Van Morrison has a new album out, and the initial reaction is pretty bad. And thatâs not even including allegations of anti-Semitism made against him over a song called âThey Own the Media.â
Since the pandemic hit, the âBrown Eyed Girlâ singer-songwriter has been railing against lockdowns aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, putting out a handful of protest songs that courted plenty of controversy.
But âLatest Record Project, Vol. 1,â a new two-hour, 28-track double album, doesnât include those tunes. Instead, it veers off in a conspiratorially cranky direction with songs titled âThe Long Con,â âBig Lie,â âWhy Are You on Facebookâ and âStop Bitching. Do Something.â
Sir Van Morrison performs on stage at the British Summertime Festival in Hyde Park Featuring: Van Morrison Where: London, United Kingdom When: 13 Jul 2018 Credit: Neil Lupin/WENN
Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison debuted a new song on Thursday titled “They Own the Media,” evoking an age-old antisemitic trope and outraging many fans and critics.
In the track, the 75-year-old rock and folk legend does not reveal who the pronoun refers to, but sings, “They control the narrative / they perpetuate the myth / Keep on telling you lies / telling you ignorance is bliss.” An official audio-only video for “They Own the Media” was posted on YouTube on Thursday, and had over 12,000 views by the following day.
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The Bechdel test asks whether two women are having a conversation which doesn t relate to a man. Many films, books and plays fall foul of the measure which first appeared in the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, created by Matthew Sweet s guest today Alison Bechdel. Her memoir Fun Home became a Tony Award-winning musical and she has now published The Secret to Superhuman Strength which considers her relationship with exercise so she and Matthew go on an imaginary walk discussing topics including mushrooms, drinking, the response of her mum to being depicted in fiction, the lingering impact of a Catholic childhood and going to confession, the writing of Adrienne Rich and Coleridge and Bechdel s exploration of ideas about transcendence.
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Van Morrison has a new album out, and the initial reaction is pretty bad. And that’s not even including allegations of anti-Semitism made against him over a song called “They Own the Media.”
Since the pandemic hit, the “Brown Eyed Girl” singer-songwriter has been railing against lockdowns aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, putting out a handful of protest songs that courted plenty of controversy.
But “Latest Record Project, Vol. 1,” a new two-hour, 28-track double album, doesn’t include those tunes. Instead, it veers off in a conspiratorially cranky direction with songs titled “The Long Con,” “Big Lie,” “Why Are You on Facebook” and “Stop Bitching. Do Something.”
R
ichard and Karen Carpenter sit by the ocean, dressed in dinner-party duds and beaming directly into the camera lens, which is pulled to the softest possible focus. The photo on the cover of the Carpenters 1970 album
Close to You is like something you d see hanging in a Sears portrait gallery (Richard himself hated it), and that gauzy, clean-cut image dogged the duo for years. A year later, the Carpenters third LP would have nothing on its cream-colored jacket but the band s name, embossed in its now-iconic baroque font. That record, simply titled
Carpenters, was released 50 years ago this week, and it cemented Karen and Richard s status as (pun intended) superstars. It remains their most successful studio record, too, selling more than 4 million copies and spawning three Top 10 singles.