Chicks Get DJs Suspended

Two Colorado DJs were suspended for playing the Dixie Chicks, proving that the debate and divisiveness touched off by singer Natalie Maines' criticism of President George Bush isn't over yet.

Colorado Springs country station KCS 102 FM suspended Jeff Singer and Dave Moore for an undisclosed number of days after the two played the country trio's songs despite orders from management not to do so. Though KKCS offers the slogan, "we're your country music station," listeners don't seem to be well represented. The station has been inundated with telephone calls about the band, seventy-five-percent of which reportedly favor reinstating the Chicks to the play list.

As for the Dixie Chicks, the backlash against them has subsided since their return from a European tour. The group kicked off its U.S. tour on May 1st to a sold-out crowd of 15,000 in Greenville, South Carolina, with only a handful of protestors outside. A subsequent Orlando performance drew only one protester.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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