Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest retailer, has stunned the music industry by banning an upcoming album by Grammy winner Sheryl Crow from its stores because of a song lyric suggesting that the retailer sells guns to children.
Wal-Mart's decision, which record industry executives estimate could cost Crow a staggering 400,000 album sales, comes two weeks before the album, "Sheryl Crow," is to be released by A&M Records on Sept. 24.
Stores such as Wal-Mart frequently refuse to sell albums containing lyrics they believe are too sexually explicit or excessively violent. But this is apparently the first time that a major retailer has banned a song in which it is the target of a lyric.
"Selling a record implying behavior that is against all we stand for is something we just could not profit from," said Wal-Mart spokesman Dale Ingram.
What also makes the dispute unusual is that the 34-year-old Crow is hardly the kind of artist one expects to find at the forefront of a music censorship issue. Her upcoming album is Crow's much-anticipated follow-up to her best-selling "Tuesday Night Music Club," whose "All I Wanna Do" single in 1995 won her Grammy awards for best pop vocal performance and record of the year. Crow also won a Grammy that year for best new artist.
Some rock critics wish the popular singer would be more daring. Her lyrics aren't as sexually suggestive as those of an Alanis Morissette. Nor do Crow's songs reflect the kind of violent, gritty street scenes featured in gangsta songs that have embroiled music companies in criticism.
Indeed, Crow grew up in the heart of Wal-Mart country in Kennett, Mo., and is an alumna of the same university as Wal-Mart's legendary founder, the late Sam Walton. Last week, Crow expressed concern to A&M executives that her sister and her friends might have trouble getting the album if the local Wal-Mart doesn't carry it.
The lyrics at issue are in a song called "Love Is a Good Thing," co-written with Tad Wadhams. The lyrics read:
\o7 "Watch out sister,
watch out brother,
Watch our children as they kill each other
with a gun they bought at the Wal-Mart discount stores."\f7
Wal-Mart spokesman Ingram characterized the lyrics as an unfair attack on the Bentonville, Ark.-based chain, which he said has strict policies prohibiting the sale of guns to minors. He said the company believes that the song insults Wal-Mart employees, many of whom are involved in charities for children.
