[Paleopsych] NYT: Tunes for the Freewheelin' George Bush

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The New York Times > Washington > White House Letter: Tunes for the
Freewheelin' George Bush
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/11/politics/11letter.html
April 11, 2005

[Play list appended. I wonder when he listens to classical music.]

    By ELISABETH BUMILLER

    WASHINGTON

    Between his return on Friday from Pope John Paul II's funeral in Rome
    and his meeting today with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel,
    President Bush spent an hour and a half on Saturday on an 18-mile
    mountain bike ride at his Texas ranch. With him, as usual, was his
    indispensable new exercise toy: an iPod music player loaded with
    country and popular rock tunes aimed at getting the presidential heart
    rate up to a chest-pounding 170 beats per minute.

    Which brings up the inevitable question. What, exactly, is on the
    First iPod? In an era of celebrity playlists - Tom Brady, the New
    England Patriots quarterback, recently posted his on the iTunes online
    music store - what does the presidential selection of downloaded songs
    tell us about Mr. Bush?

    First, Mr. Bush's iPod is heavy on traditional country singers like
    George Jones, Alan Jackson and Kenny Chesney. He has selections by Van
    Morrison, whose "Brown Eyed Girl" is a Bush favorite, and by John
    Fogerty, most predictably "Centerfield," which was played at Texas
    Rangers games when Mr. Bush was an owner and is still played at
    ballparks all over America. ("Oh, put me in coach, I'm ready to play
    today.")

    The president also has an eclectic mix of songs downloaded into his
    iPod from Mark McKinnon, a biking buddy and his chief media strategist
    during the 2004 campaign. Among them are "Circle Back" by John Hiatt,
    "(You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care" by Joni Mitchell and "My
    Sharona," the 1979 song by the Knack that Joe Levy, a deputy managing
    editor at Rolling Stone in charge of music coverage, cheerfully
    branded "suggestive if not outright filthy" in an interview last week.

    Mr. Bush has had his Apple iPod since July, when he received it from
    his twin daughters as a birthday gift. He has some 250 songs on it, a
    paltry number compared to the 10,000 selections it can hold. Mr. Bush,
    as leader of the free world, does not take the time to download the
    music himself; that task falls to his personal aide, Blake Gottesman,
    who buys individual songs and albums, including Mr. Jones's and Mr.
    Jackson's greatest hits, from the iTunes music store.

    Mr. Bush uses his iPod chiefly during bike workouts to help him pump
    up his heartbeat, which he monitors with a wrist strap. The strap also
    keeps track of calories expended for the intensely weight-focused
    president, who has recently lost eight pounds after eating a lot of
    doughnuts during the 2004 campaign. Mr. Bush burned 1,300 calories on
    his bike ride on Saturday, Mr. McKinnon reported.

    As for an analysis of Mr. Bush's playlist, Mr. Levy of Rolling Stone
    started out with this: "One thing that's interesting is that the
    president likes artists who don't like him."

    Mr. Levy was referring to Mr. Fogerty, who was part of the anti-Bush
    "Vote for Change" concert tour across the United States last fall. Mr.
    McKinnon, who once wrote songs for Kris Kristofferson's music
    publishing company, responded in an e-mail message that "if any
    president limited his music selection to pro-establishment musicians,
    it would be a pretty slim collection."

    Nonetheless, Mr. McKinnon said that Mr. Bush had not gone so far as to
    include on his playlist "Fortunate Son," the angry anti-Vietnam war
    song about who has to go to war that Mr. Fogerty sang when he was with
    Creedence Clearwater Revival. ("I ain't no senator's son ... Some
    folks are born silver spoon in hand.") As the son of a two-term
    congressman and a United States Senate candidate, Mr. Bush won a
    coveted spot with the Texas Air National Guard to avoid combat in
    Vietnam.

    Meanwhile, Mr. Levy sized up the rest of the playlist of the
    58-year-old president. "What we're talking about is a lot of great
    artists from the 60's and 70's and more modern artists who sound like
    great artists from the 60's and 70's," he said. "This is basically
    boomer rock 'n' roll and more recent music out of Nashville made for
    boomers. It's safe, it's reliable, it's loving. What I mean to say is,
    it's feel-good music. The Sex Pistols it's not."

    Mr. Jones, Mr. Levy said, was nonetheless an interesting choice.
    "George Jones is the greatest living singer in country music and a
    recovering alcoholic who often sings about heartbreak and drinking,"
    he said. "It tells you that the president knows a thing or two about
    country music and is serious about his love of country music."

    The songs by Mr. Jackson indicate that the president "has a little bit
    of a taste for hard core and honky-tonk," Mr. Levy said, adding that
    both Mr. Jackson and Mr. Jones "are not about cute and pop, and
    they're not getting by on their looks." And while Mr. Chesney "is
    about cute and pop and gets by on his looks," Mr. Levy said, "he's
    also all about serious country music."

    Mr. McKinnon, who has downloaded "Castanets" by Alejandro Escovedo and
    "Alive 'N' Kickin' " by Kenny Loggins into Mr. Bush's iPod, said that
    sometimes a presidential playlist is just a playlist, nothing more.

    "No one should psychoanalyze the song selection," Mr. McKinnon said.
    "It's music to get over the next hill."
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The New York Times > Washington > Bush's Playlist
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/11/politics/11letterbox.html
April 11, 2005

    A sampling from President Bush's iPod; some songs were selected by
    Mark McKinnon, the chief media strategist in the 2004 campaign:

    John Fogerty, "Centerfield"

    Van Morrison, "New Biography," "Brown Eyed Girl"

    John Hiatt, "Circle Back"

    Alan Jackson

    George Jones

    Alejandro Escovedo, "Castanets" Joni Mitchell, "(You're So Square)
    Baby, I Don't Care"

    The Gourds, "El Paso"

    Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, "Swinging From the Chains of Love"

    Stevie Ray Vaughan, "The House is Rockin' "

    James McMurtry, "Valley Road"

    The Thrills, "Say It Ain't So" The Knack, "My Sharona"