Blue Mink - Melting Pot

[mushroom25]

Racist?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2964374/A-little-racist-BBC-DJ-Alan-Partridge-moment-apologising-playing-1969-song-features-words-yellow-Chinkees.html

[murraymints]

it is only a song...about racail harmony..think it is taking PC too far !

[Baldric]

What a Prize Richard the DJ appears to be!

[B00]

Talk about drawing attention to it, lol.

If they'd played the song, which is great by the way, in its entirety no one would have noticed or batted an eyelid.

[Chipchopper]

I've always thought the song was anti racist.

[pips1]

Too ridiculous for words!

[Cloverjo]

No not racist. You can't say that word nowadays, of course, but the song is anti-racist. He should have just finished the track and quietly made a note to not play it again if he was bothered by it.

[jno]

weird that a clearly anti-racist song should use racist words - it's like saying "I have a dream of a world where we get on with n*****s".

But there are lots of people round here protesting at multculturalism - I imagine they don't like the song either.

[andy-hughes]

I would take issue with the lousy grammar used by Iain Lee, referring to the song as "A little bit racist ...".

There are no degrees of racism, something is either racist, or it's not.

Similarly, something cannot be 'almost unique' - it is either unique or it is not unique.

As to his overdeveloped sense of morality - I find it hard to believe that a man who plays pop records on the radio for a living has not heard this song before.

He either knows the words and plays it as a song of its time, or doesn't play it as inappropriate, but doesn't try to skate the middle line and look like a numpty doing it.

[hc4361]

When a BBC DJ got sacked for playing 'The Sun Has Got His Hat On' I can understand Iain Lee getting in a flap.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2625248/BBC-sacks-DJ-playing-The-Sun-Has-Got-His-Hat-On-didnt-know-original-features-N-word-Clarkson-wasnt-fired-actually-saying-it.html

I'm sure another BBC DJ got slated for playing Melting Pot last year.

[hc4361]

If I remember correctly Blue Mink actually did the 'Chinese eyes' when performing that song on ToTP.

[andy-hughes]

These DJ's have producers, whose job it is to select and vet material for playing on the air.

They are the ones who should be carpeted - as they should over the Ross / Brand debacle that was not intended by the two to be broadcast, but was allowed through by producers failing to do their job properly.

[hc4361]

Wasn't the Ross/Brand disgrace broadcast live?

[mushroom25]

//but was allowed through by producers failing to do their job properly.//

they did their job - messrs ross and brand are perceived as "edgy", anything less and they'd be accused of losing it. and they'd have continued pushing the boundaries until outcry time - which probably came before they expected.

[andy-hughes]

hc4361 - "Wasn't the Ross/Brand disgrace broadcast live?"

No - and thereby lies the real responsibility for the incident.

Ross and Brand were larking about in the studio, behaving badly, no argument there - but what they did was clearly not suitable for broadcast on national radio. The producer(s) of the programme heard it, and broadcast it, so the real responsibility for the furore lies squarely with them.

I worked in local radio and often recorded inserts for a live show, and sometimes, late at night, we would mess around and record pieces that were totally unsuitable for broadcast. But we made very very sure that they never reached the ears of the producer, or that there was any danger of them being broadcast by mistake.

Producers are paid to oversee the content of broadcasts, and in this instance - they failed, and the public faces were hung out to dry.

[andy-hughes]

mushroom - "they did their job - messrs ross and brand are perceived as "edgy", anything less and they'd be accused of losing it. and they'd have continued pushing the boundaries until outcry time - which probably came before they expected."

I think part of the remit of being a producer of a national radio programme is that you are expected to know where the line is between 'edgy' and unacceptable, and the difference between them.

If that is not the case - as it wasn't here, then you should be seen as unfit for purpose, and be dismissed for rank incompetence.

[bazwillrun]

This is so hilarious it must be april 1....

Im sure Blue mink will be overjoyed at losing out on the royalties now....

Still all the liberal lefties will be pleased at the song being left to rot in the pile of PC faeces

[andy-hughes]

bazwillrun - "Still all the liberal lefties will be pleased at the song being left to rot in the pile of PC faeces"

I for one am thrilled to bits - it's a crap song.

I am just working on my qualifications as a 'liberal lefty' - I seem to be falling short there - again!

[mushroom25]

another example of yesterday's attitudes being judged by today's standards.

the same logic means that recordings by, or associated with, gary glitter, rolf harris, the lostprophets, etc cannot be played in public.

[ichkeria]

I'm surprised he overlooked 'Red Indian' before getting to the chinky bit
That's surely just as bad these days.
I agree that the song sounded naff even back in the day
I wonder what UKIP's song for racial harmony would sound like:
'Ting Tong let's all get along'

[andy-hughes]

mushroom25 - "another example of yesterday's attitudes being judged by today's standards.

the same logic means that recordings by, or associated with, gary glitter, rolf harris, the lostprophets, etc cannot be played in public."

It's not the same logic at all.

The suitability of songs like Melting Pot, and The Sun Has Got His Hat On, are down to the words in the content of the songs - nothing to do with the artists who recorded them.

Recordings associated with Gary Glitter, Rolf Harris and Lostprophets are shunned for the exact opposite reasons - the behaviour of their creators, not the content of the songs.