Feisty Chicks and patriotic sheep

The once maligned Dixie Chicks completed an amazing renaissance last night when they dominated the prestigious 'Grammy' awards with five prizes including best album, best song and best performance by a country group.

This from a band which could hardly get any work for two years after singer Natalie Maines made some intemperate remarks about US President George Bush in London in 2003.



The consequence of those remarks appears to have been a wave of revulsion which spread round an extremely nationalistic nation, then in the patriotic upsurge of the Iraq invasion, (though it is rumoured that the patriotic backlash was co-ordinated by Bush's then Chief-of-Staff, Karl Rove) to the point where the Chicks career was more or less destroyed overnight and no more records were forthcoming for two years.

It's amusing -and ironic - that that the single for which they won one of their awards is called 'I'm not ready to make nice'- which is a pointed rebuff to any suggestion that the group either apologises or in any way regrets the actions of Miss Maines . regardless of what happened in consequence.

It's great that the Chicks are back. I like them personally but it's more than that. It's the pleasure of seeing talent resurface over political chicanery. Now they are being rebuilt and lauded by the same institutions which would not touch them with a barge pole when it was considered that they were too much of a 'hot potato' for venturing into unpatriotic territory.

Which brings me, inevitably, to one aspect of the American psyche which I constantly find troubling and that is the very overt sense of patriotism which, it seems, can be easily manipulated- particularly when the country is at 'war'. Such a wave of patriotic indignation can be aroused in the United States that even pop groups can be washed away by it if enough self -righteous ranting is generated across the air waves. I think it's great to feel good about your country - I don't feel too badly about my own - but I think its highly dangerous when that is manifested in a show of flags and prayers and the obligatory close for all political speeches, 'God bless America!' because it deludes some people into believing He does! The consequence of that, of course, is that you never question the decisions your leaders make, particularly when there is a patriotic 'hook' - and that's really bloody dangerous!

I know it is frequently said that the British are too cynical. That we have no faith in anything or anybody. I don't believe it's quite that. I think we have a healthy disrespect for the machinations of politicians no matter how powerful they are. I think we assess pop stars for what they are. Nobody considers them to be political emissaries of any substance. Nobody stopped the Sex Pistols from performing during the punk era after their 'Anarchy in the UK' album and their attacks on the Queen. N-one coordinated a campaign to have them driven out because the establishment was ruffled. Our establishment was above all that. The Pistols carried on in their snarling nasty way until Sid killed Nancy and they came to a predictable end.

The Dixie Chicks haven't changed. They are still the same band -rueful no doubt - but unbending. The war in Iraq is still there. George Bush is still there. So what has changed to bring the Chicks back into the fold? Simple! America is losing the war in Iraq, George Bush's percentage points are at an all time low and people have simply changed their minds about Bush.

So the same herd of sheep which kicked them out of the paddock now welcomes them back with open arms in a turn around of breath taking proportions. Great that they're back - but should any group of pop performers be sacrificed on some altar of manipulated nationalism? I don't think so and I really think it's a facet of American thinking which can be really dangerous when the wrong cabal takes charge in D.C.