If I were a spider, that would work really well as an opening line, wouldn't it?
The story you are about to read is true. No names will be changed, as there are no innocents involved.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, executives of Clear Channel Communications, the largest operator of radio stations in the USA, compiled a list of some 150 songs that had what they considered to be "questionable" lyrics or themes, as an advisory (stations were not forced to abandon playing them).
I read over this list, and could not help but laugh out loud! Keeping in mind that this was an advisory, and not a forced banning of these songs, I was very glad that the government did not follow this with an actual "forced" action. I am not anti-government, but I am definitely not pro-censorship. I believe that if an artist makes a song that can even remotely be considered "dangerous", they have a right to do so under the constitution. If you don't like it, turn it off!
I have added a link to the complete list at the end of this blog entry. But I will throw a few of these out here that made me wonder what the hell these corporate executives decided were in some way subversive. Get ready to laugh out loud. As usual, comments are welcome, so let me know what you think!
By the way, several of these songs are on my previous blog entries of the greatest of rock music.
Here we go:
AC/DC, who I consider to to be one of the greatest rock bands in history, had seven songs on this list, including Highway To Hell, Hell's Bells, TNT, (and get this!) Safe in New York City! Highly subversive, eh?
All Rage Against The Machine songs!
Godsmack's Bad Religion.
Megadeth's Sweating Bullets.
Metallica's Enter Sandman, Fade to Black, Seek and Destroy, and Harvester of Sorrow.
The Steve Miller Band's Jet Airliner.
Queen's Another One Bites the Dust and Killer Queen.
Van Halen's Jump.
Dust in the Wind by Kansas.
Now you can kind of tell I have a sense of humor that could be considered as slightly "dark", right? I mean, come on, unless you heard these songs at the time you heard the news or watched the World Trade Center buildings burning and collapsing, would they really be reminders of that fateful day? And there were other songs that brought guffaws from me. I couldn't believe it when I read that Frank Sinatra even made the list with New York, New York! WHAT!!!???!!!
And how about these classics:
Knockin' on Heaven's Door, On Broadway, even the emotionally charged What A Wonderful World! This has to be a joke, right?
Even The Beatles were represented, with A Day in the Life, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Ticket to Ride, and Obla Di, Obla Da. Huh? Questionable?
I was surprised at one of the omissions from the list. Judging by the theme of the songs that were there, it was a shock to discover that Elvis Presley's Burning Love (you know the lyric...a hunk, a hunk of burning love...) was omitted, though he was represented by (You're the) Devil in Disguise?
I have to stop now, as it's hard to reach the keyboard while I'm rolling on the floor!
The full article can be found at:
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