Tuesday, July 07, 2009

United breaks guitars

From Sons of Maxwell:
In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didnt deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say no to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise.




UPDATE (August 18, 2009): "United Breaks Guitars" song 2 and video are now on YouTube and below:

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5 comments:

  1. banchukitaJuly 8, 2009 at 10:36 AM

    I *LOVE* this! Hopefully Taylor will come through and give these guys some kind of endorsement...

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  2. Eamon KnightJuly 8, 2009 at 5:33 PM

    Which reminds me of this blast from the past, apparently based on a real incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6PRqU0sU8I

    Travelling musicians have been having this problem for as long as there have been airlines, I think. I have a Stan Rogers songbook with a news item relating his guitar-on-airplane problems. Of course, Stan himself eventually got killed by Air Canada....

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  3. KtisophilosJuly 9, 2009 at 1:45 PM

    Good grief. Once I peeked behind the screen at an Australian airport, and saw the suitcases thrown from the truck onto the platform below, to be pushed onto the conveyor belt.

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  4. UnknownJuly 10, 2009 at 2:45 AM

    Seems this bit has already made the rounds on the wider web, but I'll comment. Every time I had to check my bass guitar at the airport I wondered if I'd ever get it back intact. Thankfully, those days are long gone. The hard-shell case now has numerous gouges and chips, but the bass survived.

    However, I'll never forget the time, one early morning in Seattle, when I was asked if I was trying to check a shotgun. I had to open the case to convince the nice lady at the counter that it was merely a musical instrument. This was 1997--I'd probably have been strip-searched today.

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  5. SchtackyJuly 13, 2009 at 8:45 AM

    Further: http://consumerist.com/5311943/

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