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Banned in the U.S.A.

Broadcast Date: April 13, 1968

"Black day in July / Motor city madness has touched the countryside," begins Lightfoot's Black Day In July, a song dealing with the 1967 race riots in Detroit. In this CBC Radio clip, an indignant Lightfoot explains why top-40 radio stations in the U.S. have banned the song. "A lot of them don't want to upset their listeners. It's the housewife in the morning, let's give her something that'll make her happy, why give her something that'll make her think?"

Banned in the U.S.A.

• Radio stations in 30 states banned Black Day In July. The song was released in April 1968, shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Lightfoot believed radio stations banned the song because they didn't want to further stir up existing racial tensions stemming from the assassination. The song appeared on Lightfoot's 1968 album Did She Mention My Name.

• The 1967 Detroit riots were set off by a police raid of an inner-city bar. A small crowd made up of both blacks and whites gathered outside to protest but it erupted into violence as the burning and looting began. The riots quickly expanded to encompass a 14-square mile perimeter of Detroit's inner-city neighbourhoods, before eventually ending five days later.

• The toll of the 1967 Detroit riots included: 43 dead, 467 injured, 7,231 arrested and 2,509 stores looted or burned. A month after the riot, a city report on the riots claimed that 388 families were displaced and 412 buildings were burned beyond recognition. City officials pegged the cost of damages from the arson and looting at between $40- to $80-million US.

Banned in the U.S.A.

Medium: Radio

Program: Metronome

Broadcast Date: April 13, 1968

Guest(s): Gordon Lightfoot

Reporter: Alan Millar

Duration: 5:12

Last updated:
April 8, 2008