No need to make a federal case of it
Apparently one of the top anthems of my misspent youth is now an open invitation to be arrested:
British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said Wednesday.Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northern England and Harraj Mann, 24, was taken off.
The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash's 1979 anthem "London Calling," which features the lyrics "Now war is declared -- and battle come down" while other lines warn of a "meltdown expected."
Mann told British newspapers the taxi had been fitted with a music system which allowed him to plug in his MP3 player and he had been playing The Clash, Procol Harum, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles to the driver.
"He didn't like Led Zeppelin or The Clash but I don't think there was any need to tell the police," Mann told the Daily Mirror.
For the very young and very old, The Clash were, for a time during which the Rolling Stones weren't using the title, The World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band. The 1979 double album "London Calling" is widely considered the greatest punk album of all time and one of the four or five greatest rock 'n' roll albums of all time. This is not, in other words, obscure stuff.
That said, if I were driving a cab and a fare insisted on playing Procol Harum at me, I'd dump him on the side of the road.
But I don't think I'd have to get Homeland Security involved.