Music helps ease
pain of break-ups
The only reservation I have for
Feb. 14 is to hide away in my bed
room with a bottle of red wine and
a couple of Smiths albums. Yes, this
year I refuse to hide behind a pleas
ant facade of pink and red. I can no
longer deny my loathing of Valen
ime s n»ay.
There is no sin
cerity in three
pound boxes
of chocolate or
heart-shaped
mylar bal
loons. Instead,
I intend to rev
el in the gen
uine pain of
Morrissey. So
in ironic honor or this weekend s
holiday, I have compiled a list of the
best break-up songs.
Leave it to a band whose lead
singer is rumored to have committed
suicide over the dissolution of his
marriage to write the ultimate break
up song — Joy Division's "Love Will
Tear Us Apart." What makes this
song so great is that on the surface it
sounds like a cheery dance number,
yet the lyrics hint at a much darker
message. The song begins "When the
routine bites hard and ambitions are
low...resentment rides high, but
emotions won't grow." The message
of the song isn't hidden by unneces
sary euphemisms or allegory. I have
yet to hear faded love described as
succinctly as when, halfway through
the song, lead singer Ian Curtis asks
"Why is the bedroom so cold?" The
Helen Schumacher
Notes from the underground
question seems to echo from under
neath chilly covers. When love turns
sour, it really does tear you apart.
On the other end of the ther
mometer is the warm, comforting
music of Al Green. Better known for
his sexy ballads, Green is not the first
name mat
comes to mind
when consider
ing break-up
songs. Howev
er, his amazing
cover of the Bee
Gees song
"How Can You
Mend a Broken
Heart" takes
heartache and
drowns it in a voice that flows thick
and slow like honey.
What could be better solo listening
than a band that built its entire fan
base by writing songs about feeling
alienated? Radiohead's "High and
Dry," off its landmark album "The
Bends," captures the bitter sting of be
ing deserted by someone who never
deserved your affection in the first
place. It's smug and reassuring, and
pretty in a depressing way.
Not all relationships end with
loathing. As you may gather from the
title, "Left Only With Love" by Smog
is a graceful reconciliation. The sparse
song features limited guitar and mini
mal percussion. Instead, the tune is
carried by Bill Callahan's vocals recit
ing "You did what was right to do and
I hope you find your husband and a
Turn to NOTES, page 10
Immature culture
needs training bra
Well, I tried. Really. I have spent the
past week pining over a topic for this
column, and while many things
crossed my mind, one thing kept
throwing itself into my consciousness.
Yes, it was Janet Jackson's boob.
I can't help but see it — it's every
boob is the most-searched-for event
in the history of the Internet. Sorry,
Ms. Jackson.
The thing is, no one is talking about
the real disgusting events that took
place on that shameful Sunday. No
one mentions the fact that Janet and
Justin's performance^ aside from the
accidental striptease, was one of bru
tality and misogynistic domination.
No one talks about Nelly, not only
reaching for his penis, but shaping it
into a missile for all the world to see.
No has even questioned the real
boob, Kid Rock, and his idiotic per
formance, which in reality is more
disturbing and wrong than anything
the Jackson family could produce.
And in the "hip" category, all of the
artists who performed during half
time did a terrible job lip-synching
now-defunct hits from their sorry col
lective pasts. Nothing was new there,
nor was any of it even remotely inter
esting, aside from the half-second
flash of flesh.
Shock is nothing new to network
television, and it is certainly not new
to musicians. Just ask Eminem or
Carl Sundberg
Reasoning with madness
Marilyn Manson. America's television
history is inundated with "shocking
moments." We expect these things
from our musicians. Someone has to
step up and question American
progress from time to time, and it's
usually them.
dCCllld LU
have forgotten
that one of its
longest-running
television pro
grams, "The Ed
Sullivan Show,"
hosted a
plethora of
"shocking" per
formances. On
Sept. 9, 1956,
Elvis Presley be
came hivis the Ferns after lewdly gy
rating his hips for an audience of 56
million viewers. By his third perform
ance, Elvis's dirty hips were cropped
from the frame.
Another "shocking" performance
from that same show came a few years
later, when The Doors performed
their hit "Light My Fire." The produc
ers told singer Jim Morrison that he
had to say something other than "get
much higher" because of the apparent
drug reference. He agreed to it before
the show, but sang the song with the
original words, live on television. Ac
cording to keyboardist Ray Manzarek,
Sullivan was so irate he didn't even
shake their hands. He banned the
group from ever appearing on the
show again.
It's safe to say that the outrage of
CBS and Michael Powell — chairman
of the Federal Communications
Commission and son of Colin — was
not much different than that of Ed
Sullivan. But in all honesty, was it re
ally that shocking? With multiple ads
running during the Super Bowl for
Turn to SUNDBERG, page 10
wnere. ami. 1
can't turn on
the television or
check my e
mail or read the
news without
seeing Janet's
look of horror
and her now
censored mam
mary. Accord
ing to Lycos,
Janet and her
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