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I recently came across an article about 10 songs that wouldn’t work in today’s social climate. Sure, I’m kind of old (56), so for the most part, those songs didn’t bother me, but culture revolves around the young, so my opinions don’t matter. However, I never understood the stupidity of the objections to one song in particular that appeared in the article: Suicide Solution by Ozzy Osbourne.
Ozzy was famously sued for causing the suicide of one of his fans by releasing the song. (That was the dumbest sentence I’ve ever written.) The article seemed apologetic to those from the 80s and today who objected to the release of the song. The idea is that Ozzy is trying to advertise suicide as the solution to your problems. Moreover, there’s a part of the song where Ozzy stutters over the word suicide, saying, “Su, su, su . . . .” I remember the attorney representing the plaintiffs saying that it sounded too close to “Shoot, shoot, shoot,” which, of course, is how the fan committed suicide. Ozzy fought back saying that the song was about the dangers of alcoholism, which is a sort of slow suicide by way of the chemical solution of alcohol. (I know there’s some disagreement on whether alcoholic beverages are “solutions” or “mixtures,” but that’s not a concern of this post.)
So, who’s right? (I am right.) Well, form your own opinion. (Your opinion will be stupid unless you admit I am right.) Here’s the opening lyric to the song.
Wine is fine, but whiskey’s quicker.
Suicide is slow with liquor.
Do I really need to post the rest of the lyrics for you to understand what this song is about? Well, just in case . . . .
Take a bottle, drown your sorrows.
Then it floods away tomorrows.
. . .
Now you live inside a bottle.
The reaper’s traveling at full throttle.
Seriously, may I stop? While the other lyrics can be interpreted in a multitude of ways, they should be interpreted within the context of what you just read. Clearly, this song is about the dangers of alcohol excess. It’s actually a fucking public service announcement, but because a couple of parents couldn’t accept that the life they provided their child with a life he felt wasn’t worth living, they needed a scapegoat. That’s some serious cognitive dissonance, but their personal failings carried potential consequences for society at large, and ideas like this still swirl around in people’s insecure brains.
Of course, there could be even more to this argument. Suicide requires a complex combination of circumstances and emotions. No song could be causally linked to a suicide. Free fucking speech. But none of that should matter because the song itself is telling you not to commit suicide through irresponsible alcohol use. Ozzy knew something about this, as a fellow musician he knew had recently drank himself to death (so to speak). This song was absolutely the wrong target to attack.
I’m probably preaching to the choir among my few readers, but apparently there are still plenty of people who cling to this incredibly stupid position. Even my YouTube search warned me about what’s coming.
It’s worth reminding society of this.
If anyone’s even reading.
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While we’re on the subject, here are the most important lyrics Rush ever wrote.
Play What You Want 
In my case, at least, you are indeed preaching to the choir. Still, it gives me chuckles that you may outrage some moron with your post. Kudos.
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It’s mind-boggling to me. It shows that they’re not thinking it through. If you believe in hell, and if you believe everyone needs to be “saved,” fine, but even from that perspective, this is the absolute wrong song to target. It’s literally the opposite of what these people say it is. I’m sure plenty of preachers, etc. get up on the pulpit and express the same sentiment Ozzy is expressing here. This is just a knee-jerk reaction to something said by someone they’re predisposed to hate. That’s no way to live.
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I’m with you on the free speech issue. I also understand the need of parents to place the blame somewhere other than on their own child or themselves. I remember going to concerts in the 1980s when the Satanic Panic was at its peak, and being told I was going to hell by protesters outside the venue. One of these concerts was Ozzy.
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Free speech is tricky here because Ozzy wasn’t persecuted by the government. Public censorship is *almost always* illegal, but this is private censorship, which is *usually* okay. But there are protections even here. Nevertheless, even if the Free Speech clause doesn’t apply, the principal on which it’s based always should. We should always be weary of any suppression of speech. Can we suppress “fighting words,” treason performed solely by speech, etc.? Sure, but only because they’re extremes. Ozzy was just singing a song.
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