America's foremost indie-music cracker, Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields, will be was Monica's guest on Friday, May 12th from Noon-3pm, as he celebrated the song Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (MP3), the melody that has revealed his true identity as the Grand Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. You can hear the archive of the show as a streaming MP3 or in streaming Realaudio. Read John Cook's recent article from Slate here, or Steve Albini's take here.
UPDATE: Here's a lengthy thread about all this from I Love Music, also including Matmos's Drew describing the original panel that caused it all, and here is some additional background from Cant Stop The Bleeding.
The world has lost it's freakin' mind. "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" a racist anthem? What the fuck? People who call 'Song of the South' a racist movie haven't watched it.
Someone please tell me why a movie like 'Gone With the Wind' is herald as a classic, despite some undeniable racist content?
Meanwhile, 'Song of the South' portrays blacks as wise, funny, friendly and good people surrounded by a bunch of dumb white hicks, but still labelled as 'racist'. I just don't get it.
Posted by: Flaming Duck | May 11, 2006 at 06:13 PM
There are actually 2 versions of Song of the South. The one publicly released and an unedited version that contained a scene with a character called Tar Baby.
http://www.songofthesouth.net/memorabilia/books/disney/tarbaby46.html
Posted by: ortsed | May 11, 2006 at 08:13 PM
So I like Magnetic Fields and Hip Hop. And Metal too. I like good metal and good punk and good hip hop, and I don't like bad music. So what does that make me? I guess it means I have taste, or at least a kind of taste. Right now my only guilty pleasure is Matisyahu.
The best part of the slate article is where Hopper is disgusted by how "white" Merritts music sounds. Jesus, I just though it sounded gay.
Posted by: Chuck Jones | May 11, 2006 at 10:38 PM
I dont know about the charge of racism, but I am deeply offended by Mister Merritt's chihuahua.
Posted by: Station Manager Ken | May 12, 2006 at 11:31 AM
FWIW, the "Thomas Tallis" on that ILM thread is also an artist who's gotten lots of WFMU airplay (he's done a Rhubarb Cake session).
Posted by: Goyim in the AM | May 12, 2006 at 02:54 PM
(Patiently awaiting the upcoming Boyd Rice/Stephin Merritt collaboration)
Posted by: Mickey Mephistopheles | May 13, 2006 at 01:36 AM
Ditto, flaming duck's comments. I saw it when I was a kid, so don't remember it very well, but his description pretty much sums up what I do remember. The tar baby sequence isn't, as far as I know, a racially loaded one. It comes from a short story, so I'd look into the history of the story before jumping to conclusions about any deeper meaning there.
I'm astounded by the doublethink. Not the accusation that the movie's racist, but the claim that this view is an old and widely accepted one. All the references have been along the lines of Slate's "legendarily racist"? I'm sure the charges have been made--all portrayals of blacks in film and television throughout most of their history have been vulnerable to such criticisms. But since when was this taken for granted?
Oh, and for the record, Gone with the Wind is a CLEARLY racist film. So, I second duck's surprise that nobody blinks about that piece of unadulterated crap.
Posted by: Nonny | May 13, 2006 at 05:02 PM
Yeah, I had a copy of that Tar Baby book as a kid. Not sure why that story would be any more or less racist than the rest of the Uncle Remus stuff. It's a baby made out of tar. You've been Punk'd, Brer Rabbit!
Anyway, I hope Jessica Hopper never listens to WFMU, if she truly believes that liking a song means you ascribe to the beliefs that may be held by the people who created it. I mean, the wacky right-wing religious stuff that Ken plays is alone enough to drive her off the deep end. But at least it would mean some FMU linkage from her exceedingly poorly-written blog!
Posted by: David | May 16, 2006 at 06:23 PM
I was just wondering...what is on Frere-Jones' Playlist anyway?
Posted by: Glen McKenzie | May 18, 2006 at 09:21 AM
How is the duck here?
Joke about another duck you might know.
Posted by: Donald Duck | July 20, 2006 at 03:33 PM
Merritt is such a racist. I can't believe he wrote such a passionate song about Billie Holiday.
My only friend
Billie you're a miracle and God knows I need one Sing me something terrible
that even dawn may come You and me, we don't believe in happy endings Hey,
Lady Day, can you save my life this time Can you cry so beautifully you
make my troubles rhyme Hey, Lady Day, can you save my life again My only
love has gone away Will you be my only friend Billie you're a genius
enough to be a fool a fool to gamble everything and never know the rules
Some of us can only live in songs of love and trouble Some of us can only
live in bubbles...
Posted by: Reno | February 25, 2008 at 11:12 AM