Okay, y'know, I'm really starting to get pissed off at a certain other programmer at this station who has made it his mission to upbraid as many of his fellow programmers for letting obscenities past the mic as possible, chiding those of us who play stuff that, admittedly, has the occasional adult content (albeit always - in my case, at least - well within the FCC-designated 10 pm - 6 am "safe harbor" period). This latest finger-wag came after another programmer forwarded a New York Times editorial concerning WBAI's decision not to play a recording of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" on the occasion of its 50th anniversary (which was actually a couple of years ago, but never mind that) for fear that the FCC would wind up levying one of its ridiculous "obscenity" fines on the station - all for one of the key works of American art of the last half-century, one which has been famously and definitively judged not obscene by the Supreme Court. Of course, Señor Bluenose took that as his cue to scowl (and obliquely threaten) at length at those of us who are (in his words) "addicted to expletives." Well, I thought, fuck you, pal. I'm playing "Howl" tonight - just try and stop me. Only, um, I didn't, exactly. I played the Fugs' "cover" of it instead, wherein the words flash so quickly (and low-fidelitily) by that any "offensive" language in the song is all but inaudible. Chickening out? Not exactly. The recording of "Howl" that I have runs over twenty-one fucking minutes! Hell, that's over a sixth of my show! Freedom of speech is one thing, freedom to keep me from serving up my standard brew of edgy, up-to-the-minute fare and Jesus & Mary Chain b-sides is quite another! But, hey, at least I got the word "cowshit" through a couple of times. Gotta feed my fuckin' Jones somehow.
WOW & FLUTTER, EPISODE #000043 (OCTOBER 10, 2007):
1. "Hang On St. Christopher" - Tom Waits
2. "2x4" - the Fall
3. "Have a Heart, Betty (I'm Not Fireproof)" - the Soft Boys
4. "No Reason to Complain" - the Alarm Clocks
5. "Chinatown" - Tahiti 80
6. "Hold Tight" - Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
7. "Tango Whiskeyman" - Can
8. "The Coffee and Tea Wrecks" - the Dandy Warhols
9. "Bodysnatchers" - Radiohead
10. "Restorative Beer" - the Fiery Furnaces
11. "The Opposite of Hallelujah" - Jens Lekman
12. "Dayroom at Narita Int'l" - Kinski
13. "Hostile Mascot" - the Mekons
14. "Positively Wall Street" - National Lampoon (Christopher Guest, et al.)
15. "Birdies" - Pere Ubu
16. "The Breaking Hands" - the Gun Club
17. "So Long" - the Chills
18. "Slipping (Into Something)" - the Feelies
19. "Let, Let Me In" - De La Soul
20. "World War I Noises in 4" - Monty Python
21. "Standing at the Crosswords" - Great Plains
22. "I Felt Like a Gringo" - Minutemen
23. "Pride" - Echo and the Bunnymen
24. "It'5!" - Architecture in Helsinki
25. "I Saw the Best Minds of My Generation Rot (or Rock, depending on what you read)" - the Fugs
26. "Sunset" - Allen Ginsberg
27. "Slow Slow Music" - the Go-Betweens
28. "Take Out Some Insurance On Me, Baby" - Jimmy Reed
29. "Lolitapop Dollhouse" - Kahimi Karie
30. "Oh Little Seeds" - Steve Fisk
31. "Here She Comes Now" - the Velvet Underground
32. "The Army Training Film" - the Firesign Theatre
33. "Fantastic Morgue" - Oneida
34. "When Under Ether" - PJ Harvey
35. "Boyfriend's Dead" - the Jesus & Mary Chain
36. "Introspection" - Thelonious Monk
1 comment:
Better still, "the occasion was the 50th anniversary of a court ruling that found the poem had 'redeeming social importance' and was thus not obscene."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/books/04howl.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin
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