"Some days it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps ..."
-- EMO PHILLIPS
If the first couple of months of the 2016 presidential race are any indication, we could be in for the most ridiculous election season since 1988.
If you're old enough to remember -- or if you read Jack Germond's wonderful book "Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars?" -- you'll know that the 1988 campaign swung on three non-issue issues. George H.W. Bush attacked Democrat Michael Dukakis for being soft on the Pledge of Allegiance, for being a "card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union and for allowing Willie Horton out on a weekend furlough from prison.
Dukakis '88
Of course, Dukakis helped by being the worst possible Democratic candidate. If he hadn't already lost the election by then, the photo of him riding in a tank -- his "Rocky the Flying Squirrel" moment -- wrapped things up.
We have certainly had some silly elections since then, but the Republicans in particular have been getting goofier and goofier. Whether it was Sarah Palin and being able to see Russia or Mitt Romney saying corporations were people too, they became more and more difficult to take seriously.
If you came of age in the late '60s, the odds are you wouldn't have thought of the Association as a particularly hip band.
The first song you would remember them for is "Never My Love," a No. 2 hit in the fall of 1967 that at the end of the century was honored by Broadcast Music International as the second-most popular song ever in terms of radio play in all its various versions.
The only song played more in the 20th century was "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," and No. 3 was a pretty good one too -- Lennon and McCartney's "Yesterday."
The BMI survey was called the "Top 100 Songs of the Century," and two others by the Association made the last -- "Cherish" at No. 22 and "Windy" at No. 61. Only two groups had more songs on the list than the Association -- the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel.
But you could still look at those three songs and think "Windy" was pretty cool, but the other two were sort of what Paul McCartney was later to call "Silly Love Songs." "Cherish" in particular has some irritating little noises going on in the background.
But to listen to those three songs, you really wouldn't realize that the Association had gotten off to a really cool start. Their first hit, "Along Came Mary" in 1966, was anything but simplistic. A lot of people thought "Mary" stood for marijuana, especially with lyrics like this:
"And when the morning of the warning's passed, the gassed and flaccid kids are flung across the stars, The psychodramas and the traumas gone, The songs are left unsung and hung upon the scars. "And then along comes Mary and does she want to see the stains, the dead remains of all the pains she left the night before or will their waking eyes, reflect the lies, and make them realize their urgent cry for sight no more ..."
In fact, the legendary Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, which was three days of music with a more star-studded lineup than would be at Woodstock two summers later, included the Association doing "Along Comes Mary." It didn't make the original film, but when the Criterion Collection released its version of "Monterey Pop" a few years back, it's on a disc of outtakes.
They didn't have a long time in the spotlight, with five top 10 hits released in 20-month period in 1966-68. Less than three years later, the one time I saw them live in concert, it was in the basketball gymnasium at Fort Hunt High School in Virginia.
Then they were gone.
But how many bands that had such a short run can say they had three of the top 61 songs of the century, two of them songs that have been covered time and again and again?
And all five of the songs -- the four mentioned and "Everything That Touches You" -- still bring back memories.
Inderjit Singh Mukker is a 53-year-old American citizen who lives in the southwestern suburbs of Chicago.
He is not a Muslim.
I shouldn't have to say that, but if I don't, I'm sure there will be at least a few of you who will look a little bit askance.
Interjit Singh Mukker
He isn't Jewish or Christian either. Mukker is one of about a million Sikhs in the United States and Canada. Sikhs have been here for about a hundred years, and Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world. It was founded in the 15th century in the Punjab region of India. It is monotheistic and advocates equality for men and women of all races and religions.
Mukker was on his way to the grocery store when another driver began harassing him. Mukker pulled over to allow the other car to pass, but the other driver stopped his car right in front, got out and began assaulting him.
He was yelling, "Terrorist! Go back to your country, bin Laden!"
Mukker wound up in the hospital with cheek lacerations and a fractured cheekbone.
Sikhs have been taking it on the chin ever since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In fact, the first backlash victim was four days later when a "good American" killed Balbir Singh Sodhi in Mesa, Ariz. The killer said he was helping the government by getting rid of a terrorist.
