louie.

I hate talk radio.  Maybe it's because I spend so much of my day talking, or because I love music so much, or because my sisters and I listened to sports talk radio every morning with our father on the way to school - no matter the reason, when I turn on the radio, I want someone to sing to me.

This morning on my way to school, I was listening to 91.9 WUMB, Boston's all folk radio station.  I love this station for the folk music, but in the morning I especially appreciate Dave Palmater's non-yelling, non-advertising, non-pop-music voice.  The tone and volume and cadence of his voice are less DJ, more grandfather in a rocking chair on a porch talking about Woody Guthrie.  It was this voice that lured me in and kept me tuned in long after a song had ended. 

"It was on this date in 1964 that the governor of Illinois declared the Kingsmen's recording of  'Louie Louie' pornographic, and asked all local radio stations to stop playing it."

Really?  I tried to sing the song to myself in order to determine the source of the allegation - but I honestly couldn't remember any of the words except for long, vague, vowel-y sounds that must have been words at some time.  It seemed strange.

Dave Palmater didn't say too much more about the incident, but he did play a song by Todd Snider.  Recorded on his 2004 album East Nashville Skyline, Snider's "Ballad of the Kingsmen" recounts stories of songs being banned, blamed for kids' mistakes, or otherwise criticized for their powerful effects on the world.  He mentions "Louie Louie," Marilyn Manson, Eminem - as well as the news, which frequently shows fighting, violence, guns, and sex without requiring anyone to show an ID first.  As Snider sings, "They show it on TV a lot every night at six o clock/And you don't even have to be eighteen to see it, you don't even have to be in first grade..."  

How true. 

Nobody can say that music isn't powerful - but it can't be a scapegoat.  Music can only affect our decisions as much as we let it.  It can influence, suggest, or even put in words what we couldn't articulate ourselves - but it doesn't pull the trigger, take the drugs, hurt the girl, or run away.  People make those decisions in real space and time.  Conversely, music can encourage, uplift, and ease our minds - but it doesn't go to rehab, apologize to a friend, admit wrong, confess love.  People have to do those things for themselves.

If anything, music simply fans flames already there.  If a child is lonely, depressed, angry, or confused, it's not Marilyn Manson's fault that he goes crazy and hurts someone - why is he lonely?  Why is he depressed?  Why is he angry?  Who is looking out for this kid, showing him love, asking him questions, keeping an eye out for violence, rebellion, or angst?  Adults don't get to blame music, video games, or YouTube for their crimes - but adults like to blame these media for their children's crimes. 

There are some objectively raunchy songs on the radio.  By comparison, the lyrics to "Louie Louie" - whatever they may actually be - seem incredibly tame.  I've heard these songs, and I've heard worse songs, listening on the sly as I was inclined to do in middle school.  But I had parents who drew clear lines, made clear expectations, and cared enough about me to keep me near, even though I rolled my eyes and talked back and at times was sure I "hated" them.  They knew where I was and who I spent my time with.  I knew that if I got into serious trouble, there would be hell to pay.  And I knew they wouldn't dream of blaming MTV for my misconduct.  They'd hold me - and themselves - accountable.

Were the Kingsmen really causing lewd behavior?  Were young teens emulating the Kingsmen, or acting as young teens in the 1960s were acting?  How about emulating people on the news?  Infidelity, tax fraud, drive-by shootings, theft, child abuse, rape...these stories are real, and everyone has access to them on every news channel, every newspaper, every Internet site.  And many of these people in the news are or have been touted as role models, leaders, heroes, people to emulate.

Clearly, we wouldn't forbid the news from running their stories - it's the news.  But if the news is going to show real pictures of real people doing real things in the real world, it should be held as accountable as entertainment media.  Ultimately, people do what they want to do.  They make their own decisions.  Plenty of people listen to sexy, violent, aggressive, or controversial music and don't commit horrible crimes.  Plenty of people don't listen to this kind of music and commit horrible crimes anyway (I'm sorry, Washington, but well-dressed politicians have a pretty poor track record when it comes to honesty and fidelity, and nobody blames it on Luther Vandross or Van Morrison or that movie they saw where a man cheats on his wife). 

Media affects people.  Music is powerful.  Television is powerful.  But...we are more powerful.  We've been given minds and hearts and souls and the ability to reason.  And we've also been given the responsibility to look out for each other, so that when we see someone slipping or withdrawing or smiling less, we can't let them off the hook.  Media is an easy target to blame when we've failed to care or notice or reach out.  Media is an easy target to blame when a person has suffered so much and crawled so deeply into him/herself that they are almost unreachable. 

But media doesn't do the things we do.  We do the things we do.  We say the things we say. 

And, thank goodness, we still make music.