Basing from his “contentious” 8-year presidency, can one safely
conclude that July is a “musically auspicious” month for the former US
President Ronald Reagan?
By: Ringo Bones
Whether you love him or hate him, it seems like the month of
July – at least from my own perspective – was a really auspicious month during
the 8-year presidency of former US President Ronald Reagan. I mean it is the very month that any big event
that could either make or break him seems to “go viral” during the pre user-friendly
online social network days of the 1980s.
Given the largely political nature of punk rock music, it
might be more than a coincidence that Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedy’s chose
July 3, 1983 to launch the Rock Against Reagan tour. By the way, the punk rock
extravaganza Rock Against Reagan tour also includes The Dicks, Crucifucks,
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (D.R.I.) and MDC which probably where MDC played their
iconic Elvis in the Sudetenland (or was it Elvis in the Rhineland?).
And who can forget that big, blue 1,960-page Ronald Reagan
Pornography Report that was launched way back in July 1986 that many criticized
as being a colossal waste of American Taxpayers’ money because it proved that
pornography is not that harmful to the average person. Speaking of former US
President Ronald Reagan’s rather “low opinion” on music making during the first
half of his presidency, remember when he used the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation
Act / OBRA to drastically cut the funding of public high school music programs
that lead to the over-hyping of the “Mozart Effect” during the Clinton years?
