09.19.01 les and ray


today's new york times, E3:
clear channel communications, the texas-based company that owns about 1,170 radio stations nationwide, has circulated a list of 150 songs and asked its stations to avoid playing them because of the attacks on the world trade center and the pentagon.


mentioned:


you dropped a bomb on me - the gap band
blow up the outside world - soundgarden
ticket to ride - the beatles
america - neil diamond
what a wonderful world - louis armstrong
bridge over troubled water - simon and garfunkel
peace train - cat stevens
american pie - don mclean


in 1942 the united states government issued a list of suggested wartime practices for radio broadcasting. in the interest of national safety, it advised radio programmers to ban weather forecasts, which could help the enemy plan a bombing attack, and to avoid man-on-the-street interviews and listener music requests in case the interviewee or caller was a spy conveying a coded message to the enemy in words or song.
the new list is clearly different. instead of promoting national safety, its intended aim is to ensure national mental health, though first amendment supporters may point to it as the first shadowy blacklist in what president bush says will be a war against terrorism.
(...)
in an odd anomaly on the list, a specific song or songs are mentioned for each artist except for one: the politically minded rap-rock group rage against the machine. for this band, the list simply considers "all rage against the machine songs" questionable.


on aesthetic acts, for paul:


nine years old and climbing out the house
thru a song played on piano by my neighbors les and ray.
i put my head up against the wall to be closer to the music that they played.


you were my oxygen, the thing that made me think i could escape.
this is a thank you song for les and ray.


you were my batteries, the thing that made me think i could escape
here's a song for les and ray, here's a song for les and ray



(le tigre)

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