Customer Reviews

Taboo Tunes: A History of Banned Bands and Censored Songs

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
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Taboo Tunes is not the first book ever published on music censorship, but FINALLY we get one written with skill, serious spunk, attitude, and flair. The author lays out the basics of what arts-censorship is, the deep history of the practice as a socio-political tool of the powerful, a brief survey of modern-day censorship in a global context, and then gets down to business: relating the story of censorship in America. Written in a humorous, fun, and wickedly wild style, Taboo Tunes' author sure knows what he's talking about. From the banning of early dance steps like the Waltz and Tango nearly a century ago, to radio bans on early jazz, rock `n' roll, and hip-hop, this book covers a lot of ground at a good lively clip. Nothing is over-looked: I almost died laughing while reading this telling of the FBI's silly investigation of the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" -- and nearly wept reading how the Nazi's suppressed the German jazz and classical scenes - and how America's government harassed artists like Billie Holiday, paul Robeson, and Woody Guthrie. Tipper Gore gets no mercy for her role in the 1980's PMRC incidents just as Nixon is excoriated for letting the FBI harass John Lennon, Jim Morrison, and other musicians with a political bent. Taboo Tunes makes clear exactly what happened during the Ice-T "Cop Killer" scandal in the `90s, and distills into entertaining form all the uproars in recent years over record "Warning Labels," satanic "back-masking," radio payola, censored album jackets, banned MTV videos, and controversial artists like Madonna, Rage Against The Machine, and the Dixie Chicks. Speaking of which: perhaps the book's strongest point is the even-handed way it presents the history of political dissent (in song) and the amazing things that have happened to various bands who have spoken out against war since 9/11. Scary stuff! Just raced through the book and can't imagine a finer telling of all this history of sex, drugs, dissent, and, yes, Rock N Roll. I'm going to read it again. Right now. Highly Recommended!

...I would like to offer a review of "Taboo Tunes" and also weigh in on the impossibly contradictory reviews posted here by other reviewers. I have now had a chance to read this book and "Parental Advisory" (another book about music censorship, as referenced in those reviews). First of all: both books are worthwhile and have their own merits. However, some of the snarky attacks on "Taboo Tunes" by "A Reader" are downright untrue and ought to be addressed for the sake of Amazon.com customers. Let's examine the points raised: Yes, "Parental Advisory" was published first. And, it was a fine book that covered a lot of the topic's basics (though its format - narrative first, and then restating all that information a second time by presenting it in a chronological time-line form makes the book repetitive and exactly twice the length it needed to be). But the notion that "Taboo Tunes" used Nuzum's book as its "one source" of information, is flatly false. Blecha's book covers far more historical ground, a fact that puts the lie to the statement that "Parental Advisory" is "much more thorough and conprehensive" (sic). While Eric Nuzum devoted much more attention to the one historic incident of Tipper Gore's mid-1980s PMRC crusade, Peter Blecha covers that period as well and goes much further in documenting the deeper history of censorship over the centuries and around the globe. Regarding that undeniably superior breadth of story-telling, "A Reader" misleads again by posting the quip that "Taboo Tunes" includes "a few things" that Nuzum "missed or chose not to include." Well, that's putting it lightly: In fact, "Taboo Tunes" - which does share 4 out of 90 photo images with "Parental Advisory" - was published four full years later, and so it includes plenty of information that Nuzum was simply not in the position to cover in his book. "Taboo Tunes" digs deeper into the history, and also succeeds in bringing that history up to current times. "Parental Advisory" was a commendable introduction to the topic, but as a professional historian and writer, Blecha has the skills to frame the big picture in a form that is compelling and up to date. In sum, "A Reader's" review amounts to an unfair attack, an inaccurate analysis, and a bit of naked propaganda that does Amazon.com customers a disservice through its not-so-hidden agenda.

After hearing a recent NPR interview with the author I ordered Taboo Tunes and have been totally charmed by it. Music censorship is an issue that has always interested me, and I've read and enjoyed a few others books about the topic -- including Eric Nuzum's good contribution from a few years back -- but there is just no doubt that Blecha's book shines. He brings to the table a distinct voice, an eye for meaningful detail, a background as a professional music historian and museum curator, but also a sense of fun. The author explicates the deep historical background of the music (and musicians) who have faced scorn for producing challenging music or lyrics, and he accomplishes this in a witty (if occasionally sarcastic) way that will attract even those who don't usually gravitate to history books. Because it was written with obvious commitment to rigorous scholarly standards (the Source and Reference citations run to 15 long pages) the book includes info about hundreds of controversial songs that, to my knowledge, haven't been documented in any one other place. The inclusion of many photographs of censored album covers and vintage sheet music spices up the book visually, but what keeps you reading is the "tongue in cheek" (and sometimes "laugh out loud") humor of the author. I'll view Taboo as a most unusual case of a masterful research effort that has resulted in a remarkably fun summer read.

While I love the idea of this book (and was looking forward to getting deep into its subject matter), the product itself was disappointing. The organization of the book is by topic, which ends up with the author running frequently from the 1950s to the present without segue and with lots of repeated information. It also doesn't help that the author often stereotypes the music in the same ways that the censors did; labeling Slayer's "Angel of Death" as a bona-fide ode to the devil is a wildly inaccurate misinterpretation (the song is actually about Josef Mengele's human experimentation at Auschwitz). While there is plenty of fascinating information to be found, Blecha spreads it out in a bland and tedious manner that it becomes all too easy to put the book down.

The history of music censorship is understandably political...but by the final chapter of Taboo Tunes, I was frankly tired of the author's left-wing snark -- and I say that as someone who is himself left-wing and snarky!

There's too much sarcasm among the reporting, not to mention too many forced italics, which makes it feel like the author is ramming their opinion down your throat rather than respecting your ability to understand his narrative (rather ironic in a book about free speech). And even though exhaustive research has gone into this book, the awkwardly structured Notes and Sources appendix makes it difficult to track down the sources (why not use footnotes?). While sometimes there's too much information in lengthy lists, there are a few vague references to events or artists that lack detail, leaving you to wonder, say, who that artist is, what they did, or how their battle against the establishment turned out. The author knows his stuff; he just doesn't show his work very efficiently.

Ultimately, it's tough to claim the moral high ground against the right when you sink to their same name-calling tactics. The battle against music censorship is a noble topic worth getting angry about, and Taboo Tunes offers valuable, passionately written content, but the underlying political agenda could have been delivered with a lighter and less whiny tone and therefore be less distracting -- let the atrocities stand for themselves. After all, even a protest song benefits from a sweet melody.

I received this book from my brother as a birthday present and was very excited to read it hoping for something along the lines of "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do". However, I'm about three quarters of the way through and I've got to admit that I am disappointed. The author presents some interesting information and history but quite often veers off into ramblings and rants as well as straying into other contentious issues that distract from the subject at hand. He, as many artists do as well, also seems to confuse criticism with outright censorship at times. This is an excellent subject that should be talked about more often and openly, unfortunately the author seems more interested in insulting, well, just about anybody who doesn't believe artists should be able to do whatever, wherever, whenever they want and be adored by the public at the same time while having someone else foot the bill. I actually agree with him more often than not, but this book comes across more as one man's late night espresso and hash fueled venting of years of pent-up anger and frustration than a "well researched" discussion of censorship and music. If you are someone who feels that anyone who is not well left of center politically is a hell-fire, bible-bashing, hate-mongering gun nut then you will most likely enjoy this book. If you're looking for a reasonable and fair look at music censorship and it's causes and results you might want to look elsewhere.