KINSELLA: Rock and roll's hateful mistakes must be acknowledged |
Kanye West selling swastika T-shirts on Shopify. Punk rappers Bob Vylan calling for the death of Israelis. Irish rappers Kneecap promoting Jewish-loathing extremism. Primal Scream screening swastikas at their shows.
It’s bad. It’s always been bad, in fact.
Consider this list of mostly-alphabetical evidence, meticulously collected by British author Daniel Rachel in his vital new book, This Ain’t Rock’n’Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich. It is only a partial list.
– John Lennon collecting Nazi memorabilia, yelling “Sieg Heil” in Germany and goose-stepping onstage (a lot). So did Mick Jagger, also in Berlin (and it’s is illegal there).
– The Beatles putting a cut-out of Hitler on the cover of Sgt. Pepper (it’s behind the band, in the third row).
– Blondie’s Debbie Harry angrily proclaiming: “Why shouldn’t I Sieg Heil?”
– Blue Oyster Cult incorporating Nazi imagery into their album covers: “We mine the vein created by Nazi artists.”
– Eric Clapton declaring, onstage, the need to “Get the wogs out! Get the coons out!” – and wearing a Nazi Iron Cross around his neck “because I think the design is great.”
– The Eagles’ Joe Walsh waving a swastika-emblazoned knife at a journalist and declaring: “I like to collect Nazi things. I’m not concerned with the ethics of the war.”
– Ace Frehley of KISS, who literally adopted the Schutzstaffel “SS” into the band’s logo, collecting Nazi memorabilia and referring to Jewish band members as “two kikes.”
– Ice Cube calling Jews “the devil” and calling for “a bullet in his temple.”
– Michael Jackson singing “Jew me, sue me, everybody do me, kike me, like me …”
– Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page,........