A.I., eh?

Just got one of those Amazon Echo Dots, here at New Amusements Towers. I don't know why but I feel the need to emphasise that it wasn't bought, but was a freebie with something else. Still, it's quite a neat bit of kit I suppose, if you like that sort of thing.

This morning, as I made my sandwiches for the day ahead, I asked it (and it is an it, despite the name and female vocals) to play Vauxhall and I, by Morrissey. I'd been thinking about having a listen ever since including it in the first batch of Every Home Should Have One album posts. Alexa duly complied. All was going swimmingly until it got to Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself, and specifically the line "Well, you just sit there - I've been stabbed in the back, so many, many times". No sooner had Alexa played the word "stabbed" than the song abruptly stopped, and then skipped straight ahead to I Am Hated For Loving.

Might this, I wonder, be over-zealous precautionary programming on the part of Amazon, saving me from exposure to the word "stabbed"? After all, social media companies are rightly being given a hard time at the moment for not doing enough to prevent the vulnerable from exposure to "content" that may harm them. Or is it because I've got Alexa's explicit content filter turned on, and it associates "stabbed" with knife culture and, by extension, is something that needs to be filtered out? Without emailing Amazon to ask, I guess I'll never know... or, if you prefer, I'll never find out for myself... (thank you, I'm here all week)

Whatever, here's the song in full, from a time when Mozzer was still more revered than reviled.

If any readers have an Echo, and don't have the explicit content filter turned on, try playing this song and let me know how you get on... cheers.