Posted on 04/20/2006 11:51:47 AM PDT by John Jorsett
LONDON - You expect to have your luggage scrutinized at the airport. But how about your choice of music?
Security staff at a British airport stopped a businessman from catching a flight because the songs he had asked a taxi driver to play on the car stereo made the driver suspicious, police said.
Harraj Mann, who is of Indian origin, had the songs stored on an MP3 player, which the cab was equipped to play on its stereo. Mann asked the driver to play "London Calling" by the Clash as they headed for Tees Valley International Airport near Darlington in northern England on March 30, news reports said.
The lyrics include the words "London calling from the faraway towns, now war is declared and battle come down/ London calling to the underworld, come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls."
Mann, 24, also asked the driver to play "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin, which begins, "The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands, to fight the horde singing and crying Valhalla, I'm coming!"
The driver alerted airport authorities and Mann was arrested as he boarded a flight for London's Heathrow Airport. He missed the flight and later took a taxi home.
Durham Police said the plane took off before they had established that the man was not a threat.
"In this case the report was made with the best of intentions and we would not want to discourage people from contacting us with genuine concerns regarding security," police said in a statement.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Mann was quoted as saying the incident was "preposterous."
"I never, ever play the race card, I really do forget I'm Asian," he was quoted as saying. "But when something like this happens, it does make you think."
Good thing he didn't ask for "Bombs Away" by The Police. They might have shot him.
" which begins, "The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands, to fight the horde singing and crying Valhalla, I'm coming!"
So the Viking Kitties are terror threats?
We are your overlords!
Queue the Viking Kitties!
Just play anything by the "Bay City Rollers" and you will be safe...
"Hi, Mr. DJ. Can you play a song for me? Please play 'Don't sleep in the subway' by Petula Clark. And, no, I do not plan to release poison gas into your underground later tonight."
Of course the authorities are incapable of stopping REAL terrorists, so they do this kind of thing to try to convince people that they are doing something.
Same in the USA.
"Oh! Oh! IamreallylikingtheClash! AndtheVikingKittySongisverycooltoo!"
Apparently so.
It explains a lot. Lately I've been hearing the Admin Mods screaming "Death To The Infidels" before a good Zot...
Or "Spanish Bombs", which is on the same album as "London Calling...."
I wonder if he was actually arrested vs detained. An arrest has to be for a crime, and there's nothing here to charge him with, as far as I can see.
UK Ping!
Me: - "Hey, Mr. Cab Driver, will you please put in this CD of Tony Bennet's 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco'?"
Cab driver: - "Attention Homeland Security - I've got a nut case in my cab that wants to strew body parts around San Francisco!"
The taxi driver must have been nuts.
Yup, every intending Osama plays triumphal terror music in Taxis just before taking care of business. /Sarc off
Or "Rock The Casbah" - Drop your bombs between the minarets. Down the Casbah way.
Would "Rock the Casbah" have been OK?
Now the king told the boogie men
You have to let that raga drop
The oil down the desert way
Has been shakin' to the top
The shiek he drove his Cadillac
He went a' cruisnin' down the ville
The muezzin was a' standing
On the radiator grille
CHORUS
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that craazy Casbah sound
But the Bedouin they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the shareef
Had cleared the square
They began to wail
CHORUS
Now over at the temple
Oh! They really pack 'em in
The in crowd say it's cool
To dig this chanting thing
But as the wind changed direction
The temple band took five
The crowd caught a wiff
Of that crazy Casbah jive
CHORUS
The king called up his jet fighters
He said you better eaarn your pay
Drop your bombs between the minarets
Down the Casbah way
As soon as the shareef was
Chauffeured outta there
The jet pilots tuned to
The cockpit radio blare
As soon as the shareef was
Outta their hair
The jet pilots wailed
CHORUS
He thinks it's not kosher
Fundamentally he can't take it.
You know he really hates it.
"Just play anything by the "Bay City Rollers" and you will be safe ...
No; then, the Good Taste in Music police will arrest you ...
(But I am one of the very few who will admit to liking their music!)
My friend nailed it. He was probably singing along to the Immigrant Song - which if you will recall, starts with a kind of high-pitched wailing at the beginning. The driver probably thought he was ululating and panicked!
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