Phil Anselmo "How Soon Is Now?" karaoke / video - NME.com

Phil Anselmo can go f*** himself. He's a nazi piece of shit, and this is tokenistic atonement.

 

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't it have made more sense to do 'Bengali in Platforms' or 'The National Front Disco'?

 

[davidt]

Bryant writes:

After that racist nazi verbiage and yelling white power, Phil from Pantera decided to cover "How Soon Is Now?" with an all black vocal group.

Phil Anselmo does karaoke with African-American group in first appearance since Nazi salute incident - NME.com
Ex-Pantera frontman covered The Smiths at the Days Of The Dead horror convention in Atlanta

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Related items:

• Philip Anselmo of Pantera with Dave Hill cover 'Please, Please, Please...' - Aug. 12, 2014
• The Smiths' Biggest, Most Unlikely Fan: Pantera's Phil Anselmo - radio.com - Jan. 31, 2014

 

[Anonymous]

Phil's a dumb, bisexual chicken-fried Nazi. What's not to love?

 

[ninetimesfined]

Well, If one were to interpret and believe those songs are 'racist' then yes. Though anyone with half a brain would not.

I don't think either of these songs are racist. I agree with you that you have to be pretty stupid to think they were intended as songs with racist sentiments, but Bengali is certainly regarded as ... A little ignorant. Using language like 'belong here' for instance implies that the protagonist actually does not belong. But I feel this is just naïveté. It's not deliberately patronising, it merely explores a common theme in Morrissey canon, that of isolation. The isolation not being that of the character that is the subject of the song but of the one penning the words. and I don't know how to make that line better; 'life's hard enough when you were born here' I feel sounds more racist. And doesn't scan nearly as well.

 

[AztecCamera]

What did you expect from a fat piece of shit from Texas? Anonymous-

 

[Bryant S.]

My thoughts exactly @ninetimesfined


Thanks for approving my news article

 

[Billtwasreallynowt]

Goodness me, I am more offended by that cover, than I am with his nonsensical rantings!

 

[MozRecording]

"Statistics say: chances of being gay are more than 1 in 10. That means there's a 40% chance that one of the guys in Pantera likes men." -Atom and His Package

 

[Anonymous]

So now we have to re-write Morrissey's lines in order to "understand" how they are "not racist?" Thank you. That pretty much says it all.

 

[Anonymous]

Phil Anselmo can go f*** himself. He's a nazi piece of shit, and this is tokenistic atonement.

I don't agree with the last part. I think it's more like when Eminem was being protested for all his anti-gay remarks, so he got Elton John to perform with him at the Grammy awards. That wasn't saying, "I believe in equal rights and I don't really hate gay people." It was saying, "I can say whatever I want to and still perform this song with Elton John." Elton had performed with Guns'N'Roses a few years earlier not too long after Axl Rose had come under similar backlash for similar remarks.

To me it's more likely that Phil Anselmo is an idiot who thinks Nazi salutes are a joke, and also thinks performing with a group of African-Americans after being labeled, again, as a racist, is also a joke. Whatever the case, I'm certain this was not some move made to appease liberals but more to indicate that he does random things and doesn't care what enyone thinks. He is not a pop star and anyone in his audience that buys his records must already be aware of his racist history.

He might be a lowlife, but I don't honestly think he is a Nazi, because that actually requires some consistency. I'm pretty certain he is a racist, but being a Nazi requires some specific beliefs and anyone that apologizes for it or says it's a joke is more of a moron than a Nazi. I'm not saying it's an honorable thing to be but I also don't think pretending to be a Nazi makes you one. He's really an idiot singer well past his sell-by date and this is apparently how he stays relevant.

 

[ninetimesfined]

So now we have to re-write Morrissey's lines in order to "understand" how they are "not racist?" Thank you. That pretty much says it all.

It's strange because you never read or hear a word about 'Asian Rut'. That's a song that relies heavily on a very 'racist' sentiment. The title alone says it. But people assumedly know innately that the views expressed by the protagonist aren't shared by the author. I think it has a lot to do with the music coupled with the lyrics - it's quite a stark, dank festering tune with brass and that connotes a Northern pocket of desolation. So people (correctly IMO) assume it's not Morrissey 'passing through here/on [his] way to somewhere civilised' but a xenophobic, panic stricken third person protagonist.

Why does Bengali stick in people's minds as an an apparent ignorant or arrogant portrayal of people from another culture and Asian Rut does not? I think it's because the tune doesn't have the theatricity of AR and is therefore believed (wrongly) to come from Morrrissey's own opinion when - for all we know - the one who requests 'breaking the news gently' could be a third party anyway.

 

[Anonymous]

It's strange because you never read or hear a word about 'Asian Rut'. That's a song that relies heavily on a very 'racist' sentiment. The title alone says it. But people assumedly know innately that the views expressed by the protagonist aren't shared by the author. I think it has a lot to do with the music coupled with the lyrics - it's quite a stark, dank festering tune with brass and that connotes a Northern pocket of desolation. So people (correctly IMO) assume it's not Morrissey 'passing through here/on [his] way to somewhere civilised' but a xenophobic, panic stricken third person protagonist.

Why does Bengali stick in people's minds as an an apparent ignorant or arrogant portrayal of people from another culture and Asian Rut does not? I think it's because the tune doesn't have the theatricity of AR and is therefore believed (wrongly) to come from Morrrissey's own opinion when - for all we know - the one who requests 'breaking the news gently' could be a third party anyway.

And Nawazish Ali Khan played violin on this track.

 

[Anonymous]

It's strange because you never read or hear a word about 'Asian Rut'. That's a song that relies heavily on a very 'racist' sentiment. The title alone says it. But people assumedly know innately that the views expressed by the protagonist aren't shared by the author. I think it has a lot to do with the music coupled with the lyrics - it's quite a stark, dank festering tune with brass and that connotes a Northern pocket of desolation. So people (correctly IMO) assume it's not Morrissey 'passing through here/on [his] way to somewhere civilised' but a xenophobic, panic stricken third person protagonist.

Why does Bengali stick in people's minds as an an apparent ignorant or arrogant portrayal of people from another culture and Asian Rut does not? I think it's because the tune doesn't have the theatricity of AR and is therefore believed (wrongly) to come from Morrrissey's own opinion when - for all we know - the one who requests 'breaking the news gently' could be a third party anyway.

I see it differently. I usually assume Morrissey is the speaker, but it doesn't make much difference in this song. I take that line, "I'm just passing through here..." to mean that the area where this happened has gang or racial violence. Asian Rut is a story but it doesn't make one side or the other the bad guy. One Asian is killed by some English boys, and another Asian boy tries to shoot the boys he blames for the death, but something goes wrong and he is unsuccessful and possibly dies. But nothing in that is racist or takes sides, in my opinion. If anything it seems to blame the English boys.