Top Ten Banned Songs: Black Day in July (#8)

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Yeah, it’s early. But I went to bed really early, too. Another day, another myLotter, and another bunch of cops on our tail. Meanwhile, I’m not forgetting the countdown of songs that were banned. We’re in the top ten now, and here’s one that you’ve never heard…but should. #8: Black Day in July - Gordon Lightfoot I’ve said this before in reference to folk music, but in this case it bears repeating: folk music was the way a lot of people got their news in the “old days.” That continued after the advent of TV and radio coverage, with “topical songs” popping up all over the place on occasion. Gordon Lightfoot was no stranger to writing songs based on real events. One of his best-known songs is “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” about the November 10, 1975 sinking of the iron ore freighter. One of his least-known songs about a shipwreck is “The Ballad of Yarmouth Castle.” Here’s another instance where Lightfoot simply wrote what happened. And what happened was awful: the Detroit 12th Street riot of July 23, 1967. The newspaper accounts say that 5,000 troops were sent to one U.S. city the next day to join 5,000 National Guardsmen. Wow. I was a child in the 60s, but I remember the news of the riots. It was NOT a pleasant time. Lightfoot captured that brilliantly in this song. And, as with “Ohio,” used earlier in the countdown, it didn’t seem to ring favorably on the politicians (“In the mansion of the governor [side note: the governor at the time was Mitt Romney’s father, George] there’s nothing that is known for sure, the telephone is ringing and the pendulum is swinging”). It wasn’t happening just in Detroit, of course; however, no radio station in Michigan would touch this song. Lots of other stations in or near cities that had experienced similar rioting didn’t want four minutes’ worth of reminder playing on rotation. As a result, you’ve never heard one of Lightfoot’s most powerful tunes. Black Day in July Written by Gordon Lightfoot Recorded by Gordon Lightfoot From Did She Mention My Name?, 1968 Reason banned: politically offensive Is it him or is it me: