Heck Of A Guy

The Canadian Connection

CBC Radio has been promoting the”Barack Obama Playlist,” 49 Canadian songs,¹ ostensibly selected by listeners,² that will somehow³ find its way to Obama in hopes of giving him an understanding of the complex and variegated nature of contemporary Canada or, as a CBC representative put it,

One of the best ways to know Canada is through the depth and breadth of our artistic expression. We’re excited about the new president and we want him to be excited about us, so we’re asking our audience to help compile the list of our most definitive Canadian songs!

The final selections will be broadcast on Inauguration Day (no sense wasting the music on somebody who isn’t the President yet).

Accessing The President’s Ear(phones)

The CBC press release also notes that Mr Obama’s playlist “could definitely benefit from some Canadian content.”

Now, on one hand, this is just asking for trouble. Mr. Obama’s playlist “could definitely benefit from some Canadian content?” First, if Canada gets 49 slots on Barack’s iPod, which 49 songs now on the playlist get eliminated? Then, if the benchmark is Canada is alloted 49 songs, how many does Mexico get? How many Russian symphonies and Italian operas will fit in 80 gigs of hard drive? Will Mr Obama be working out to Guatemalan and Aleutian  folk songs? And the politics, ….  What are the implications, say,  for foreign relations with Israel if  the presidential random play is blasting out Wagner or the Arabic hit parade?

On the other hand, perhaps this is a useful channel for communications when other connections are not successful.

Play That Funky Music, Blago Boy

Readers are no doubt aware that the next Illinois Ex-Governor Convicted Of Malfeasance, Rod Blagojevich, is in what folks back home call a peck o’ trouble, primarily for trying to sell the Senate seat being vacated by Obama.

Obama’s own crew investigated themselves to determine if they themselves could possibly have been guilty, for example, of discussing who should get the senatorial position, how the choice should be made, etc. in a way that could be considered illicit or in complementarity with Mr. Blagojevich’s schemes. Their findings can accurately be summarized as follows:

Rod who?

Given this specific information gap, it may be necessary to let Mr. Obama know what is going on in Illinois by infusing the Presidential iPod pathway with definitive Illinois songs.⁴ Recognizing that the nation’s chief executive has many obligations, local contributors have created the PPPAC⁵ fund  to compensate Mr. Obama for the time he devotes to listening to and sharing his home state’s music rather than, say, listening to songs from other countries that can’t even vote him in the next election.

Rising to the challenge, Heck Of A Guy offers an Illinois Playlist for Mr. Obama. While not exhaustive,⁶ this listing does offer a useful perspective on the current crisis facing the Great State Of Illinois, its Governor, and its ex-Senator/soon-to-be President.

“Kind of a Drag,” Buckinghams
“Down Low (Nobody Has to Know)” R. Kelly
“Illegal Smile” John Prine
“I Confess” New Colony Six
“Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” Buckinghams
“Surrender” Cheap Trick
“The Search Is Over” Survivor
“When I Think About Cheatin’” Gretchen Wilson
“Here for the Party” Gretchen Wilson
“The Lincoln Park Pirates” Steve Goodman
“So Long So Wrong” Allison Krauss
“Hard to Say I’m Sorry/Get Away” Chicago
“Hard Habit to Break” Chicago
“It’s On” Superchick
“The End is the Beginning is the End” Smashing Pumpkins
“Fuck and Run” Liz Phair
“Runnin’ Off Da Mouth” Twista
“How Many More Years” Howlin’ Woolf
“Christmas In Prison”  John Prine

1. It’s “49 songs” as in “Canada lies north of the 49th parallel.”  Get it?  Official criteria for “Canadian songs” can be found at Canadian Content.↩
2. Like most folks in charge, the bureaucrats running the Canadian playlist contest don’t quite trust the hoi polloi (think Electoral College) so the final list won’t be the result of a direct vote. Instead, CBC producers first chose 100 finalists from the songs listeners suggested.  Then, those nominated songs were gerrymandered  into four categories, rock, classical, French-language, and jazz, and listeners were given one vote in each category.↩
3. Giving President Obama the music could, one supposes, be legally tricky. It probably would not enhance the Canadian-USA relationship if, for example, the good will gesture precipitated something akin to those 25,000+ RIAA copyright infringement lawsuits.↩
4. The criteria for “Illinois songs” are similar to those for “Canadian Songs” – only from Illinois.↩
5. The Presidential Payola PAC↩
6. There are, for example, no entries from two Illinois-based genre-toppers, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (classical) and Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones (polka) ↩