Cursing In Tyler Texas, a Grievous Offense?

Occasionally, a local story makes national news; some are worthy of the attention while others aren't. The local story I'm about to share certainly does not merit national news. Not because it's not my local story -- after all, I live on Long Island, but because it's a non-issue. Or it was until KLTV received a complaint from a father who was offended that performer Shawn Phillips had some curses as part of his lyrics at a free concert he was giving in an East Texas Park and now people are talking.

Quite likely, I wouldn't even be writing about this, except to say that this summer I met up with my brother, Carl, who lives in Maryland, in the Adirondacks so that we could see Shawn Phillips in concert together. My brother likes to remind me of the time we were both teenagers living on our farm in Upstate New York when I had him come into my room to listen to a new album I'd bought that had me galvanized. It was Shawn Phillips' Second Contribution and the phrasing, word choice and music was something I'd never experienced before. Carl agreed and has been a fan ever since. He's actually the one who told me that Shawn would be performing in the Adirondacks. What a night we had with front row seats in the small venue watching someone whose talent has been greatly ignored by the mainstream; we couldn't help but feel we were in on a very special secret. After all, Ravi Shankar taught Shawn to play the sitar and Shawn then helped teach George Harrison. Yes, that George Harrison, with Shawn doing backup vocals on "Lovely Rita (Meter Maid)" on The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

Fast forward to Tyler Texas when Shawn recently performed at Bergfeld Park amphitheater and angered a father, who had his children with him, by Shawn's use of profanity. I can't be sure, but maybe the father was expecting a rousing chorus of Kumbaya and was disappointed when he heard something else altogether.

So, what's my point? Sure, there are people who are offended by curses and sometimes I am one of them. Sometimes, too, I am the one risking offending others with what comes out of my mouth. It actually depends on the circumstances. However, I do wonder if it's easier to express anger at something so minor than at something much bigger. For instance, I'm still mad as hell that we are at a war we have no business being in. And I'm mad as hell that the fallout is not only soldiers returning home with post-traumatic stress disorder or in a casket, but the Iraq and Afghanistan citizens, including children, many children, who have lost their lives because of the previous administration's missteps. Maybe the angry father has his own big issues that bother him, but he would do better teaching his children about justice and loving one's neighbor instead of making curse words the enemy.

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Comments

[LeftRight]

OHHHH NOES!!!!! Someone PLEASE think of the poor children who will hear the words!!!! And perhaps they might..... *GASP*...... USE them in all innocence not knowing what they mean!!!

And then, in a couple years, when they are teenagers, they will use them CONSTANTLY, whether you punish people for using such language or not!!!!!

[JohnFromCensornati]

Those Texas tough guys have very delicate ears.
Is it any wonder that the police taser old ladies for using bad words in Texas?

[LMPE]

I learned about Shawn Phillips in a compilation of Donovan's songs (a photo showed Donovan conversing with Shawn Phillips).

My mom once met a guy from Tyler. He was a fundamentalist Christian and wanted to move back to Tyler and have four kids. Needless to say, my mom didn't hook up with him.

[unitron]

I saw Shawn in concert at UNC-Chapel Hill about 1971 or '72. He was wearing a high-slung Telecaster and made it sound like a guitar orchestra.

Imagine my starstruck surprise to run into him an hour or so afterwards as we were both in line to get roast beef sandwiches at the local Roy Rogers, so I got to chat with him for a few moments as well. He acted like it was just as much a treat for him to get to talk to me as the other way around.

[DisgustedTexan]

The Congressional Representetive from Tyler, Texas is Republican "Gomer Gohmert". He likes to be called "The Hon. Gomer Gohmert". Honorable is an oxymoron for a Repubilcan Congressman. He has already made Olbermanns "Worst Person in the World" list. Tyler still has prohibition. If you want to buy a case of beer you must drive to the next county. This place is both the buckle of the bible belt but also the a-hole of the civilized world. They voted 75% for McCain Palin.

[MissFern]

I have followed this man's music for over 30 years, and he remains my all time favorite and most respected musician, composer, and poet. Of the hundreds of beautiful, profound songs he's written with their inspiring, beautiful lyrics and hypnotic, spellbinding melodies, there is only ONE SONG that I can recall that contains , at best, 2 four-letter words, and when used the their proper context, are nothing but relevant and apropos. It is disgusting that this artist is being thus vilified in the press and other media based on this one man's opinion after hearing one song. Typical now, of the tenet and tone of hotheaded battles raging in the media every chance one gets now to opine unabashedly about what generally amounts to nothing at all.
It would do this 'concerned father' well to go out and buy some of Shawn's available CDs, to see what this artist has created over the years, if for no other reason than to educate himself as to whom and what he has chosen to very wrongly judge and criticize.