Dewey Finn: In the words of AC/DC: We roll tonight… to the guitar bite… and for those about to rock… I salute you.
School of Rock (2003)
Did you feel it?
I felt it.
The pillars of the Earth shook.
The beginning of the end of the Iranian theocracy occurred.
You didn’t notice it?
George W. Bush had nothing to do with it.
No military power on the planet could do it.
The change began within Iran today.
From the BBC:
Rock band Queen, fronted by gay icon Freddie Mercury, has become the first rock act to receive an official seal of approval in Iran.
Western music is strictly censored in the Islamic republic, where homosexuality is considered a crime.
But an album of Queen’s greatest hits was released in Iran on Monday.
Mercury, who died in 1991, was proud of his Iranian ancestry, and illegal bootleg albums and singles made Queen one of the most popular bands in Iran.
Do you think I’m exaggerating the importance of this?
Nuclear weapons and masses of tanks cannot stop the power of rock.
Rock and roll led to the fall of communism and the Soviet Empire.
Hungarian ambassador Andras Simonyi, who in November spoke at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, believes at least some credit is due to the influence of bloc-rocking beats.
Simonyi first encountered rock ‘n’ roll in Denmark in the 1960s, a time when Hungary was in the middle of nearly haft a century of Communist rule. “Rock music represented freedom to me,” Simonyi says, “freedom I first experienced in Denmark and missed very much after returning to Hungary.”
One of few young people on his block who spoke English, he embraced the message of rock culture. “Given that rock already carried a revolutionary message in the free West,” he says, “you can imagine what effect that music had in the un-free East.”
The message of rock was heard even by those who didn’t understand English. “Nonspeakers instinctively felt that rock music was about freedom–the freedom to form your own band, the freedom to create your own music, the freedom to choose and listen to songs you like best,” Simonyi says. He believes it was only natural for those ideas to “spill over into politics, reinforcing the freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and the free dissemination of ideas,” all of which, he says, “scared the hell out of the Communist establishment.”
Hungarian communism collapsed in 1989, and Simonyi, now 51, still believes rock can set you free. “Today, there is criticism that rock is imperialistic,” he says. “Nonsense. Only dictators are afraid of rock.”
I’m surprised President <strike>Cheney</strike> Bush hasn’t moved to ban rock music in this country.
Queen, I want to break free
I want to break free
I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You’re so self satisfied I don’t need you
I’ve got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free
Freddy: Come on man, we’re on a mission. One great rock show can change the world… look out the window…
Is this thing on?
Well, see, you’ve said it all. 😉
I do believe rock did liberate the Soviets and the Eastern Bloc. When I had arguments with my father back in the late 60’s about the “threat of communism,” I used to say, give ’em blue jeans and transitor radios and they’re ours. It’s too bad no one makes music like that anymore…
they’re all made off-shore these days. Back then, blue jeans were Levis, made in the USA. Exporting Western culture, not so much anymore. How old are the members of Queen now anyway?
on this is no doubt spot on.
Hopefully the FooFighters can liberate me from the insanity that is the Bush years. Thanks, Carnacki.
b.om.b anyway, just in case.
Though I wish I could hold up my hand and stop it.
that I’d wake up one day and discover that the last few years have been merely a bad dream following a night at the opera. Looks like the Iraqi people feel the same way.
Is there a resource somewhere where I can see what forms of western music and what performers are being allowed into Iranian society? Is Queen priveleged because Mercury was Iranian himself?
Beside any small positive progress this shows since Mercury was openly gay, and in light of the recent public hangings of two teenage gay Iranian partners,
I don’t see this as a great hope. Any progress made will soon be bombed back into oblivion by Bush and any fondness young Iranians might feel for western culture will soon turn to hatred and nationalism as they become the inevitable victims of those bombs.
Rock and Roll is powerful but it won’t keep us from eventually reaping the rewards of our own hypocrisy.
It’s like putting one friendly hand on their shoulder while the other hand buries a knife in their heart.
Pessimism can be a MF’r
supersoling,
I didn’t see any list of “approved” rock music. I do know a lot of music has been smuggled in to meet the demand. That’s been going on for years. During the 1990s when it appeared the secular movement was growing, people attributed it in part to the influence and popularity of Madonna on the teenage girls and young women.
I’m an optimist.
… the new Battle Hymn of the Republic is “We will, we will rock you.” And nobody needs to buy the disc, least of all Iranians, to hear the chorus growing louder.
We’ve got to figure out a way to interrupt the drum beat for war. And one way I think is to make sure we raise our own voices loud.