The art and music censors – McSherry’s Musings

(Warning: This column contains asterisks **). Recently I was stunned and saddened to read that Elvis Costello will no longer perform ‘Oliver’s Army’ at live gigs. His biggest hit that reached number two in the charts in 1979, would be the highlight of the show.

Apparently a number of woke DJs have taken to beeping out the word ‘n****r’ in the lyrics. It includes the line, “Only takes one itchy trigger, one more widow, one less white n****r, Oliver’s Army is here to stay…” Costello unfortunately decided it is not worth the bother and has consigned the great song to the bin. If the DJs had taken the time to understand, it was not used to insult black people, rather the artist’s Irish grandfather was called a “white n****r” by other soldiers when he was in the British Army. It brilliantly contextualises the attitude of the racist squadies. Context!

After Ronan Keating and Moya Brennan changed the lyrics of the classic Fairytale of New York from “You scumbag, you maggot you cheap lousy f****t” to “You scumbag, you maggot you’re cheap and you’re haggard” the ball was over the wall. How those two were let anywhere near that song… Shane McGowan was not making a derogatory comment about gay folk, and again it was a few ‘enlightened’ DJs brought up the issue decades after its release in 1988. He explained that he was describing the alcoholic man in the song as “lazy or a waster”. He didn’t waste his breath arguing with the PC police.

African-American comedian Dave Chappelle, who had his own show, tells the story of his visit to a TV network’s ‘Standards and Practices Department’. You don’t want to hear from them! He was called to order for a sketch that included the word, ‘f****t’. The woman, let’s call her Julie, said, “You can’t use that word!” to which Chappelle replied, “How come I can use the word ‘n****r’ but can’t use the word ‘f****t?” She responded, “Because David, you’re not gay!” He nodded thoughtfully and said, “Okay Julie, there’s just one thing, I’m not a ‘n****r’ either”.

Banning songs and problematic words is nothing new. Shortly after the Parachute Regiment shot dead 14 innocent people in Derry on Bloody Sunday in 1972, Paul McCartney released the song, “Give Ireland back to the Irish”. McCartney said he was “deeply troubled” by the images on the news adding, “For better or worse, this was a moment where I had a sense that art, could and should, respond to a situation”. It was banned from broadcast in the UK by the BBC and other organisations. Ironically it was a song that eulogised Britain as ‘tremendous’ while asking it to pack up and “give Ireland back to the Irish, don’t make them have to take it away”.

Another Beatle and great songwriter John Lennon was much edgier in his response ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ (not to be confused with the U2 song of the same name). It certainly didn’t make the BBC playlist. “The cries of 13 martyrs filled the Derry air, is there anyone amongst you dare to blame it on the kids? Not a soldier boy was bleeding when they nailed the coffin lids!” (A 14th victim died four months later from the injuries he received on Bloody Sunday).

In 1977, the year of Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee, punk band the Sex Pistols released their version of ‘God Save the Queen’. It was anarchy, confrontational and defiant. The BBC and Independent Broadcasting Authority banned it totally. It reached number 2 on the official UK singles charts as used by the BBC, leading to accusations by some that the charts had been ‘fixed’ to prevent the song reaching number 1.

In 2016, Conservative MP and pro-Brexiteer, Andrew Rosindell called on BBC 1 to restore the tradition of playing ‘God Save The Queen’ at the end of each day’s programming. The response from presenter Kirsty Wark on Newsnight was wonderful. At the conclusion of the BBC 2 programme, with a twinkle in her eye, she looked at the camera and said, “We’re not on BBC 1 and it’s not quite the end of the day but we are incredibly happy to oblige. Good night”. And sure enough there was footage of Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols leaping about stage, “God save the queen, the fascist regime, they made you a moron, a potential H bomb…”

Back in 1981, the year of the hungerstrike, the North was in turmoil and trauma. The Police (the rock band not the RUC!) released a haunting single ‘Invisible Sun.’ Songwriter Sting explained, “’Invisible Sun’ is a dark, brooding song about the lurking violence of those streets, patrolled by armoured cars, haunted by fear and suspicion, and wounds that would take generations to heal. I wanted to show some light at the end of the tunnel”. Yes! You guessed! It was banned by the BBC as it was judged “overly political”. It expressed the hopelessness felt by many, ”I don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking at the barrel of an Armalite, I don’t want to spend the rest of my days keeping out of trouble like the soldiers say…”

Sometimes it takes music and art to rock the official version and shock people out of their complacency.