A list has been circulating the internet from ClearChannel, a conglomerate which owns more than 1700 radio stations, of songs with “questionable lyrics or content” that should not be played. The list can be found here: http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/songs.html (Thanks duality).
Now, this isn’t censorship, but it is stupid. Some of the songs suggested are at least reasonably defensible as “in poor taste” given the moment, but some of the songs on the list are inspirational: The Youngbloods “Get Together”, for instance.
The songs I find most amusingly offensive to suggest banning are the two Cat Stevens songs. “Peace Train” and “Morning is Broken”. Why? Because Stevens converted to Islam? (And no, he did not advocate support for the death sentence against Salman Rushdie, either, but that’s another rant…). Frankly, I think songs like “Get Together” and “Peace Train” are JUST what we need.
Anyway, my reason for even bringing this up is ClearChannel is now saying that this was a memo sent from one station manager on an internal mailing list nd was not a company edict. The story is in the San Francisco Chronicle