Wal-Mart Eating Crow

A recent Florida Supreme Court ruling that upheld a $2.16 million verdictagainst Wal-Mart for illegally selling ammunition to minors who used thebullets to kill a Pensacola man, seemed to support Grammy Award-winning singerSheryl Crow in her on-going battle with the discount giant over guns andchildren.

It was back in 1996 when Wal-Mart shocked the music industry by refusing tostock Crow's self-titled release because of offending lyrics from "Love Is aGood Thing": "Watch out sister, Watch out brother/Watch our children as theykill each other/With a gun they bought at the Wal-Mart discount stores."

Wal-Mart and other family value discounters such as K-Mart and Caldor routinely refuse to sell records laced with profanity or objectionable art. But Wal-Mart was the first chain to boycott an album because company officials were offended by lyrics about their own stores. At the time, a Wal-Mart spokesman pointed out the chain had a strict policy against selling guns to minors. The ban removed Sheryl Crow from every store in the Wal-Mart chain, which accounts for nearly one out of every ten records sold in America.(Crow's debut, Tuesday Night Music Club, has remained in Wal-Mart's storesthroughout the controversy.)

But the Florida court decision, which came in late July, seemed to back upCrow's claim in "Love Is a Good Thing" that Wal-Mart has been culpable formurders committed by minors. The case stemmed from a 1991 murder-for-hire casein which an employee at an auto parts store hired three teens to kill theemployee's manager. The teens bought their .32 caliber bullets at Wal-Mart,despite an existing federal law that, according to the Associated Press, "bansthe sale of handgun bullets to anyone under 21."

According to a spokesman at A&M Records, Crow has no comment on the ruling.Her new album, The Globe Sessions, will be in stores in Sept. 29. Wal-Mart isexpected to stock it.

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Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

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