Singer told to 'clarify her position' after quoting folk song on new album
Mon 08 Dec, 2008
I'm no Dido fan, but I've seen this on so many websites today, and find it unbelievable that the concept of free speech is now so diluted by the PC brigade that a simple memory is branded as some sort of terrorist chant. If the MP involved could have made himself listen to - or had at least mustered up the decency to read - the lyrics of the song, he would have struggled to find in the words any endorsement of IRA philosophy, let alone a call to arms. The title 'Let's Do The Things We Do Normally' is a typically Didoesque soul-searching sentimental ballad: a pen picture of father and daughter sitting together as Dido's father (of Irish descent) is dying. She wishes they could do the things they do normally. She wishes they could chat about the day, that he would sleep a little instead of trying to tie up the loose ends of their life and - crucially in the context of the present contoversy - that she could listen to him sing the 'old rebel tunes' he sings out of tune: one of which, presumably was 'The Man Behind the Wire'. It would seem that, these days, we expect not only our singers to toe an increasingly narrow line of political correctness, but their parents too - even when they've passed on. The album was written in memory of her late father (of Irish descent). These lyrics clearly link to his culture and his tradition. Unspeakable though it may be, verses like those in the Barleycorn ballad are sung loudly (and out of tune) by many Irish men and women in front rooms and pub snugs over tumblers of whiskey and great big pints of guiness: not as a glorification of murder, arson and death, but as a reminder of a time that has (thankfully)passed and an echo of a strongly felt sense of injustice that for so long pervaded (still pervades?) the heart of Irish culture. You may hate Dido's voice, or her sentimentality, but the memory she speaks of is both personal and culture-bound - any call to justify it is not just an insult to her, but to the very purpose of music. If every lyric must be explained, clarified, positioned and rationalised, then there can be no thought, feeling or expression of culture in music. Bash Dido if you want to, but in supporting this MP's statement, you support the tyranny of political correctness and the death of freedom of speech.
Mon 08 Dec, 2008
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MP attacks Dido over IRA-connected lyrics
Singer told to 'clarify her position' after quoting folk song on new album
Mon 08 Dec, 2008
Comments (1)