Karaoke & MURDER

Klaus Kinski? Why not?

It's a poorly kept secret in the Canadian music industry that Danko Jones is an angry man. (Danko Jones himself, is a poorly kept secret in the music industry, as well!) Jordan Robson-Cramer of Magic Weapon/Miracle Fortress/Sunset Rubdown has attested to Mr. Jones' hostility in interview, and the man wears his attitude like a single black glove. That is, foolishly, and mostly in a music video.

But could there be something more behind his angry man persona? Yes. It's because he comes from a culture where rage, homicidal impulses, a fuck-you attitude and Sinatra can all coalesce into cold-blooded murder, simply from some off-key warbling as a drunken crooner follows a bouncing yellow ball and sings "the record shows, I took the blows, and did it myyyyyyyyyyyy wayyyyyyyyyyy."

From Saturday's New York Times comes this story about The My Way Killings - incidences where a poor rendition of Frank Sinatra's classic My Way sparked enough anger to cause blood to be spilled, over six times fatally, to say nothing of times the violence was less-than fatal and unrecorded.

The killings have produced urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers. Are the killings the natural byproduct of the country’s culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song?

Thankfully, such extreme measures have yet to cross over to North America, which means that Steven Tyler (formerly) of Aerosmith can do bonkers-shit like show up to a karaoke night in Palm Springs to belt out a couple of songs while he's in rehab and not fear for his life.