Clear Channel Skies Ahead

Clear Channel Communications pretty much owns every radio station in the United States. They also own most of the live music venues. It’s essentially a monopoly. The U.S. government is supposedly opposed to this type of corporate domination. Still, it’s a good game, although it is kind of weird that a classically popular U.S. board game is based around the idea of effecting a stranglehold on the economy in contravention of federal law.

In the weeks following the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Clear Channel programming executives produced a list of songs deemed too upsetting or controversial for the grieving American public which they released to program directors at their radio stations. Here’s the list:

3 Doors Down - Duck and Run
311 - Down
ACDC - Dirty Deed Done Dirt Cheap
Hells Bells
Highway to Hell
Shoot to Thrill
Shot Down In Flames
T.N.T
The Ad Libs - The Boy From New York City
Alice In Chains - Down In a Hole
Rooster
Sea of Sorrow
Them Bones
Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal
Animals - We Gotta Get Out of This Place
Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful World
The Bangles - Walk Like an Egyptian
Barenaked Ladies - Falling For the First Time
Fontanella Bass - Rescue Me
Beastie Boys - Sabatoge
Sure Shot
Beatles - Day in the Life
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Ticket to Ride
Pat Benetar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Love Is A Battlefield
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
War Pigs
Blood, Sweat and Tears - And When I Die
Blue Oyster Cult - Burnin' For Yo
Boston -Smokin
David Bowie & Mick Jagger -Dancing in the Street
Arthur Brown -Fire
Jackson Browne -Doctor My Eyes
Buddy Holly and the Crickets -That'll Be the Day
Bush -The People That We Love
The Chi-Lites - Have You Seen Her
Petula Clark - A Sign of the Times
The Clash - Rock the Casbah
Phil Collins -In the Air Tonight
Sam Cooke - Wonderful World
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Travelin' Band
The Cult - Fire Woman
Bobby Darin - Mack the Knife
Dave Clark Five - Bits and Pieces
Dave Matthews Band - Crash into Me
Skeeter Davis - The End of the World
Neil Diamond - America
Dio - Holy Diver
The Doors - The End
The Drifters - On Broadway
Drowning Pool - Bodies
Bob Dylan - Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Everclear - Santa Monica
Shelley Fabares - Johnny Angel
Filter - Hey Man, Nice Shot
Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly
Fuel - Bad Day
Peter Gabriel - When You're Falling
The Gap Band - You Dropped a Bomb on Me
Godsmack - Bad Religion
Green Day - Brain Stew
Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the Sky
Guns N' Roses - Knockin' on Heaven's Door
The Happenings - See You in September
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Hey Joe
Herman's Hermits - Wonderful World
The Hollies - He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
Jan and Dean - Dead Man's Curve
Billy Joel - Only the Good Die Young
Elton John - Bennie and the Jets
Daniel
Rocket Man
Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge - The Worst That Could Happen
Judas Priest - Some Heads Are Gonna Roll
Kansas - Dust in the Wind
Carole King - I Feel the Earth Move
Korn - Falling Away from Me
Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
John Lennon - Imagine
Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire
Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff
Local H - Bound for the Floor
Los Bravos - Black Is Black
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Tuesday's Gone
Martha and the Vandellas - Nowhere to Run
Dancing in the Street
MC Hammer - Have You Seen Her
Barry McGuire - Eve of Destruction
Don McLean - American Pie
Megadeth - Dread and the Fugitive Mind
Sweating Bullets
John Mellencamp - Crumbling Down
I'm on Fire
Metallica - Enter Sandman
Fade to Black
Harvester of Sorrow
Seek & Destroy
Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels - Devil with a Blue Dress On
Alanis Morissette - Ironic
Mudvayne - Death Blooms
Ricky Nelson - Travelin' Man
Nena - 99 Luftballons
Nine Inch Nails - Head Like a Hole
Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
Ozzy Osbourne - Suicide Solution
Paper Lace - The Night Chicago Died
John Parr - St. Elmo's Fire
Peter and Gordon - I Go to Pieces
A World Without Love
Peter, Paul and Mary - Blowin' in the Wind
Leaving on a Jet Plane
Tom Petty - Free Fallin'
Pink Floyd - Mother
Run Like Hell
P.O.D. - Boom
Elvis Presley - (Yu're the) Devil in Disguise
The Pretenders - My City Was Gone
Queen - Another One Bites the Dust
Killer Queen
Rage Against the Machine - All songs by Rage Against the Machine
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Aeroplane
Under the Bridge
R.E.M. - It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
The Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday
Saliva - Click Click Boom
Santana - Evil Ways
Savage Garden - Crash and Burn
Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Frank Sinatra - New York, New York
Slipknot - Left Behind
Wait and Bleed
The Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet With Butterfly Wings
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
Blow Up the Outside World
Fell on Black Days
Bruce Springsteen - I'm Goin' Down
I'm on Fire
War
Edwin Starr - War
Steam - Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye
Steve Miller Band - Jet Airliner
Cat Stevens - Morning Has Broken
Peace Train
Stone Temple Pilots - Big Bang Baby
Dead & Bloated
Sugar Ray -Fly
The Surfaris - Wipeout
System of a Down - Chop Suey!
Talking Heads - Burning Down the House
James Taylor - Fire and Rain
Temple of the Dog - Say Hello 2 Heaven
Third Eye Blind - Jumper
Three Degrees - When Will I See You Again
Tool - Intolerance
The Trammps - Disco Inferno
U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday
Van Halen - Jump
Dancing in the Street
J. Frank Wilson - Last Kiss
Wings - Live and Let Die
The Youngbloods - Get Together
Zager and Evans - In the Year 2525
The Zombies - She's Not There

The programming executives responsible for the list explained that it was created on an informal basis and was intended as a mere suggestion for Clear Channel radio stations and not an actual ban on these songs. Despite prior admissions to the press, Clear Channel later disclaimed the existence of the list.

As these events occurred nearly seven years ago, I do recognize that this is not exactly breaking news. But I just found out about it. So it’s breaking news to me.

The very creation of such a list is an inherently strange exercise, a preemptive corporate analysis of American grief and its relationship to popular music. What was its express purpose? Was it a genuine, albeit paternalistic, expression of concern for the American people in the wake of tragedy? Was it a calculated commercial decision, designed to reduce the incidence of radio listeners becoming offended or overwhelmed with emotion who might then switch off their radios or change the station (although, the latter would hardly matter, as, once again, Clear Channel Communications owns pretty much every radio station in the United States)? Only Clear Channel knows for sure.

The list of songs can be broken down into several different content specific categories: songs about airplanes or flight, songs about fire/explosions, songs about jumping or falling and songs about mortality.

I can sort of understand the logic behind the temporary suspension of songs about airplanes. Steve Miller Band’s reference to that "big ole jet airliner” might not evoke the most pleasant images in the minds of listeners, given the timing. Same for “Leaving On a Jet Plane,” although I personally would have included John Denver’s version rather than the one by Peter, Paul and Mary, because he actually left on a plane and never came back.

This type of reasoning might explain the somewhat puzzling inclusion of Ricky Nelson’s “Traveling Man,” a fairly innocuous song about a philandering commuter with a lady in every port. Is Ricky Nelson on this list because he also died in a plane crash? If so, this would require a great deal of explication and prior knowledge on the part of the listener. Obviously, someone at Clear Channel thought that the following scenario was likely to occur: “Oh man, I love this song. Turn. It. Up! Ricky Nelson: classic. Remember when he was on Ozzie & Harriett? He was really good in that, even though he was just a teenager. Humph. Whatever happened to him? Oh yeah, he died in a plane crash, quite young if I remember correctly. Sad. Who else died in a plane crash? Aww crap! September 11. Now I’m just depressed. Tammy, turn off the radio!”

If you had never heard Elton John’s “Benny & the Jets,” you might be tempted to include it in a list of this sort. But aren’t the “Jets” mentioned in the song some sort of colorful street gang, like the “Sharks” from West Side Story, and not a reference to actual planes? Wait. Strike that. I think it’s about a band called “Benny & the Jets.” Anyway, the point is that it’s not about real jet airplanes. Was this list compiled by a computer?

I can also understand how songs about explosions or fiery conflagrations might not be that appropriate right after the destruction of the World Trade Center. Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire,” Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House” and James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” are all fair enough. The Gap Band’s “You Dropped a Bomb On Me?” Okay. ACDC’s “TNT” and "Shot Down in Flames?" Fine. “Disco Inferno”? Now you’re starting to lose me. That song is about burning up the dancefloor…..with red-hot dance moves. And “St. Elmo’s Fire?" All that does is make me think of Rob Lowe playing the saxophone. While wearing sunglasses. At night. Indoors. Everyone knows that’s just soothing.

I can get behind the inclusion of Tom Petty’s “Free Falling.” That does oddly conjure an image of people jumping off of a giant skyscraper. But not so for Van Halen’s “Jump.” For some reason, this makes me think of chesty aerobics instructors.

The songs about mortality are even more tenuous. Oingo Boingo’s “Dead Man’s Party” is obviously about death, but they make it seem fun. Who doesn’t like a good party? I bet they would have xylophones made out skeletons at that party. “Knocking On Heaven’s Door”, both the Bob Dylan and Guns & Roses versions (Don’t even bother trying to answer that age old question of which one is better. Who can really say?), is about a cowboy sheriff or something, and really doesn’t make me think of terrorism in the modern age. I believe Jan and Dean’s “Dead Man’s Curve” is about the perils of drag racing. In the early 1960’s. This would totally remind me of 9/11, if the terrorists had been angry “greasers” bent on destroying a plane full of “soshes.” Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day” is about dying on the inside after your girlfriend dumps you. Much like with Ricky Nelson, I suspect this was included because Buddy Holly died in a place crash.

Songs with overt political messages are also predictably verboten. The funniest part of the entire list has to be the line “Rage Against the Machine – All songs by Rage Against the Machine.” Sorry Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” This is no time to ponder the futility of war and the crass profiteering which follows. That goes for pinko peaceniks like you too, John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Cat Stevens’ “Peace Train” and “Morning Has Broken?” No way. That guy became a Muslim. Lois Armstrong? You and your “Wonderful World” can go fuck yourselves.

Apparently, Clear Channel felt that any mention of the Middle East was too provocative for the American listener, as evidenced by the appearance of the always controversial “Walk Like an Egyptian.” The Clash’s “Rock the Casbah" also made the list, which is weird, considering that the song is kind of all about subverting Islamic extremism throught the power of rock music. I think that “Rock the Casbah” could be really inspiring in an international crisis of this type. Plus, it’s allegedly very popular with members of the U.S. military and was the first song played by Armed Forces Radio at the start of the first Gulf War.

The inclusion of some of the songs on the list is entirely mystifying. For instance, Nena’s “99 Luftballons” or “Ruby Tuesday” by The Rolling Stones or The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Under the Bridge.” As far as I can tell, the only thing that theses songs have in common is that they are all tinged with melancholy. Most of the great pop songs of the last century contain an element of melancholy, because great pop songs are mostly about love and loss. This doesn’t leave much for the grieving American public to listen to.

And why, you ask, would Clear Channel want to suppress Alien Ant Farm’s “Smooth Criminal,” but not the original by Michael Jackson? Because Alien Ant Farm’s cover version is really, really sucky. That’s just a good programming decision. The American people had suffered enough.