The Heelers Diaries

the fantasy world of ireland's greatest living poet

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Location: Kilcullen (Phone 087 7790766), County Kildare, Ireland

Sunday, April 27, 2008

i would indulge in casual bigotry tonight but i haven't got a thing to wear

Landing in Dublin.
Welcomed by the rain.
Drove into the city.
Twiddled the dial.
The radio settled on something called Today FM.
A British singer known by the single name Morrissey was caterwauling merrily.
Squalls on the windscreen.
My spirit brooded.
Morrissey was singing: "Hang the deejay, hang the deejay, hang the deejay, hang the deejay, hang the deejay... Burn down the disco, burn down the disco, burn down the disco..."
And so on ad nauseum.
It was oddly catchy though.
When Morrissey had finished his hymnal to banality, a Today FM radio presenter informed us in a confident pseudo Dublin accent: "Of course that song was considered highly controversial. Lyrics such as "hang the deejay, hang the deejay," and "burn down the disco," were thought to contain racist undertones."
The noble Heelers rocked with laughter.
The presenter's words struck me as quite the funniest piece of musical analysis I'd ever heard.
Controversial Morrissey's lyrics may be.
But racist?
Are deejays an ethnic minority?
Are discos emblamatic of some particular cultural iconography?
Not by any stretch of the imagination.
No jury in the western world could convict Morrissey of racism on the strength of those lyrics.
And since whining interminably isn't actually a crime, we're going to have trouble finding a charge that will stick.
Cruelty to dumb lyrics, maybe?
Ah Ireland.
My glorious surreal country.
It's good to be back.

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