I’ve often deplored the death of the protest song. So it was stunning to see how big a role music and chanting is playing in the Arab Spring. Shots of men chanting and punching the air in Arabic all sounded alike to me. The horrific murder of Ibrahim Qashoush, however, puts a face and a voice on the aspirations of millions of people.

Qashoush was a Syrian whose incredible powerful chanting galvanised crowds of up to 200,000 with his performances. The chants are simple rhythmic couplets known as dabke, to which the audience replies with gusto. In the hands of the right singer, it’s simple and hugely effective. Qashoush played with the genre by adding couplets where least expected and then breaking into known songs. The words are blunt and, given the level of oppression in Syria, courageous to say the least. The chant that has gained the most popularity is “Yalla Irhal Ya Bashar (Depart Bashar)”.

You lost all your legitimacy

Depart depart, Bashar

Bashar, you are not one of us

Take Mahir [Basher’s brother] and depart from here

Depart depart, Bashar

Bashar, you are lying

You had bad speech

Freedom is very near

Depart? depart, Bashar

Ibrahim Qashoush was found dead in the river near his home town of Hama on July 4. He had been tortured by the authorities and his throat cut, perhaps symbolically. Hama has been the location of previous atrocities by the Syrian regime, but is refusing to bow to the current attacks.

The American ambassador Robert Ford and French Ambassador Eric Chevallier traveled to Hama recently to show solidarity with its residents. The visits have been interpreted as a strong diplomatic warning against escalating violence in the central city, which has been surrounded by tanks for a week.

It would be nice to think that Qashoush’s death caused outrage. But the sheer number of people dying in Syria at the moment makes grief for individual cases almost impossible.

However, as a lyricist I can only salute an electrifying performer who paid for his singing and commitment with his life. His chants will clearly outlive him.

Additional reading on the Index of Censorship

The Times They are a-Changing

Collectors will surely swoop on the upcoming auction of Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics for “The Times They Are a-Changing” that will take place in Sotheby’s on December 10, 2010. The song is iconic, defining the mood of protest and change in the sixties. On top of that, the actual manuscript is suitably battered and worn – which only adds to the appeal.

I hadn’t read the lyrics of what is arguably his best-known song for some time, and must say that they are remarkably straightforward. Simple, even. Interesting that he wrote “by Bob Dylan” at the top of the page with the title at the bottom. Had he not decided the final title when writing the words? Also, he was apparently very careless with lyric sheets, discarding them once he had the words down by heart. So why write his name on them?

Anyway, collectors should be ready to cough up $200-300,000 for the manuscript. Something tells me that this is one auction that will meet its estimate price. Visit Sotheby’s for details and extensive notes.

I just read an article in the Hindustan Times about an Indonesia riot sparked by ringtones. According to the report, hundreds of Wamena tribesmen descended on members of the Yoka tribe on Wednesday morning (November 17, 2010) in the Papua provincial capital Jayapura, after learning that Yokas were sharing a ringtone which insulted them. It’s tempting to raise a smile, were it not for the fact that 23 houses were burned to the ground, and dozens of vehicles damaged.

How could a ringtone cause such fury? The lyrics, of course. Why else are homophobic or racist songs banned? Yep, people do actually take lyrics seriously – sometimes very seriously. Songwriters object when politicians use them. Parents object when songwriters use the wrong words. People write films, books and plays using song titles. Advertisers use them as an endless source of inspiration (often unattributed). Politicians also rail against them and censors do what they know best: censor or “bleep” them. Rebels use them to motivate their followers.

How many offensive songs – such as the one written by a GI in Iraq – were actually intended as a piece of fun more than anything else? As songwriters, where do we put the limit? It would be a miserable place if songwriters could not push the envelope a bit. But it’s something worth bearing in mind.

Are there any particular songs that you find offensive?

I’ve seen audiences get riled up about song contests, but rarely seen an orchestra almost run riot. Italy’s San Remo song contest is a prestigious event that celebrates the classic tradition of Italian canzone. What is surprising is that contestants have to face two juries: the orchestra playing behind the singers and the general public. The 2010 edition, which just closed, witnessed some incredible scenes, when the orchestra started throwing music sheets and booing when one of the contestants got through to the final three. TV presenter (and grandson of Italy’s last king) Emanuele Filiberto had given a comparatively poor vocal performance and should have been eliminated. But the popular vote got him through.

At the end of the day, however, the festival’s honour was saved when Valerio Scanu won the 2010 award, singing the ballad “Per tutte le volte che” (for all the times) written by Pierdavide Carone. The best man won this time at least.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t embed the scene of the musicians letting rip. But you can find a report on Euronews.

Eminem will be back in the UK for a show in 2010, the first in over 5 years. However, organisers were worried that the shows would be boycotted by the powerful Outrage gay rights group, who protested at previous shows and have been very effective in obstructing shows by Jamaican artists with overtly homophobic lyrics. So an agreement has been reached with the body, in which Eminem agreed not to perform lyrics that promote hate or homophobia and Outrage will not picket the shows or his hotel.

This inevitably raises the issue of censorship and free speech. But not that many poeple seem to be jumping to defend the right to be offensive.

Mercedes Sosa, the Argentinian singer who became the voice of the nueva cancion movement of the 60s and 70s, has died at the age of 74. Sosa was an outspoken singer, who used her voice and art to champion the causes of the poor in South America, even though she tried to distance herself from specific political movements. She was harassed in her native Argentina (once even receiving a body search by a policeman on stage), but remained steadfast. After a period of exile in Europe, she returned to a hero’s welcome just before the fall of the Argentinian dictatorship.

Sosa did not write herself, but worked closely with people such as Chilean writer Violeta Parra, who composed her signature tune, “Gracias a la Vida” (Thanks to Life).

Although I mostly cover pop music on A-Lyric, I deeply regret that there is not more room for protest or politically-committed performers. Where have their audiences gone?

In a pretty radical move, Sony Entertainment has decided to pull a track by the Malian harp player Toumani Diabete from the upcoming Little Big Planet game. The track “Tapha Niang” contains two lines quoted from the Quran. After a poster on a Sony message board started complaining, the company decided to withdraw the track and recall all games that were already in the shops.

Toumani Diabete is an award-winning player of the kora, an acoustic African harp. His gentle, dexterous music has been enjoyed by World music audiences for many years. The track “Tapha Niang” features on the album “Boulevard de l’indépendance”. In the online message, the poster claimed that using words from the Quran was offensive to Muslims. Given the nature of Diabete’s soulful music – and the fact that he himself is Muslim – this seems highly unlikely. However Sony were taking no chances and pulled the track.

The two lines basically say the equivalent of “All things must pass”, or “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust”.

Needless to say, the usual suspects waded in with conflicting opinions about whether it is offensive or not, although I’m not sure how many Imams play video games. My own sentiment was put best in a BBC interview with a British moderate.

“The number of stakeholders in the offence industry has just grown and grown and grown. Everybody gets offended about everything,” Yasmin Alibhai-Brown of British Muslims for Secular Democracy.

In a BBC interview, Diabaté claimed:

“It’s quite normal to play music and be inspired by the words of the prophet Mohammed. It’s my way to attract and inspire people towards Islam.”

It’s a shame that one of Africa’s most spiritual composers has fallen into this trap. If people find his music offensive, what must they think of the massacres that they are encouraged to carry out in games such as “Call of Duty” and the like or the witchcraft invoked in “World of Warcraft”. I can’t help feeling there’s a very selective offence button is being pushed in this case.

Diabaté is currently touring in France and the UK.

The issue of homophobic reggae lyrics is back in the news yet again, with an announcement that the German government is considering blacklisting homophobic lyrics from Jamaican performers. Artists such as Elephant Man and TOK are under scrutiny.

Censorship is always a touchy issue – but no less touchy than the protection of minorities. So why do I think the idea will fail?

The blacklist is intended to include media that glorify war and violence and incite hate. I can already see the resistance being put up by the games industries, some of whose titles are very borderline in terms of violence. Is it very PC, for example, to be revelling in the realism of blowing a soldier’s brains out in the WWII game “Call of Duty” when Europe is littered with graveyards of poor slobs that suffered just that fate?

Concerning the homophobic lyrics, Volker Beck, the leader of the Green Party parliamentary group, called on large Internet music sellers to already begin removing the CDs in question from their sales inventory. “Those in Jamaica who invoke hatred should not earn money with their music in Germany,” he said on Thursday in Berlin according to a report on DW-World.

The danger with these schemes is the difficulty of fixing the line between valid artistic expression and incitement to hate or violence. Who is going to draw that line? Something tells me this initiative will not get very far.

The New York Times ran a short piece about the then 16 year-old Gail Renard who snuck into the bed-in organised John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Montreal in 1969. At one stage, she witnessed some 50 people sing “Give Peace a Chance”. Choirboys included Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg as well as Petula Clark. Lennon handed Renard a lyric sheet of the song when leaving, saying “one day they will be worth something”. At an upcoming auction, Sotheby’s has estimated the something to be in the region of $400-600,000. This is a hefty chunk. But it must be pointed out that at most auctions of this kind, lyrics only rarely meet the estimates. It’s the actual authors’ rights that bring in the money.

I sometimes wonder if there’s a large book with complaints one can make about Eurovision entries that people pull out every year. French MP Jacques Myard is complaining that France’s Eurovision is partly in English. Post-modern dandy Sebastien Tellier’s “Divine” is in English (of sorts). Almost predictably, a number of politicians have taken it upon themselves to chastise the television company and label for choosing it.
The complaint is an old one: why is France representing itself in English? It’s a good enough question, as Edith Piaf’s biopic continues to generate huge interest in chanson around the world. But it’s also a pointless question. Lots of artists perform in English these days.

It’s just a shame Tellier couldn’t find a lyricist, and resorted to stream-of-consciousness drivel such as:

Oh oh oh
I’m alone in life to say
I love the Chivers anyway
‘Cause Chivers look divine

…
Oh oh oh I’m
Looking for a band today
I see the Chivers anyway
I ‘ll be a Chivers guy some day
In my mind

Yegads. Here’s a good candidate for misunderstood lyrics! As one of the posters on the YouTube page said, “At least if we’re going to win, we’ll do it in style.” Amandine de le Richardière is credited as co-lyricist.

I’ve always been a little uncomfortable with the campaign against dancehall, as it has echoes of the thought police in action. But I’ve always been very uncomfortable with some of the extremely violent anti-gay lyrics as well. Now the British resort Brighton has become the first UK town to officially ban licensed venues from playing anti-gay or hate lyrics. Is this a good or a bad thing?

Should Buju Banton and other dancehall artists be filed alongside the neo-Nazi groups that have their lyrics and shows banned? This is the thought that struck me when I heard about Brighton’s decision. It’s interesting as the decision comes in the same week as the BBC decided not to censor the Pogues’ “Fairytale in New York” (check the link below for a snippet) which features an exchange of insults that includes the line, “You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot, happy Christmas your arse, I pray God it’s our last.â€?

After trying to “beep” the word “faggot”, the BBC eventually back-tracked. “While we would never condone prejudice of any kind, we know our audiences are smart enough to distinguish between maliciousness and creative freedom,” the BBC’s Andy Parfitt said.

If “maliciousness” is the criteria, then some of the anti-gay lyrics do indeed qualify. How should the media react? Is it OK for public authorities to weigh in? Who will decide which tracks qualify as “hate” lyrics? What do you think?

Irish band Republic of Loose have found themselves on the wrong side of the fence in South Africa, where their single “Break” was picking up good airplay. According to a report in the Irish Independent, a DJ came to the conclusion that the song was about unprotected anal sex. I don’t think I’d come to the same conclusion. However, in a continent ravaged by Aids, this is no joking matter. “Aaagh” and “Break” will be available in the UK as a single. Check the band at Republic of Loose.