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Hits of the Day
Oklahoma Governor saves Flaming Lips - Rep cites Constitutional right to be offended
by Genghis 4/25/2009 - 2:09 pm
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Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma decisively resolved a major battle over the official state rock song today. I bet you didn't realize that states had official rock songs, least of all Oklahoma.
Well it does now. In an online contest, a majority of Oklahomans voted for Do You Realize? by the weird psychadelicish band, The Flaming Lips. I bet you didn't realize that the Flaming Lips came from Oklahoma.
Despite the online landslide, conservative representatives rejected the nomination by a vote of 48 to 39, with 48 pro-Lips votes. I bet you didn't realize that it takes 51 votes in the Oklahoma house of representatives to pass a bill. 14 representatives missed this historic vote.
Anti-Lips legislators denounced lead singer Wayne Coyne for using an expletive at an event and wearing a red T-shirt with a yellow hammer-and-sickle.
Corey Holland, R-Marlow, voted against the Lips in a valiant defense of the American Constitution, explaining, "The great thing about this country is he has the right to make whatever statement he wants to make. I have the right to be offended by that." Though there is no Supreme Court precedent for the right to be offended, a prominent Constitutional scholar agreed with Holland's claim. The scholar asked not to be identified because he's still in law school.
That would have been the end of the story, but like a gubernatorial version of Yoshimi, who the Lips celebrated for saving humankind from the Pink Robots, Democratic Governor Brad Henry leaped to the rescue and signed an executive order to make Do Your Realize? the state rock song after all. I bet you didn't realize that Oklahoma has a Democratic governor.
Only two other states have official rock songs:
- Ohio - Hang on Sloopy by the McCoys
- Washington - Louie, Louie by Richard Berry
Weirdly, Hang on Sloopy and Louie, Louie were performed as a medley by punk star Johnny Thunders with the Oddballs in Japan. I bet you didn't realize that.
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What's weird to me about this is Corey Holland still hasn't returned the 4th disc of Zaireeka to me. He claims it is still "stuck in my boombox." For a decade, Corey?
That's why I don't lend to Republicans. They talk about personal responsibility all day long, but at the end the day, they just steal your stuff.
PS Maybe it's time for you to install iTunes
I would really like to see this sentence in a campaign ad.
I didn't realize that a "band" didn't have to be a "rock band" in order to be an "official state rock band."
Who is it that you wish to eject from the pantheon of rock? The McCoys, Richard Berry, or the Flaming Lips? Or was this just a general obversation? Are you suggesting that Oklahoma create a category for State Psychadelic Song?
I've always loved Echo and the Bunnymen.
Thanks for sharing. While perhaps less the controversial than the Flaming Lips (wearing a USSR emblazoned t-shirt counts as controversial in some states), Echo and the Bunnymen lack the attribute of having come from Oklahoma, or the U.S. for that matter, so they were never in contention for the honor.
They might consider vying for Official City Rock Song of Liverpool, though I hear that's a tough bracket.
Sorry, that was just my lame attempt at comically misidentifying the artist in the video.
I do dig the Flaming Lips. Oklahoma is now approximately one gazillion times cooler.