Dire Straits Banned from Canadian Radio

[tony-w]

I didn't think Canada was that conservative.

[docdownload]

Tony you got it wrong. Conservatives believe in freedom Liberals want
to take away freedoms. Not trying to be political just accurate

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by docdownload

Tony you got it wrong. Conservatives believe in freedom Liberals want
to take away freedoms. Not trying to be political just accurate

Please refrain from all Political commentary here.

[woodlander]

Good thing they nipped this in the bud. If you let it go on for another 25 years, who knows what might have happened.

[eddiel]

Originally Posted by tony-w

I didn't think Canada was that conservative.

Canada is fairly conservative in general. The difference between say US conservatives and Canadian conservatives is that in Canada they're generally not as passionate about being conservative and let people get on with it. I believe Canadian conservatives are too lazy and comfortable to chase after liberals!

Like many countried the cities have a liberal attitude and when you venture outside of the cities it tends to be a little more conservative.

Every once in a while someone in Canada has to do something dumb. You should have been around for the time when the Barenaked Ladies were booked to perform at a Toronto city celebration and a week before hand one councillor had the bright idea of suggesting their band name might offend people and they were banned from playing. I think eventually they did play.

What I find really annoying about this recent ban is that it was based on ONE person complaining. I think the world can live with either version of this song one way or another but one complaing resulting in a review and ban? Kind crazy.

Eddie

[salmtpa]

Originally Posted by woodlander

Good thing they nipped this in the bud. If you let it go on for another 25 years, who knows what might have happened.

Yeah, next thing you know they'll be editing Mark Twain to "protect us from ourselves".

[MC352]

Originally Posted by salmtpa

Yeah, next thing you know they'll be editing Mark Twain to "protect us from ourselves".

They are already editing Mark Twain. I saw a news article on that about a week ago. Maybe you saw the same article.

[ian@pmc]

Originally Posted by docdownload

Tony you got it wrong. Conservatives believe in freedom Liberals want
to take away freedoms. Not trying to be political just accurate

no.

[Mighty Favog]

Originally Posted by woodlander

Good thing they nipped this in the bud. If you let it go on for another 25 years, who knows what might have happened.

Yea, somebody might just sit down and write a Koran.

[powerlight]

I think we can all agree this is a ridiculous ban. Now, as a Canadian, I feel obliged to say that it is not all Canadians or even the majority of Canadians who were offended by this song. It was one person who was offended by Knopfler’s reference to “that little f**ot.” To clarify further, the song was never banned. It was the use of the word “f**ot” that was banned. The song is played as much as it ever was (every 15 minutes) but without the “f**ot” verse.

Anyone who listens to and understands music knows, as metaphacts said, the message isn’t that gays are bad, the message is listen to how dumb someone sounds when they say stuff like this. (Like metaphacts, I also heard the song the other day and laughed that they specify “colour T.V.s”: Raise your hand if you still had a black and white T.V. in 1985.)

Everyone I have spoken to thinks pretty much the same thing: it is silly to go back and apply our judgments to something from another time. Medieval feudalism seems awful and barbaric by our standards too, but it was arguably slightly better than what preceded it.

I think we can all agree that this is a DUMB move. It IS true that “Every once in a while someone in Canada has to do something dumb” as Eddiel said. In this way Americans and Canadians are really not that different, as my American friends and family keep pointing out. After all, the U.S. has done a few doozies in its time too. The more I meet people from different countries the more I come to realize that our commonalities, like a love of music, outweigh our differences and that saying “they” are like this doesn’t do justice to all the cool and amazing people that have a different flag than me.

Dire Straits is an amazing band and Money for Nothing is one of those rock anthems that is played to death for a reason. May it be played loudly for many years to come.