Bloodless Coup

Forbidden Green Day

I spent most of two days last week on the road to and from Avon, North Carolina (out on the Outer Banks, just a few miles from the Cape Hatteras lighthouse - an area which appears to be nirvana for kiteboarders at this time of year). For much of the 21 hours in which I was on the rode I was listening to the radio. It's rather interesting - both what hear, and what you don't. It seems that the great majority of "news" that you hear on the radio in Virginia and North Carolina is from a Christain perspective, and these shows include all sorts of informative features. For instance, if I hadn't been listening I would never know that psychotherapy is some sort of Eastern infiltration of American culture, and that by bringing its practices into our churches Americans are making room for the devil's representatives in the house of the Lord - just like an incident involving practices in the Temple discussed in the Book of Nehemiah. But what really stuck out to me was, as usual, the types of songs that dominate the airwaves. A lot of it is really awful of course. And it seems that Journey, Styx and Def Leppard will never fade away, and every so often you can hear even older rock (for example, The Who), but that's a good deal more rare. But the one thing that really caught my ear involved Green Day's recent hit song "Holiday".

I think this is a really good song, and when I hear it played I'm happy to think that even though Ashlee Simpson and American Idol exist, all hope for popular music is not lost. But what really perplexed me the more I thought about it was how this song became a hit song. Part of it, I presume, has to do with the video, which is one of the best Green Day has ever made. But of course you'd assume that part of its popularity also stems from the song itself - and that's a little weird since I heard 3 or 4 different versions of the song on the radio, and only 1 time on the entire drive did I hear the whole song (that was on a station in either Lynchburg or Charlottesville). Usually, this section was abbreviated, bleeped, or cut out completely:

The representative from California has the floor Zieg Heil to the president gasman Bombs away is your punishment, Pulverize the Eiffel towers Who criticize your government Bang, Bang goes the broken glass Kill all the fags that don't agree Trials by fire, setting fire Is not a way that's meant for me Just cause, just cause, because we're outlaws, yeah!

So what I'm wondering is - why? What is it about these lyrics that's just too objectional for American ears? Is it the use of "fags"? That's probably the most common deletion - but it's hardly like that's a rarely heard word. And why do some stations delete this entire section of the song? The level of anti-Bush policy feeling? No Bush criticisms allowed? I'm genuinely curious.