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Great song off the air

2K views 46 replies 20 participants last post by  Sonal 
#1 ·
#2 ·
It's censorship pure and simple. My father used the word *** all the time referring to cigarettes. First time I ever heard it used differently, I wondered why anyone would call some else a smoke. Times change, but history doesn't and we should live with it without censorship. People who lay these type of complaints are the bigger problem. They are not so much offended by the lyrics as they are salivating at the opportunity to wring their hands with glee when a ruling goes their way to force their views and yes, agenda on the majority of the world.
 
#4 ·
If you wish to see silly censorship go to the iTune music store and type in Honky Tonk Women, Honk Tonk Queen, Honky Tonk et al.

Such are the times that we live. :(
 
#8 ·
Half the time I hear the song on the radio around here (US and Can stations) it goes "that little (OBVIOUS VOLUME DROP ON WHOLE SONG) is a millionaire".

Reminds me of hearing a song like 3rd eye blind's semi charmed life and the back mask of "crystal meth", or Green Day's Jesus of Suburbia "doin' someone else's (drop all volume)", and then the next song or two is "Cocaine Cowgirl" by Matt Mayes or Cocaine by Eric Clapton.
 
#9 ·
Regarding this story, I haven't looked into too much yet, but this song has been censored on the radio for a long time already. I remember there being a story about it about 10 years ago or so. Anytime it plays on the radio around here, the offending words are blocked out.
 
#13 ·
I'm personally more offended by the evisceration of the artist's vision than I am of any kind of words. Let beiber or the jonas kids sing about whatever hanson sang about 10 years ago, but we must protect everyone from actual social commentary.

I hate youtube so much, what should have been a 2 sec operation to find a relevant George Carlin clip was rendered unsuccessful by people misrepresenting their content, and takedown notices.
 
#14 ·
The excuse that people used to call cigarettes **** is irrelevant. People today associate the word as a derogatory slur. Most gangster rap is either censored (bleeped) or not played at all—at least on Canadian airwaves.

I don't see the problem with airing the song. How is this any different than a movie or novel featuring a character who uses the word? Does it make it homophobic? Nope. No more than Huck Finn would be racist. You could argue the lyrics are a narrative of a working class person who cannot come to terms with their lot in life.

Dire Straights have used the word Queenie for live performances… it still gets the point across. Are people going to keep crusading from using colourful language to describe people?

But it doesn't matter. Despite that it's been 25 years, this likely is the workings of some pisspot stumbling across the lyrics and deciding to make it their personal crusade to fight a perceived injustice.

And so it goes…
 
#18 ·
Only a matter of time before someone picks up the torch and makes TVLand censor All in the Family, Golden Girls, 3s Company, etc.

Obviously when Sarah McLaughlin sings F'd up MAN, there's no question raised to his nationality or sexuality, and it is a woman saying it about something "beautiful" so that makes it a-ok to censorship boards ;) I've never noticed before because my brain tunes out her voice when I'm in a position of being unable to turn the station ;)
 
#21 ·
The "censorship boards" are the private enterprises and the only concern is anything for a buck!
 
#23 ·
There's a Tragically Hip song, I forget what its called, but on all the radio stations that play it, they NEVER censor it. "you said you didn't give a f**k about hockey"

I was surprised the first time I heard it, which was in a dentist waiting room at 2pm.
 
#24 ·
I think this is a little different than the Twain issue ... one is a classic work of art and the other a song about 20 years old. If it is played on the radio 130 years from now and people make movies, tv shows and such about it, then, yes, it maybe considered the same....but I doubt it. I don't think Dire Straits wrote the song as an anthem of liberation for a marginal or oppressed group of people.

That being said, are we too sensitive...maybe if I were a homosexual, or a person of colour it might object...I doubt if there would be a dialogical mentor on the radio discussing the contextual impact of the social mores of 80s England.

However, we can take this too the extreme.....should we force Proctor and Gamble [ or who ever makes the stuff ] to change the name of **** and Span, as **** is a derogatory term...I think we need to be sensitive to our sensitivities....going overboard will eventually dull our sense of fairness in much the same light as not caring about hurting people's feelings....
 
#29 ·
Mark Knopfler (MFN) and the scene from All in the Family (AITF) earlier in this thread and the Twain books all deal with the same issue imo.

That being the ignorance of people to make assumptions based on their own prejudice and emotions and to spew hatred at other persons and groups of people based on that hatred.

I think Twain, Norman Leer (AITF) and Knopfler are all attempting to show us through humour and ridicule the error of being hateful.
 
#26 ·
Interesting about the usage of words over time.

The Fbomb can be dropped and make it onto the public airwaves today.

<old codger alert> When I was a kid that was a word that not even adults used with impunity on the street, let alone the public airwaves but the N word was used regularly even child's play as in eany, meany, minny, moe, without so much as a bat of an eye.</old codger alert>

The more things change the more they stay the same. Perhaps what changes is word or deed that becomes the fashion of offensive.

Having said that, not being offensive to people is lightyears ahead of the mere mention of a sexual epithet.
 
#32 ·
My students, being teenagers, sometimes ask me if they can swear in their writing assignments. My first answer is that in most expository writing, there is no place for swearing, or other inappropriate language, as there is almost always a better word that could be used. My second answer is that in narrative writing, they need to accurately portray their characters. If they create a character who is ignorant and/or hateful, not only can that character swear and say other inappropriate things, but he or she should also swear and say other inappropriate things. Oddly enough, very few students ever take me up on the offer.

Mark Knopfler, having created an ignorant and hateful character for his song, needed the character to reveal his ignorance and hatred, which he does. In doing so, Knopfler was being true to his art, and is beyond censure. If someone wishes to take him to task, I see only two avenues: attack him for writing the song in the first place, or attack him for his stereotypical portrayal of blue-collar workers. (I would not do either.)
 
#33 ·
BigDL;1050904 I think Twain said:
BigDL, I can see Twain, and certainly Leer, not so sure about Knopfler....I remember when I was a child my dad had a movie projector. You could buy film cartoons much like we buy DVDs today. One such cartoon that was quite popular in his day was "Little Black *****"....I would wonder what you would think of that cartoon today and how it ridicules the error of hatefulness.....I think it was created because the culture of the day thought that it was funny....a predominately white culture.
 
#34 ·
The song Money for Nothing is based on a real incident and it is my understanding the hateful statements are based or are verbatim of the words expressed by the speaker in a store in New York.
 
#36 ·
are they really bureaucrats? The Broadcast Standards Council are a private sector industry council and don't their members have a voluntary compliance commitment?
 
#42 ·
Knopfler has taken note of events in Canada:

Even Dire Straits keyboardist Guy Fletcher weighed in on his personal website, responding to fans' questions by calling the decision “unbelievable” and relaying a message from the song's writer, Mark Knopfler.

“Mark tells me that due to the ban, he has now substituted the word ****** for ‘fudger'.... for Canada,” Fletcher wrote.
Edmonton station joins Halifax station's ‘Money for Nothing’ marathon - The Globe and Mail
 
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