Does the Bangles’ 1985 novelty hit “Walk Like an Egyptian” contain lyrics that radio listeners will find insensitive in the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks?
Here’s the first verse, which represents the flippant tone and innocuous subject matter of the entire song:
“All the old paintings on the tombs/They do the sand dance don’t you know/If they move too quick/They’re falling down like a domino.”
Similarly, will listeners be offended by John Lennon’s “Imagine,” which pleads for a “brotherhood of man”? The Beatles’ happy-go-lucky toss-off “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da”? The Happenings’ puppy-love anthem “See You in September”?
Some radio programmers at Clear Channel Communications, the largest radio conglomerate in North America with more than 1,000 stations, think so. “Walk Like an Egyptian,” “Imagine,” “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da” and “See You in September” are among a list of more than 160 songs — plus “all Rage Against the Machine songs” — with “questionable lyrics” that Clear Channel stations should avoid playing, according to an e-mail circulated among the corporation’s program directors.
Clear Channel (which owns Chicago stations WGCI AM and FM, WKSC-FM, WLIT-FM, WNUA-FM and WVAZ-FM) issued a statement Tuesday saying that the list is “not a mandate from corporate headquarters” but a “grassroots effort” by its program directors to protect listeners from potentially “insensitive” lyrics at a time of “heightened loss, anger and fear.”
The list contains a handful of songs that should be shelved for a few weeks, at least, but they seem so obvious that one would think no deejay would need a directive to stop playing them: the Doors’ “The End,” Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire,” AC/DC’s “Shot Down in Flames.”
But most of the list stretches the programmers’ credibility and throws into serious question their knowledge of the music they air, while insulting the intelligence of audiences.
Consider the inclusion of the Rolling Stones “Ruby Tuesday” on the no-play list. Is it realistic to imagine listeners having a nervous breakdown because Mick Jagger dares to utter the day of the week on which the tragedy occurred in the song’s chorus? Given that reasoning, why didn’t Clear Channel just ban the word “Tuesday” from all future programming, including commercials (and, for that matter, why wasn’t the Moody Blues’ “Tuesday Afternoon” also black-listed?).
What next? Some Clear Channel genius suggesting the stations exclude any song with a day of the week in the title in case it triggers a crying jag or an angry phone call from listeners who might have had something bad happen to them on another day of the week? So long, “Friday on My Mind” and “I Don’t Like Mondays.”
Equally absurd is the ban on pop trifles such as Bobby Darin’s version of “Mack the Knife,” the Dave Clark Five’s “Bits and Pieces.” Elvis Presley’s “(You’re the) Devil in Disguise,” Boston’s “Smokin’ ” and the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” also make the list, clearly indicating that these program directors have never actually listened to any of these songs, let alone know what the lyrics say.
Even more disconcerting is the inclusion of songs such as “Morning Has Broken” and “Peace Train” by Cat Stevens, who since his pop-singer days has converted to Islam and now is known as Yusuf Islam. By extension, the Clear Channel brain trust suggests that the airing of any song with a connection to a performer with an Islamic name or beliefs might offend listeners. What if the terrorists had been Irish? Would that have meant a ban on U2 and Van Morrison?
With program directors like this in charge of the public airwaves, there’s no telling what’s next. If Clear Channel executives think their audiences will be somehow harmed or offended by the airing of “Walk Like an Egyptian” and “Imagine,” the days of knee-jerk music programming and censorship have only just begun.
THE LIST
Here’s the list of songs Clear Channel Communications has urged its more than 1,000 radio stations to stop playing in light of last week’s attacks. The list appears as sent out by Clear Channel, and reprinted on the slate.com website.
“Bodies” — Drowning Pool
“Death Blooms” — Mudvayne
“Dread and the Fugitive Mind” — Megadeth
“Sweating Bullets” — Megadeth
“Click Click Boom” — Saliva
“Boom” — P.O.D.
“Seek and Destroy” — Metallica
“Harvester of Sorrow” — Metallica
“Enter Sandman” — Metallica
“Fade to Black” — Metallica
All songs by Rage Against the Machine
“Head Like a Hole” — Nine Inch Nails
“Bad Religion” — Godsmack
“Intolerance” — Tool
“Blow Up the Outside World” — Soundgarden
“Fell on Black Days” — Soundgarden
“Black Hole Sun” — Soundgarden
“Shot Down in Flames” — AC/DC
“Shoot to Thrill” — AC/DC
“Dirty Deeds” — AC/DC
“Highway to Hell” — AC/DC
“Safe in New York City” — AC/DC
“T.N.T.” — AC/DC
“Hells Bells” — AC/DC
“War Pigs — Black Sabbath
“Sabbath Bloody Sab-bath” — Black Sabbath
“Suicide Solution” — Ozzy Osbourne
“Holy Diver” — Dio
“Jet Airliner” — Steve Miller Band
“Jump” — Van Halen
“Another One Bites the Dust” — Queen
“Killer Queen” — Queen
“Hit Me With Your Best Shot” — Pat Benatar
“Love Is a Battlefield” — Pat Benatar
“Dead Man’s Party” — Oingo Boingo
“It’s the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)” — R.E.M.
“Burning Down the House” — Talking Heads
“Some Heads Are Gonna Roll” — Judas Priest
“Run Like Hell” — Pink Floyd
“Mother” — Pink Floyd
“Crash and Burn” — Savage Garden
“Crash Into Me” — Dave Matthews
“Walk Like an Egyptian” — Bangles
“My City Was Gone” — Pretenders
“Ironic” — Alanis Morissette
“Falling for the First Time” — Barenaked Ladies
“Bad Day” — Fuel
“St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)” — John Parr
“When You’re Falling” — Afro-Celt Sound System w/Peter Gabriel
“Dust in the Wind” — Kansas
“Stairway to Heaven” — Led Zeppelin
“A Day in the Life” — The Beatles
“Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” — The Beatles
“Ticket To Ride” — The Beatles
“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” — The Beatles
“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” — Bob Dylan and Guns n’ Roses
“Fire” — Arthur Brown
“Burnin’ For You” — Blue Oyster Cult
“Live and Let Die” — Paul McCartney & Wings
“Hey Joe” — Jimi Hendrix
“Doctor My Eyes” — Jackson Brown
“Crumblin’ Down” — John Mellencamp
“Paper in Fire” — John Mellencamp
“Sunday Bloody Sunday” — U2
“Smokin” — Boston
“Only the Good Die Young” — Billy Joel
“Eve of Destruction” — Barry McGuire
“(Na Na Hey Hey) Kiss Him Goodbye” — Steam
“On Broadway” — Drifters
“Johnny Angel” — Shelley Fabares
“Black is Black” — Los Bravos
“I Go To Pieces” — Peter & Gordon
“A World Without Love” — Peter & Gordon
“(You’re the) Devil in Disguise” — Elvis Presley
“She’s Not There” — Zombies
“Bennie and the Jets” — Elton John
“Daniel” — Elton John
“Rocket Man” — Elton John
“Great Balls of Fire” — Jerry Lee Lewis
“Evil Ways” — Santana
“Get Together” — Youngbloods
“The Boy From New York City” — Ad Libs
“Blowin’ in the Wind” — Peter, Paul and Mary
“Leaving On a Jet Plane” — Peter, Paul and Mary
“Ruby Tuesday” — Rolling Stones
“Shattered” — Rolling Stones
“Bridge Over Troubled Waters” — Simon and Garfunkel
“See You in September” — Happenings
“I Feel the Earth Move” — Carole King
“In the Year 2525” — Zager and Evans
“Spirit in the Sky” — Norman Greenbaum
“The Worst That Could Happen” — Brooklyn Bridge
“When Will I See You Again” — Three Degrees
“Peace Train” — Cat Stevens
“Morning Has Broken” — Cat Stevens
“Dead Man’s Curve” — Jan and Dean
“Nowhere to Run” — Martha & The Vandellas
“Dancing in the Street” — Martha & The Vandellas and Van Halen
“He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother” — Hollies
“Wonderful World” — Sam Cooke and Herman’s Hermits
“A Sign of the Times” — Petula Clark
“American Pie” — Don McLean
“Last Kiss” — J. Frank Wilson (and recently done by Pearl Jam)
“That’ll Be the Day” — Buddy Holly and the Crickets
“Imagine” — John Lennon
“Mack the Knife” — Bobby Darin
“Rock the Casbah” — The Clash
“Wipeout” — Surfaris
“And When I Die” — Blood, Sweat & Tears
“Bits and Pieces” — Dave Clark Five
“Disco Inferno” — Tramps
“The Night Chicago Died” — Paper Lace
“New York New York” — Frank Sinatra
“Travelin’ Band” — Creedence Clearwater Revival
“You Dropped a Bomb On Me” — Gap Band
“Smooth Criminal” — Alien Ant Farm
“Duck & Run” — 3 Doors Down
“The End” — The Doors
“Jumper” — Third Eye Blind
“America” — Neil Diamond
“Fly Away” — Lenny Kravitz
“Free Fallin'” — Tom Petty
“I’m On Fire” — Bruce Springsteen
“I’m Goin’ Down” — Bruce Springsteen
“In the Air Tonight” — Phil Collins
“Rooster” — Alice In Chains
“Sea of Sorrow” — Alice In Chains
“Down in a Hole” — Alice In Chains
“Them Bones” — Alice In Chains
“Sure Shot” — Beastie Boys
“Sabotage” — Beastie Boys
“Fire Woman” — Cult
“Santa Monica” — Everclear
“Hey Man, Nice Shot” — Filter
“Learn to Fly” — Foo Fighters
“Falling Away from Me” — Korn
“Aeroplane” — Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Under the Bridge” — Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Bullet with Butterfly Wings” — Smashing Pumpkins
“Chop Suey” — System of a Down
“End of the World” — Skeeter Davis
“Travelin’ Man” — Ricky Nelson
“Have You Seen Her” — Chi-Lites
“We Gotta Get Out of This Place” — Animals
“Rescue Me” — Fontella Bass
“Devil With the Blue Dress” — Mitch Ryder and Detroit Wheels
“Fire and Rain” — James Taylor
“War” — Edwin Starr and Bruce Springsteen
“Tuesday’s Gone” — Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Break Stuff” — Limp Bizkit
“Brain Stew” — Green Day
“Say Hello 2 Heaven” — Temple of the Dog
“Fly” — Sugar Ray
“When It’s Over” — Sugar Ray
“Bound for the Floor” — Local H
“Left Behind, Wait and Bleed” — Slipknot
“Speed Kills” — Bush
“Down” — 311
“Big Bang Baby” — Stone Temple Pilots
“Dead and Bloated” — Stone Temple Pilots
“99 Luftballons” — Nina
“No Smoke Without a Fire” — Bad Company
