BBC doesn't like fairies

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ex-khobar Andy
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Re: BBC doesn't like fairies

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

BoSoxGal wrote:
Sat Nov 21, 2020 2:55 am
That is actually a much perpetuated myth about suicide:

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/ ... liday.html
Interesting. I did not know that, having heard and believed the myth for years. It's one of those myths which are plausible. I see that the page is from 2013 (more accurately, that's the date of its last revision) so it's from before the time CDC was politicized and before they were required to grind axes.

In the context of some discussions about the nature of this board which are happening, along with an English Lit class, over there on the News & Suggestions forum: this is one of the reasons I come here. I learn stuff. Thanks.

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BoSoxGal
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Re: BBC doesn't like fairies

Post by BoSoxGal »

I actually think a lot of suicidal folks hold on through the holidays out of desire to not tarnish the season for their loved ones by their suicide.

Coincidentally to this CDC information (which I don’t believe has changed in the 7 years intervening, according to suicide research I follow - yes it’s a subject of interest to me since childhood, no reason to be discussed) there is an entire body of research regarding the negative effects to health, such as increase in hearts attacks, auto accidents, etc. and drop in economic activity that occurs in spring and fall due to the switch from standard to daylight savings time and back.

I wonder if anyone has ever drilled down on any connection to increased suicide rates in spring and fall? As neuroscience advances, and also our clinical knowledge about how deeply sleep patterns impact all aspects of human health, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a connection eventually established. But there is already an abundant case for doing away with the change of clocks.
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Econoline
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Re: BBC doesn't like fairies

Post by Econoline »

BoSoxGal wrote:
Sat Nov 21, 2020 6:48 pm
I wonder if anyone has ever drilled down on any connection to increased suicide rates in spring and fall? As neuroscience advances, and also our clinical knowledge about how deeply sleep patterns impact all aspects of human health, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a connection eventually established. But there is already an abundant case for doing away with the change of clocks.
Oddly enough, I was just this morning I was listening to an episode of the BBC's "The Big Idea" which dealt with the science of sleep, and it was mentioned that yes, this has been studied, and yes, it was found that there were all the same negative health effects that you mentioned every spring, when everyone "loses" an hour.

ETA: Ah, here: found it.
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Gob
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Re: BBC doesn't like fairies

Post by Gob »

Nick Cave has accused the BBC of “mutilating” Fairytale of New York, following the broadcaster’s recent decision to play a censored version of the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl’s festive classic on Radio 1.

The BBC recently announced that the 1987 hit would still be played in its original form on Radio 2, while 6 Music DJs would be able to choose either version. The inconsistency of the policy has dredged up what is becoming a well-flogged pantomime horse.

Writing on the Red Hand Files, the website through which he answers questions submitted by fans, Cave said he could not comment on how offensive the word “faggot” is deemed, particularly by the young. “It may be deeply offensive, I don’t know,” he said. “In which case Radio 1 should have made the decision to simply ban the song, and allow it to retain its outlaw spirit and its dignity.”

The Australian rock star said that the decision to swap the epithet for “haggard” was a notion “that can only be upheld by those that know nothing about the fragile nature of songwriting”.

The substitution, he wrote, “[deflates] it right at its essential and most reckless moment, stripping it of its value”, and meant that Fairytale could “no longer be called a great song”. Instead, he said, it “has lost its truth, its honour and integrity – a song that has knelt down and allowed the BBC to do its grim and sticky business”.

Cave characterised “haggard” as a “nonsense word”. MacColl, however, substituted it herself during a 1992 performance of the song on Top of the Pops.

Speaking in 2007, when the BBC briefly banned and then reinstated the song from Radio 1, Pogues songwriter Shane MacGowan said he was fine with the word being bleeped, but that it was in keeping with the “down on her luck and desperate” character played by MacColl.

“Not all characters in songs and stories are angels or even decent and respectable, sometimes characters in songs and stories have to be evil or nasty to tell the story effectively,” he said.

This year, however, MacGowan said he found the censorship of the song “ridiculous” in a brief interview with the Metro.

A friend of MacGowan, Cave said the Irish songwriter’s creation spoke with “profound compassion to the marginalised and the dispossessed”. He wrote:
"It does not patronise, but speaks its truth, clear and unadorned. It is a magnificent gift to the outcast, the unlucky and the broken-hearted. We empathise with the plight of the two fractious characters, who live their lonely, desperate lives against all that Christmas promises – home and hearth, cheer, bounty and goodwill."

He said the BBC – “that gatekeeper of our brittle sensibilities, forever acting in our best interests” – “continue to mutilate an artefact of immense cultural value and in doing so takes something from us this Christmas, impossible to measure or replace”.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: BBC doesn't like fairies

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

I came here to post the same piece. It refers back to an earlier Graun article about the song here. Given the discussion we've had and Meade's obvious dislike of the song, I thought that this history of the song was interesting. I'm not surprised Meade doesn't like it: if I were religious and saw Christmas as a celebration of Christ's birth and not an excuse for maudlin sentimentality or social commentary or even retail excess, I'd probably dislike it too.

On my facebook feed today I saw this: a 94-year-old man playing Beethoven's Piano Sonata in C♯ minor, aka Moonlight Sonata. Life affirming (we old folk need such, frequently and especially these days) and well worth five minutes.

https://www.facebook.com/1443622380/vid ... 855920231/

The pianist is Philip Springer, who wrote Santa Baby for Eartha Kitt. Much as I love Ms Kitt (she took a huge professional risk by opposing the Vietnam War, for example) that must be the most annoying Christmas song of all time. (Meade might even agree with me.). But that five minutes on the piano - I might even forgive him for Santa Baby.

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Bicycle Bill
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Re: BBC doesn't like fairies

Post by Bicycle Bill »

I think the BBC has a stick stuck cross-wise up their ass, and has had one there for quite some time.

FIVE SONGS THE BBC REFUSED TO PLAY AS WRITTEN/RECORDED (and the reasons) — 1955 - 1970

1. Beep-Beep — The Playmates
  • Censored due to the BBC’s very strict rules about mentioning products by name.  In their eyes, it came off as free advertising, and that was a strict no-no.  The lyrics say “While riding in my Cadillac/What to my surprise/A little Nash Rambler was following me/About one third my size.”  That was enough to get the song axed from the airwaves.
2. Maybelline — Chuck Berry
  • Though you might think this was due to Maybelline being the name of a cosmetics company and that it was banned based on the BBC’s strict rules about free advertising (see #1 above), even the BBC found it obvious that Berry was singing about a girl and not lipstick or eyeliner.  What the BBC did care about was that Maybelline wasn’t “true,” and since Maybelline obviously slept around, the BBC labelled the song “immoral” and refused to play it.
3. The Monster Mash — Bobby 'Boris' Pickett
  • This Halloween classic was banned by the BBC because it was “too morbid.”  Censorship at its most ridiculous.
4. Let's Spend The Night Together — The Rolling Stones
  • Actually, this was pretty predictable given the title, and the BBC banned it on the grounds that it “promoted promiscuity.”  Incidentally, this song also got the Rolling Stones in hot water in the US with Ed Sullivan, who made Jagger change the lyrics to “let’s spend some time together” when he sang it on The Ed Sullivan Show.
5. Lola — The Kinks
  • This is one of the most famous examples of a BBC-banned song of all time, probably because it wasn’t banned for the reasons you’d expect.  This song wasn’t banned for describing an encounter in a club with a transvestite who “walked like a woman and talked like a man,” or because the singer says “I’m glad I’m a man/And so is Lola.”  Instead, it was banned under the free advertising clause mentioned in #1 above, because of the line about how the champagne “tastes just like Coca-Cola.”
    (to get the song back in airplay, Ray Davies and the band re-recorded a version in which they changed the line to “tastes just like cherry cola.”)
For the record, this was obviously the biggest taboo on the BBC ... mentioning something by name.  Other performers that ran afoul of this ridiculous line of reasoning include Paul Simon (obviously I'm referring to “Kodachrome”, as well as “Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard”, for the reference to the cover of Newsweek), Jimmy Buffett (“Come Monday”, in which he sings about how 'I got my Hush Puppies on'), and Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show (“Cover of the Rolling Stone” and its mention of the rock-and-roll trade newspaper)... and they weren't the only ones; just some of the more iconic artists.

Although maybe there is such a thing as going TOO far the other way.  If I never hear another mention of Cardi B's “W.A.P.” again, it still won't make up for the fact that it was ever written and recorded in the first place.
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Big RR
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Re: BBC doesn't like fairies

Post by Big RR »

that must be the most annoying Christmas song of all time
Nah, Santa Baby pales in comparison to Dominick the Donkey (the worst of the worst IMHO), Jingle Bells by the barking dogs, Rudolph, Frosty, and that John Legend remake of Baby It's Cold Outside (not that the original is all that great, just that the PC remake sucks much more). There's no shortage of bad Christmas and winter season songs that get played over and over at this time of year.

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MajGenl.Meade
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Re: BBC doesn't like fairies

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Andy - not the song as much as the designation of "Christmas Classic". But, yes.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

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BoSoxGal
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Re: BBC doesn't like fairies

Post by BoSoxGal »

Yeah but anything Christmasy by Alvin and the Chipmunks totally makes up for the bad ear worms. :mrgreen:

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
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Jarlaxle
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Re: BBC doesn't like fairies

Post by Jarlaxle »

Best Christmas song...


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