I remember this whole incident. It was quite interesting. I wonder whatever happened to those young men....
There's one way to measure success in America: when everyone wants a piece of you, you know you're a winner. By that measure, silverchair have arrived. In January, local papers picked up the news that a Washington lawyer, Tom Copeland, was attempting to link silverchair's "Israel'sSon" to a triple murder. Copeland represented 18-year-old Nicholaus McDonald, who, with 16-year-old Brian Basset, was charged with three counts of aggravated first-degree murder in the deaths of Basset's parents, Michael and Wendy, and brother Austin, on August 11, 1995.
At a pre-trial hearing of the case, Copeland sought to play "Israle's Son" as part of his opening statement. He also planned to call McDonald to testify as to the affect of the song on his state of mind. Copeland was quoted as saying that "Israel's Son" had been a "script for murder": "It's relevent to everything- the legal issues, the mental issues, why this happened."
The judge in this case was not impressed with the arguement and did not allow the song to be admitted as evidence, so- for now at least- "Israel's Son" is not in issue. Still, the possibility that it will be raised at a future trial (of either McDonald or Basset) remains. In any case, silverchair's manager John Watson was forced to issue this statement on behalf of the band: "silverchair do not, have not, and never would condone violence of any sort. The band is appalled by this horrific crime and they hope justice will prevail in prosecuting whoever is responsible for it. The band extends its sincerest sympathies to the families and friends of the victims in this case. silverchair absloutely rejects any allegation that their song in question, "Israel's Son", was inspired by a television documentary about wartime atrocities. "Israel's Son" was never intended to provoke violence and cannot be interpreted by any reasonable person as doing so. In fact, the song seeks to criticize violence and war by portraying them in all their horror."
After an initial flurry of interest from our local media- Sydney's Daily Telegraph ran a piece with the headline "Lyrics 'a script for murder'" and reprinted some lines to "Israel's Son"- the story seems to have lost its force [note from me: Thank god it did!!!]. Ironicially enough, it barely rated a mention in the American media. [note again: There was a really long article in Spin Magazine about this. It's a good read and should be up here soon.]
from Australian Rolling Stone, 1996
Wow, how interesting...
K, enough news!