The lead singer is Rich Smith, and before the night's over, he'll barrel into what will become the Starkweathers' signature song.
Burn the flag, he'll sing. Rip it up.
The tune is fast and catchy, the lyrics simple: Don't let 'em ram it down your throat if you don't want. Speak your mind. Stand right up. Yeah burn the flag. Burn it up.
The Starkweathers start the song with the chorus, and the verses that follow make it clear they're not mindless hooligans. Sure enough a lot of people died to keep this country free, Smith acknowledges, and he's proud of the "redneck blood" that runs through his own veins. But, he warns, he won't join no big parade when they wave that thing to cover up their shame.
Then it's back to the chorus. Burn the flag.
Smith takes his concerns global. Well, I ain't just a talkin' bout the ol' red, white and blue, he notes. It could be the Stars and Bars, Union Jack, Rising Sun — it's any flag they wave to keep you hypnotized.
By this time, the audience is singing along with Smith's infectiously subversive chorus. Burn the flag.
His final verse twists the Vietnam-era slur against anti-war protesters and challenges: If you don't love it, change it. It don't have to be this way. The actions any disgusted American could take? Well, there's a range of possibilities, and Smith's wink at the end softens his first, redneck reaction: Use guns or votes or maybe smile and sing ...
Burn the flag.
Like too many things of beauty, the Starkweathers didn't last long. The band split up for reasons that had nothing to do with music. The band's other singer and songwriter, Mike Ireland, went on to record a couple of critically lauded albums (1998's Learning How to Live was for Seattle's legendary Sub Pop label); this summer, he plays on second Saturdays down at Harry's Country Club. Smith dropped out of the music scene for a while. He works a day job in shipping and receiving at a music store in Lee's Summit, but he's been working on a new band called the Broadsides and says they're scheduled to play at Mike's Tavern in mid-July.
Smith probably won't sing "Burn the Flag" at gigs because it was such a Starkweathers song. But the track appears on a compilation CD put out last fall by Bloodshot Records, the alt-country label in Chicago. On For a Decade of Sin: 11 Years of Bloodshot Records, the Kansas City boys share disc space with the likes of Ralph Stanley, Hank III, the Old 97s and the Waco Brothers, along with local favorites Split Lip Rayfield and Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys. "Burn the Flag" is also for sale on iTunes.
I'm glad to discover all of this because I've been hearing the song in my head for more than a decade — every couple of years, when Congress saddles up its tired old flag-protecting horse. This year is supposedly a crucial one for passing a constitutional amendment because support for such a change might be waning — which makes the effort seem all the more pathetic, just like taking a few more whacks at gay marriage. The fact that some folks aren't falling for it anymore gives a person hope. But some of us are still gullible.
Comments (0)