Kansas City Playlist: New Royals Stadium Doesn't Need Vote???

At the risk of seeming defeatist, cynical and hopeless we share a truism for our most loyal weekend readers. 

Reality check . . .

Demanding a vote for the new Royals stadium is a loser's game. 

Sadly, a few hundred million for the stadium sounds like a lot BUT a handful of voters gave away more than than this week without anybody noticing. 

Finally . . . As with all things related to pro-sports, there's no use getting worked up over a rigged game.  

None of these axioms are fun facts but we feel like so many local social media groups and activists are too quick to tug at heartstrings and leverage high emotions without providing context. 

Our post-primary conclusion regarding new stadium talks . . .  

With candidates Democratic Socialist like Hartzell Gray & Cori Bush suffering primary rebuke, there really isn't much local support for "power to the people" rhetoric outside of worthless Interents likes & shares. 

To be fair . . . Save The K advocates are touting the victory of Stacy Lake as a hope for change from politics as usual . . . But we'll have to wait to see if she's effective at all in preventing the inevitable without much leverage and everybody at the courthouse wearing a wire.

Meanwhile . . . Rezoning talks start again this week after a public meeting shutdown by socialists made for some great online video but didn't really produce anything tangible. 

And, again, we'll stipulate that all of these facts are a bummer . . . 

Helping the Gen-Z socialists chase the Royals out of town would be much more fun but just seems unlikely for anyone who understands how big money, developers and insider politics runs KC.

We wish everybody good luck with their protests but remain cautious about anybody recruiting more suckers to hop aboard yet another local bandwagon. 

And all this inspires tonight's www.TonysKansasCity.com playlist on the topic of power to the people and other lofty ideals that never really worked . . .

To start, we remind readers that shame is a great motivator for most social movements . . . John Lennon wrote "Power to the People" (1971) in part out of guilt. After being approached by radical activists like Tariq Ali for funding for their magazine, Lennon felt that as a wealthy former Beatle, he was expected to finance every political cause, prompting him to write a quick, singable protest anthem.

Posted if only because a TKC commenter always finds alternative punk rock song suggestions . . . The Adicts’ iconic 1981 punk anthem "Viva La Revolution" reached a massive new global audience after being featured on the soundtrack of the smash-hit 2003 video game Tony Hawk's Underground. It quickly became a definitive gateway track for a younger generation discovering 1980s UK punk rock.

We remember this song when it was first released and subsequently banned . . . What we didn't know is that the band now looks like other dudes who shop at discount box stores along side TKC and forgot to change their style after getting domesticated . . . “F*ck Authority” was officially banned from American radio airwaves following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Despite the censorship, Los Angeles rock station KROQ rebelled against the restriction and kept playing the song regularly as a victory for the band's message.

Tonight's nostalgia feels a bit more current but it's still more than two decades old . . . In the last gasp of alternative music before 9/11, this Rage Against the machine clip captures how activists commies sabotaged Inventor of the Internets Al Gore by way of Ralph Nader and crafty video editing. 

The video was directed by controversial filmmaker Michael Moore, the satirical montage depicts 2000 U.S. presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore as an alien "mutant" that "appears as two but speaks as one," highlighting the band's belief that both political parties served the same corporate interests.

A fun fact that actually sparks our interest far more . . . 

Tom Morello created the unique guitar solo on "Testify" without playing traditional notes; instead, he unplugged his guitar cable and tapped the live jack against the metal bridge. By combining this buzzing raw electronic connection with heavy manipulation of his Whammy and wah-wah pedals, he generated the track's signature alien, computerized solo. 

Finally . . . A call back for tonight . . .  Written by Curtis Mayfield in early 1965, the track became an unofficial anthem of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and was favored by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

As always, thanks for reading this week and have a safe & fun rest of the weekend.