I think this is hilarious

Quote of note:

Wal-Mart, of Bentonville, Ark., has no immediate plans to pull the CDs from its shelves, spokesman Guy Whitcomb told The (Hagerstown) Herald-Mail. He said the company will investigate the allegations.

Wal-Mart Sued Over Evanescence CD Lyrics
Fri Dec 10,11:54 PM ET
By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press Writer

HAGERSTOWN, Md. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which promotes itself as a seller of clean music, deceived customers by stocking compact discs by the rock group Evanescence that contain the f-word, a lawsuit claims

The hit group's latest CD and DVD, "Anywhere But Home," don't carry parental advisory labels alerting potential buyers to the obscenity. If they did, Wal-Mart wouldn't carry them, according to the retailer's policy.

But the lawsuit claims Wal-Mart knew about the explicit lyrics in the song, "Thoughtless," because it censored the word in a free sample available on its Web site and in its stores.

The complaint, filed Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court, seeks an order requiring Wal-Mart to either censor or remove the music from its Maryland stores. It also seeks damages of up to $74,500 for each of the thousands of people who bought the music at Wal-Marts in Maryland.

"I don't want any other families to get this, expecting it to be clean. It needs to be removed from the shelves to prevent other children from hearing it," said plaintiff Trevin Skeens of Brownsville.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on December 11, 2004 - 7:42am :: Seen online
 
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P6,

As a 16+ year veteran of the music bidness, let me hip you to a little background!

I was a bit perturbed about this obvious racist standard, but never said anything about it. You could expect any rap/hip-hop release to have a PA sticker on it (the 'amended' or 'clean' version would also be available, primarily to get units into Wal-Mart). But, even releases by Prince - high in sexual content, but no swearing - would get a PA sticker.

However, I distinctly remember three releases by mainstream white rock artists - Tom Petty 'Wildflowers', a Neil Young and Lou Reed release I can't remember the names of - all having at least one song with the word 'fuck', in it.

And, none of them carried a Parental Advisory sticker.

I do remember edited versions of the Petty and Young songs being made especially for radio airplay, but none of the albums carried a sticker or had an amended version available. And, I know cause I sold all of them.

Posted by  tcf on December 12, 2004 - 11:03am.

I was pretty sure it worked like that.

I want to see how this suit turns out. I suspect Wal-Mart will pay these folks to go away because they obviously have a marketing arrangement with Evanescence (the free edited sample is proof) and I don't think they'll let family values get in the way of the profit.

I would like to know how this guy worked out the dollar value of his daughter's auditory virginity.

Posted by  Prometheus 6 on December 12, 2004 - 6:07pm.