September 11th – Questions-questions. There comes
a point when the event overtakes the reasons and what we’re left with is a
sentimental memory of half the story. It’s not with the intention to apportion
blame either; it’s to do with understanding the reasons and outcomes,
philosophising on the event rather than taking the explanations at face value.
Not gonna bleat on about it, you know how I stand on the human race’s ability
to drift through the government line, nod, reach for their cappuccino and take
that important mobile ‘phone call from whoever.
We all have to be very honest now. OK? Right.
What do we remember of Princess Diana’s death? What’s the
first thing that occurs? Honestly now. What?
For me the very first thing that springs to mind is all the
flower throwing; bouquet after bouquet after bouquet, bouncing off the bonnets
of the cortege, strewing the road ahead of the Rolls Royce hearse and the
never-ending lines of people edging the route. You? Try these for size…and be
honest. At what point do we remember:
The tunnel?
The chase?
The behaviour of paparazzi?
Dodi Fayed?
The emotionally charged words of her brother?
The queen’s reaction?
Tony Blair’s reaction?
The state of her marriage to Charles?
Her manipulation of the media?
Her big-eyed routine with Martin Bashir?
“There were three of us
in this marriage”?
“The Queen of Hearts”?
Which newspaper carried the headline, “Your people are suffering, speak to us, Ma’am”?
These are the things that go to making an everyday incident
into an allegory, a metaphor upon which to base ones life, the personification
of ill-used capability and a justification for actions. Wanna try another? OK.
Right. First thing that comes to mind:
9/11?
Doesn’t need anything else, does it? You see those two
slash-joined figures and the rush of information, innuendo, half-truths,
conspiracy theories, the slaughter cascades in; they enter the mind in a
nano-second and flood the consciousness with emotional responses and imagery.
Marvellous thing, the human brain, no? These are the things that need to stay
with us when we see the gradual weaning out of facts that don’t fit the
rhetoric; the shaping of an allegory which covers all facets of human life.
After the twin-towers attack and for a while after, music
stations were warned off, on this day in 2001, from playing sensitive songs by
Clear Channel Communications; 165 of them. This is a difficult one ‘cos what
you have to do is try not to smile at some of them. OK?
Promise me now. OK.
Otherwise I’m not gonna do it. OK…
and I’m not gonna list them all, you can go look for yourself
but the list of suspects included:
AC/DC: ‘Shot Down in
Flames’ – ‘Highway to Hell’.
The Bangles: ‘Walk Like
an Egyptian’.
The Dave Clarke Five:
‘Bits and Pieces’
Blue Oyster Cult:
‘Burnin’ for You’
Elton John: ‘Bennie and
the Jets’
Metallica: ‘Enter
Sandman’
Peter, Paul and Mary:
‘Leavin’ on a Jet Plane’
James Taylor: ‘Fire and
Rain’
Van Halen: ‘Dancin’ in
the Streets’
Alien Ant Farm: ‘Smooth
Criminal’
Louis Armstrong: ‘What
a Wonderful World’
Would you have classed these songs as subversive or harmful
to the nation? Some of them in the list could have been viewed as insensitive,
but to ban them even for a short period? Does this mean these songs and these
artists, innocent as they were before the event, are now persona non grata
after it? How will they shape the listening perceptions of the audience? How
does this gagging of music alter the sense of the event? How much of a
diversion is it?
Right decision? Wrong decision?
I leave you to a restless, fitful night’s sleep. Byee….X!
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