nixon’s response: ”Maybe he can get a sex change.”
Another time, after Nixon had lunch with Edward Teller, the nuclear physicist, weapons enthusiast, and dandruff sufferer, one of Nixon’s aides asked, half-jokingly, what all the white stuff was on Teller’s shoulders. “Strontium 90,” Nixon replied.
A last example, and these you may know about: there were his appearances on Laugh-In. One can probably find them on YouTube or some such thing. Politicking, certainly, but an attempt at doing it through humor, albeit in a safe environment (some of the people who ran the show were sympathetic and friendly).
Curious to know what you make of these examples.
Piquoiseau
@Cervantes: Thanks for the examples! I must concede that he seems to have had a sense of humor after all (although the Laugh In appearances don’t to my mind count as evidence: they were no doubt scripted).
This came up in a discussion with my father some time ago about Nixon’s rationalization for having Agnew on the ticket in 1972: “No assassin in his right mind would kill me.” Dad couldn’t believe it was a true quote, since he couldn’t remember Nixon ever making a humorous comment and didn’t believe him capable of it. I thought Nixon probably meant the comment seriously: he was famously paranoid, and fear of political assassination was in any case quite rational in 1972. (Although, I have a hard time believing that Lee Harvey Oswald gave any consideration to whether LBJ would be a good president, or that a vice president Agnew would have deterred him.) Maybe he was indeed joking.
Cervantes
@Piquoiseau:
You’re welcome.
Scripted? Sure — after all, Nixon was just mouthing the show’s well-known catch-phrase. What could be more scripted than that? But here’s how the Nixon Foundation sees it (and I’m inclined to agree):
So, a scripted line, sure, but Nixon took it to a new level. Or as another TV critic, NPR’s David Bianculli, put it, “Nixon managed, in a single sentence, to convey more of a good-sport persona, and a sense of humor, than during most of the rest of his campaign.” Note that Nixon’s opponent, VP Hubert Humphrey, invited to take his turn on the show, simply declined to appear.
And as for Paul Keyes, I wrote about him briefly here.
Back to your comment:
That line was a running gag in the Nixon White House from ’69 through the spring of ’74.
As early as November, ’69, watching Agnew play hatchet-man with enthusiasm if not actual glee, Nixon observed dryly that his Veep posed “a real dilemma for an assassin.” Nixon’s aides joked about it, too, including those who wrote Agnew’s speeches (“The assassin’s dilemma: if they kill Nixon, they get Agnew.”) Re Agnew’s re-selection as running mate, Ehrlichman reported later a conversation in ’72 in which Nixon explained it thus: “No assassin in his right mind would kill me because they would get Agnew as President.” And even after Agnew resigned, Nixon made the same joke, this time substituting Ford’s name instead.