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National media continues fascination with the official Rock Song of the Commonwealth battle

Today's turn comes on Slate, which ultimately sides with Roadrunner, but in an essay that somehow finds "a hard-core New York envy" at the heart of the song. Oy.

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Comments

What about The Cars? They're pretty awesome, not obnoxious like Aerosmith and less pretentious than Jonathan Richman.

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He goes around the country playing acoustic club gigs and occasionally releases an album. He's not Bono.

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Shouldn't the song that represents MA be someone pretentious? We are pretty full of ourselves.

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Perhaps you and your smarmy little buddies are full of yourselves, but most of us go about our business with little fanfare.

Personally I think all of this effort of selecting a state song is a colossal waste of time. No one song defines MA.

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Perhaps you and your smarmy little buddies are full of yourselves, but most of us go about our business with little fanfare.

Wow--this guy has managed to be full of himself about not being full of himself. [Head explodes.]

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Seen him a number of times. I've also seen him walk of stage cause people were talking during his performance. Also I've seen him talk down to opening acts. That being said still very talented guy.

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I've seen him a number of times, too. He always seemed much more earnest than pretentious - he just wants to play some songs that people will then listen to. I can imagine him walking off stage, but more likely personally hurt than in anger at the crowd. One time there were sound problems for a good while and he just looked so forlorn, like a lost puppy.

I could see calling him self-absorbed, but not pretentious or showy - he's not trying to show off, he's just doing his thing, living inside his own head.

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Yeah, apparently New York media is completely unable to come to terms with the idea that Boston has a rich musical history.

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...or that any kind of sound from Boston may not in any way be influenced by NY. Another Harvard faculty member loaded with disdain for surrounding 'townies'. What a tool. William F. Buckley was right.

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Something by J. Geils? They're a lot more 'rock" than Richman, and arguably more 'rock' than the (on average) MOR band Aerosmith.

I can't think of anything they did with a Boston theme in the lyrics, but there's nothing about Boston in Dream On, so let's just go with Whammer Jammer.

Either that or Life Sucks, Then You Die by The Fools.

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If only for the immortal lines:

I want to be Jackie Onassis
I want to wear dark sunglasses

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Great song, but like all the other rock song contenders except Road Runner there's no lyrical content relating to Mass.

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No votes for Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?

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That song is a pretty solid choice, not much Boston in the lyrics though.

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