Claim: Singer Charlie Daniels pulled out of a scheduled benefit concert appearance because the organizers barred him from performing a certain song.
Status: True.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2001]
This is a statement from Charlie Daniels. I simply say, "AMEN" !!!!!
We were announced and scheduled and had every intention of doing the show, until we gave the CMT folks the lyrics to a new song I had written and wanted to perform on the show. After receiving the words they informed us that we could not do the song on the show and when we asked them why they said that the show was a healing type show and they were afraid that the song would offend someone. I would never do anything to hurt the show but I knew that they had the very epitome of country stars and didn't particularly need us to sell tickets. With this in mind, I decided to pull off the show for personal reasons which I would like to share with you. Let me preface my remarks by saying that I respect CMT's right to not allow anything they don't agree with to go out over their airwaves. And in all fairness, I guess they were taking the sensibilities of the victim's families into account. But I respectfully and vehemently disagree with their stand. First of all, I don't feel that this is the time for healing. I feel that this is the time to rub salt in the wounds and keep America focused on the job at hand. We lost almost seven thousand people in the Trade Towers and Pentagon and we're worrying about offending somebody? We have seven month old babies infected with Anthrax and we're afraid we'll hurt someone's feelings? Brave Americans forced a plane down in a field in Pennsylvania and we're worried about ruffling someone's feathers? We're sending our sons and daughters off to fight and perhaps die in a war we had nothing to do with starting and we're concerned about insulting somebody? I felt to give into this political correctness would be to turn my back on the people who lost their lives on The title of the song is "This Ain't No Rag It's A Flag", and I don't apologize for a word in it. I'll let you all decide for yourselves:
What do you think? God Bless America |
Origins: The above-quoted essay attributed to Charlie Daniels began circulating via
"This Ain't No Rag, It's a Flag" has been giving the pot of controversy a good stir. The facts as reported in Daniels' essay are accurate — he was scheduled to appear as one of the entertainers at an
The song has proved to be wildly popular. It debuted at #51 on the Billboard country music singles chart in early November, and requests to play it have poured into country music radio stations. Traffic at his web site, www.charliedaniels.com, the only place to buy "Rag," has soared. The song does strike a responsive chord with a number of folks and does give voice to widespread sentiment, hence its popularity. Of course, the song does not speak for everyone (what song could?), but it's clear a significant number of people do find a sense of empowerment in it. It's a war song, and it's meant to stir up the blood. At this, it succeeds remarkably
well.
The question of whether "Rag's" message is the right one for America at this time is too large an imponderable for this site to try to address. Suffice it to say, some will love this song because it fiercely cries out what's in their hearts, and some will hate it because they disagree with its cowboy justice posture. Discussion of "Rag" at the family dinner table thus guarantees lively debate, possibly escalating to pot slinging and plate slamming incidents wholly unrelated to the food.
The opening lines of this battle cry have proved especially offensive to some. "This ain't no rag, it's a flag; And we don't wear it on our heads" has been parsed by some Muslim Americans as a slam of their customs and of them — they interpret the reference to a rag's being worn on the head as applying to their traditional head coverings, thus perceive the song as equating all Muslims ("ragheads") with the object of the song's ire, which are terrorists.
Those attuned to issues of flag etiquette could view that opening stanza in a more innocuous fashion, as a not-so-gentle reminder that it's disrespectful to wear the American flag or representations of it as an item of clothing (as explained in
It should be noted, however, that Charlie Daniels himself has never espoused the flag etiquette explanation. But in various interviews, the singer has explained that the angry sentiments expressed in the song are exclusively aimed at the terrorists behind the
Barbara "charlie's angle" Mikkelson
Last updated: 8 March 2008
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