Star One Smart Blog's

The Iranian Revolution has chosen Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2" as theme song...



Performed by Blurred Vision. An excellent cover of a rousing song (no not just excellent: this is the best PF cover song I've ever heard), the backstory is heartening...

(Aug. 3) -- Every protest movement needs a theme song. In the '60s, antiwar demonstrators sang along to tunes by Bob Dylan and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Legendary trumpet player Hugh Masekela energized South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle with "Mandela (Bring Him Back Home)."

Now Iran's pro-democracy campaign has its own rallying cry, courtesy of an exiled duo who've reworked Pink Floyd's 1979 hit "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" into an anti-Ayatollah anthem.

The video for the track -- performed by Blurred Vision, two brothers whose parents fled Iran for Canada in the mid-'80s -- has been watched more than 140,000 times on YouTube and notched up millions of views on other sites. Shot on a tight budget by Iranian director Babak Payami, the video splices together footage of the band and clips of pro-government militia beating demonstrators after last summer's disputed presidential election. The song itself is a Persian-influenced take on the Pink Floyd original, which climbs to the shouted chorus: "Hey Ayatollah, leave those kids alone!"

Toronto-based musicians Sepp, 28, and Sohl, 35 -- the pair refuses to give out their surname over fears that relatives in Iran could be put in danger -- say they've received e-mails from fans inside the Islamic Republic, who play the track as a protest against the regime's brutality.

All of this done with phlegmatic Roger Water's approval...

But the track they chose to convey that message of solidarity has a powerful historical resonance with many Iranians.

"[Pink Floyd's] 'Another Brick' was released in 1979, the same year as the Islamic Revolution, and it really spoke to people who realized all the things the ayatollahs had promised them were lies," said Sepp. "After the Islamic Republic banned rock 'n' roll, Iranian kids used shortwave radios to transmit 'Another Brick' to one another. It just exploded, and became their anthem."

When the brothers saw the coverage of protests against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he added, "we realized we were watching the same thing happen again -- the youth of Iran was rising up against a brutal regime, and this song had to be reawakened."

But before Blurred Vision could put out the track -- which can be downloaded on iTunes, with all proceeds going to Amnesty International -- they needed the approval of "Another Brick's" writer, Pink Floyd founder and front man Roger Waters.

"The band are huge heroes of ours, so we didn't want to do anything until they said it was OK," Sepp said. Waters did more than just approve the track's release; he also handed over all rights to the cover version to Sepp and Sohl. "We haven't met the great man yet," said Sepp, "but when we do, there are going to be a lot of thank-yous."

Seems someone almost nailed Ahmaddinnerjacket with a grenade the other day. Missed him, just barely; but he's simply a figurehead in Iran; behind the scenes and mostly out of sight the Ayatollahs and Mullahs run the country with iron fists, allowing Islamic rule of law to stifle the populace.

Islam needs a good reform, is all. I'm sure there are good Sufis and 'moderate' Muslims who are desirous of reform. But as long as the Koran has written passages that the strong-willed Ayatollahs and Mullahs can use to turn weak minds into bomb-carrying suicides, there's really no room in the world for that religion to flourish unchecked.

Reform first, acceptance next. Until we can build a Synagogue in Mecca, or a Catholic Cathedral in Medina, then we have to thwart Islam's spread. For fear of the ease radical Islam has in creating terrorists out of the sand.

---

h/t My Favorite Moonbat Sharon Cobb