BBC reports.
I tried unsuccessfully to find the lyrics to the song. (Does it profess some deep, quasi-religious love for Egypt?) But I found this video, which went up in 2007 and which has comments about "Sherine" — "Queen Sherine," "I love Sherine and Egypt"...
... so I'm assuming the singer is the same woman who's now being punished, apparently punished for making fun of the lyrics of her own song or perhaps expressing some genuine concern that the song's metaphor is taken literally by some people and causing a very serious disease.
ADDED: This story made me think about "The Velvet Underground — Live at Max's Kansas City," a record I've listened to enough to have engraved on my brain the reaction to the crowd's clamoring to hear a particular song that the singer rejected as encouraging a bad health problem. The concertgoers want to hear what was one of the Velvet Underground's greatest songs, and Lou Reed said: “We don’t play ‘Heroin’ anymore.” From a longer report of the incident:
Lou Reed is on the stage at Max's listening to the audience shout their requests. "Heroin . . . Heroin . . . Yeah, Heroin." Lou answers in a real flat, magnificent "fuck you" tone, "We don't play Heroin anymore." Big deal. So what if Lou Reed refuses a request? But listen to his voice on Live at Max's, his tone. He's not only saying that he doesn't want to play the tune. He's dissing the guy who requested the song. Why would Reed do this? Granted, the Underground stopped playing "Heroin" when people came up to them saying things like "My brother died because he took heroin when listening to your album."... It's almost as if Reed's answer shares the complex, obscure attitude of the "I-wear-black-and-thus-must-be-hipper-than-thou" syndrome. He's got his eyes shut and his mind made up: if the guy in the audience doesn't know about Heroin, then he's not up to my level. Reed has changed so much, while always maintaining his title as the infamous "engaging character."Don't do heroin and don't drink river water. Health alerts from pop stars. They are not perfectly well received. We look to the artists for metaphor and mystery.
I don't know just where I'm going/But I'm gonna try for the kingdom, if I can/Cause it makes me feel like I'm a man....
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I assume that it's a well know fact in Egypt that the Nile water ain't for drinking? Or are there a bunch of dumbasses that are actually drinking from the Nile these days?
Hopefully she got paid by Evian for the product plug.
I thought you were supposed to swim in da Nile.
Sulk like an Etyptian.
Imagine a show-biz figure being banned for having said the wrong thing, like Paula Deen.
Nonapod said...
I assume that it's a well know fact in Egypt that the Nile water ain't for drinking?
Sometimes people won't accept well known facts. I think there is a term for that...
A guy with only three good songs shouldn't be so picky.
He's in...(wait for it)... denial.
Two years ago, while shopping at Joe Patti's World Famous Seafood Market in Pensacola, they had Nile Crawfish for sale at a very good price. They were huge, and looked great. I asked the sales person where they were from, thinking Nile referred to some local variant.
"From Egypt", said the sales lady.
Realizing that mudbugs are bottom-feeders, and that dead people float down that river, I decided to pass.
More details on the Egyptian story in The Guardian:
"The lighthearted comment sparked a backlash after a video of the performance went viral, leading angry fans to create the hashtag #IWillDrinkFromtheNileandWon’tListentoSherine. Abdel Wahab, known as the “queen of emotions,” is facing two lawsuits over her comments. Lawyer Hani Gad accused Sherine of “insulting the Egyptian state” in a lawsuit filed to Cairo’s misdemeanours court, alleging that her comments mocked Egypt at a time when the government is working to attract tourists. On Wednesday, judicial officials announced she was due to stand trial on 23 December charged with breaching an article in Egypt’s penal code, which bans deliberately broadcasting information or “false or tenacious rumours” seen as liable to “disturb public security, spread horror among the people or cause harm and damage to the public interest”. Lawyer Samir Sabry also told nightly television host Ahmed Moussa on Tuesday that he had brought a separate case against the singer, accusing her of “hurting the national economy, terrorising tourists and harming tourism”. Sabry is known for his prosecutions of private citizens for breaching indecency laws. The lawsuits and public outcry led Egypt’s Radio and Television Union to place a blanket ban on playing any songs by the 37-year-old singer, considered one of the most popular in the Middle East. Abdel Wahab last year staged a feted comeback after a previous decision to retire, much to the delight of fans. She has also been a judge on the regional version of reality talent show The Voice."
I found this article from 2014 discussing the drinkability of water. It's a more complex issue than I imagined.
Shut up and sing.
i kind of don't buy reed's excuse, only because he ended up playing the song a number if times after that recording, including with a re-formed velvet underground in the 90's. i can only speculate (when i listen to 'loaded') that reed was shooting to make more commercial music that would play in the radio, so he wanted people to forget about things like 'heroin.' just my hunch.
She's okay, but she's no Oum Kalthoum.
I’ve seen the needle and the damage done
Sometimes, refusing a song request can also create a health problem--for the refuser.
"The director and frontman of a band was shot and killed early yesterday morning in Guanajuato apparently because the band refused to play a song requested during a performance."
http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/musician-killed-after-song-request-denied/
Wait till they hear about Steve Martin!
Lou Reed, Houston, 1974, mimes tying off and injecting during a performance of Heroin.
Vicari Valdez's comments about Lou avoiding the demimonde of Heroin for commercial reasons make good sense to me.
But then, the first cut on Maxwell's Kansas city is I'm Waiting for My Man.
White Light, White Heat
I've been in Egypt 5 times and I've always used bottled (not tap) water for everything. Nile river water is worse than tap water, but I can't say by how much.
All that said, the Pyramids are the most amazing human structures in the entire world. (I think Ann prefers the cheese found inside the Pyramids).
If the prosecution were really concerned about Egypt's reputation among foreign tourists they should study the Streisand effect.
I'm sorry I missed that early Velvet Underground live performance where they actually performed Lady Godiva's Operation.
Dirty Water One Hit Wonder
Meh. You don't have to worry much about schisto except in more stagnant water, usually around the millions of miles of canals. Besides, you can get schisto from just wading in the stuff.
Still, it would almost certainly get you a nasty case of the bilious rigors from something or other.
Lou Reed was always an asshole. The only album by him that I own is METAL MACHINE MUSIC, on which he sings not one note, (it's one hour of manipulated and overdubbed guitar feedback). I do like "Walk on the Wild Side," though, and he did write a few good songs early on.
'Perfect Day', a beautiful song, is also about heroin addiction. Listen to the BBC version.
Ann, are a secret fan of the intro patter to "Sweet Jane" on "Take No Prisoners"?
Classic Lou insult mode. Lou: "Man the guy who tightened this microphone is Godzilla..Look at that..I better either grow an inch man or meet a boyfriend"... whiny audience member: "Meet a what?" Lou: "Meet a boyfriend..can't you f---ing hear? What's wrong with you?... whiny audience member...." I heard that..." Lou: I am gonna quote a line from Yeats...
Great stuff with headphones from his binaural recording phase.
Many drunken / stoned nights listening to the Rock & Roll Animal album, which has a rather haunting / rocking version of this song...way back in the late 70's.
I can still do a mean air-guitar accompaniment to the Intro to Sweet Jane...
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