Thursday, May 19, 2022

5 Presidents and Their Favorite Kinds of Music

Lately, I've been reading a book called "Abe" by David S. Reynolds. It's a cultural biography, aiming to examine the life of Abraham Lincoln from a cultural perspective. So, it talks about matters such as his religious background, the frontier life he grew up with, and yes... even his taste in music! That got me thinking, what are the musical tastes of some famous presidents? Well, I'm going to attempt to answer that question with this blog post. I will be examining the musical tastes of two historical presidents, as well as the three most recent ones. Let's get started.

1.) George Washington

The first president of our country had quite the wise quote regarding music. He said, "Nothing is more agreeable, and ornamental, than good music". To take his words from the 18th century to the 21st century, he's basically saying that nothing beats good music. As for the music that Washington himself liked, perhaps it's unsurprising that the general enjoyed a good battle march. Perhaps he would have liked the selections from R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket! But given that he was an aristocrat that married into immense wealth, he enjoyed the classier music as well. He listened to operas, like the famous Handel work "Hallelujah". 

Evidently, Washington had no musical talent, as he could not sing or play an instrument. But he knew the importance of good music, even in ordering his army around. I learned from the Mount Vernon website that in 1777, Washington ordered his drum and fife majors to improve their music. He reported that the "music of the army [was] in general very bad". It takes a meticulous man like Washington to know that good music was important, even during a time of war. And while Washington was not himself a good musician, his granddaughter evidently became an excellent harpsichord player.

George Washington wanted good music, for the morale of his troops!

2.) Abraham Lincoln

The inspiration for this article, Honest Abe was much more into the everyday music of the frontier than the classy opera of his day. A friend noted that Lincoln's "tastes were simple and uncultivated, his choice being old airs, songs, and ballads". Like Washington, Lincoln had no musical talent, but seemed to appreciate music much more. Lincoln was famous for having what in his days would be described as "the melancholy", or "the hypo". In other words, he had depression. And as such, he had an appreciation for tragic, or "sensational" songs. One example is "The Irish Mother's Lament", a song about a woman who curses her three boys for disobeying her orders, but then goes mad with grief when she finds her sons all drown in a lake. One must also realize that the frontier culture that Lincoln grew up with was violent, so he enjoyed sensational songs like "The Oxford Girl". That one tells of a man who bludgeons his partner to death, proceeding to throw her corpse into a river. What interesting songs indeed!

The music that Abe liked was politically incorrect, on multiple counts. In a grammatical jumble of words, one acquaintance Lincoln had described him as liking "Little Smuty Songs I wont Say any thing a Bout would not look well in print". One of the songs was "I Won't Be.a Nun", which talks about a woman who tells her mother she is too pretty and too wild to be a nun. Doesn't seem that bad, but we must remember, this is the 19th century we're talking about! On the other hand, there are songs that seem horrible now, but again... we must remember this is a different era. That's because Lincoln enjoyed a lot of the minstrel songs of his day. He liked songs like "Old Dan Tucker", "De Blue Tail Fly", and yes... a song called "Jim Crow". While Lincoln is known as The Great Emancipator, we have to remember that the time he lived in was really quite different.
If Abe was two-faced, would he really be wearing this one?

3.) Barack Obama

Let's discuss the first of our modern presidents on the list. We know Obama is a music fan, as he often shares out his favorite music of the year. He stays up to date with the popular music of the day, much more than I do, honestly. I do know that I like one of his 2021 picks, "Freedom" by John Batiste. But honestly, I don't recognize another song on there. But Obama certainly likes music from a wide variety of genres and eras. In anticipation for his 2020 memoir "A Promised Land" (which I read), Obama made a list of songs that were important to him during his time in the White House. Some notable selections include "The Times They Are-a-Changin" by Bob Dylan, "Lose Yourself" by Eminem, "Sir Duke" by Stevie Wonder, and "Luck Be a Lady" by Frank Sinatra. 4 completely different genres, but 4 great choices.

But there's one song on the list that must have had particular importance to him. Well, I know it would've had importance to me if I was in his shoes! That's because Barack had the privilege of having his First Lady being serenaded in the White House by Paul McCartney. What was the song? Well, it was "Michelle", of course.  We know Obama's taste in music is eclectic, but one artist in particular he seems to appreciate is Bruce Springsteen. He even hosts a podcast with him now. 
Ah, the retirement life of an ex-president.

4.) Donald Trump

Oh boy, I'm really doing this. Well, here goes. One article I read describes Trump as "more of a Rolling Stones fan than a Beatles follower". He had the audacity to call Paul McCartney a "schmuck". Hmm, why does that not surprise me? Other favorite artists of his include Queen, Elton John, and Eminem. All right, as much as I dislike Trump, I can't say he's wrong with these selections. But these artists, and the surviving members of Queen, sure as hell don't want their music playing at his rallies! There's a whole Wikipedia article that details a whopping 25 "musicians who oppose Donald Trump's use of their music". 25! One notable example was how the estate of George Harrison said that Trump did not have permission to use "Here Comes The Sun" to introduce Ivanka during the 2016 RNC. However, they did note that Trump had permission to use Harrison's song "Beware of Darkness".

Much like Obama, he's a big fan of the Eminem song "Lose Yourself". But again, Eminem is one of many artists who have expressed their disgust with Trump. Trump's all-time favorite song is evidently "Is That All There Is?" by Peggy Lee. While Trump's musical tastes are not quite as diverse as Obama's (he prefers a lot of the boomer-age stuff)... he does enjoy some reggae as well. I will end this segment by saying that Trump apparently claims to have punched his second grade music teacher, because he "didn't think he knew anything about music". His classmates claim that story was bullshit though, so who knows.
While Trump likes Eminem's music, Slim Shady is not a fan of 45.

5.) Joe Biden

Biden has a somewhat diverse taste in music like Obama, but unlike Obama, we gotta remember that Joe is 79 years old! As such, his music taste... well, it's a bit like mine. Or as Rock NYC put it in their article from a year ago, the writer "didn't expect to find hip hop songs on a playlist of a 78-year old man". That's not to say Biden doesn't enjoy some modern pop music, but it's soulful stuff like "Stay With Me" by Sam Smith or "Hello" by Adele. In other words, modern songs that are actually pretty good. Biden appears to be a pretty big R&B fan, enjoying songs like "Higher and Higher" by Jackie Wilson, "Good Times" by Sam Cooke, and Aretha Franklin's rendition of "The Weight". 

Much like Obama, he's a Beatles and a Springsteen guy. His favorite Beatles song appears to be "Come Together". In terms of some truly old school artists (we gotta remember, Biden ain't new), he enjoys Ray Charles and Frankie Valli. One of his favorites is "Can't Take My Eyes off You", which is indeed an excellent song. While Biden can surely stumble over his words sometimes, we gotta remember his cool side as well... driving in his 'Vette and playing some oldies music. 
I bet he's begging the Secret Service to let him drive again.

Well, that's my list for the day. It combines two of my passions, history and music, all into one neat little article. Hope you've learned a bit about the music tastes of these commanders-in-chief. I suppose when I'm president someday, they'll write about how much I enjoy "El Paso" and "Smokey Joe's Cafe"!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Graeme's Colossal Countdown Recap! (Episode 4: #451-436)

I'm back with a recap of my Colossal Countdown! Now, I didn't upload my blog last week, but perhaps during Winter Break I will catch...