Saturday, December 16, 2006

Drinking, Driving, and Rock 'n' Roll

I was recently horrified to hear two songs receiving airplay on an Albuquerque oldies radio station. One was entitled “Christmas in Jail” and the other “Police Stop My Car” (sung to the tune of “Feliz Navidad”). Both told the tales of drivers who had too much to drink and were “in the wrong lane, feeling no pain” or blowing a 2.1 on the Breathalyzer. The songs made light of the issues, and in a way glorified the drunk drivers.

New Mexico has a huge problem with drunk driving, and there have been several high-profile cases recently (including the death of 5 out of 6 members of a family in a collision caused by a drunk driver going the wrong way on the interstate). The state has initiated yet another commission to look at the problem and recommend solutions.

So I find it in extremely poor taste (at best) for this station to be playing these songs (or others like them). I don't know whether the songs are new this year, or they're just staples of New Mexico airplay--but I never heard them in the East.

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