I plugged in my iPod on my way into work this morning, and was surprised to see that Jay Bookman’s column today is all about what I listened to while I drove.
I owned a small market radio station and on September 11, 2001, ABC Radio told affiliates we shouldn’t play John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Well my station did play it.
As the Iraq War began, comments by Natalie Maines of The Dixie Chicks, weren’t well received when she criticized the President (she named W, but should have added President Cheney too).
Male country musicians in particular were among the worse in condemning Maines.
Did that embolden the public to go so far as to threaten her life? It sure didn’t help.
In my family, we bought two copies of “Taking the Long Way.” We went to hear the Dixie Chicks in Atlanta when they toured to promote the CD. And I have the DVD “Shut Up and Sing” for good measure.
We also went to hear Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young tour after Neil Young released “Living with War.” In the documentary about that tour, fans in Atlanta, where we heard CSNY sing, left the concert because they were singing war protest songs.
Hello? Anybody in there? Did they think those four got a different religion on the way to Phillips Arena? (“The Cost of Freedom” was sung with a slide show of soldiers lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the audience came silently to our feet while they performed.)
Oh yeah, we didn’t stop playing the Dixie Chicks at WJFL anymore than we stopped playing John Lennon. We could all use a little more “Give Peace a Chance” too.