Thursday, December 11, 2008

The sound of pain

In Billy Wilder's cold war comedy One, Two, Three, the character Otto Ludwig Piffl (Horst Buchholz), a staunch communist held by the East German police on suspicion of espionage for the Klassenfeind, is tortured by having "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" played to him nonstop.



The following is a list of the tracks used to torture people in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay these days:

AC/DC - Hell's Bells, Shoot to Thrill
Aerosmith
Barney the Purple Dinosaur - theme tune
Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive
Britney Spears
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
Christina Aguilera - Dirrty
David Gray - Babylon
Deicide - Fuck Your God
Don McLean - American Pie
Dope - Die MF Die, Take Your Best Shot
Dr. Dre
Drowning Pools - Bodies
Eminem - Kim, Slim Shady, White America
Li'l Kim
Limp Bizkit
Matchbox Twenty - Gold
Meat Loaf
Metallica - Enter Sandman
Neil Diamond - America
Nine Inch Nails - March of the Pigs, Mr. Self-Destruct
Prince - Raspberry Beret
Queen - We are The Champions
Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name Of
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Saliva - Click Click Boom
Sesame Street - theme tune
Tupac - All Eyes on Me

The Sesame Street theme tune?

No, this isn't a joke. It's very sad indeed.

Via Süddeutsche Zeitung. More on the zero db campaign here.

2 comments:

Alex said...

I knew this was real when I heard about Barney the Dinosaur. You just *know* they kept the guy awake for 60 hours with it...and then the cell door opens and heeeere's Barney!

Anonymous said...

What the hell is 'Babylon' doing on this list? I find David Gray charmingly disarmingly earnest, and 'Babylon' is, IMHO, an inspiring piece of pop music. I voluntarily listen to it several times a month!

Perhaps it's been chosen for its title -- which I'd also assume is the case for Neil Diamond's 'America' or Deicide's 'Fuck your God.'

Nice clip from 'One, Two, Three' -- but can't you find the part where Horst Buchholz screams "Fascist Lies!" in English?