"Them bullies won't fuck with me anymore!"
"Future school shooters"
"Guns amok"
"All I want for Christmas is to be an orphan!"
OK Everybody, Sing along!
Brenda Spencer opened fire with a rifle at the Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California, killing two adults and injuring nine children. She later explained her actions with the statement, “I don’t like Mondays” back in 1979.
The Boomtown Rats were at a US radio station for an interview when the story of Brenda Spencer came over the news wire. As a loud mid ’70s rock band, the Boomtown Rats were (respectfully if not completely accurately) branded punks by the media. As the Sex Pistols and the Clash became the voice of young London punks, The Boomtown Rats carried the flag for the youth of Dublin. After their debut album saw respectable sales in 1978, they recorded “I Don’t Like Mondays,” their most successful and most enduring hit despite the fact that many US radio stations refused to play it.
I wonder why?
Since Brenda Spencer went “postal” there have been many shootings like this. School shootings like this happen all the time, but they are treated as local news, unless they are like Columbine or yesterday’s Virginia Tech shootings.
I mean 32 dead. Wow, that’s a new record.
I guess the next big school shooting is going to have to top that to become news.
There are other songs which pinpoint the real instrumentality which allows for this carnage: Guns. Cheryl Wheeler’s “If It Were Up To Me”, Wall of Voodoo’s “Shouldn’t have given him a gun for Christmas”, Captain Sensible’s “Yanks with Guns”, Robert Bobby “Guns across the USA”, The Beatles “Happiness is a Warm Gun”, Johnny Cash “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town”, Lynyrd Skynyrd “Saturday Night Special”, Harry Chapin “Sniper”, Indigo Girls “Don’t Give that Girl a Gun”, various versions of “The Devil’s Right Hand”, I Can Lick Any Son Of… “Dear Mr. Heston”, Ian Hunter “Gun Control”, Pearl Jam “Glorified G”, Robert Bobby “guns Across the USA”, any other suggestions out there?
Anyway, Cheryl Wheeler’s “If it were up to me” which ends with “If it were up to me, I’d take away the guns.” is also not played on the airwaves. The pro-gun crowd is too scared of it.
Why? let’s face it, more guns does not equal less crime. If it were the case, Philadelphia would be one of the safest places in the nation with the largest number of NRA life members and amount of concealed carry permits. Also, Virginia, they can just strap on a gun there, but this is the second time they have been victimised by maniacs with a gun on a large scale (anybody remember Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad?).
I mean those last two paralaysed the nation’s capital with only one gun. Shit, the East Coast!
Not bad.
It is the guns and I don’t hear many people talking about gun responsibilities!
Sorry, but 28 years is too long and too many bodies have piled up from guns. It’s costs this country too much to treat all the gunshot victims.
It’s time for guns to be put under strict regulation–after all Heller-McDonald says that’s Constitutionally OK.
The only thing stopping that happening is the gun lobby.
For a great piece on Brenda Spencer listen to ‘s piece from Day to Day, January 31, 2005:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4472389
Add on the following songs:
Stephen Sondheim: Gun Song, Bobby Bare Jr.: Gun Show, Railroad Jerk: Gun Problem, Kittens For Christian: Gun Country, D.R.I.: Gun Control , Guess Who: Guns, Guns, Guns, Junior Reid: Gun Court, Boy Wundah: Change (The Anti Gun Crime Song), 311: Guns (Are For Pussies), Gorillaz: Kids With Guns, Robert Bobby: Guns Across The U.S.A and Bigger Guns., UB40: Guns In The Ghetto, The Damned: Gun Fury, The Tannahill Weavers: At The End Of A Pointed Gun, Steely Dan: With A Gun, Buju Banton: Mr. Nine, Aerosmith: Janie’s Got A Gun, Indigo Girls: Don’t Give That Girl A Gun, and Julie Brown: Homecoming Queen’s got a gun
MORE SUGGESTIONS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME!
BE SURE TO CALL IN AND REQUEST THEY BE PLAYED ON THE RADIO IN AFTER THE NEXT MASS SHOOTING!
Nothing embarrasses the Gunloons more than being shown up for being the headcases they are.
Caption: America's future Secret Service Agents.
ReplyDeleteThey probably don't play those songs on the radio because they suck.
Sorry, Anonymous, but the pro-gun side has made it clear they don't want those songs on the radio.
ReplyDeleteWhat they wants--they gets.
FIGHT GUN CONTROL OR WE'LL SHOOT YOU!
BTW, this is from the Wikipedia article about "I Don't Like Mondays":
ReplyDeleteGeldof had originally intended the song as a b-side, but changed his mind after the song went down well with audiences on the Rats' US tour.[2] Spencer's family tried unsuccessfully to prevent the single from being released in the United States.[2] Despite being a major hit in the United Kingdom, it only reached #73 on the US Billboard Hot 100,[3] partly due to Geldof's antagonistic attitude[citation needed] towards U.S. radio stations. The song was played regularly by album-oriented rock format radio stations in the United States throughout the 1980s, although radio stations in San Diego still refrained from playing the track for some years in respect to local sensitivities about the shooting. The song became Number One in the UK single charts in July 1979. In the UK it won the prestigious Best Pop Song and Outstanding British Lyric categories at the Ivor Novello Awards.[4] It was subsequently covered by Tori Amos on her 2001 album Strange Little Girls and later by G4 on their 2006 album Act Three.
So, anoynous once again shows us he has no idea of what he's talking about.
I missed this:
ReplyDeleteVH1 rated the song at #67 on its list of the top 100 one hit wonders of the '80s, despite the song being released in 1979 and the Boomtown Rats having several other hits in Great Britain and Ireland.
It's good to know how much influence our side has. Would you care to surrender now?
ReplyDeleteCaption for the Santa picture: Naughty doesn't get coal this year.
Well, which is it pooch, they play them on the radio or they don't. Make up your mind.
ReplyDeleteEat hot lead, Rudolf!
ReplyDeleteOur anonymous shit for brains doesn't get that his side does not like it that these songs get played.
ReplyDeleteBut, they are hits.
They usually don't get played, but if anonymous SFB could understand plain English it became a hit despite the low amount of airplay.
Sorry, Greg, but even "your side" finds this shit over the top.
We won't give up until you are getting buggered in an Arkansas jail for having an unregistered firearm anyway, greg.
20 bucks says Greg never gets arrested for having an unregistered firearm in the USA.
ReplyDeleteLaci the Dog,
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should check the gun laws of Arkansas more closely. We don't have gun registration in this state, being a part of the United States. Every weapon that I own has been purchased legally, even the ones without papers.
And the good news? Most other states have the same laws.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteOh, go higher than $20. There aren't many states that require registration, and I have no interest in living in the ones that do.