Well, maybe he has a point about "Hotel California" and Kenny G. Sharia alert from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:
TEHRAN, Iran - George Michael, Eric Clapton and Kenny G. will no longer be heard on Iranian airwaves after hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a decree banning Western music from the country's radio and TV stations.The official IRAN Persian daily reported Monday that Ahmadinejad, as head of Iran's Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council, ordered the enacting of an October ruling by the council for Western songs to be banned.
"Blocking indecent and Western music from the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting is required," according to a statement on the council's official Web site.
Ahmadinejad's order means the IRIB must execute the decree and prepare a report on its implementation within six months, according to the newspaper....
Songs such as George Michael's "Careless Whisper," Eric Clapton's "Rush" and "Hotel California" by the Eagles regularly accompany Iranian TV and programs, as do tunes by saxophonist Kenny G.
Leave Kenny G. alone. He played at the Jazz/Latin Festival in Aruba that I once attended; during his playing I fell asleep, and slept through the rest of the evening while all about me were gyrating wildly. So there is something to be said for him. If he could put the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to sleep, the world would be a better place.
Music famously soothes the savage breast. Where in the Western world can one find as great a concentration of savage breasts needing to be soothed as can be found in any city, town, village, or hamlet in the Islamic Republic of Iran?
And what will Cat Stevens say? Well, he has a loophole: what he plays, he could argue, "isn't music."
H'mm, pretty dangerous banning MUSIC!!Might be another assassination attempt on 'Marmeduke 'very
soon by disgruntled teenagers.As we know Muslims
easily get riled : then they want to KILL...KILL
This is nothing new. From the very beginning Islam has condemned music and dancing. Middle Eastern music, dance forms such as "belly dancing" and other art forms all survived because they were pre-Islamic and carefully preserved by the Dhimmi communities.
Robert, I'll email you an article on how Middle Eastern dance was a Byzantine Christian artform and was used as cultural resistance to Muslim conquerors.
l just heart this information on the radio! seems like you will have lots of bored people... one good reason to dump the immans! is there still radio progam that use to play into communist europe, called l think free America? or free radio? we should beam them in some real good music..start with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and favourite of my teenage years "Led Zepplin"!!! then to top it off, send over some real good Country Music!! maybe Johnny Cash's RIng of Fire, that could inspire some islamic rage on the immans!!
Banning western Music? Who the hell cares?Let them rant their Islamic muslic- on one condition- No western instruments should be used. More over, that President of Iran, or the Muslims should never travel by car,Air plane or even a cycle. It is all the inventions of the glorious Western brains. Let them travel on camel or donkey's back. Saudi Arabia bans Western Christians of entering their Haj Kaba stone worshopping site. But the irony is ,all the lightings,buildings ,water reclamation plants,every thing is designed and executed by either chritian or Jewish brains!. I suggest to the President of Iran , some more items to be banned to Muslims so that it will be a great relief for the entire non-Islamic world!:
1. Muslims should not travel by Air-planes-as the Western Chritian infedals - Right Brothers have invented it.
2. Infedal Ford invented the motor car. Muslims -Allah will kill you if you ever use this. Go for a camel or donkey ride.
3.They should not wear suits,ties,pants ,-Only towel for the head and a shroud like Ayatholla Komeni.
4. Muslims should not enter idfedal christian, Hindu ,or Budhist lands. They should not be dreaming of barging into these countries, to taste a civilised life.
5.The Muslim men should not 'drool'for the Western 'Blue eyed blonds',as they all do, but and should sticktly go for the shuttlecock parda clad Muslimas only.
I think the items go on and on and on! Every Iitem from the dot pen to Neuclear power (which now Iran wants to play with) all invented by Non-Muslims. It is all nothing, but an Inferiority complex these people have on the West and others Non-Muslims,and this makes them 'burn' with jealousy!.
The under-25 age group will find a way to get around this insane new policy by the little Hitler running Iran. Maybe after the youth figure out how to revolt against the music ban, they can figure out how to have a full-blown revolution and get rid of that guy and his mullah cronies for good. They would be doing themselves and the rest of the world a great favor.
Ahmadinejad probably hates "Hotel California" because the song parrallels his religion, "You can check out anytime you like/ but you can never leave."
Lyrics to live -- or die -- by.
Any mention of ABBA? Please.
BTW, Zombie at LGF linked to a site listing the stage names of many Jewish rock musicians who changed their names. Kenny G is really Kenny Gorelick and Barry Manilow is Barry Pincus. Of course, we all knew Gene Simmons (KISS) is really Chaim Witz. Maybe a live performance by KISS (Paul Stanley is Stanley Eisen) would give Ahmadinejad a heart attack.
http://www.jewsrock.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=words.view&wordid=110BFCB6-2382-430D-907D5165307D8C29
Have the Iranian people figured this out yet, that Ahmadinijewhatever is re-creating 1979?
Look at the world the way he sees it; democracy movements springing up all over the region, his own country continually marginalized, his people chafing at their chains, a U.S. president willing to stare him down, all this and more dont make a good recipe for success.
Ahmad has been voicing his crackpot holocaust screeds and talking nukes precisely to rile up the Israelis, he WANTS them to attack Irans nuclear facilities.
What better gift could he get than to have outraged muslims around the middle east focus on Israel, meanwhile he consolidates power and steals back any freedoms the Iranian people may have been carving out. Iran becomes center stage again in the muslim revolution and up goes the balloon.
Mahler's Adagietto
Beethoven's Ninth
rachmaninov's piano concerto
Mozart's requiem mass
Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto
All these work which epitomises the trumph of western culture,discarded and labelled as Haram by the Iranian Barbarian.
Next will come all ther Books and the all the paintings from the renaissance to the works of Turner, Manet,Renoir, Kandinsky, Miro, Chagal.
what will we have left when all this is gone ?
Alright! No more country-western music! I can't stand it anyway.
.......... oh, he said "Western" music.
Nevermind.
What?
No more "Peace train" by Yussef Islam, no more "All you need is love" by the Beatles, and "Imagine' by Johan Lennon?
Wonder if he allows the
"winds of Jihad"
"cut off a head for Al Jazeera..."
he might not like the message, but he probably likes the sound effects:
http://islamcomicbook.com/lyrics.htm
http://www.terrorists-suck.org/shoebomber
And what will Cat Stevens say???????
I have been caught by a Mooon Shadow .....Moon Shadow.....MOON Shadow. Come on sing it Cat!!!
Looks like the moon shadow of Islam has finally eclipsed Iran.
The Iranians had better start playing the song HELTER SKELTER- a future theme song for Iran.
I predict that the youths of Iran will become absolutely insane living under Ahmadinejad's iron grip and will revolt.
Too bad. No more "Rocking the Casbah", because you know, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." But then we won't be able to, so "Whose Gonna Drive (us) Home, Tonight?" No more "South City Midnight Ladies", no more, "West End Girls", no more "Black Velvet". The only way I can go downtown will be if "You'll Accompany Me". All I'll hear is "You Belong to Me" and that will really get on my nerves. You will expect me to be "Dependin' On You". (Man, "What a Fool Believes!")You'll want me to be "Like a Virgin" and "Crazy for You", but you'll be disappointed because I'm more of a "Material Girl" and a "One Girl Revolution". "One of These Nights" I'll drop the burqa, "Fight Fire with Fire" and you and I will reach a "Point of No Return." We will hit "The Wall". There will be "No Love to be Found" and in the "Blink of an Eye", with "No Lookin' Back", all you'll be able to say is "She's Gone". Then I'll sing a "Song for America", and walk "A Thousand Miles" to get away from you because, you see, "I Wouldn't Want to be Like You". I'll "Just Want to Celebrate" because "That's the Way, Uhuh, Uhuh, I Like It". I'll get back to "Life in the Fast Lane" and "Let the Good Times Roll". My friends will no longer ask "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" I will "Break Out" and you and I will live "Separate Lives". "Whose Cryin' Now?" You will ask me "Why Can't we be Friends?" but you know why.
After I get finished "Rockin'in the USA" I'm going right up to President Bush and talk to him about you because "You're an Illegal Alien". I'm going to tell him about your family too and tell him to not "Let'Em In". If you find me I will let out a "Rebel Yell" and go "Crazy on You" because "I Can't Hold Back" and because "I'm Good Without You". "I Saw the Light". And "You Can't Change That".
"Life's Been Good to me So Far"!!!
Goodnight everybody!
Hehheh... Kenny *G-Had.* ;)
One possible avenue of protest would be to go way, way Eastern: Blare traditional Japanese gagaku and all available fare from North Korea-- propaganda songs and "light" music. The DPRK seems to be great pals with Iran, so why not rock out with the Dear Leader?
As one great pundit once called it: demonstrating absurdity by being absurd.
Back in 70's I saw Joe Perry of Aerosmith proclaim; "this song's dedicated to that f***er in Iran who outlawed music, and we're gonna play it loud enough for them to hear over there!" The crown went nuts as Joe tore into a raucous version of Let the Music Do the Talkin'. I've been to a lot of shows and this was one of the most memorable things to come out of the mouth of a rocker onstage.
Iran is rapidly becoming the next "flashpoint" and unless the Persians successfully rise up and overthrow the Mad Mullahs, the Middle East will descend into a fireball.
Banning music is nothing compared to what is happening in Iran based on Islamic Law > the tortures, stoning to deaths, hanging, on and on.
See the Students for a Free and Democratic Iran Website. The Human Rights Violations are chilling, where is the UN, where is the whole world.
In 1998, America passed the Iraq Liberation Act (how convenient that the Democrats have forgotten this) which called for the removal of Saddam.
It is now time for America to pass the Iran Liberation Act and free the Persians of the Mad Mullahs!
"It is now time for America to pass the Iran Liberation Act and free the Persians of the Mad Mullahs"
-- from a posting above
If there is one lesson to be learned from Iraq, it is not to use soldiers to invade any Muslim countries for any purpose other than making war. There should be no attempt to "free the Persians" (who make up barely half of the Iranian population, and the Baluchis, Azeris, Arabs, and others may not wish to remain part of Iran).
The only interest is not in "liberating" Iran but in depriving it of the ability to cause great harm -- and that means repeated bombing, over a long period, of every site that can be identified as playing a part in the nuclear weapons project. Whether that will rally Iranians around the rulers, or cause those rulers to be so humiliated as to further encourage those who hate them, is unclear. It should not be part of the calculation. The only thing that matters is preventing Iran from getting such weaponry.
"Ahmadinejad probably hates "Hotel California" because the song parrallels his religion, "You can check out anytime you like/ but you can never leave." "
You're right, Jade.
As it is, the majority of Iranian youth do not identify with what they call "tazi", the Arab influence in Iran. They're Aryans and identify more with the western world, notwithstanding their stock and language, being of the Latin language family. I predict that Ahmadinejad will not last in power and at that p[oint, a revolution will be seen in Iran.
Please permit a group response to several previous posters:
1. To chevalier de st george - First off, LOVE the screen name. Have you heard the Chevalier's music? For those unfamiliar with him, he was referred to as the "Black Mozart" and was one of the greatest swordsmen in France! ANYHOW, I don't think that Iran's new cultural puritanism will get very far outside of the middle east, so not to worry. While many acting under the illusion of "Tolerance" and "Diversity" and "Cultural Sensitivity" might be inclined to accept a hallal McDonalds or even a local minaret blaring a discordant, bawling "call to prayer", the most certain method to create DEMAND for something is to forbid it. Even as accomodating as most Eurabians are these days, you scratch beneath the surface, and your average German would as soon rip your face off as to sacrifice a single line Goethe or note of Beethoven!
2. To Shinoliite: Gagaku RULEZ! Now maybe some kabuki music or Beijing opera broadcast at ear-piercing decibels might do the trick. And as far as DPRL pop is concerned... don't mess with the Dear Leader ^_^. I like your choice in music.
In general, with every passing day, Iran's attempt to revive the glories the Islamic Fundamentalist Revolution will ultimately isolate the regime, even WITH nukes. There is just so much lunacy that even Moscow and Beijing will put up with to have access to oil and maintain a "balance of power". However, it remains to be seen just HOW much lunacy will be considered TOO much lunacy.
In any event, it is definitely worth the effort to investigate the Students for a Free and Democratic Iran Website.
In order to weaken Islam in Iran, every effort must be made to identify it with Arabs, with primitive desert Arabs who came and poured the contents of a poisoned chalice down the throats of far more advanced inhabitants of Iran, heirs to, and participants in, Persian civilization. That word "tazi" needs to be emphasized. The glories, real and imaginary -- paint the picture as you wish -- of pre-Islamic Iran -- need to be emphasized. And then the history of Islam in Iran needs to be painted as well, as the story of a kind of steady but not named resistance to Islam. What, in Persian poetry of the Islamic period, is Islamic? What is "Islamic" about Sa'adi, Hafez, Khayyam? Isn't Firdowsi's "Shahnameh" regarded as having helped rescue Farsi from the cultrual and linguistic imperialism of the Arab invaders, who while remaining less advanced. When one talks of high Islamic civilization, which lasted for a few centuries -- as long as the influence of the pre-Islamic civilization, and those who had been formed by it, remained, and as long as significant numbers of Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians, both those not yet islamized and those only recently islamized but possessing a different mental formation, one means almost always non-Arabs -- Persians, arabized Jews and Christians, Central Asians (al-Farabi), and Berbrs. The Arabs, qua Arabs, produced almost no one of cultural significance. That, too, should be circualted throughout Iran, as one attempts to use the hatred for the Islamic Republic not merely to rid Iran of them, but to diminish the role of Islam.
What could substitute for it? Perhaps Zoroastrianism. Why do I say that, since I know almost nothing about it? Because it really doesn't matter what Zoroastrianism is all about. It isn't Islam. It is Persian. It is historically connected to, is part of, Persian history. Many quasi-Muslims will be reluctant to jettison Islam for Christianity. But they want, want, want some identity. Fine. Let them be Zoroastrians. Who cares? Zubin Mehta turned out all right. And burning corpses, or leaving them out for the vultures, is environmentally sound.
Onward and upward with Zoroastrianism.
By the way, it's not my idea.
Also sprach Zarathustra.
Damn, everyone is a music critic.
Robert and his fluegelhorn, all the people who
hate Kenny G., or country and western, or pop,
or rock, or ...
Personally, I like American jazz from the 1920s
to about 1960, but I don't freak out about people
liking other stuff, even though, frankly, your
music stinks ;-P.
I've heard Iranian music, and Arab music, and
Indian music, and yes I'm familiar with the fact that Indians and Arabs divide the octave into more pieces (22, 24?) than we do in the West,
but none of them have a sophisticated notion of
harmony (if any at all!) and I like music with
interesting chord progressions. We've got chords
in the West!
Once again, if anyone needs proof that these guys
are maniacs, here you go. They keep asking for
nukes, and I think we should oblige them. Lots
of nukes.
Perhaps some intel service can arrange to have Ahmedinajad's cell phone play the "Barney" song repeatedly.
chsw
Kevin: I have seen Aerosmith live as well. Regarding Ahmad-jihad all I have to say is "Dude looks like a lady !! !!!"
Unfortunately he doesn’t act like a lady.
But one day we’ll send him on Permanent Vacation