Don Henley predicted Faux Noise decades ago

[liberaltrucker]

The vid is from 1995, but the song was first released in 1982.

I make my living off the Evening News
Just give me something-something I can use
People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry

Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I don't have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give us dirty laundry

Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em all around

We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who
comes on at five
She can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam
in her eye
It's interesting when people die-
Give us dirty laundry

Can we film the operation?
Is the head dead yet?
You know, the boys in the newsroom got a
running bet
Get the widow on the set!
We need dirty laundry

You don't really need to find out what's going on
You don't really want to know just how far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone
Eat your dirty laundry

Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down

Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're stiff
Kick 'em all around

Dirty little secrets
Dirty little lies
We got our dirty little fingers in everybody's pie
We love to cut you down to size
We love dirty laundry

We can do "The Innuendo"
We can dance and sing
When it's said and done we haven't told you a thing
We all know that Crap is King
Give us dirty laundry!

[spanone]

1. yes he did. k&r...

[MrSlayer]

2. It was just as valid then as it is now.

The media have always been sensationalist vultures. Great tune.

[Horse with no Name]

3. Don Henley is from East Texas

and occasionally shows up in his hometown and does impromptu concerts to bring money into the town.


He is a good guy.

[saras]

9. Great Texas Henley story - the one that made me like him

Don Henley came on stage, but we didn't change the name of the song. We were playing in Austin in like 1990, maybe '92. We were playing in a tiny place, Hole In The Wall, across from the University of Texas, it literally holds a hundred people. We were in there playing, and everybody was saying, "Don Henley is coming!" His buddy from high school hung out at that bar, it was his regular joint, and a lot of times when Don would come to town to save the trees, they would go hang out at this bar.

So we're playing, and sure as shit, the motherfucker shows up. For once in my life, I was flabbergasted. I was like "homminahomminahomminahommina." So finally I said, "Hey, you wanna fistfight? You wanna steak?" He said, "Hey, I wanna sing the song. Especially the part about not wanting to get together with Glenn Frey." Cause you know, it's "Don Henley must die. Don't let him get together with Glenn Frey." This is before everybody had camera phones and cell phones, so no pictures. There's no evidence. He was belting it out: "Don Henley must die! Don't let him get together with Glenn Frey!" It was fuckin' funny.

Before that, him and his manager had been pickin' at me in the paper in San Diego and L.A. You don't want to get in a fight with Mojo. Don's big comeback was, "I sold millions, he's sold thousands." Hell, Titanic was a big movie, too, motherfucker! Still sucks! Nobody ever lost a nickel underestimating the taste of the American public.

from http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2012/04/interview_mojo_nixon_denver_westword.php

He's a tortured artist, used to be in the Eagles
Now he whines like a wounded beagle
Poet of despair! Pumped up with hot air!
He's serious, pretentious, and I just don't care

Don Henley must die!
Don't let him get back together
With Glenn Frey!
Don Henley must die!

[Justice wanted]

4. O M G I'm laughing at first on how true that song is but the more I'm reading the lyrics the more

freaky it is that they nailed fox.

[liberaltrucker]

5. We all know that Crap is King

Nail, meet hammer.

[Justice wanted]

7. Yep.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. I saw him on the Inside Job tour.

Opened the show with "Dirty Laundry".

Closed with "Desperado".

[Justice wanted]

8. LOVE the icon. May is awesome too.

[liberal N proud]

10. Exactly what I think when I hear that the last several years.

[EC]

11. He didn't predict anything.

He sang about something that was going on even then...didn't have Fox, but dirty laundry passed for news even back then.

[Waiting For Everyman]

14. Yup.

It started drifting that way pretty much from a few years after television caught on.

[Scuba]

12. What Dorothy said...

“The heaviest restriction upon the freedom of public opinion is not the official censorship of a press, but the unofficial censorship by a press which exists not so much to express opinion as to manufacture it.”

Dorothy L. Sayers
1893-1957

British writer, essayist, playwright and translator.

[Waiting For Everyman]

13. A similar one from the era of the 1960's riots. (1966)

I remeber these events and this album on the radio, and the writer (Frank Zappa) describes it well: the events, the coverage, and what many of us were thinking...

Trouble Every Day

Well I'm about to get upset
From watchin' my tv
Been checkin' out the news
Until my eyeballs fail to see
I mean they say that every day
Is just another rotten mess
And when it's gonna change, my friend
Is anybody's guess

So I'm watchin' and I'm waitin'
Hopin' for the best
Even think I'll go to prayin'
Every time I hear 'em sayin'
That there's no way to delay
That trouble comin' every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin' every day

Wednesday I watched the riot...
I seen the cops out on the street
Watched 'em throwin' rocks and stuff
And chokin' in the heat
Listened to reports
About the whisky passin' 'round
Seen the smoke and fire
And the market burnin' down
Watched while everybody
On his street would take a turn
To stomp and smash and bash and crash
And slash and bust and burn

And I'm watchin' and I'm waitin'
Hopin' for the best
Even think I'll go to prayin'
Every time I hear 'em sayin'
That there's no way to delay
That trouble comin' every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin' every day

Well you can cool it,
You can heat it...
'Cause, baby, I don't need it...
Take your tv tube and eat it
'N all that phony stuff on sports
'N all the unconfirmed reports
You know I watched that rotten box
Until my head began to hurt
From checkin' out the way
The newsmen say they get the dirt
Before the guys on channel so-and-so
And further they assert
That any show they'll interrupt
To bring you news if it comes up
They say that if the place blows up
They'll be the first to tell
Because the boys they got downtown
Are workin' hard and doin' swell,
And if anybody gets the news
Before it hits the street,
They say that no one blabs it faster
Their coverage can't be beat
And if another woman driver
Gets machine-gunned from her seat
They'll send some joker with a brownie
And you'll see it all complete

So I'm watchin' and I'm waitin'
Hopin' for the best
Even think I'll go to prayin'
Every time I hear 'em sayin'
That there's no way to delay
That trouble comin' every day
No way to delay
That trouble comin' every day

Hey you know something people
I'm not black
But there's a whole lots of times
I wish I could say I'm not white

Well, I seen the fires burnin'
And the local people turnin'
On the merchants and the shops
Who used to sell their brooms and mops
And every other household item
Watched the mob just turn and bite 'em
And they say it served 'em right
Because a few of them were white,
And it's the same across the nation
Black and white discrimination
They're yellin' "You can't understand me!"
And all that other jazz they hand me
In the papers and tv
'N all that mass stupidity
That seems to grow more every day
Each time you hear some nitwit say
He wants to go and do you in
Because the color of your skin
Just don't appeal to him
(No matter if it's black or white)
Because he's out for blood tonight

You know we gotta sit around at home
And watch this thing begin
But I'll bet there won't be many live
To see it really end
'Cause the fire in the street
Ain't like the fire in the heart
And in the eyes of all these people
Don't you know that this could start
On any street in any town
In any state if any clown
Decides that now's the time to fight
For some ideal he thinks is right
And if a million more agree
There ain't no Great Society
As it applies to you and me
Our country isn't free
And the law refuses to see
If all that you can ever be
Is just a lousy janitor
Unless your uncle owns the store
You know that five in every four
Just won't amount to nothin' more
Than watch the rats go across the floor
And make up songs about being poor
Blow your harmonica son!

[Aerows]

15. Crap is King

How succinctly that puts Fox News.

[Zax2me]

16. He was singing about current media at the time.

Before Fox News.