Music Gifts

A recent report that has surfaced regarding various artists music being used to interrogate criminals and prisoners at the Guantanamo prison complex overseas.  Many artists such as Rosanne Cash, REM, Jackson Browne and Pearl Jam have joined a U.S. campaign asking those to come forward to name the music used, and to stop using it all-together.

I for one, don’t see it as a major issue.  Psychological war-fare has been used over the past centuries in a way to break down the prisoner or enemies mind to get the answers needed.  I also don’t know how it would feel if someone said that they were using my music to do that.  Should I be offended, that my music is that bad enough to break a prisoner?

Tom Morello - Rage Against The Machine/Audioslave

According to previously released documents, songs by bands like Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine were used as part of interrogating prisoners.

“Guantanamo is known around the world as one of the places where human beings have been tortured,” Tom Morello, of the bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, said in a statement Thursday.

“The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me,” Morello added.

This is what I don’t understand.  The two bands mentioned above were known for defying the government and speaking out against injustice.  If the reports are true, why use them and how was their music used to alter the minds of prisoners?  It’s  a fascinating world we certainly live in, when Rage Against The Machine is used instead of Roseanne singing the Nation Anthem on repeat.

This is certainly a fascinating tid-bit on the music industry and the cause an effect it can really have on various forms of people who live on this earth.  This story will be developing over the next few weeks, and I’ll surely update you on anything that happens.

Information used from this article: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2009/10/23/guantanemo-interrogate-music-campaign.html

Yesterday a new Michael Jackson song was revealed in anticipation for his new music documentary.   The song is called “This is it,” aptly named for his tour that he was re-hearsing for, before he died of apparent heart failure/drug overdose.  It was to be believed that the song was brand new and recently recorded, however singer/song writer Paul Anka had a different view about the song, and claims he helped write it with Michael.

The song was titled “I Never Heard,” and Jackson and Anka are credited as co-authors on an early 1990s version recorded by the singer Sa-Fire.

The orginial song was actually written 1983 for a duets album Anka was working on.  Paul Anka, broke this story yesterday once he heard word from the music indursty and various radio stations claiming that Michael’s song was brand new and written and recorded before his untimely death. togethor.

Paul Anka however, didn’t want to make it an issue after Michael’s publicity camp quickly corrected the situation and awarded him %50 publishing rights stated:

“They did the right thing,” Anka said. “I don’t think that anybody tried to do the wrong thing. It was an honest mistake.”

“There’s nothing but honorable people here,” said Anka, a former teen idol from the 1950s and ’60s who sang “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” and wrote “She’s A Lady”, one of Tom Jones‘ biggest hits.

It’s rather nice to see someone take credit for the mistake and actually fix a situation.  Too many times recordings happen and credit isn’t received.  Glad to hear everything worked out for Paul Anka, and hopefully the music documentary released labeled “This Is It,” benefits Michael’s children and helps proved for them in the future.

Michael Jackson - This Is It