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One Tragically Hip song....

I can't decide, is this over stupid or a good idea given the current state of affairs in the US?

Linky: http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2005/08/3109.cfm

Article:

Quote:

Ottawa Radio Stations Pull Hip Song After Hurricane Tragedy
Wednesday August 31, 2005 @ 04:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

http://www.chartattack.com/pics/2004...gicallyhip.jpg
The Tragically Hip

Two rock stations near the top of Ottawa's radio dial have opted to remove a listener-favourite song from their playlists for the time being, hoping not to upset any listeners after category 4 hurricane Katrina hit the Louisiana coast, practically submerging New Orleans with flood waters.

If you haven't guessed already, the song with the currently awkward title is "New Orleans Is Sinking," The Tragically Hip's 1989 classic which has long been a staple on both The Bear (106.9) and CHEZ (106.1) in O-Town, averaging two or three spins a week on either station.

The Bear accidentally aired the song on Monday afternoon, around the time of the storm's peak — when they made the connection between the track and the tragedy, however, it was pulled from rotation. Program director Gord Taylor told the Ottawa Sun that their playlist is made days ahead of time. "It just happened to land on our schedule before we realized the full impact of the storm," he said. "It wasn’t a conscious decision to play 'New Orleans Is Sinking' just as the city was really sinking."

Well, flooding, but we get the point. CHEZ's program director lucked out and took the song off their playlist before it had a chance to offend.

Of course, all this "sensitivity" stuff seems a little ridiculous to the cynics here at ChartAttack, but the Hip track does hit pretty close to home on this one, so maybe giving the song a short vacation isn't such a bad idea. It makes a hell of a lot more sense than the post-September 11th recommendations from radio kings Clear Channel, who wanted their U.S. stations to avoid a huge list of potentially offensive titles, most famously "Great Balls Of Fire," "What A Wonderful World" and "It's Raining Men."

Meanwhile, the Hip song should still appear on the fan-voted track list of Yer Favourites, the Best Of part of an upcoming CD/DVD box set from the band. Titled Hipeponymous, the set is scheduled for release November 1.

—David McDougall

At first blush it seems like "well that's a stupid thing to do... who cares?" Then again, after 9-11 people were afraid to say the words "two" and "towers" in the same sentence for years.

In a way, it is kind of silly to get all self-concious about songs that have been around for years and pull them from the radio. The song doesn't actually have to do with the current tragedy.
But hey, why not be careful and not bring up sensitive subjects when you don't have to? It's one thing to pull all sorts of things that could, in some people's minds relate to a tragedy (like some of the stuff after 9-11), but it's another to take something off the radio that actually has the sentance "New Orleans is sinking" in it. Like with any huge, life-changing event, it's best to just not remind people of it for a while. The radio is meant to provide enjoyment and entertainment for people. Imagine if the city you lived in was submerged in water and a song like that came on. Not only would you not really want to hear a song with those words at the moment, but it would probably seem almost mocking and launch a wave of emotion and realization that, perhaps, you weren't in at the moment. It's like playing songs about death to someone whose father has just died, or playing songs about breaking up to someone who has recently gotten out of a long relationship. If they're not thinking about it already, why remind them?

Besides, it's nice to see some concern on the part of radio stations and the songs they play after a huge event like this. After the tsunami, radio stations were doing the opposite and playing brand new, offensive songs about the event as if it was some type of joke.
This is much preffered, imo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trisk

Besides, it's nice to see some concern on the part of radio stations and the songs they play after a huge event like this. After the tsunami, radio stations were doing the opposite and playing brand new, offensive songs about the event as if it was some type of joke.
This is much preffered, imo.

Yeah, that's kind of weird - seems like a double-standard almost. One station self-censors an old song (out of context) and another deliberately makes a song that is specifically offensive to the tsunami victims.

I haven't been able to get that song out of my head since I first heard that New Orleans was likely to get flooded...

With regards to 9/11 I was visiting broadcaster clients in Europe at the time and they were scrambling to change their schedules... they removed shows like Friends, NYPD Blues from the schedule (for short while anyway) and had to reschedule films like Turbulance (plot involves Hijacker Ray Liota taking over a plane).

These were all scheduled weeks in advance of 9/11.

Quote:

Bourbon blues on the street, loose and complete
Under skies all smoky blue green
I can't forsake a dixie dead shake
So we danced the sidewalk clean
My memory is muddy
What's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking man
And I don't wanna swim

Colonel Tom, what's wrong? what's going on?
You can't tie yourself up for a deal
He said, Hey north you're south shut your big mouth,
You gotta do what you feel is real
Ain't got no picture postcards, ain't got no souvenirs
My baby, she don't know me when I'm thinking bout those years

Pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire
Sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire
Picking out the highlights of the scenery
Saw a little cloud that looked a little like me

I had my hands in the river
My feet back up on the banks
Looked up to the lord above
And said, hey man thanks
Sometimes I fell so good, I gotta scream
She said Gordie baby I know exactly what you mean
She said, she said, I swear to god she said

My memory is muddy
What's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking man and I don't wanna swim

Swim!

Now remember folks, this song is at least 10 years old...

My buddy said this very morning:
"Hey Ben, New Orleans is sinking..."
to which I replied "And I don't want to swim..."

If you are Canadian, you know, love, and have memorized this song. It becomes not very funny during the recent events.

I love that song. I'm one of them sick bastards that if I was trapped there, I would be singing it all the time, if not plyain it on a boom box. While I hate the PC knee jerk reaction to pull songs and videos because "someone might get offended", I do understand their reasoning for taking a break from that song. I can't say I find fault with it either, in this case. I still think that trying to pull "Great Balls of Fire" was fucking retarded though.

I want to know when they'll pull Hurricane by the Scorpions, now there's an insensitive song [/sarcasm]

Haha! And how about "The Hurricane" by REM too! [/more sarcasm]