Well there goes another new year's resolution. I had pledged to go a whole year without making fun of Canadian "rock." But now that it's official that no good canadian would have the balls to sing this:
That little faggot with the earring and the make-up? Yeah buddy, that's his own hair. That little faggot's got his own jet air plane. That little faggot is a millionaire.Dire Straits, a band banned:
The Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing" was ruled by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council to be "extremely offensive" and thus inappropriate for airing on radio or television because it uses an anti-gay slur.People get paid money to do this stuff. To protect the rest of the people. But can they protect us from Rush? Or Bryan Adams? Or April Wine? Oh, no.
The decision against St. John's radio station CHOZ-FM in Newfoundland was released Wednesday. In it, the panel ruled that the word "faggot" "contravened the Human Rights Clauses" and its ethics code and is "no longer" permitted "even if entirely or marginally acceptable in earlier days."
Ron Cohen, the CBSC's national chairman, told The Washington Times on Thursday that the decision effectively sets a "nationwide" precedent binding on all private license holders for TV, cable-TV and radio broadcasting. It does not cover the state-run Canadian Broadcasting Corp. or "community and university" stations.
The worst part of all is that no weight was given to the iussue of banning possibly the best riff ever. Thus destining Canadians to remain forever locked in their status as "rock-challenged." They've been overtaken by Eastern Europeans who dress like pansies, emulate Poison, and play flying V's. Seriously. Flying V's.
For Neil Young and Leonard Cohen, I can forgive them much. I can even almost forgive them for Rush and Anne Murray. But this is outrageous!
ReplyDeleteOk. Neil Young. Powerful argument for a mulligan.
ReplyDeleteFunny you mention it, I am just getting around to Leonard Cohen as we speak with a few from the library. Thoughts of his best tunes, so I'll know what to drop onto my pod?
To be clear, Cohen's a singer-songwriter, not a rocker. Think Bob Dylan with a GOOD voice and a poet's eye, and a severe case of depression. And a much better sense of rhythm. The most influential musician of the last half-century that most people never heard of, he's been covered by everyone from Willie Nelson and Charlie Daniels (who was fiddler/bass on two of Cohen's early albums) to Bob Dylan and Judy Collins and Concrete Blonde. You should also check out ALbert Collins. He had nothing to do with Leonard Cohen, but, damn!
ReplyDeleteFor tunes Hallelujah springs to mind, if it hasn't already been ground into your sub-cortex through multiple-cover multiple-soundtrack overexposure. Chelsea Hotel #2. Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On. Bird on a Wire. The soundtrack from McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Ah, hell, just jump into it!
There's still a whole long list I'll never forgive Canada for, though. Even Neil and Leonard can't eradicate ALL the damages.
---To be clear, Cohen's a singer-songwriter, not a rocker. Think Bob Dylan with a GOOD voice and a poet's eye, and a severe case of depression.---
ReplyDeleteI got about that much from watching a snippet on PBS. It was too late already to stay up for.
The only Albert Collins I have is a vinyl collaboration with him, and johny copeland and I forget who the 3rd guy is. Isn't Collins straight blues?
My favorite blues guy in the category "utterly awesome and largely unknown outside blues purist circles" is Freddie King. No contest. Too many better known lesser lights. He's in the top rung of blues giants, the single digit pantheon of the best of the best.
Agreed on Canada. They're almost as much fun to make fun of as France. Probably because they have their own internal France, Quebec.
ReplyDeleteWhat's worse than a bunch of cheese-eating surrender monkeys?
A bunch of cheese-eating surrender monkeys who like Rush and ban Dire Straits. Thumbs up on peppery gravy on french fries, though.
Hey, thumbs up on peppery gravy on almost anything. Damn the loss of my teenage metabolism!
ReplyDeleteCollins was one of the best electric blues guitarists ever, and his live shows were amazing -- saw him four times. The "3rd guy" you mention would be Robert Cray, likewise an ass-kicker but unlike the others still alive and still touring and recording. They won a Grammy for that album. Cray was the bass player for Otis Day and the Knights in Animal House, years before his first album.
Freddie King I also know of, likewise an ass-kicker. Bummed that the good ones die young. :-(
Right, Robert Cray, I have seen him 5 or 6 times at least. He was just astonishing circa the Strong Persuader era, when his voice just kicked ass.
ReplyDeleteHis soloing style is fairly unique imo, as well. Maybe he doesn;'t have the blizzardy chops of other guys, but he's a helluva player.
I caught a PBS showing last night of Stevie Ray playing with Albert King. It really accentuated how much SRV's style derives from him, which I hadn't really realized. AK is another who I've never deeply delved into, so I'll have to see what our library network has for me of the aforementioned Alberts.
My wife HATED the Leonard Cohen, but she's notorious for snap judgments. Not much for changing them eithery, not without subsequent overwhelming evidence. I particularly liked the words to a tune that was probably called My Secret World. Clearly his lyrics are a strong suit.
What, you played Chelsea Hotel #2 first? Well, no one is for everyone. My mp3's on random shuffle can take you from Bob Wills to Bach without warning, with side trips to Zappa and Allison Kraus and Leon Redbone, so I freely admit to eclecticly wide tastes. :-) But I tend to be heavy on blues, acoustic or electric no matter.
ReplyDeleteHey, Jacob here from Donklephant.
ReplyDeleteI find that people usually warm to Leonard Cohen after falling in love with covers by other artists.
Same thing with Townes Van Zandt. Both are incredible songwriters who write powerful, moving songs. But their vocals aren't immediately appealing to someone who prefers ... um ... better singers.
Thanks for stopping by, Jacob. Still working on the Cohen. Sounds like a good tip. I find some of the Cohen arrangements a little bland, but I really like some of the lyrics. So I can see how someone singing his songs with a little more soul and inflection in a rootsier idiom would be a plus.
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