(CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Not that he really needs the sales, but Bruce Springsteen's new album, "Devils & Dust," has a bit too much of a kick for the caffeine-pushers at Starbucks.
The album went to No. 1 over the weekend but that hasn't stopped the java joint from nixing a deal to sell the CD in its chain stores. Newsweek reported yesterday on its Web site that it's all because one song on the album glorifies – gasp! – sodomy.
The song, "Reno," is in part about an encounter with a prostitute. Springsteen includes a description of anal sex, including the price she charges for the act.
The song earned the album, released last week on Columbia Records, a Sony Music label, a parental warning label. It is the first album in Springsteen's catalogue to carry such a warning.
Starbucks declined to comment on the flap, the mag said. The episode appears to be the first time Starbucks has declined to stock an album by a major act because of concern over lyrics, notwithstanding the warning sticker. The java juggernaut, with almost 6,400 outlets in the U.S., has become an influential link in music distribution in just a few short years, especially in 2004.
Starbucks boldly demonstrated its power in music last year when its outlets accounted for at least a third of sales of the million-selling album of Ray Charles duets, “Genius Loves Company,”as well as Tina Turner and Norah Jones. Record labels increasingly view Starbucks as an attractive outlet for reaching fans of adult contemporary music, including baby boomers flush with disposable income but who’ve long since stopped browsing record-store aisles. What’s more, the mix of coffeehouse and music has a nostalgic appeal.
