# Songs, books, movies, etc., indelibly linked to scandal having little/nothing to do with the artist **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 11, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088 "2009-08-11T18:22:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/21 "2009-08-12T03:35:52Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Well, Richard Wagner died long before Hitler came to power, and he bore absolutely no responsibility for the crimes of the Nazis… but his work is certainly tainted by the fact that he was an anti-semite and the perception that he was somehow Hitler’s unofficial court composer. In this vein, would Nietzsche count? Despite that fact that he detested fascism and was not an anti-semite, his bitch sister took advantage of his catatonia and widely disseminated hacked versions of his works to Nazis to use as propaganda, thus linking Nietzsche’s philosophy with fascism and anti-semitism in the minds of many. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/22 "2009-08-12T03:51:28Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > Anything recorded by Phil Spector has a grim shadow over it now. All those girl group songs with the babes bragging about “their man”, who of course is their whole life, their reason for existing, how the only thing they want to do is please “their man”… Well, those do have quite a lot to do with the artist, considering he produced them all. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/23 "2009-08-14T18:33:05Z")
One very obvious example: Richard Bachman’s novel _Rage_, about a high school studen with a gun holding students hostage. It was deleted from publishing after Columbine. Can you can hear “One Night in Bangkok” from the musical Chess without thinking about David Carridine’s death? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/24 "2009-08-14T20:33:05Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Can you can hear “One Night in Bangkok” from the musical Chess without thinking about David Carridine’s death? Not _now_! Thanks Annie.:o ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/25 "2009-08-14T20:38:56Z")
In the 1980’s or early 90’s, there was a controversy over whether backwards messages in Judas Priest songs caused a couple of people to commit suicide. The families even went to court to sue Judas Priest, but lost if I recall correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/26 "2009-08-14T20:41:48Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > In the 1980’s or early 90’s, there was a controversy over whether backwards messages in Judas Priest songs caused a couple of people to commit suicide. The families even went to court to sue Judas Priest, but lost if I recall correctly. IIRC Ozzie Osbourne (or maybe it was Black Sabbath) got one of those asinine lawsuits as well. ---
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/27 "2009-08-15T06:24:52Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > IIRC Ozzie Osbourne (or maybe it was Black Sabbath) got one of those asinine lawsuits as well. So did Slayer. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/28 "2009-08-15T11:59:40Z")
AFAIK, the novelty song “Kinko the Kid-Loving Clown” came out before & had nothing to do with John Wayne Gacy’s crimes, but when Gacy hit the news, I never heard Dr. Demento play the song again. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/29 "2009-08-15T12:57:42Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > In the 1980’s or early 90’s, there was a controversy over whether backwards messages in Judas Priest songs caused a couple of people to commit suicide. The families even went to court to sue Judas Priest, but lost if I recall correctly. And the album in question, _Stained Class_, was eight years old by then. And Night Prowler by AC/DC was six years old by the time Richard Ramirez started murdering people. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/30 "2009-08-15T13:55:31Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > AFAIK, the novelty song “Kinko the Kid-Loving Clown” came out before & had nothing to do with John Wayne Gacy’s crimes, but when Gacy hit the news, I never heard Dr. Demento play the song again. Johnny ran away one day, he never said goodbye. (Aaaaigh!) Kinko went to look for him to help the FBI. As he got into the car his eyes were full of tears - He said “I’ll be back to see you kids sometime in twenty years!” Why do the horrible ones always stick with you?! ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/31 "2009-08-15T15:44:27Z")
“Everybody run! The homecoming queen has got a gun!” For some reason you don’t hear that one on the radio much anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/32 "2009-08-15T16:57:08Z")
> [@enomaj](#): > > Doom. Eric Harris. Dylan Klebold . Not among the gamers I know. 1999 was pretty much the high point for the “All old video games are crap!” movement. The only thing remarkable about Harris, Klebold and Doom was that they were still playing Doom six years after it came out. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/33 "2009-08-15T17:42:20Z")
Whenever I hear mention of the _ **The Conquerer** _, starring John Wayne, all I think about is the fact that everybody in the cast (well, not _everybody!)_ later died of cancer. Cecil wrote about the scandal here: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/374/did-john-wayne-die-of-cancer-caused-by-a-radioactive-movie-set](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/374/did-john-wayne-die-of-cancer-caused-by-a-radioactive-movie-set) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/34 "2009-08-15T19:49:08Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Well, those do have quite a lot to do with the artist, considering he produced them all. I was thinking that “artist” meant the singer/musician performing; I didn’t consider the producer as being an ‘artist.’ After all, you don’t think of “Be My Baby” as a Phil Specter song, it’s a Ronettes song. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/35 "2009-08-16T04:59:01Z")
Not a scandal, exactly, but this book was quite prescient about the RMS _Titanic_ disaster: [The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futility,_or_the_Wreck_of_the_Titan) ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/36 "2009-08-16T06:13:59Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > I was thinking that “artist” meant the singer/musician performing; I didn’t consider the producer as being an ‘artist.’ After all, you don’t think of “Be My Baby” as a Phil Specter song, it’s a Ronettes song. Yeah, but pretty much none of the people signing the songs wrote them. (Except I think maybe the Righteous Brothers?) Even though the Ronettes sang the song, Phil Spector (well, along with Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich) wrote the song, and Spector arranged and conceived of the whole sound. In his case, the vocals were often very incidental–he could and often did replace vocalists. I think most people do think of the songs he produced as Phil Spector songs instead of songs by the Ronettes or the Crystal or whoever. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/37 "2009-08-16T06:16:53Z")
A lesser known story, but Francisco Macias used to be the crazy guy who ran Equatorial Guinea (Teodoro Obiang currently holds that office). In 1975, Macias had about 150 political opponents arrested and held in a local sports stadium. On Christmas day he had them all executed. While this was being done, the song “Those Were the Days” by Mary Hopkins was played loudly over the PA system to cover up the gunfire. ---
**Author:** ![SleepyDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@SleepyDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SleepyDuck)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/38 "2009-08-17T01:35:07Z")
> [@breezman](#): > > James Oliver Huberty shot 40 people, killing 21 of them, in a Southern California McDonalds in 1984. During the shooting he was blasting the Scandal song “The Warrior” on a boom box. Shooting at the golden arches, bang bang… Like we needed another reason to hate that song. In a similiar vein, Duran Duran’s “Hungry like the Wolf” was playing on cassette when [Diane Downs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Downs) shot her three children, much to the annoyance of my Duranie sister. This fact actually played a part in her eventual conviction. The cassette playing, that is, not my sister’s annoyance. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/39 "2009-08-17T03:33:54Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > “Nearer My God to Thee” is indelibly linked to the _Titanic_. Yes, although it may not have been the last song played by the ship’s orchestra. One passenger said the last song was actually “Autumn.” Here is what [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/history/titanic/lastsong.asp) has to say about it. Another candidate is Amazing Grace. This hymn is associated with death since it is played so often at funerals (especially police funerals when played on the highland bagpipes). I can’t prove it, but I suspect this practice started with the publication of Joseph Wambaugh’s book [The Onion Field](http://www.amazon.com/Onion-Field-Joseph-Wambaugh/dp/0385341598/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250479686&sr=1-1), a true account of the murder of Los Angeles police officer Ian James Campbell and the murder’s aftermath. Campbell played the bagpipes, and a lone piper played Amazing Grace at his funeral. I had never heard of this practice before the publication of the book, yet it seemed to become common not too long afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088/40 "2009-08-17T06:53:14Z")
**Threepenny Opera**. It’s an article of faith among actors (though not historians) that Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr dueled because they were both involved with the actress playing Polly Peachum. **Black Sunday**. A segment of the book (omitted from the movie) is one that lots of terrorists find to be, um, instructional. A copy of the book used to be frequently found among the possessions of terrorist suspects. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-books-movies-etc-indelibly-linked-to-scandal-having-little-nothing-to-do-with-the-artist/506088.md?page=3)