Rewind: The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs

Stephin Merritt's epic 69 Love Songs remains one of my favorite records of the 90s that's aged well enough not to be featured only as part of a nostalgia set. It's charming and quirky and just this side of snotty. On the surface,  the songs actually sound like conventional love songs, that is until you listen to the lyrics carefully. And while it was a massive undertaking on Merritt's part, all three volumes work as a cohesive whole. But I always return to Vol. 1:

As much as I still love 60 Love Songs, The Magnetic Fields will be forever tainted by  unfortunate comments Stephin Merritt made back in 2006:

The bizarre case against Merritt came to a head last month at the Experience Music Project's annual Pop Conference. Merritt was the keynote speaker, and in a panel conversation he described "Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah," from Disney's legendarily racist 1946 musical Song of the South, as a "great song." He made clear, according to a partial transcript of the panel provided by his band mate Claudia Gonson, that he did not actually like Song of the South, calling it unwatchable and saying that it has just "one great song. The rest of it is terrible, actually."(Slate)

Whether it was a bizarre slip or a snide remark gone awry, there's really no way to rationalize it. Praising racist material -- even in a historical context -- makes me extremely uncomfortable, and I'm reminded of it when I listen to his music.