"We are alarmed by the use of social media to really over-proliferate this violence in our communities. This is contributing to the violence that we are seeing all over the country. It one of the rivers we have to dam."
Said NY Mayor Eric Adams, quoted in "Eric Adams urges social media to ban ‘drill’ rap videos for promoting violence" (NY Post).
There are so many songs about violence, often sung from the point of view of a murderer. Indeed, the second one that sprang to my mind was from the sanctimonious promoter of censorship, Neil Young:
I don't know rap. Never heard of "drill rap" before just now. So I have no rap-focused opinion. But I oppose censorship, and I understand art well enough to make the distinction between the writer and the story told.
Down by the river I shot my baby/Down by the river/Dead, ooh/Shot her dead, ooh....
And what was the first song Althouse thought of?
Actually, that's not from the point of view of the murderer. Lots of quotes from the murderer, but the singer takes the view of a distanced storyteller.
Google sent me to the Johnny Cash version of the oft-sung old song, so it seems required that I quote Johnny's famous point-of-view-of-the-murderer song: "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die."
It would be white privilege to leave that on Spotify while taking down the murder-focused tracks by black artists.
ADDED: The Johnny Cash version of "Frankie and Johnny" is a weirdly cleaned up story and not what came to my mind, though I love that clip (from some crazy movie). There are lots of versions of the song, which is based on a real murder, a woman shooting "her man." Search for it on Spotify right now and you'll get 82 different recordings — Elvis, Sam Cooke, Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Rodgers, Mae West, and on and on... even Lindsay Lohan:
And speaking of censorship, I will warn you to avert your eyes for the first 7 seconds of that video lest you see a Person Who Is Not to Be Seen.
He had no idea what happened
He was waving hello to God
He died from eating squirrel
And they laid him in the sun
He was her man, but he was doin' her wrong
AND: The "crazy movie" where Johnny Cash sings "Frankie and Johnny" is "Hootenanny Hoot" (1963, "A television director from New York travels to Missouri and learns about the hootenanny craze; he works to telecast a production of the event while his ex-wife works to win him back"). Watch the trailer here.
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123 comments:
Do a little dance
Make a little rap
Get drilled tonight
Get drilled tonight
We allow liars like The View hags to spew garbage on TV daily, I wouldn't worry too much about twitter.
I actually first thought of "I Hung My Head" by Johnny Cash:
My brother's rifle
Went off in my hand
A shot rang out
Across the land
The horse, he kept running
The rider was dead
I hung my head
The difference being, most country songs deal with consequences of murder, not glorifying it as a way to get rich.
Althouse
Surprised you are unfamiliar with the soothing lyrics of rap and drill. Impossible to understand the violence and ignorance of the black underclass without tuning in. You will hear the N word within ten minutes on any rap or hip hop station and repeatedly on many “songs.” Listen. Learn.
Beavis and Butt-Head made the same observation (Mike Judge has been our most trenchant social critic for a long time). Watching "Delia Gone" by Johnny Cash (there he is again):
Beavis: What kinda music is this?
Butt-Head: I think this is, uh, some kinda gangsta rap
"You will hear the N word within ten minutes on any rap or hip hop station..."
My personal policy is to skip every song as soon as the "n-word" comes up. So of course, I censor what gets into my ears. If all songs with the "n-word" were removed from Spotify, however, that would be a massacre with a crushing racial disparity. It cannot be done retrospectively. I don't think! We're not there, and I doubt if we are going there.
That Trump is not allowed to speak in subjective terms isn’t exactly clear…
There’s a man with a gun on Fifth Ave. 😉
"Life to Go" by Stonewall Jackson. Written by George Jones.
I prefer the Jimmie Rodgers version of "Frankie and Johnny". Or of just about any song.
Trump has been banned from YouTube for "misinformation".
But YouTube hosts THOUSANDS of videos explaining why the earth is flat.
Now here is on old 'pre rappa' song of violence.. But back then you got HUNG for that kind of shit. Nowdays you are released on no-bail!
Tom Dooley!
Hang down your head Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head Tom Dooley
Poor boy you're bound to die
I meet her on the mountain
There I took her life
Met her on the mountain
Stabbed her with my knife
refrain
This time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
Hadn't-a been for Grayson
I'd-a been in Tennessee (well now, boy)
refrain
This time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
Down in some lonesome valley
Hangin' from a white oak tree
refrain
Hang down your head Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head Tom Dooley
Poor boy you're bound to die
Poor boy you're bound to die
Poor boy you're bound to die
(Poor boy you're bound to die)
Censorship is like potato chips: Can't eat just one...
I shot a man in Reno
Just to watch him die
I thought of "Delilah" sung by Tom Jones.
My first thought was Psycho Killer by Talking Heads.
Didn't you used to be a Blogging Head?
Hope Meade is ok.
From Wiki
“ A narcocorrido (Spanish pronunciation: [naɾkokoˈriðo], "narco-corrido" or drug ballad) is a subgenre of the Regional Mexican corrido (narrative ballad) genre, from which several other genres have evolved. This type of music is heard and produced on both sides of the Mexico–US border. It uses a danceable, polka, waltz or mazurka rhythmic base.
The first corridos that focus on drug smugglers—the narco comes from "narcotics"—have been dated by Juan RamÃrez-Pimienta to the 1930s. Early corridos (non-narco) go back as far as the Mexican Revolution of 1910, telling the stories of revolutionary fighters. Music critics have also compared narcocorrido lyrics and style to gangster rap and mafioso rap.[1][2]
Narcocorrido lyrics refer to particular events and include real dates and places.[3] The lyrics tend to speak approvingly of illegal activities, mainly drug trafficking.“
maybe adams can get back to his perfect vegan life, and shut the hell up, the gangs rule the city, as in Gotham,
That’s a lovely rendition of that song. Best one I’ve heard.
The San Quintin crowd of felons response to Johnny's verse was wild applause. You have to know your audience...
Though I used to listen to Neil Young, I found him to be an asshole early on (at a concert). I used to wonder about that song, "Down by the River" which I used to play back in the 70s along with so many other people. First of all, it highlights his hideous guitar ramblings, but most of all I always wondered who would think of writing a song like that? How damaged by a relationship- or something else- was this guy?
Anyway, I quit listening to him for years, until I heard the album and song, "Harvest Moon", which is a classic, beautiful song. A kind of timeless song that still sounds wonderful 30 years later, and will still sound good in another 30 years. How does the guy who whined about killing his baby down by the river, also write "Harvest Moon"?
"If you see me comin' better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't getcha then the left one will"
-"Sixteen Tons", Tennessee Ernie Ford, 1955, Pop Chart Number 1 for 7 weeks
I wonder about the we in the statement "we pulled Trump off Twitter..." I thought that was a decision of corporate execs at Twitter, of which I don't think Eric Adams was ever one of that number.
Of course he may be thinking about the Democrats, of which he is one, that they were the ones who cut off Trump's Twitter access, the Twitter execs simply the useful tool to accomplish it.
I am somewhat fascinated by the notion that what people may see or hear via popular culture is what makes them do or believe certain things. It fits with the NY Times deciding that a mass murderer in Arizona was driven to kill because of Sarah Palin's political imagery, I mean it's not hard to see how the newspaper was so willing to believe that and assume that the rest of would accept that connection as well.
It's Charles Manson and Helter Skelter, maybe that's what makes it easy to believe. But would that have worked without the rampant drug use?
I googled rap/guns &got a video compilation of w/ vs w/out the guns.
Where there’s guns… drugs-n-hoez ain’t far behind. Just sayin’, as my youngest would quip.
"We pulled Trump off Twitter"
"we are allowing music"
Who is "we", motherfucker?
Puritan's Progress.
The Neil Young song I thought of was "Revolution Blues" (from the point of view, probably, of well, take a guess):
I got the revolution blues, I see bloody fountains
And ten million dune buggies coming down the mountains
Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon is full of famous stars
But I hate them worse than lepers and I'll kill them in their cars
Maybe the point of the forbidden fruit was to ensure that the fruit would get picked and consumed.
If it hadn’t been forbidden, banned, censored, cancelled we might still be as chimpanzees.
We ban what we _______ blank
Another great song concerning violent murder is The Cold, Hard Facts of Life by Porter Wagoner. Written by Bill Anderson.
I thought of this song, a favourite in new left circles back in the day:
https://youtu.be/N9jH4F4N2OA
"This is contributing to the violence that we are seeing all over the country. It one of the rivers we have to dam."
But violent music proliferated over the previous decades while actual violence went down, so the extent of the "contribution" is unclear. It also just happens to stir violence "all over the country" among particular people in particular communities; it's almost as if there's something about those people, in those communities--what might it be?
As long as society tolerates back men killing black men, and destroying their "communities" along with it, the violence will continue. Good on Adams to launch a counteroffensive, but he'll need more serious ammo.
What about This song?
Shouldn't it be banned?
A great song, IMO, but practically an anthem of anti-government feeling. Way too violent and dangerous for people to hear these days.
How about Mack the Knife. I've heard this characterized as the first rap song. Mack is a serial killer and he murders for pay. There's none of this mushy crime of passion stuff about his killings and the song celebrates his professionalism. I'm sure the Bobby Darin version was what tipped many young men over the edge and into a life of crime.
My wife and I are rewatching "The Wire" in it's entirety. Still one of the greatest, if not THE greatest of all of the TV series. The 'n-word' is featured throughout, heavily. It is the language of the street. And the funny thing is, Black America is so intertwined into our culture in almost every way. And Black America wants to continue to be an influence. But it's amazing that Black America keeps on using that word that they profess to hate so much, knowing how much influence they have on our culture. But when others, not of the Black community, use the language the Black community uses, to be like them as much as they can, or (incorrectly) to try to relate to them as much as they can, those people are destroyed.
It doesn't take a genius to know that if the word so offends when hearing it from others, don't use it yourself. In other words, I'll believe the Black community is offended by the n-word when I quit hearing the Black community use it and use it so frequently and so callously.
I don't hear any other ethnic group calling their own by slang names known for that group. It's called respect- for your own self and for your own people.
I'd like to take a moment and introduce everyone to GOTHIX
There's violence because blacks are told whites are holding them back and they're not getting ahead. Confirmation! Instead of developing a talent somebody wants to pay for.
A Bob Marley/Eric Clapton double play:
I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy.
They pulled Trump off of Twitter because they were fascists.
Adams forces kids to eat vegan slop at school.
He is a scummy fascist pig.
Now he complains about music while his state supported thugs are murdering people. The Democrats empowered and supported criminals during the BLM riots. They are letting murderers and criminals out of jail in masse. They are blocking police from keeping people safe.
The reason for the crime is democrats want the crime. Their policies are clearly making this happen.
And he wants to use the crime his policies create to crack down on artists.
This is what fascists do.
RNB said...
Censorship is like potato chips: Can't eat just one...
That is a good one.
Reminded Tank of when back in about 1998 Eric Clapton released a song, Sick and Tired, on his Pilgrim album. A classic Claptonized blues about being tortured by your woman and singing about blowing her brains out with a shotgun.
There were feminist protests, and Clapton pulled the song from his concert set list. Disappointing.
It's still on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0D-eMUOv4g
"Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix. "I shot her!"
My personal policy is to skip every song as soon as the "n-word" comes up. So of course, I censor what gets into my ears. If all songs with the "n-word" were removed from Spotify, however, that would be a massacre with a crushing racial disparity. It cannot be done retrospectively. I don't think! We're not there, and I doubt if we are going there.
I, too, don't like that language and don't want to ban it. But if some rationale were proposed to ban all Spotify music with the n-word, racial disparity wouldn't be a ripple in my pond.
Warping policy because some groups do something distasteful more than other groups is one reason for our current social decay. One example would be high rates of violence and classroom disruption among African-American kids at this time in our history. One policy is to suspend or otherwise discipline all violent kids. This results in more black kids being disciplined. Progressive anti-disparity policy is to endlessly "counsel" violent kids instead of disciplining them, and discipline white kids at the same rate but at lesser infractions.
The result, of course, is more violence.
In addition to some Doc Watson songs (Little Sadie), these occurred to me...
"If you can't treat me no better, it gotta be your funeral and my trial"
++
"They take me to the doctor, shot full of holes
Nurse cried, please save the soul
Killed him for murder, first degree
Judge's wife cried, let the man go free" -- Backdoor Man / Willie Dixon
++
"So Matty struck the very first blow and he hurt Lord Donald sore
Lord Donald struck the very next blow and Matty struck no more
And then Lord Donald took his wife and he sat her on his knee
Saying "Who do you like the best of us, Matty Groves or me?"
And then up spoke his own dear wife, never heard to speak so free
"I'd rather a kiss from dead Matty's lips than you or your finery"
Lord Donald he jumped up and loudly he did bawl
He struck his wife right through the heart and pinned her against the wall
"A grave, a grave, " Lord Donald cried, "to put these lovers in
But bury my lady at the top for she was of noble kin" -- Matty Groves /Trad / Fairport Convention
++
"Hangman, hangman, upon your face a smile
Pray tell me that I'm free to ride
Ride for many mile, mile, mile
Oh, yes, you got a fine sister
She warmed my blood from cold
She brought my blood to boiling hot
To keep you from the gallows pole, pole, pole, pole, yeah
Your brother brought me silver
Your sister warmed my soul
But now I laugh and pull so hard
And see you swinging on the gallows pole, yeah
But now I laugh and pull so hard
And see you swinging on the gallows pole, pole, pole" -- Hangman / Trad / Led Zep
The difference between violent rap music and other "violent" music in the past, is that in the past the audience for the music wasn't engaged in record breaking amounts of violence against each other.
But when others, not of the Black community, use the language the Black community uses, to be like them as much as they can, or (incorrectly) to try to relate to them as much as they can, those people are destroyed.
I teach in an 85% Hispanic high school. Literally dozens of times a day I hear Hispanic kids casually calling other Hispanic kids the "N word" with absolutely no push back from the Black kids. (I never hear the White kids do so)
When I call them on it, all of the kids (Hispanic, Black and White) tell me I don't understand.
Back when it was Janet Reno pushing this sort of crap, I read an interview with Penn Jillette in which he pointed out that Reno's position was "literally voodoo: the belief that by controlling the representation of a thing you control its territory in the real world."
"If all songs with the "n-word" were removed from Spotify, however, that would be a massacre with a crushing racial disparity. It cannot be done retrospectively. I don't think! We're not there, and I doubt if we are going there."
And a racial disparity special for Super Bowl Sunday:
The "Rooney Rule" requires that a black candidate be interviewed for every NFL head coach vacancy. But why stop there? The last white guy to start at cornerback in the NFL was Jason Sehorn in 2002. Why doesn't the NFL require every team to invite at least one white cornerback to camp every year?
We are not there, and and I doubt if we are going there.
If all inner-city murderers who were guilty were thrown in prison, however, that would be a massacre with a crushing racial disparity. It cannot be done retrospectively. I don't think! We're not there, and I doubt if we are going there.
If all the fathers who abandoned their children were punished, however, that would be a massacre with a crushing racial disparity. It cannot be done retrospectively. I don't think! We're not there, and I doubt if we are going there.
If all the violent children were expelled from school, however, that would be a massacre with a crushing racial disparity. It cannot be done retrospectively. I don't think! We're not there, and I doubt if we are going there.
"If I'd shot you when I wanted to I'd be out by now." Country song
Wikipedia says that "drill rap" is a style of "trap" music. Ok then, that clears it right up...
Sad that APHC, Robert Altman's last film, first released 16 years ago this weekend, was pretty much the last very good thing Lindsey Lohan ever did.
this is just Racist talk! (which does Not surprise me)
white people; using words, or making references.. Are Racist Racists committing RACISM!
Black folk; singing from the heart, using words or making references.. Are just stickin it to the man
Anything (ANYTHING!) that Any (ANY!) white does; is, by definition: RACIST!!!
Black folk; can Do what They want, Say what they want, TAKE what they want.. And it is RACIST! to say they can't
Interesting use of the word "we". "We" collectively pulled Trump off Twitter...
My hope that Eric Adams would initiate a nyc revival or at least represent a clear break with the worst of deblasio regime idiocy lasted about a month past the election. He is by accounts of those who’ve known him a nice guy, but he’s weak, not terribly bright and seems inspired by the inflated unitary executive model our decreasingly competent leaders have showcased of late. Out of touch, out of ideas but desperate to be in the center of our lives. His mayoralty is already a disappointment and will be quickly disastrous if Ottawa style protest or other populist activity comes to town.
Your lyric transcription is off. The line is "And they laid him in the sod," not "in the sun."
Not enough he should demonstrate his lack of concern for black voters who got him the nomination by continuing the most racially disparate of deblasio’s covid policies (black NYers are the least vaxxed subpopulation, and something like 40% of them are forbidden from restaurants, movie theaters and other entertainment), now he goes after black music. He’s not gonna make it.
"Pretty Polly" by Ralph Stanley and Patty Loveless.
Bluegrass Domestic Disturbance.
https://youtu.be/3XV7mxfIIr0
I’m too old and out of touch to be a part of it, but one upshot of these idiotic mandates and other insipid burdensome rules is that there is a revival of the underground nightlife in the city. So there is that.
Hey Joe was the first song to come to mind.
Bohemian Rhapsody is another classic.
Censorship only works when we’re allowed to do the censoring for ourselves. Like Althouse does with rap music. Top down censorship, with very limited exemptions, only does harm.
I tell you though, there is some very good rap music that is not popular. You won’t hear it on the radio.
Althouse said:
If all songs with the "n-word" were removed from Spotify, however, that would be a massacre with a crushing racial disparity.
A race-neutral person might reasonably reply, So what? Is that word so enormously powerful that its utterance causes real harm, why would a ban on it be comparable to a massacre?
I'd understand why racial disparity would be a concern if you thought that the intent of such a policy were to silence Black voices, but your intense aversion to hearing that word indicates that you'd be ok with the policy if it were race-neutral. Maybe you'd oppose it as a staunch defender of free expression, but then you wouldn't need to appeal to Disparate Impact to make that argument.
If you thought that enforcing the laws against shoplifting would have a similarly disparate impact, would you recoil from that? Obviously there's a clear distinction based on speech vs. action, but I'm solely addressing the reasoning based on DI.
Althouse is entirely correct... trying to get rid of the word N-Word is cultural genocide.
Adams is going to be an absolute disaster for NYC. Holy Jesus he is idiot.
Maxwell's Silver Hammer, The Beatles
Murder music for grandma
The first song that came to my mind has already been named: I Shot the Sherriff.
The second song, much more subtle, is Moon Over Bourbon Street, by Sting.
Two songs that fit the category, except they are not told from the first person, are: Psycho Killer, by Talking Heads, and Maxwell Silver Hammer, by the Beatles.
Burl Ives also does a great version of "Pretty Polly". And yes, it's quite dark. Burl Ives sings a lot of death and murder songs. He ain't just Frosty The Snowman you know.
>Two-eyed Jack said...
Your lyric transcription is off. The line is "And they laid him in the sod," not "in the sun."<
Hmm, almost the archetype mondegreen ('Lady Mondegreen').
We need people in politics who can get beyond the idea that the right set of laws will bring about the preferred set of behaviors.
Vaxfinger
Look out, Mama,
there's a white coat
comin' up the driveway
With a big black satchel,
and a mask,
and two cops on his tail
I think you'd better make a video,
'Cause it don't
look like they're here
to deliver the mail
And they ain't gonna go away
They don't care what Robert Kennedy say
They got the numbers on their side
and the guns
And it's makin' me wail.
Daddy's gone,
my brother's up honking
at the border
Big John's been drinking
since myocarditis took Emmy-Lou
So the powers that be
left me here
to do the thinkin'
And I just had Covid too
I was wonderin' what to do
And the sicker I got,
The more my natural immunity grew.
Rogan's show on my airpods
felt reassurin'
He told me,
Pfizer means run, son,
Statistics add up to nothin'
But when the first shot
hit my arm I saw it comin'
Raised my objections with the guy
Who'd never stopped to wonder why.
Then I saw black,
And my face flashed in the sky.
Shelter me from the vaccine
and the mandate
We can't do this every time
The damn things mutate
Think of me
as one you'd never figured
Would fade away so young
The needle and the damage done
Remember me to my love,
I know I'll miss her.
When good Mayor Adams isn’t promoting censorship or policies banning black people from restaurants and other entertainments, he’s imposing vegan Fridays on our school kids. This town needs an enema.
Murder mixed with existential dread and eyeliner: Killing an Arab, the Cure
Oh well, when comments are on hold, you don't realize how unoriginal you are.
Mack the Knife, a song written shortly before the Hitler takeover of Germany. A celebration of a cold killer, who kills with no real justification. Nihilism? Sophisticated people knowing better than to believe in moral causes, but some of them are thirsty for something as crazy as Hitler?
Came from the Threepenny Opera by Brecht and Weill. They were more or less forced to leave Germany early in the Nazi years. Inspired by John Gay's Threepenny Opera, which has a connection to Jonathan Swift. Walpole and others in political life were sure that the murderers and other criminals referred to them. There is a difference between good politicians and bad ones.
I Shot the Sheriff
(But I didn't shoot the deputy)
Out of curiosity, I did a Google search for similar songs. But I don't know rap or metal enough to have heard of most of them.
But one song came up on a list that was obvious in retrospect: The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, by Vicki Lawrence. Spoiler alert: the singer is the murderer, who also watched an innocent man hang for it.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
"My wife and I are rewatching "The Wire" in it's entirety. Still one of the greatest, if not THE greatest of all of the TV series. The 'n-word' is featured throughout, heavily...."
Don't watch with the sound on, at least with the windows open. Use headphones or just put on the closed captioning.
I recently tried to watch an old Richard Pryor concert movie — supposedly one of the all-time best comedy concert films — but I just couldn't watch. The convention of avoiding even saying the word makes it impossible for me to listen. I don't want to cancel Richard Pryor! Back in the 70s, he had the idea of saying the word so much it would lose its strength. That didn't work, and now his old shows are unwatchable (as far as I am concerned).
"Oh well, when comments are on hold, you don't realize how unoriginal you are."
It's okay. Seeing that other people think the same as you can be encouraging and reinforcing.
Don't watch with the sound on, at least with the windows open. Use headphones or just put on the closed captioning.
Siri thinks you're in the Klan.
And she told Alexa, who's telling everyone.
Having worked "in culture" most of my life, I recognize that word as a salutation/reference, just as Richard used it.
There are so many songs about violence, often sung from the point of view of a murderer.
The first song I thought of was "Pumped Up Kicks". I like the song, I'd hate to see it banned, but if I thought that music influenced behavior like that, I'd be more worried about one like this that sounds sweet and bouncy than I would one that is obviously trying to sound/look menacing.
Fifty years of hearing Tom Jones sing "Delilah," and I didn't realize that he had killed her. It's the chorus that one remembers so well, not the rest. Is it strange that so many women were passionate fans of a guy whose signature song was about killing a woman? Maybe they only remembered the "My, my, my, why, why, why" part too.
Murder songs: I was going to say "Hey Joe" with Jimi Hendrix, but since that's taken, I'll go with "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia." Murder ballads were an English/Scottish tradition with a long history. Nick Cave did an album Murder Ballads that featured a lot of them.
"Murder ballads" are part of one of the oldest subgenres of Anglo-American folk music. Johnny Cash also did "Delia's Gone" (Dylan recorded a somewhat different version in the 1990s) which included these lyrics:
I went up to Memphis
And I met Delia there
Found her in her parlor
And I tied her to her chair
Delia's gone, one more round
Delia's gone
She was low down and trifling
And she was cold and mean
Kind of evil make me want to
Grab my sub machine
Delia's gone, one more round
Delia's gone
First time I shot her
I shot her in the side
Hard to watch her suffer
But with the second shot she died
Delia's gone, one more round
Delia's gone
Incidentally, "Hootenanny Hoot," which featured Cash doing "Frankie and Johnny" also included folksinger Judy Henske's version of another murder ballad--"Omie Wise." Sung in a bikini, no less!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC5FCKErkMo
"It's okay. Seeing that other people think the same as you can be encouraging and reinforcing."
Thank you. I am affirmed.
Brahms's Opus 105, "Verrat."
> Ann Althouse said...
Temujin: "My wife and I are rewatching "The Wire" in it's entirety. Still one of the greatest, if not THE greatest of all of the TV series. The 'n-word' is featured throughout, heavily...."
Don't watch with the sound on, at least with the windows open. Use headphones or just put on the closed captioning.<
This is a joke, right? (Your psychologist wants to know...)
"Back in the 70s, he had the idea of saying the word so much it would lose its strength. That didn't work, and now his old shows are unwatchable (as far as I am concerned)."
Well, the word didn't lose its strength with you. But what we have here is something that might be considered a question of manners turned into a taboo that can have life-altering consequences. Has the word changed? We have the questionable -gga vs. -gger distinction, but the word is the same. One way or another, a word that was considered vulgar has become unspeakable. You have to live with yourself, Althouse, but Huckleberry Finn is still part of the canon, and while you might not want to read it again, it is an essential part of American literature.
Personally, I have drawn the -gger/-gga taboo line at personal use. But when I am reading literature, it is there. (See, for example, the opening sentence of "Our Man in Havana".)
I did find a nice repository for Trump stuff. We are staying at Trump International in Las Vegas right now. Vegas always has good prices this year, but the price here was unbelievable, for what we got. Going to buy a couple of their robes for our guest room in PHX, esp for our progressive family members. But mixed in with all the Trump Hotels stuff in the hotel store is a bunch of MAGA gear. Sweet.
"But I oppose censorship, and I understand art well enough to make the distinction between the writer and the story told."
That distinction is not so clear amongst the rappers.
You're turning your eyes and ears away from reality. There is little if any comparison between drill rap and "I shot my baby."
Google drill rapper Chief Keef and look and listen to the video and the lyrics. It might wake you up a bit. Check his "rap sheet" while you're looking.
This is hate music. It celebrates extreme violence and gunplay by young black men.
Or just don't look and pretend that this is merely "art" in a different form.
You'll be safe in Madison. Those of us who live in a mixed race community will continue to keep our heads down and our weapons close by.
Bob Boyd @10:10am…
Outstanding!
I like the Guy Lomardo version of "Frankie and Johnny" although even that cleans up the song a bit. The bar and beer is changed to drugstore and a ice cream. The singer is good, even thought its a tad too slow.
Here's the 1929 which is more authentic:
https://youtu.be/kNq532Cyhu0
Ignorance is Bliss: Bohemian Rhapsody is metaphorical.
Can of Cheese for Hunter: I'd like to take a moment and introduce everyone to GOTHIX
For good reason, as it turns out. Thanks.
Paul Zrimsek said...Back when it was Janet Reno pushing this sort of crap
--
Her rap career was underrated. But oh my..the potty mouth.
Listening to Neil young and that song makes me want to punch that twerp in the face. No wonder he acted like an scared old woman over CV-19.
The WIre has to be the most overrated TV show, ever, ever.
If the N word makes SJW's stop swooning over it, and virtue signaling that's all to the Good.
Shouldn’t the First Amendment rule be used with songs? Anything that incites violence should not be broadly available in public. Some, not many, rap songs appear to cross the line. Songs like Frankie and Johnie don’t incite violence.
Richard Pryor’s Live at the Sunset Strip (1982) addresses his use of the word. He decided not to perpetuate its use after a trip to Africa.
"Run For Your Life" by (ta-da!) The Beatles (1965):
Well, I'd rather see you dead, little girl
Than to be with another man
You better keep your head, little girl
Or I won't know where I am
You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man
That's the end, ah, little girl
Well, you know that I'm a wicked guy
And I was born with a jealous mind
And I can't spend my whole life trying
Just to make you toe the line
You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man
That's the end, ah, little girl
Let this be a sermon
I mean everything I've said
Baby, I'm determined
And I'd rather see you dead
You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man
That's the end, ah, little girl
I'd rather see you dead, little girl
Than to be with another man
You better keep your head, little girl
Or you won't know where I am
You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man
That's the end, ah, little girl
Can't forget the suicidal Joan Jett:
Hit me with your best shot
Why don't you hit me with your best shot
Hit me with your best shot
Fire away
"We pulled Trump off Twitter because of what he was spewing."
"We"? you mean the government was involved?
Which makes that action government censorship.
Which means anyone suing about getting kicked of Twitter apparently has a valid civil rights complaint
Joan Jett might cut herself after being ascribed a Pat Benatar song.
rcocean said...
The WIre has to be the most overrated TV show, ever, ever.
***************
And that has to be the most unsupported and gratuitous opinion about a TV series, ever, ever.
Ever.
If all songs with the "n-word" were removed from Spotify, however, that would be a massacre with a crushing racial disparity.
Is that like BLM marches are Covid free, but ball games were super spreaders?
Or shop lifting is OK if it is labeled as reparations?
Nothing divisive there.
If all the stories and songs about murder were taken out of our culture, we'd have much less to entertain us. I just watched the Apple TV MacBeth and the first few episodes of Reacher on Amazon Prime in the last week. And I've got at least a dozen murder songs on my Iphone including the recordings of Three Penny Opera and Lulu and Joan Baez singing old ballads.
I wish the mayor of NY would focus on arresting and incarcerating murderers instead of school lunches and rap songs.
How could we have forgotten "Another One Bites the Dust"?
Supposedly based on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
"The convention of avoiding even saying the word makes it impossible for me to listen."
I had the same experience with "Blazing Saddles". I remember being amused by it in an integrated audience at the Esquire Theater on Oak Street in Chicago in 1974. A couple of years ago, we streamed it on Amazon Prime--or we tried to, anyway. Ten minutes in, we turned it off. There was too much dissonance with today's standards, and this occurred before BLM.
I hope Slim Pickens doesn't get canceled.
Papa Loved Mama
Garth Brooks…
Thank you for Gothix, COC4Hunter.
I guess no more Marty Robbins and the Gunfighter Ballads?
"We pulled Trump of Twitter because of what he was spewing"
He didn't say "Twitter banned", he said "We". Sounds like a conspiracy to deny first amendment rights to an individual.
And yet major terrorist countries and organizations have Twitter accounts.
Go figure.
It's a good thing I hate New York City. Otherwise I would pity them for what they elected
walter said...
Joan Jett might cut herself after being ascribed a Pat Benatar song.
************
Doh!
"We pulled Trump off Twitter because of what he was spewing. Yet we are allowing music [with] displaying of guns, violence. We allow this to stay on the sites."
Blacks get all mouthy and emotional about slavery. But has a man who could say the above, ever understood what it means to be free?
I had looked up rap songs w/guns vs w/out guns comparisons. Lots of it on YouTube. Not my gig.
“ This is a joke, right?”
No. We live where if the windows are open, neighbors overhear what we’re playing. A Richard Pryor routine can’t just drift out of the house to be heard out of context.
>>It's okay. Seeing that other people think the same as you can be encouraging and reinforcing.
By now (circa 6 pm EST), just about everything that came to my mind has already been said here, including references to Lady Mondegreen, I Shot the Sheriff, and Maxwell's Silver Hammer.
I will add that I'm not familiar with the Lohan oeuvre but, man, that clip is bad. Both the singing and the alterations to the lyrics.
Speaking of the latter, I'm most familiar with the Elvis and Mae West versions of F&J. In both, the lyric is "Frankie and Johnny were lovers." Was surprised to find that the original term was apparently the watered-down "sweethearts."
I part ways with Althouse and Amadeus in finding that Richard Pryor and Blazing Saddles are still watchable and funny. Maybe I'm just a bad person. Or maybe I have a somewhat different cultural background after growing up in a working class/lower middle class neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Though not from my mother, (most?) of my six sisters, at least one brother (the one who became a priest) , the nuns, etc., I heard the n-word all the time, usually without any derogatory connotation unless it included a modifier.
I would be hesitant these days, but I also appreciate the use/mention distinction. How else to convey what George Wallace actually said than the altered, mealy-mouthed presentation by JFK, Jr. that he said he would never be "out-segged" again. Which doesn't even make any sense.
Or maybe I am a bad person, because I'm a Beatle freak and "Run for Your Life" is one of my favorite Beatle songs, along with its milder precursor, "You Can't Do That!"
--gpm
>Ann Althouse said...
“ This is a joke, right?”
-No. We live where if the windows are open, neighbors overhear what we’re playing. A Richard Pryor routine can’t just drift out of the house to be heard out of context.-<
Your bizarre advice was directed to Temujin, on how he should watch a TV show with a lot of "n-word" in it. His comment didn't mention windows or neighbors and it had nothing to do with your windows or neighbors. So, move those goalposts back.
“Die, Motherf****r, Die” by the Geto Boys
"Garrison Keillor, the former host of “A Prairie Home Companion,” said Wednesday (Nov. 29 [2017]) he has been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of improper behavior."
#OldNewsLemAlreadyForgot
“Bitch Better Have My Money”
Beaucoup threats of mayhem and murder if the fundage is not available.
Shall we forget... Psycho Dad!! (Married with Children!)
Who's that riding into the sun?
Who's the man with the itchy gun?
Who's the man who kills for fun?
Psycho Dad,
Psycho Dad,
Psycho Dad.
He sleeps with a gun
but he loves his son
Killed his wife 'cos she weighed a ton.
He's Psycho Dad!
Agents of the law
Luckless pedestrian
I know you're out there
With rage in your eyes and your megaphones
Saying all is forgiven
Mad dog surrender
How can I answer
A man of my mind can do anything
I'm a bookkeeper's son
I don't want to shoot no one
Well I crossed my old man back in Oregon
Don't take me alive
Got a case of dynamite
I could hold out here all night
Yes I crossed my old man back in Oregon
Don't take me alive
Listen here if you want to hear the rest of the lyrics and Larry Carlton's smoking intro guitar solo.
Lem said...
"Garrison Keillor, the former host of “A Prairie Home Companion,” said Wednesday (Nov. 29 [2017]) he has been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of improper behavior."
#OldNewsLemAlreadyForgot"
Statement from Minnesota Public Radio Regarding Garrison Keillor and a Prairie Home Companion
"Nov 29, 2017
NOVEMBER 29, 2017
Contact Update:
General questions, requests, and comments about programming
MPR Member & Audience Services
800-228-7123 (Weekdays 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. CT.)
Contact form
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) is terminating its contracts with Garrison Keillor and his private media companies after recently learning of allegations of his inappropriate behavior with an individual who worked with him.
...
MPR will end its business relationships with Mr. Keillor's media companies effective immediately. By terminating the contracts, MPR and American Public Media (APM) will:
* end distribution and broadcast of The Writer's Almanac and rebroadcasts of The Best of A Prairie Home Companion hosted by Garrison Keillor;
* change the name of APM's weekly music and variety program hosted by Chris Thile; and,
* separate from the Pretty Good Goods online catalog and the PrairieHome.org website."
I hear the hypocritical dewlap's music is back on spotify, notwithstanding Rogan's continued presence there.
As the commenters above have made clear, there are an awful lot of songs about murder out there in the "mainstream." And a whole lot of songs glorifying drug culture.
My wife does not share my musical preferences. She calls my stuff "misogynist music." There is a fair amount of Neil Young and Johnny Cash in there.
Also Psycho Killer.
Maybe the problem isn't the songs.
Neil has said a lot of things about "Down by the River," most of them ambiguous, but one of the things that he has suggested is that the song is not about shooting a woman, but rather about "shooting" heroin.
Which I guess would also be problematic...
I'm a freaky compulsive about these things, so when I was in St. Louis a few years back, I walked to both the spot of the Frankie and Johnnie (I'm a Dylan fan, so it's Frankie and Albert for me) and Stagger Lee. The first is at 212 Targee Street and the second at 1101 Morgan Street. It's interesting that two murders, a few years apart, have produced so many versions of their songs.
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