Clear Channel, the company working to ensure as absolute a playlist monoculture in the US as possible – and which is sniffing around radio in Australia – has blacklisted several hundred songs in the wake of the events of last Tuesday.
Included are songs about war, the word “Tuesday”, “Walk Like an Egyptian”, and even “Peace Train” and “Imagine”. According to Fucked Company, the list has indeed been confirmed as being for real.
Discussion on the Fucked Company forums. Here’s the list, as posted on Fucked Company:
Drowning Pool "Bodies" Mudvayne "Death Blooms" Megadeth "Dread and the Fugitive" Megadeth "Sweating Bullets" Saliva "Click Click Boom" P.O.D. "Boom" Metallica "Seek and Destroy" Metallica "Harvester or Sorrow" Metallica "Enter Sandman" Metallica "Fade to Black" All Rage Against The Machine songs Nine Inch Nails "Head Like a Hole" Godsmack "Bad Religion" Tool "Intolerance" Soundgarden "Blow Up the Outside World" AC/DC "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 "TNT" AC/DC "Hell's Bells" Black Sabbath "War Pigs" Black Sabbath "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" Black Sabbath "Suicide Solution" Dio "Holy Diver" Steve Miller "Jet Airliner" Van Halen "Jump" Queen "Another One Bites the Dust" Queen "Killer Queen" Pat Benatar "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" Pat Benatar "Love is a Battlefield" Oingo Boingo "Dead Man's Party" REM "It's the End of the World as We Know It" Talking Heads "Burning Down the House" Judas Priest "Some Heads Are Gonna Roll" Pink Floyd "Run Like Hell" Pink Floyd "Mother" Savage Garden "Crash and Burn" Dave Matthews Band "Crash Into Me" Bangles "Walk Like an Egyptian" Pretenders "My City Was Gone" Alanis Morissette "Ironic" Barenaked Ladies "Falling for the First Time" Fuel "Bad Day" John Parr "St. Elmo's Fire" Peter Gabriel "When You're Falling" Kansas "Dust in the Wind" Led Zeppelin "Stairway to Heaven" The Beatles "A Day in the Life" The Beatles "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" The Beatles "Ticket To Ride" The Beatles "Obla Di, Obla Da" Bob Dylan/Guns N Roses "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" Arthur Brown "Fire" Blue Oyster Cult "Burnin' For You" Paul McCartney and Wings "Live and Let Die" Jimmy Hendrix "Hey Joe" Jackson Brown "Doctor My Eyes" John Mellencamp "Crumbling Down" John Mellencamp "I'm On Fire" U2 "Sunday Bloody Sunday" Boston "Smokin" Billy Joel "Only the Good Die Young" Barry McGuire "Eve of Destruction" Steam "Na Na Na Na Hey Hey" Drifters "On Broadway" Shelly Fabares "Johnny Angel" Los Bravos "Black is Black" Peter and Gordon "I Go To Pieces" Peter and Gordon "A World Without Love" Elvis "(You're the) Devil in Disguise" Zombies "She's Not There" Elton John "Benny & The Jets" Elton John "Daniel" Elton John "Rocket Man" Jerry Lee Lewis "Great Balls of Fire" Santana "Evil Ways" Louis Armstrong "What A Wonderful World" Youngbloods "Get Together" Ad Libs "The Boy from New York City" Peter Paul and Mary "Blowin' in the Wind" Peter Paul and Mary "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" Rolling Stones "Ruby Tuesday" Simon And Garfunkel "Bridge Over Troubled Water" Happenings "See You in Septemeber" Carole King "I Feel the Earth Move" Yager and Evans "In the Year 2525" Norman Greenbaum "Spirit in the Sky" Brooklyn Bridge "Worst That Could Happen" Three Degrees "When Will I See You Again" Cat Stevens "Peace Train" Cat Stevens "Morning Has Broken" Jan and Dean "Dead Man's Curve" Martha & the Vandellas "Nowhere to Run" Martha and the Vandellas/Van Halen "Dancing in the Streets" Hollies "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" San Cooke Herman Hermits, "Wonder World" Petula Clark "A Sign of the Times" Don McLean "American Pie" J. Frank Wilson "Last Kiss" Buddy Holly and the Crickets "That'll Be the Day" John Lennon "Imagine" Bobby Darin "Mack the Knife" The Clash "Rock the Casbah" Surfaris "Wipeout" Blood Sweat and Tears "And When I Die" Dave Clark Five "Bits and Pieces" Tramps "Disco Inferno" Paper Lace "The Night Chicago Died" Frank Sinatra "New York, New York" Creedence Clearwater Revival "Travelin' Band" The Gap Band "You Dropped a Bomb On Me" Alien Ant Farm "Smooth Criminal" 3 Doors Down "Duck and Run" The Doors "The End" Third Eye Blind "Jumper" Neil Diamond "America" Lenny Kravitz "Fly Away" Tom Petty "Free Fallin'" Bruce Springsteen "I'm On Fire" Bruce Springsteen "Goin' Down" Phil Collins "In the Air Tonight" Alice in Chains "Rooster" Alice in Chains "Sea of Sorrow" Alice in Chains "Down in a Hole" Alice in Chains "Them Bone" Beastie Boys "Sure Shot" Beastie Boys "Sabotage" The Cult "Fire Woman" Everclear "Santa Monica" Filter "Hey Man, Nice Shot" Foo Fighters "Learn to Fly" Korn "Falling Away From Me" Red Hot Chili Peppers "Aeroplane" Red Hot Chili Peppers "Under the Bridge" Smashing Pumpkins "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" System of a Down "Chop Suey!" Skeeter Davis "End of the World" Rickey Nelson "Travelin' Man" Chi-Lites "Have You Seen Her" Animals "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" Fontella Bass "Rescue Me" Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels "Devil with the Blue Dress" James Taylor "Fire and Rain" Edwin Starr/Bruce Springstein "War" Lynyrd Skynyrd "Tuesday's Gone" Limp Bizkit "Break Stuff" Green Day "Brain Stew" Temple of the Dog "Say Hello to Heaven" Sugar Ray "Fly" Local H "Bound for the Floor" Slipknot "Left Behind, Wait and Bleed" Bush "Speed Kills" 311 "Down" Stone Temple Pilots "Big Bang Baby," Dead and Bloated" Soundgarden "Fell on Black Days," Black Hole Sun" Nina "99 Luft Balloons/99 Red Balloons"
Clear Channel have also banned everything and anything by Rage Against The Machine.
Well well – Clear Channel now say it’s all BS. Their press release (Word format); urban myths reference page.
Here’s the Clear Channel press release in full:
San Antonio, TX, September 18, 2001…Clear Channel Communications, Inc. (NYSE: CCU) today issued the following statement as a result of numerous stories, emails and calls concerning an alleged ‘list of banned songs’ on its U.S. radio stations following last week’s tragedy in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania:
Clear Channel Radio has not banned any songs from any of its radio stations.
Clear Channel believes that radio is a local medium. It is up to every radio station program director and general manager to understand their market, listen to their listeners and guide their station’s music selections according to local sensitivities. Each program director and general manager must take the pulse of his or her market to determine if play lists should be altered, and if so, for how long.
‘In the wake of this terrible tragedy, the nation’s business community is responding with a degree of hypersensitivity,’ explained Mark P. Mays, President and Chief Operating Officer of Clear Channel. ‘Even some movie companies have altered some of their release schedules in light of the mood in America today. Clear Channel strongly believes in the First Amendment and freedom of speech. We value and support the artist community. And we support our radio station programming staff and management team in their responsibility to respond to their local markets.’
But the list did indeed come from within the station, as this SFGate story shows:
Company spokeswoman Pam Taylor said the list
was “really a grassroots effort” by one
ClearChannel program director from outside the
Bay Area, whom she declined to name. “This was
not a corporate mandate.”
I’m appalled that Snopes is acting like a newswire for press releases. That ‘False’ should be changed to ‘Backpedaling’.
I suggest the list is songs that might catch people’s attention. Because for commercial radio, catching people’s attention is bad; if they notice the radio, they might think of changing the channel. “What A Wonderful World” is banned? What the fuck is the song actually about?
Good coverage: Radio Sings Self-Censorship Tune (Wired News).
I would also be most interested in hearing more about Clear Channel’s attempts on Australian radio, and what they’re likely to do for our own good here.
From Salon, what we can look forward to in Australia:
“Radio stations that once were proudly local are now being programmed from hundreds of miles away. Increasingly, the very DJs are in a different city as well.
“Want your record played on one of those stations? Be prepared to pay — dearly — for the privilege. Want your band’s concert to be sponsored by a radio station? Be careful: If you pick a competitor, the behemoth might pull your songs off its playlists overnight — from two, 10, 100 stations.
“Looking for classy radio programming? Don’t look here. The company is known for allowing animals to be killed live on the air, severing long-standing ties with community and charity events, laying off thousands of workers, homogenizing playlists and a corporate culture in which dirty tricks are a way of life.
“Welcome to the world of Clear Channel — radio’s big bully.”
From the New York Times (thanks for this one to Ron Hardin on aus.music):
“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. Radio programmers and producers outside of Clear Channel said that they found the list bewildering. ‘There are obviously songs on there that people could take the wrong way,’ said Michael Stark, a freelance producer who works on ‘The Tom Joyner Morning Show’ on the ABC Radio Network. ‘But there are just as many that could be used to heal and bring context to the tragedy. It seems from the list that they don’t want anything that comes close to making waves.'”
[…]
Nina Crowley, the executive director of the Massachusetts Music Industry Coalition, a free-speech organization, worried that this was just the beginning of suppression of artistic expression and that politicians and corporations that have been trying to restrict access to popular music may expand and perpetuate this list. ‘President Bush said to be prepared for a long engagement,’ she said, ‘so this could potentially continue and grow, and these songs could be removed from the public ear for a long time. This list has eliminated songs about flying and falling, but when something else happens, do we remove all the songs about trains and whatever else?'”
From aus.music:
… probably. From the Sydney Morning Herald ‘Spike’ column:
“If music be the food of discord …
“Don’t expect to hear Walk Like an Egyptian played on most local radio stations soon. Or Leavin’ on a Jet Plane for that matter.
“Spike has already reported on how recent events have affected television programming and film releases, but the impact on radio is no less drastic. The Clear Channel, one of the world’s biggest radio networks (with dozens of stations in Australia, including MIX-FM and 2WS), has published a list of more than 150 songs ‘with questionable lyrics’ which are not to be played at the moment. Some are obvious, some are intriguing.
“Alan Furst, director of programming at the Australian Radio Network (which includes the Clear Channel’s Australian stations), told Spike that some additional Australian songs had been added to the US list but did not specify what they all were.”
So Neil Young played “Imagine” and Paul Simon played “Bridge Over Troubled Water” at the America: A Tribute to Heroes concert. Insensitive bastards.
Speaking of which, Fred Durst and whoever that gang of unplugged homies he was playing with should be gutted for that amateur butchering of everyone’s favourite song to amateurly butcher, “Wish You Were Here”. Even if it’s nothing new to skip half the notes of the riff, you’re not supposed to fuck with the words of big Rog. “Glad You Are Here”. Yeah, you’re right, I’m sure that’s what he really meant.
Yes, I am a Pink Floyd apologist. Sorry.