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…