In the wake of American and Australian attempts to ban MARILYN MANSON comes Smashed Hits: Banned Music Of The World from international free speech magazine Index On Censorship.
Looking at the history of censorship of rock, rap and classical music, the book also includes a compilation CD of banned tracks from artists as diverse as Hawkwind and the TIBETAN SINGING NUNS. The book ranges from an interview with exiled Kurdish musician Sivan Perwer, while South African musician JOHNNY CLEGG meets a former music censor who banned his recordings under the Apartheid regime.
Tracks on the CD include Hawkwind’s ‘Urban Guerilla’, a satire on early 70s radical chic that was released in 1972 during the week that the IRA launched a bombing campaign in London and was subsequently withdrawn; ‘Two Thumbs’ by Bedfordshire sound system EXODUS, who had their gear confiscated by police in what they allege was a long running campaign of harassment; ‘Sorrow Tears And Blood’ by FELA KUTI, a critic of the regime in Nigeria who was repeatedly jailed for his stance.
The book and CD are available on November 20. See NME dated November 21 for more on this story.
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