In 1978, David Byrne, then known best as the leader of the band Talking Heads and Brian Eno collaborated together and brought together analog recordings of televangelists, radio disc jockeys, Arabic singers and even a recording of an exorcism, combined them with Third World percussion instruments and rhythms, synthesizers and even kitchen utensils to create a landmark album, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. The album was so groundbreaking, some have since claimed that this marked the first use of sampling, long before compact discs and digital recording, something both Byrne and Eno dismiss, but it certainly established a direction that future musical artists from Rap to Industrial to Rock would later follow to blaze their own trails. On the original 1981 release of the album, there was a track titled, Quran, which contained samplings of a Lebanese mountain singer performing a Quranic recital from a LP titled, The Human Voice in the World of Islam. Subsequent reissues of the album, later by compact disc then purely digital form, have omitted the track after protest by the Islamic Council of Great Britain. I bring all of this up for two reasons: First, it sucks that when Muslims complain to the press, musical artists, record labels, et al, everyone wrings their hands in fear of cultural insensitivity and so easily and completely capitulate to their demands. But let a Christian group complain about popular culture mocking or purposely misrepresenting God, Jesus, the Apostles or Christians, then they claim artistic freedom, free speech and decry what they perceive as censorship. Second, I had the original (vinyl) album. I remember the track. It was a great track! Id like to be able to listen to it again, but noooooo! Some pious Muslim in London twenty years ago was offended! We cant have that now, can we?! I so wish there was some way to locate and download that missing track, if only to restore the integrity of the original album.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 17:59:26 +0000
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