Flashback Fridays; My List Of Top 33 1/3 Albums Of 2008

This popped up my feed recently as something I wrote back in 2009 when I was still sorta doing album reviews. I didn't actually have a blog page back in January 2009 but I posted it to my Facebook blog (anybody remember Facebook blogs? No? Me neither) and I still think it holds up as a breezy piece of writing. One thing though; I can usually remember everything I ever wrote but honestly a few of these bands I don't recall at all. Side note does anybody remember albums? No? Me neither. Anyhoo join me as we travel back in time to the dying embers of the Bush Era shall we;

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My opinionated list of The Top 33 1/3 albums of 2008;

1. Andre Williams & The Hound Dogs ~ Can You Deal With It? ~ Bloodshot
After his odd country experiments with the Sadies the seventy something Detroit soul man (he co-wrote "Shake A Tail Feather") returns to the Garage Blues that has become his latter day trademark. This time out he has his hottest back up band yet with wailing fuzz guitar, tight rhythm section and a horn section to boot. Oh yeah; and it also has his best country song yet with "Pray For Your Daughter".

ANDRE WILLIAMS & THE HOUND DOGS ~ "PRAY FOR YOUR DAUGHTER";


2. The HorrorPops ~ Kiss Kiss Kill Kill ~ Hellcat
Serious psychobilly purists may pretend to despise them but they know how to make good catchy songs which is exactly why cd's were invented in the first place, unless I've completely misunderstood this whole rock n' roll thing, which is always a possibilty

THE HORRORPOPS ~ "MISS TAKE";


3. The Knifings ~ Superb Limb Of Such Magnificence ~ s/r
For their sophomere effort they continue to toss out their eccentric combination of Art Punk, Math Core, Cow Punk, College Rock, Glam Metal and what ever else they're listening to this week. So what's next? Ska/Metal? Bluegrass/Thrash? Prog/Grunge? I just hope it's not hip hop. Seriously guys, don't do that. I mean it.

4. Creepshow ~ Run For Your Life ~ Stomp
Few bands are able to replace their singer and carry on successfully, let's see, there's AC/DC and ...ummm...not Van Halen. Anyhoo Toronto's Psychobilly crew replaces Jen Hellcat with her (almost) twin sister Sarah Sin and misses nary a beat on their sophomore release. As was the case last time it's a little short so either they are rationing their material or they're not that prolific. We shall see.

CREEPSHOW ~ "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE";


5. The John Henrys ~ Sweet As The Corn ~ Ottawa always seems to have a couple of good country-rock bands hanging around, The John Henrys, besides having a cool name, have the most authentic Burrito Brotherish sound yet. Great songs too.

THE JOHN HENRYS ~ "SWEET AS THE CORN";


6. Gruesomes ~ Grusomemania ~ Riccochet
A rerelease of the Montreal garage teen kings 1987 sophomore (in every sense or the word) album in time to remind us what a solid garage band they were, and how fast they learned their chops. Less fuzz drenched than the first album and an ever so slightly less campy slice of garage trash, it still kicks the ass of all the various Estrus or Jon Spencer spawn that has passed for garage over the past decade.

THE GRUESOMES ~ "HEY!";


7. Gaslight Anthem ~ The 59 Sound ~ Side One Dummy
New Jersey's vaguely rootsy blue collar pop-punks who aren't The Bouncing Souls split the difference between Social Distortion and Bruce Springsteen. It could use a little more aggro, or at least bombast, (see The Roman Line below) but it's probably closer to Middle America (and Canada) than the Anglo-Centric Souls.

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM ~ "THE 69 SOUND";


8. The Primordials ~ 14 Prime Numbers ~ s/r
A note perfect homage to sixties Brit-beat no frills garage, mostly made up of hopelessly obscure covers, in a perfect case of "we have better record collections than you" nerdly one upsmanship.

9.The Summerlad ~ City of Noise ~ Saved By Radio ~
Speaking of sprawling excess an Alberta psych-prog trio put out an album with only two tracks, one of which is forty minutes long, fully twice as long as "Inna-gadda-da-vida". Makes the Greatful Dead seem like D.R.I., sort of.

THE SUMMERLAD ~ "CITY OF NOISE";


10. Various Artists ~ Life is Hard, West African Music in Britain ~ Honest Jon's
An intresting collection of fiendishly rare recordings made by the community of East African immigrants in Britain in the 1920's for export back to Africa. Since these were done for a small audience of Africans rather than to entertain whites the recordings make no attempt to pander or "Tom" and the songs are in various West African tongues rather than English. As this is the same region of Africa that most American and Caribbean slaves originally came from it's a unique opportunity to hear where the blues truly came from, and how they must have changed once they got here not to mention how these latter African musicians were in turn influenced by the Blues and Country records they heard. It's textbook cultural exchange. Excellent job of remastering as well, they sound brand new, unlike the scratchy field recordings of Lomax and the like. This English label has also put a similar comp from Iraq and probably more for all I know.

JACOB SAM & THE KUMASI TRIO ~ "PALM WINE MUSIC";


11. Various Artists ~ The Great Lakes Surf Battle ~ s/r
A comp of Toronto's oddly vibrant surf scene featuring highlights from The Blue Demons, The Robots, Vo Drats and the Calrizians along with Dr Mysterion and the Wolfman and Montreal's Trebelmakers. The Calrizians mash-up of Black Sabbath and Blondie is a brilliant coup even if some writer (I think it was Chuck Eddy) thought of it first.

THE BLUE DEMONS ~ "CASBAH";


12. Elliott Brood ~ Mountain Meadows ~ Six Shooter
Their second full lengther continues their odd genre of Goth-Grass. I'm not sure what it all means but it's plenty atmospheric.

ELIOTT BROOD ~ "THE VALLEY TOWN";


13. No No Zero ~ Rough Stuff ~ Folk Brand
Ex members of the Exploders continue their odd genre of sleaze-core. I'm pretty sure what it means and it's plenty noisy.

14. Drunkulla ~ All New Moves ~ s/r
Toronto's answer to The Hellacopters (with two ex Sinisters, one ex Illuminatti and one ex Flamejob) offer up more ridiculously excessive trash n' roll sleaze garage on their second album. Chock full o' flying guitars and windmill drums, the songwriting has also improved (songs are longer than 90 seconds) since the debut, so has the production.

15. The Fleshtones ~ Take A Good Look ~ Yep Roc
I don't know how many albums they've done by now because some of them frankly sucked; but when they're on point their trademarked (literally) "Super Rock" shames those half their age (literally), like say the Hives, Vines, Jet etc. Oh, and they also put out a pretty cool xmas album this year.

16. Bravo Johnson ~ The Crooked & The Straight ~ Stone Junction
An Americana Country/Folk rock group from California make a bid for serious cred with a sprawling double album, just like the Band or Dylan...sigh. Any comparisons to the Band, Byrds, Burritos, Buffalo Springfield, and especially Tom Petty are entirely intentional and the whole thing's exessive length pretty much means that at least some of it has to be waste but you have to admire their ambition.

BRAVO JOHNSON ~ "ACE IN THE HOLE";


17. The Pack A.D. ~ Funeral Mixtape ~ Mint
Some folks do the two man band thing because they saw the White Stripes do it, some do it because it's just easier and cheaper and some do it because they really know what to with it. The Pack are the latter, their Joplinsque blues drenched roar is tougher and more authentic than the Stripes, to say nothing of Jon Spencer. In fact lets say nothing more of him.

THE PACK AD ~ "MAKING GESTURES";


18. The Roman Line ~ Between The Stirrup & The Ground ~ indie
They get the obvious comparisons to Social Distortion with their itchy throated vaguely rootsy So-Cal punk. It's not paticularly original but it is well done and considering that most others insist on copying Blink 182 or worse I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. And they manage to write a couple of anthem-like numbers that I can picture an audience of drunken punters bellowing along to.

19. Hollywood Fats & The Paladins ~ Live 1985 ~ Topcat
The California bluesman played with everyone from the eighties revival including the Paladins, Blasters, Kid Ramos and The T Birds and he no doubt would have been a star if he had lived. As it is we have only a few rare recordings and the occasional unreleased obscurity like this one to show his chops. The Blues are in sore need of another hot guitar man right about now.

HOLLYWOOD FATS & THE PALLADINS ~ "LET'S HAVE A PARTY";


20. Blue Rodeo ~ Blue Road ~ WEA
They've put out so many albums that we kinda forget they're there, but this live quickie gives them a chance to get all stipped-down and back to bascis enough to remind us that they were Alt-Country before it had a name, and they can still deliver the goods. It is a little short though, the Sadies have already managed to put out a double live, so they fleshed it out with a full DVD.

BLUE RODEO ~ "TO LOVE SOMEBODY";


21. Fuad & the Feztones ~ Beeramid ~ Riccochet
Ex Gruesomes Bobby Beaton and John Davis take time out from their creative loafing to put out their tribute to the frat-rock garage that pimply and pale white boys got drunk to in the early sixties before the bluesier trash garage of the mid sixties which the Gruesomes themselves would later riff on. If they keep this up they could either go forward and start a prog rock band or go back further and start jitterbugging or something, actually John Davis was in the Crazy Rhythm Daddies so he already did that, or was that the Charleston?

22. The Screamagers ~ The Screamagers ~ s/r
All their lo-fi minamilist trash garage tidbits are less than two minutes long, and are either about monsters, zombies, martians or spiders. And the singer sounds like Glen Danzig's younger brother. I'm not sure why this is so catchy but it just is. This is the sort of thing you would have found on one of those "It came from Canada" comps on OG records in the 1980's. It's a Canadian thing, you wouldn't understand, I'm not sure I do either.

THE SCREAMAGERS ~ "DAY OF THE CENTIPEDES";


23. The Weirdies ~ In 3D ~ s/r
Formed out of various moving parts left over from the Tijuana Bibles and the Threat, they sound more like the former than the latter. As for the original touch, the new girl singer sounds disturbingly like Betty Rubble. A acquired taste that I'm not sure how many others will acquire but strangely catchy I thought.

THE WEIRDIES ~ "PARTY OVER HERE";


24. Oscar B ~ La Morte Aux Trousses ~ s/r
To everything there is a season Turn Turn Turn; Montreal loses one great psychobilly band, The Alley Dukes and gains a new one, out the ashes of the Alley Dukes' last lineup no less. Most of their songs are in French which I don't speak so I'm not sure what the title means, something about dead pants...no that can't be right..oh well what the hell, I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter.

25. The Stolen Minks ~ High Kicks ~ New Romance
Halifax first full length (more or less) slapdash girly garage combo are ever so slightly less slapdash and girly at times sounding rather like Boss Hog. Lest we forget this is exactly how Neko Case started out, not to mention Boss Hog.

THE STOLEN MINKS ~ "CONSECUTIVES";


26. The Speaking Tongues ~ Wild Sounds ~ indie
Yeah I know another crash boom bang bluesy two piece Toronto band, maybe it has something to do with the impossibilty of finding parking down town for a van. Anyway you have to admit the formula still rocks. Highlights include a harmonica hodown, yippie-ky-ay!

THE SPEAKING TONGUES ~ "HELL DOWN BELOW ME";


27. I'm Not Jim ~ You Are All My People ~ Bloodshot
A side project from Silos frontman Walter Salas-Humara (Or is it a side project? Silos bassist Drew Glakin died this year) collaborating with a novelist I 've never heard of and Jon Spencer's producer for some artsy Americana. It's pretty wordy (natch, with a novelist aboard) and gimmicky (Jon Spencer's producer ditto) but it has it's interesting moments. It's worth noting this is not the first time the Silos have gone experimenting, they once did an album with Tortoise I believe.

28. The Wilders ~ The Wilders ~ Free Dirt
Their take on the whole Alt Country thang is less twang and more hoedown, less honky tonk more old timey. The only cover here is of a Skillet Lickers number, and if you don't know who they were then you might not be a redneck. They still put in enough country rock for the younguns' though.

THE WILDERS ~ "HEY LITTLE DARLIN";


29. The Warped 45's ~ The Warped 45's ~ s/r
Debut from Toronto country rock outfit borrows shamelessly from Uncle Tupelo, Golden Smog, Rank & File and Wilco to good effect.

THE WARPED 45'S ~ "RADIO SKY";


30. The Bicycles ~ Oh No It's Love ~ Fuzzy Logic
Not everything in the sixties was all surf, garage, psyche, folk rock, country rock and blooze jams you know. Some pasty kids just liked to make catchy non threatening pop songs, some still do.

THE BICYCLES ~ "OH NO IT'S LOVE";


31. Sarah Blackwood ~ Way Back Home ~ Stomp
Solo debut from the new Creepshow singer reveals that in her heart of hearts she'd rather be Emmy Lou Harris. With tattoos. Remember that cool ballad that Creepshow did on the first one? Like that.

SARAH BLACKWOOD ~ "LONELY PARADE";


32. The Brutal Knights ~ Living By Yourself ~ Deranged
If you're going to recreate 1980's hardcore this is how you do it, short songs with maybe one and a half chords apiece, way too much treble on the guitar, spastic drumming and even more spastic shouting about being a drunken sleaze bag. Then repeat.

THE BRUTAL KNIGHTS;


33. Like a Martyr ~ The North ~ s/r
So what if you haven't bought a new cd since Pearl Jam went into seclusion or wherever, that doesn't mean you should be totally banned from the air waves does it? No? Oh well, I heard this after sitting through yet another collection of cds from that cookie cutter Emo/Screamo/Pop-Punk crap that passes for non-metal or hardcore hard rock these days and thinking that it was pretty cool that these guys from B.C. obviously have no clue how anachronistic they are and don't care.

1/3. Gowiiee ~ The Door ~ Sweetreleaf
Normally the mere thought of a "rock opera" about deforestation in B.C., which is also a fundraiser for said no doubt worthy cause would be enough to make me want to run out and buy a rusty chainsaw, and I actually care about such things, really I do. However; good intentions do not necessarily make for good art, I hope the class is taking notes. Fortunately this Australian dude's tastes run to Led Zep and Free Bird rather than Ani DiFranco and the Dixie Chix so this is actually pretty cool. And it is a good cause for which he's apparently raised a bucket of cash, so there.

Honorable mention: NQ Arbuckle, Baskery, Bellevue, Black Lungs, Micheal Brennon, Christian D & the Hangovers, Galatus, The Get Rights, Gunsmoke, Merle Haggard, The Heavy, The High Dials, Japandroids, Waylon Jennings, The Micronite Filters, My Morning Jacket, Owl Farm, Wyckam Porteous, The Psychs, Micheal Rault, Mr. Rick & Biscuits, Mavis Staples, The Streetdogs, Surefire Machine, Telepathic Butterflys, Teenage Head w/ Marky Ramone, Luther Wright & the Wrongs

Box sets;
1. Johnny Cash ~ At Folsom Prison ~ Sony
2. Hank Williams ~ Rare and unreleased ~ Time Life
3. Various Artists ~ Steelin' it, The Steel Guitar Story ~ Proper
4. Various Artists ~ Rockin' Memphis ~ Proper
5. White Zombie ~ Let Sleeping Corpses Lie ~ Geffen

DVD's;
1.American Hardcore
2.Jandek on Corwell
3.Gram Parsons; Fallen Angel
4.The Last Pogo (reissue)

TEENAGE HEAD FROM "THE LAST POGO";


Dishonorable mention;
Guns & Roses ~ Chinese Democracy ~
After taking at least as long to finish as the Great Wall of China itself (with marginally fewer casualties) Axl finally releases a full album. It doesn't actually suck but it doesn't rock either, slick and ponderous and less fun than cock rock has any right to be. This year their old rivals Motley Crue also put out yet another of their seemingly endless series of comeback albums that was at least cheerfully aware of their anachronistic stupidity, hell they shamlessly revel in it and therein lies the differance. Axl (and Metallica, and Megadeth) always took themselves way too seriously as brooding artistes while the Crue are perfectly happy to be lunkheaded Peter Pans. Who knew that the Crue, (or at least Nikki) would turn out to be the smarter of the two. So it kinda does suck after all.

GUNS & ROSES ~ "CHINESE DEMOCRACY";

A Dire ruling

The recent ruling by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) banning the 1985 Dire Straits song "Money for nothing" from the airwaves of Canada has brought on reactions ranging from furious to laughingly dismissive. Many however do not really deal with the issue of how to judge the song, any song, in the first place. In the aftermath of the ruling a number of radio stations reacted by immediately and ostentatiously defying the ban by playing the song over and over for a hour, which is all very amusing, but not very enlightening. It misses an opportunity to have a discussion, or even debate about the issue of how to judge a song at all in the context in which it was written.

First a reminder of the lyrics in question from the song "Money for nothing";
"That little faggot with the earing and the makeup,
Yeah Buddy, that's his own hair.
That little faggot got his own jet airplane.
That little faggot, he's a millionaire."

Dire Straits ~ Money for nothing;



A single listener in Newfoundland, who is herself gay, made a complaint to the CBSC who eventually ruled that because of the use of the word "faggot" the song was offensive and could not be played on the air in Canada in that version, however an edited version could be played. In fact it turns out Dire Straits (or their record company) had already anticipated this reaction when the song first came out twenty five years earlier and in fact an edited version had long been made available to radio stations and even the version on the greatest hits album is different from the original and does not contain the offending lyrics. The band had even played the song live with the offending word changed to "That little queenie". Why that would be less offensive I'm sure I don't know. Clearly the song had generated some criticism in the past, those complaints were not in Canada however, and were not made official so all this escaped most public notice till now. The CBSC ruled the song offensive solely due to the use of the word "faggot" and banned it from the airwaves of it's member stations.

A few words here about the CBSC. The Standards Council is not, as many assume, a government regulator unlike the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), though many confuse the two. The CBSC is a body set up by private broadcast networks (both radio and television) to self regulate the industry and respond to listener complaints so the CRTC doesn't have to. Unlike the CRTC, the CBSC has no actual enforcement powers, although in theory a station which racked up a large number of complaints and refused to adhere to industry standards could find itself in front of the CRTC to answer complaints and risk losing their license. I know of only one station that has actually pushed things that far however, and that was Quebec station CHOI in 2004 who did end up losing their license but then the owners sold it anyway while they were appealing the ruling. The only power the CBSC has is to order the offending station to air their ruling as an ad. It should also be pointed out that the CBSC rulings only apply to it's own members, which include all the major networks and stations but which do not include public broadcasters like the CBC and TVO, nor does it apply to campus and community stations. Most religious stations are also not members.

The questions raised by the ruling are many; the CBSC ruled that the word "faggot" was now so offensive that it could not be aired, although they conceded that the song had already been heavily aired for over twenty years and was a huge chart topping hit off one of the biggest selling albums of all time without generating any controversy the whole time. The CBSC decided that now however the word was no longer acceptable. But at what point did this shift happen? And why based on a single complaint? Is that really enough to assume a broadly based public consensus on the issue? Those few who supported the ban would inevitably point to the use of the "n-word" as a comparison. However few would deny that there is, and has been a longstanding consensus around the offensiveness of the "n-word". In contrary to popular belief fact that term has actually been offensive for at least a century. Even a look back at stereotype racist entertainment of decades ago such as "Amos and Andy" and minstrel songs do not show the use of the "N-Word". Outside of a few very rural country records from the 1920's it seems that nobody was prepared to use the word in polite or even semi-respectable society. The use of the "N-word" has always been seen as an especially cruel insult and nothing but and use of it would identify the user as not only a bigot but an uneducated one at that. I see no longstanding consensus here. Instead what we have here is an attempt to enforce such a consensus from above, and given the almost universal outcry it has clearly failed.

The argument has been made that standards change, and that a word that was once considered inoffensive can be considered on longer acceptable years later. The example of the "n-word" may be overblown but there are plenty of other only slightly less racist terms that used to be used on radio and t.v. as late as the 1960's that would not be allowed now. But this process came from below, after a public consensus was formed, it was not enforced from above on the unwilling.

There is another issue as well over the matter of context. Any reading of the song lyrics as a whole make it clear that Dire Straits singer/songwriter Mark Knopfler was using a common device of placing the song in the third person and putting himself in the role of the character narrating the song in that character's point of view. This a songwriting device he has used before and since. There is no question that he is not advocating or presenting his own views. The ground breaking video makes this even more clear.

In his rare interviews Knopfler has said that the song is based on a long rant he overheard at an appliance store in which one of the resentful blue collar workers was complaining about the easy life rock stars have compared to his own. The song also portrays not only the character's bitterness over the easy life of rockstars (like Knopfler) but also his envy;

"Now that ain't working, that's the way you do it
Let me tell you them guys ain't dumb
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Baby get a blister on your thumb"

and the character makes it clear he would gladly change places;

"I should have learned to play the guitar
I should have learned to play them drums
Look at that mama, she got it sticking in the camera
Man we could have some."

Thus the song shows quite effectively one of the dirty secrets of dead end working class resentments that have been exploited by those with real money and power to keep them distracted and divided. This has been seen in the racism of the Jim Crow era (and beyond) to the the hate campaigns waged against immigrants, "welfare queens" and teachers ever since. And does so in a manner that is so blatant in it's resentment vs. envy juxtaposition that it's actually amusing rather than simply preachy, which is not that easy to do. It's also more effective. Not mention clearly more popular.

Oddly the inconsistent and arbitrary nature of such censorship meant that while the word "faggot" was deemed too offensive to live, other veiled racist insults were not;

"And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises?
Banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee"

Anyone with any sense of rock and roll history would recognize that Knopfler was both using and mocking the "rock and roll" is "jungle music" insult that has been aimed at rock by racists since the 1950's here but for some reason this isn't offensive even though it's being said by the same character in the same song.

The issue of context and songwriting reminded me of a controversy over another song of the same era from a very different group, Guns n' Roses and the song "One in a million". This song was never going to be a single and there is no video for it, which is not surprising since it is clearly offensive. The lines that caused immediate controversy were;

"Only some niggers, that's right
Get out of my way
Don't need to buy any of your gold chains today"

"Immigrants and faggots
They make no sense to me
Think they come to our country
And think they'll do as they please.
Like start some kinda mini Iran
Or spread some fucking disease.
They talk so many God Damn ways
it's all Greek to me."

Guns n'Roses ~ One in a million;



There should have no surprise that radio wouldn't touch the song or that protests ensued but oddly enough singer/songwriter Axel Rose seemed genuinely surprised and offended that anyone would question his motives. His reactions in the media ranged from the dismissive "can't everybody take a joke?" to the defensive "you haven't walked in my shoes" variety to a convoluted explanation claiming that he wasn't writing from his own point of view after all. He also pointed to a line further on in the song which he claimed distanced himself from politics at all and was simply displaying another strain of the working class white guy portrayed in the Dire Straits song, or for that matter any number of Merle Haggard songs;

"Radicals and racists? Don't point you finger at me.
I'm just a small town white boy trying to make ends meet.
Don't need your religion, don't watch that much TV.
Just making my living Baby
Well that enough for me."

I think there differences here between the Dire Straits and Guns n'Roses songs however;

a) The Dire Straits song is consistent in it's theme;
"Money for nothing" establishes it's simple theme from the start and sticks to it throughout. While "One in a million" is all over the map, at times it is a typical heavy metal power ballad love song and the next line it's a racist rant. The two parts seem to have nothing to do with each other.

b) The use of humour and the vocal delivery;
Knopfler makes it clear that he is paying a role by adopting a somewhat exaggerated yobbish voice while in character, another device he has used elsewhere, such is in the song "Industrial Disease". The character's often incoherent ranting is so nonsensical and ill informed that there is no doubt that the character is not Knopfler himself, quite apart from the subject matter which makes it unlikely that Knopfler, a famous rock star would be complaining about how he has to install appliances while rock stars like Mark Knopfler get all the chicks on their private jets.
Rose on the other hand delivers the lines in his usual singing voice and in fact does so with with such venom that there is no distance and no way it can be seen as a joke. It just plain sounds like something Rose would say. It is hard to see references to "Immigrants" who "talk so many Goddamn ways" and "think they can come to our country and think they'll do as they please" or "faggots" "spreading some fucking disease" as being humorous to anyone who isn't a hateful bigot, they are simply hate filled rants. You will notice that there is in fact some laughter in the above live video when he says the word "faggot", but this seems to be of the "wasn't it cool he said faggot" variety and it is hard not to think that was not his real intent. This at least gives Rose the benefit of the doubt in assuming that he is not really a vile homophobic racist but was merely engaged in adolescent "Hey look how offensive I can be" posing. But after having struck that pose he can't very well be offended that people were offended.

c) Songwriting styles;
As stated Mark Knopfler has often used the "third person" device in his songwriting, in fact it is his usual device. When Axel Rose tried to make the same claim however that claim was undermined by his usual insistence that his songs were real and always came from his own hard life experiences (broken home, drugs etc) and were therefore authentic and "real". To make a claim for gritty rock and roll authenticity only to back away and claim "I was only joking this time" is such a transparent attempt to have it both ways that it was dismissed.

Taking all this into account I would have no problem supporting a radio ban on "One in a million", and there was no real controversy about doing so at the time or since, even from those who actually like the song on musical grounds, as do I actually.

Another example from the same era was the comic Andrew Dice Clay who you may recall was very big for a few years with his standup routine in which he posed as a chain smoking Gino and spewed racist, sexist and homophobic insults. This caught on and led to a couple of best selling albums and sell out tours and even a few movies before people got tired of his act. He also got a lot of flack for his rants of course and was also banned from MTV and Letterman. He eventually defended himself by pointing out that he was just playing a character, like Pee Wee Herman, that he was actually a struggling Jewish (not Italian) actor named Andrew Silverstein who had appeared in a Woody Allen movie before stumbling on to the Diceman character. He didn't really mean any of the stuff he said really, it was all just an act. This as no doubt true but he kept up the act for so long as it made money and made no attempt provide any sort of context either in the act or outside of it, he simply insulted and offended entire groups for the amusement for his audience of mostly adolescent males that as he the media tired of his act he would get little sympathy. His career petered out on it's own without any need to ban him.

When the Dire Straits ruling came down an incident occurred which showed the implication of using censorship to bring about social change. CBC did a feature (I think hosted by Evan Soloman) to discuss the issue. It the interest of balance he had to find someone who actually supported censorship. After no doubt much searching he managed to find a pro-censorship voice in the person of...wait for it..."Now Magazine" editor Susan G Cole. Excuse me the editor of the nation's largest "progressive arts and entertainment weekly" is suddenly in favour of censorship? WTF? Hasn't "Now" always prided itself on been in the forefront against censorship? Think the "Little Sisters Bookstore" case. Think their support of the "Anti-Isreali Apartheid" movement and campus freedom of speech. Think about the classified sex ads and sex advice columns in now itself. Well it turns out that this is totally different because Susan G. Cole was offended over the use of the word "faggot" so naturally it has to be banned. That seems totally fair and not even a little hypocritical. Naturally I expect that "Now" will now ban all the sex ads they make their living from since these clearly offend far more people than Dire Straits does. And the same for the use of the word "apartheid" which deeply offends many people. No? Hmmm.

Cole also had a another argument to back that up of course. When the other guest (whose name I can't recall) pointed out the rather obvious fact that the intent and context of the song were not in fact homophobic or racist nor were any of Knopfler's other songs, Cole conceded the point but then actually went on the say that of course she was capable of getting the song's context but most Rock and Roll fans were not capable of such nuance. Gee thanks Susan, glad we have you here to do our thinking for us. As insulting as Cole's almost ludicrous impression of every patronizing "elitist liberal" that right wingers rail against, she accidentally illustrates a point here. Censorship from above, no matter how noble the stated aims, is always elitist and hypocritical.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dire Straits "Money For Nothing" lyrics;

"I want my, I want my M.T.V.

Now look at them yo-yo's, that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the M.T.V.
That ain't working, that's the way you do it
Money for nothing and your chicks for free

Now that ain't working, that's the way you do it
Let me tell you them guys ain't dumb
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Baby get a blister on your thumb
(chorus)
We got to install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We got to move these refrigerators
We got to move these colour T.V.'s

The little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy, that's his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he's a millionaire

(chorus)

Look at that, look at that
I should have learned to play the guitar
I should have learned to play them drums
Look at that mama, she got it sticking in the camera
Man we can have some
And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises?
Banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee
Oh, that ain't working, that's the way you do it
Get your money for nothing get your chicks for free

(chorus)

Listen here
Now that ain't working, that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the M.T.V.
That ain't working, that's the way you do it
Money for nothing and your chicks for free
Money for nothing and chicks for free

Get your money for nothing, get your chicks for free
Money for nothing, chicks for free
Look at that, look at that
Get your money for nothing, get your chicks for free (I want my, I want my, I want my M.T.V.)
Money for nothing and chicks for free
Easy, easy

That ain't working

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Guns n' Roses "One in a million" lyrics;

"Guess I needed sometime to get away
I needed some piece of mind
Some piece of mind that'll stay
So I thumbed it down to Sixth and L.A.
Maybe a Greyhound could be my way

Police and Niggers, that's right
Get out of my way
Don't need to buy none of your
Gold chains today
I don't need no bracelets
Clamped in front of my back
Just need my ticket; 'til then
Won't you cut me some slack?
(chorus)
You're one in a million
Yeah, that's what you are
You're one in a million, babe
You're a shooting star
Maybe someday we'll see you
Before you make us cry
You know we tried to reach you
But you were much too high.

Immigrants and faggots
They make no sense to me
They come to our country
And think they'll do as they please
Like start some mini Iran,
Or spread some fuckin' disease
They talk so many goddamn ways
It's all Greek to me

Well some say I'm lazy
And others say that's just me
Some say I'm crazy
I guess I'll always be
But it's been such a long time
Since I knew right from wrong
It's all the means to an end, I
I keep it movin' along

(chorus)

Radicals and Racists
Don't point your finger at me
I'm a small town white boy
Just tryin' to make ends meet
Don't need your religion
Don't watch that much T.V.
Just makin' my livin', baby
Well that's enough for me

(chorus)"