Sunday 16 January 2011

Money for Nothing and censorship

I don't know if it made big news over the Atlantic or indeed outside Canada, but the CBSC decided to censor Money for Nothing by Dire Straits because of its use of the word "faggot". These cowardly attempts to censorsing art always get me boiling down. Thankfully the airwaves resisted. I don't know much about the group to be honest as just got aware of the scandal recently through the Quebec medias, but I happen to be quite fond of that song: it is one my Italian friend (the same one who made me discover Fabrizio de André) used to listen to quite a lot and it reminds me of many lovely evenings I spent with them. And it is the kind of classic rock song I love. So I might not be original, but to say to Hell to those cowardly PC idiots at the CBSC and to give them a virtual middle finger (because I don't mind being rude to cowards, as there is no reason to be polite), I have decided to put the song here.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The irony is that while the politically correct brigade strive to create equality, and unity they in fact cause division, and disharmony. Baa Baa Black Sheep, is a dangerous, and subversive nursey rhyme, and Three Blind Mice are sight impaired... My mother who is almost entirely blind would be the first to call that ridiculous. The PC Brigade change little, and I imagine them sitting in their humourless boardrooms wasting taxpayers time, and money....Money for nothing :-) In the words of another famous band " we don't need no mind control". Turn up the volume!

The Gill-Man said...

This kind of censorship always gets my blood boiling! It's so ridiculous, especially considering the CONTEXT of the word within the song! I mean, COME ON! Will they next censor Sly & the Family Stone's great ANTI-RACISM anthem "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey", just because of the use of a racist word? The context is CRITICAL here! Ugh, these types of people just ROYALLY piss me off!!!

Guillaume said...

@Anonymous-Thanks for commenting on my blog (again?). You are right of course, this is PC gone mad. And you might be surprised, but I did blog about the Three Blind Mice song before:

http://vraiefiction.blogspot.com/2008/06/dr-no-and-his-three-deadly-mice.html

And about Pink Floyd too, but nothing rom The Wall yet.

@The Gill Man-I don't think they care about the context. They don't care about art either.

Prof Solitaire said...

I was shocked to learn that Christie's novel Ten little niggers has been changed into And then there was none or something like that. It's ridiculous, how is it even legal to do something like that? Change the words in someone else's work? Are they gonna start going through Dickens, Twain or Shakespeare to change a word here and there? It's complete insanity...

Anonymous said...

Big brother is watching you...and he is mentally impaired, not insane, do use the politically correct term please Prof Soltaire :-) Thank you Guillaume, I will read about the rodents shortly, I look forward to it.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Wasn't that nuts!! I couldn't believe it when I heard it.. one station in Winnepeg decided to play the original either for a solid hour or a day.. not sure but at least they are making a statement..

they should all know it is too late to rewrite the past. I say, play again...