Saturday, March 05, 2011

So I just returned from some business travel, which meant I had the displeasure of spending a fair number of hours in airports dealing with connections, security, and immigration. I happened to be in a sort of food court area waiting for a connecting flight, and there was music playing loud enough so you could actually hear and understand it. Well, a Clash song comes on, Police and Thieves, and there's a recurring line in the song "...guns and ammunition." And it occurred to me that you could never utter the phrase "guns and ammunition" at an airport, as you'd have some serious splainin to do if anybody in an official capacity overheard you. But what if you're just humming and mumbling along absentmindedly to a song?

And by the way, really? They're playing Clash songs at airports now? And not the later more pop friendly Clash, but the original angry punk Clash. I guess it shows the mainstreaming over time of all pop culture elements, no matter how seemingly extreme they are in their moment. I fully expect to hear unfiltered gangsta rap at airports and dentist offices in 20 years time...

Incidentally, a Bob Marley song came on after The Clash: "Get Up Stand Up". You know the song: "...stand up for your rights, don't give up the fight." If anyone around me was aware of the irony of being in a place where you have virtually no civil rights while a song about rights is playing, they kept it well hidden...

1 Comments:

Anonymous Not my Fault Wife said...

glad you weren't singing along.

7:32 PM  

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