2001 Clear Channel memorandum

The 2001 Clear Channel memorandum is a controversial document distributed by Clear Channel Communications shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks to the more than 1,200 radio stations they owned. The memo contained a long list of what the memo termed "lyrically questionable" songs.^[1]

During the time immediately after the attacks, many television and radio stations altered normal programming in response to the events, and the rumor spread that Clear Channel and its subsidiaries had established a list of songs with lyrics Clear Channel deemed "questionable" and that stations might not want to play after the attacks. The list was made public by the independent newsletter Hits Daily Double, which is not affiliated with Clear Channel.^[2] Snopes.com did research on the subject and concluded that the list did exist as a suggestion for radio stations but noted that it was not an outright ban on the songs in question.^[3]

The list contains 165 songs, including all songs by Rage Against the Machine as well as certain songs recorded by multiple artists (for example "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan and the same song by Guns N' Roses). In some cases, only certain versions of songs were included on the list. For example, the cover of "Smooth Criminal" by Alien Ant Farm is on the list while the original Michael Jackson recording is not. Similarly, J. Frank Wilson's version of "Last Kiss" is included, but Pearl Jam's cover is not. Slate published what it claimed was a copy of the list.

Clear Channel denied the existence of such a list in a press release to a radio industry trade publication.^[4]

The compiled list was the subject of much media attention around the time of its release.^[3]

Even though many songs with the word "fall" in the title were on the list, Fallin' by Alicia Keys, which was very popular at the time of the attacks, was not.

List of songs

Artist	Song title
3 Doors Down	"Duck and Run"
311	"Down"
AC/DC	"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"
	"Hells Bells"
	"Highway to Hell"
	"Safe in New York City"
	"Shoot to Thrill"
	"Shot Down in Flames"
	"T.N.T."
The Ad Libs	"The Boy from New York City"
Afro Celt Sound System featuring Peter Gabriel[Note 1]	"When You're Falling"
Alice in Chains	"Down in a Hole"
	"Rooster"
	"Sea of Sorrow"
	"Them Bones"
Alien Ant Farm	"Smooth Criminal"
The Animals	"We Gotta Get Out of This Place"
Louis Armstrong	"What a Wonderful World"
The Bangles	"Walk Like an Egyptian"
Barenaked Ladies	"Falling for the First Time"
Fontella Bass	"Rescue Me"
Beastie Boys	"Sabotage"
	"Sure Shot"
The Beatles	"A Day in the Life"
	"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
	"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
	"Ticket to Ride"
Pat Benatar	"Hit Me with Your Best Shot"
	"Love Is a Battlefield"
Black Sabbath	"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"
	"War Pigs"
Blood, Sweat and Tears	"And When I Die"
Blue Öyster Cult	"Burnin' for You"
Boston	"Smokin'"
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown	"Fire"
Jackson Browne	"Doctor My Eyes"
Buddy Holly and the Crickets	"That'll Be the Day"
Bush	"Speed Kills"[Note 2]
The Chi-Lites	"Have You Seen Her"
The Dave Clark Five	"Bits and Pieces"
Petula Clark	"A Sign of the Times"
The Clash	"Rock the Casbah"
Phil Collins	"In the Air Tonight"
Sam Cooke	"Wonderful World"
Creedence Clearwater Revival	"Travelin' Band"
The Cult	"Fire Woman"
Bobby Darin	"Mack the Knife"
Skeeter Davis	"The End of the World"
Neil Diamond	"America"
Dio	"Holy Diver"
The Doors	"The End"
The Drifters	"On Broadway"
Drowning Pool	"Bodies"
Bob Dylan	"Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
Everclear	"Santa Monica"
Shelley Fabares	"Johnny Angel"
Filter	"Hey Man, Nice Shot"
Foo Fighters	"Learn to Fly"
Fuel	"Bad Day"
The Gap Band	"You Dropped a Bomb on Me"
Godsmack	"Bad Religion"
Green Day	"Brain Stew"
Norman Greenbaum	"Spirit in the Sky"
Guns N' Roses	"Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
The Happenings	"See You in September"
The Jimi Hendrix Experience	"Hey Joe"
Herman's Hermits	"Wonderful World"
The Hollies	"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"
Jan and Dean	"Dead Man's Curve"
Billy Joel	"Only the Good Die Young"
Elton John	"Bennie and the Jets"
	"Daniel"
	"Rocket Man"
Judas Priest	"Some Heads Are Gonna Roll"
Kansas	"Dust in the Wind"
Carole King	"I Feel the Earth Move"
Korn	"Falling Away from Me"
Lenny Kravitz	"Fly Away"
Led Zeppelin	"Stairway to Heaven"
John Lennon	"Imagine"
Jerry Lee Lewis	"Great Balls of Fire"
Limp Bizkit	"Break Stuff"
Local H	"Bound for the Floor"
Los Bravos	"Black Is Black"
Lynyrd Skynyrd	"Tuesday's Gone"
Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge	"The Worst That Could Happen"
Martha and the Vandellas	"Dancing in the Street"
	"Nowhere to Run"
Dave Matthews Band	"Crash into Me"
Paul McCartney & Wings	"Live and Let Die"
Barry McGuire	"Eve of Destruction"
Don McLean	"American Pie"
Megadeth	"Dread and the Fugitive Mind"
	"Sweating Bullets"
John Mellencamp	"Crumblin' Down"
	"Paper in Fire"
Metallica	"Enter Sandman"
	"Fade to Black"
	"Harvester of Sorrow"
	"Seek & Destroy"
Steve Miller Band	"Jet Airliner"
Alanis Morissette	"Ironic"
Mudvayne	"Death Blooms"
Ricky Nelson	"Travelin' Man"
Nena	"99 Luftballons"/"99 Red Balloons"
Nine Inch Nails	"Head Like a Hole"
Oingo Boingo	"Dead Man's Party"
Ozzy Osbourne[Note 3]	"Suicide Solution"
Paper Lace	"The Night Chicago Died"
John Parr	"St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)"
Peter and Gordon	"I Go to Pieces"
	"A World Without Love"
Peter, Paul and Mary	"Blowin' in the Wind"
	"Leaving on a Jet Plane"
Tom Petty	"Free Fallin'"
Pink Floyd	"Mother"
	"Run Like Hell"
P.O.D.	"Boom"
Elvis Presley	"(You're the) Devil in Disguise"
The Pretenders	"My City Was Gone"
Queen	"Another One Bites the Dust"
	"Killer Queen"
Rage Against the Machine	All songs by Rage Against the Machine
Red Hot Chili Peppers	"Aeroplane"
	"Under the Bridge"
R.E.M.	"It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
The Rolling Stones	"Ruby Tuesday"
Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels	"Devil with a Blue Dress On"
Saliva	"Click Click Boom"
Santana	"Evil Ways"
Savage Garden	"Crash and Burn"
Simon & Garfunkel	"Bridge over Troubled Water"
Frank Sinatra	"New York, New York"
Slipknot	"Left Behind"
	"Wait and Bleed"
The Smashing Pumpkins	"Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
Soundgarden	"Black Hole Sun"
	"Blow Up the Outside World"
	"Fell on Black Days"
Bruce Springsteen	"I'm Goin' Down"
	"I'm on Fire"
	"War"
Edwin Starr	"War"
Steam	"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye"
Cat Stevens	"Morning Has Broken"
	"Peace Train"
Stone Temple Pilots	"Big Bang Baby"
	"Dead and Bloated"
Sugar Ray	"Fly"
The Surfaris	"Wipe Out"
System of a Down	"Chop Suey!"
Talking Heads	"Burning Down the House"
James Taylor	"Fire and Rain"
Temple of the Dog	"Say Hello 2 Heaven"
Third Eye Blind	"Jumper"
The Three Degrees	"When Will I See You Again"
Tool	"Intolerance"
The Trammps	"Disco Inferno"
U2	"Sunday Bloody Sunday"
Van Halen	"Jump"
	"Dancing in the Street"
J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers	"Last Kiss"
The Youngbloods	"Get Together"
Zager and Evans	"In the Year 2525"
The Zombies	"She's Not There"

1. ^ "When You're Falling" is listed as being by Peter Gabriel, but is actually by Afro Celt Sound System, with Gabriel as guest vocalist.
2. ^ The original name of the song was "Speed Kills", but following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bush renamed the song "The People That We Love".
3. ^ "Suicide Solution" is listed as being by Black Sabbath, but is actually by Ozzy Osbourne, lead singer of Black Sabbath.

"Bleed American" by Jimmy Eat World was renamed as "Salt, Sweat, Sugar" in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks.

References

1. ^ Wishnia, Steven (2001-10-24). "Bad Transmission: Clear Channel's Hit List". Reviews. LiP magazine. Archived from the original on 2008-04-16. http://web.archive.org/web/20080416014917/http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/featwishnia_142.shtml. Retrieved 2011-01-18. 
2. ^ Dutton, Jeremy & Puchert, William. (2001-10-10). "Music industry responds to terrorism". Zephyr. Archived from the original on 2008-06-20. http://web.archive.org/web/20080620024102/http://zephyr.unr.edu/zephyr/arts/archives/art_dutpuch_musicindustry.html. Retrieved 2008-05-24. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Radio, Radio". Snopes.com. 2001-09-18. http://www.snopes.com/rumors/radio.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-24. 
4. ^ Truitt, Eliza (2001-09-18). "Profiles in Ass Covering". Slate.com. http://www.slate.com/id/1008318/. Retrieved 2008-01-30. 

Further reading

• Bertin, Michael (2001-11-30). "Imagine: The music business in a post-911 world". The Austin Chronicle. http://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2001-11-30/83800/. Retrieved 2011-04-17. 
• "Clear Channel Says National "Banned Playlist" Does Not Exist" (Press release). Clear Channel Communications, Inc.. 2001-09-18. http://content.clearchannel.com/corporate/article/NationalBannedPlaylist.pdf. Retrieved 2008-08-03. 
• Friedlander, Paul; Peter Mill (2006). Rock and Roll: A Social History. Basic Books. pp. 309–310. ISBN 0-8133-4306-2. 
• Klinenberg, Eric (2007). Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America's Media. Macmillan. ISBN 0-8050-7819-3. 
• Kolodzy, Janet (2006). Convergence Journalism: Writing and Reporting Across the News Media. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-3886-9. 
• Milner, Andrew (2004). Literature, Culture And Society. Routledge. pp. 154–155. ISBN 0-415-30785-6. 
• Strauss, Neil (2001-11-19). "The Pop Life; After the Horror, Radio Stations Pull Some Songs". Arts (The New York Times). http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9906E2D9153BF93AA2575AC0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-08-04.