On August 30, while much of New Orleans was underwater, George W. Bush was photographed playing a guitar given to him by country singer Mark Wills. Numerous pundits with a firm grasp of the obvious, seized upon this to draw comparisons with the Emperor Nero, who allegedly played fiddle while Rome burned. (Never mind that fiddles didn’t actually exist back then; “fiddled” sounds better than “played the lyre.”)
What bugs me about the photo, however, is that it gets described as showing the president “playing guitar,” when at best he’s only posing, trying to look like he’s a-pickin’. How do I know? Just look at his left hand. Like many a duff guitarist, he’s formed the hand shape for an open-G chord — except that instead of having his fingers in place to play G (third fret on the lower E string) and B (second fret on the A string), he’s a fret off, at G-sharp and C. His little finger may be adding an A (fifth fret on the upper E string), but it’s hard to be certain. In any case, were he actually to strum that guitar, the result would be utter dischord, revealing him as someone who doesn’t know diddley about guitar. Instead, he poses quietly, and only instrument geeks like me notice.
Now that we’ve uncovered all the motorheads in this crowd, let’s see if there are any musicians?
I don’t mean to single out the president on this, because instrumental fakery is disturbingly widespread. One of my favorite moments in Oliver Stone’s The Doors is a rehearsal session in which the band is ostensibly learning “Light My Fire.” One of the band calls out the changes, and as he does we watch John Densmore (Kevin Dillon) fingering the chords on guitar. And getting most of them wrong.
I know, I know — this is precisely the sort nerdery that gets lampooned in The Rock Snob’s Dictionary (although why actually knowing something about the craft of music-making counts as snobbery is itself rant material). But every time I see a model mishandle a prop trombone, or watch an actor flailing his or her fingers ineffectually along a saxophone, I’m reminded of how distanced the average person is from the art of music. It’s depressing to think that for many educated people, being able to play an instrument is as much a lost craft as spinning wool or carpentry.
In that sense, having Dubya pose as a guitarist is just one more example of how people get the government they deserve. As if another such example were needed.
Thanks to Steven W. Terrell’s blog for this one.
I had to post this image that someone photoshopped of this same picture.
http://www.gordonkeith.com/wordpress/wp-content/bushguitGREAT.jpg
I think W is as much a tool as anyone, but you cannot tell from a
still picture if he knows what he is doing. We all know he doesn’t play anything but fear-based games, but this is an exercise in the ridiculous. I play guitar and my hand could be snapped in that position whilst I was moving to what you would see as a legitimate cord.
What does it matter what he was doing, he was NOT being a leader and NOT responding to an on going disaster. He did not have to strum that guitar to hit complete national dissonance. He plays a mean Despair Guitar.
C’mon…
The president is fingering the standard “open” G-Major chord starting in the third fret, and if played, will sound pretty awful.
However, when someone hands you a guitar that you are not used to, it is easy to be “off” a fret, especially when playing chords that are not on the first fret (and thus make it easy to feel the “nut”).
Too me, the chances of anyone that has never played guitar before, picking up one, and fingering it that well, is pretty small.
My guess is that the president can play (at least a g-major!), but probably couldn’t hear him self anyway, if he tried to strum.
This clearly looks to me like he’s flipping another one of his “Bush birds”
OK, so W isn’t a guitar player. It doesn’t bother me that he’s posing as he accepts a gift.
What bothers me is your insinuation that he’s out screwing off when he should be helping Katrina victims. Perhaps he should have cancelled all his engagements and went down to New Orleans with his chainsaw and helped cut trees.
The rest of the story is about his appearance at an event honoring WW2 veterans. Check it out here: markwills.musiccitynetworks.com
Don’t forget the reason that blogs have gained popularity is that many are telling unbiased news … unlike the media. So, get the bias out.
>> What bothers me is your insinuation that he’s out screwing off when he should be helping Katrina victims. Perhaps he should have cancelled all his engagements and went down to New Orleans with his chainsaw and helped cut trees.
The one things Bush seems competent at is cutting brush!
But seriously… . He should have got his but in gear DAYS before the hurricane hit, not a week after. Even he knows that now.