10 Songs for Dubya

So I'm, like, totally behind on the talk on the internets, but I can't not comment on the PresiPod.

It isn't so much that his taste in music is so utterly predictable (though they are). No, it's that our boy has only 250 songs on his iPod. Dubya His aide needs to do some serious downloading. In the meantime, here are selections from my own iPod that I think will add some spice to his library.

My music recommendations for Dubya

1. Electric Six Gay Bar (iTunes)
   Perfect song to amp you up when you need a push getting up the hill, no? And if any US president is going to start a nuclear war at the gay bar, gay bar, gay bar, it's Bush.


2. The Jimmy Castor Bunch It's Just Began (iTunes)
   I know Bush missed out on a lot in the 70s and the 80s, and his playlist could use a little more funk, and well, more black people. My instinct is to include some Parliament/Funkadelic or Gil Scott-Heron, but he probably won't appreciate anything from a Clinton, and the idea that The Revolution Will Not Be Televised seems a bit silly these days (though Bush might be down with putting Whitey on the Moon).
   
   So we'll settle for the funk classic which will surely have Dubya popping and rocking on a cardboard mat.


3. Britney Spears My Prerogative (iTunes)
   Joe Levy of the Rolling Stone remarked that Bush seems to like artists who don't like him. True, most musicians tend to fall on the left side of the ol' political spectrum, but there are non-Nashville musicians who support the President, really. Mrs. Kevin Federline is one of them.
   
   The two have a lot in common. Maybe the two can get together - Bush can talk about his twins and Brit Brit can talk about her twins and oh, her now-public pregnancy. And since Britney's such a victim of the false tabloids, she could totally do a Presidential mix of the song, changing the words to "the liberal media's talking all this stuff about him/Why can't they just let me live?"


4. Geto Boys "Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta"
   George probably knows this song from the film Office Space, but he might not know that, like him, Geto Boys are from Texas. He may also not remember the video for this track, which had a news footage of his dad, the first President Bush over the 3rd verse.


5. The Firm Phone Tap (iTunes)
   Another 90s hip hop classic. W will try this track because of the title and its apparent endorsement of the PATRIOT Act, but he'll stay for the killer Dre-produced bassline. Plus, he can totally relate to Nas's rhymes about "the dynasty" and how "shit is not minor leagues no more/Cats bleed in this war". This track is almost 10 years old, but I'm sure Bush will agree that Queensbridge keeps on killing it, and the Bridge is anything but over.


6. Asobi Seksu I'm Happy But You Don't Like Me (mp3)
   You knew I had to get Asobi Seksu in there, right? The chorus of this song is a pretty good description of how he must feel sometimes: ureshii kedo kimi wa watashi ga kirai. I hear you, George.


7. Ben Folds Five "Champagne Supernova" (Countrified cover)
   As a fan of country music, the President will appreciate the Nashville-style take on the Oasis classic. Dubs could play this for Jeb, going "Where were you when I was getting high? Ha ha!"


8. Kelly Clarkson Since U Been Gone (iTunes)
   Did you really think I was going to do a mix that didn't include this track? Easily the second best single of the year after the incredible sonic chaos that is 1 Thing. Imagine Bush calling up John Ashcroft, putting the earbuds on the handset and playing the chorus:
   But since you been gone
   I can breathe for the first time
   I'm so moving on, yeah yeah
   Thanks to you now I get what I want
   Since you been gone


9. Europe The Final Countdown (iTunes)
   No real reason, other than that this is GOB's magic music on Arrested Development. If I were President for a day, I'd replace "Hail To The Chief" with "The Final Countdown".


10. Finally, for the ultimate patriot, this.