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<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> On 4/28/05, Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol@jhu.edu> wrote:</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> > Well, just think of a white band singing about 'niggas' 'bitches' committing</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> > acts of random violence, etc.  It would be scandalous.  </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> But white men have sung about murdering their wives for decades, if</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> not centuries and nobody's batted an eyelid.  One example of many: I</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> worked in record shops in the late 80s and early 90s, the PMRC years</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> when discs were first regularly labelled for "explicit content". </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> During this time a new Johnny Cash album was released. Its opening</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> track went like this:</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> "I went up to Memphis</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> And I met Delia there </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> Found her in her parlor</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> And I tied to her chair</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> Delia's gone</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> One more round </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> Delia's gone</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> First time I shot her </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> I shot her in the side</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> Hard to watch her suffer</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> But with the second shot she died</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> Delia's gone</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> One more round </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> Delia's gone"</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> This album was released on a major label and sold fairly well - it</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> wasn't so obscure as to just slip under the radar of the (would-be)</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> censors.  But it wasn't given a warning label.  Do you really think a</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> black group would have got away with this?</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> Wendy Lyon </span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">You have removed this part of one song from it's larger context and you also
appear to have missed the point of the song. Cash was not glamorizing this
death he was mourning it. He is lamenting mans inability to control his dark
side as in "The Beast in me". The next verse is:</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">"But jailer, oh, jailer </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Jailer I can't sleep </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">'Cause all around my bedside </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">I hear the patter of Delia's feet </span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Delia's gone, one more round Delia's gone"</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Not terribly comparable to gangsta rap that glorifies violence toward women as
"manly and tough". Cash's "American Recordings" is about life and death,
morality and redemption or damnation. While Cash was more populist than
leftist he is not known for glamorizing death. </span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">I like Detroit and try to visit the place once a year. Check out the website </span></font><a href="http://detroityes.com/home.htm"><u>"The
Fabulous Ruins of Detroit"</u></a><font face="Arial">
 for places to see if you're willing to get out of your
car and walk around. It is a fantastic place to go. I was sorry "The Blue Nile"
moved from Greek Town to some suburb as it used to be a must eat place
each visit. So much 20th century American history is in Detroit.</font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">John Thornton</span></font></div>
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