Joe, I think you're right about the thread title. It's not ideal, though to be fair to Michaelr I think he was going for a play on words based on JM's interview comments.

I wondeer if Mudcat had been around in 1976, whether a similar thread about the sorts of comments Eric Clapton and David Bowie were making would have been seen as a low quality thread. Not all the comments on this thread are "prick 'n' douchebag" quality. In the UK, such comments by high profile musicians were (along with the National Front marching on our streets - and believe me, they made the BNP look like pussycats) factors leading to the formation of Rock Against Racism - a widely supported popular movement including many musicians, political, community and grassroots activists and regular music fans who wanted to publically distance themselves from such views and make a stand against racism. I think it's generally agreed that RaR contributed to a seachange in attitudes about race in the UK, particularly amongst younger people. Ceratinly as a teenager, RaR and CND were my first exposure to politics as a real thing you could get involved in, as opposed to something other people did, that you simply consumed on the news.

I find it a tad depessing that 38 years after the founding of RaR, not do only some white musicians who use black music as a vehicle for creative expression (and have black people in their band) still come out with overtly racist statements, but also that there are people out there who will take it upon themselves to act as apologists for such musicians. I think as musicians and music fans (and I know there is a strata of Mudcatteers who are sniffy about the term "fans", but not all of us who live and breathe music have the skills to play an instrument, so take it as shorthand rather than the negative value judgement it often seems to be) we should be able to comment on such things and not put down as "the usual suspects" as if being an anti-racist and commenting from that perspective was somehow problematic.

As far as I can see, making and listening to music of one kind or another is a basic human impulse. There should be no place in it for devisive and hateful views and beliefs. When comments like JM's raise their ugly head, I hope that other musicians and music fans will not quibble or look for excuses for the perp, but clearly and plainly challenge and refute them.

Love music, hate racism