{"id":491780,"date":"2019-11-01T06:39:24","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T12:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=906518"},"modified":"2019-11-01T06:39:24","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T12:39:24","slug":"flashback-dan-rathers-kenneth-what-is-the-frequency-assault-inspires-r-e-m-game-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/flashback-dan-rathers-kenneth-what-is-the-frequency-assault-inspires-r-e-m-game-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: Dan Rather\u2019s \u2018Kenneth, What Is the Frequency?\u2019 Assault Inspires R.E.M., Game Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When CBS news anchor Dan Rather<\/a> was assaulted in 1986<\/a> by an unknown assailant yelling, \u201cKenneth, what is the frequency?\u201d not one but two<\/em> songs were born. First, there was 1987 track, \u201cKenneth, What\u2019s the Frequency,\u201d off of Game Theory<\/a>\u2019s Lolita Nation<\/em> \u2014 which came a year after the attack. Then, there\u2019s the better-known R.E.M. song, \u201cWhat\u2019s the Frequency, Kenneth?\u201d off 1994\u2019s Monster<\/em>, which is getting a reissue Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the time that both songs were written, the facts of the situation were murky. According to the New York Times<\/em><\/a>, it all became clear in 1994 when William Tager was arrested for fatally shooting a NBC stagehand outside Rockefeller Center; he also confessed to attacking Rather (but it wasn\u2019t officially investigated<\/a> since the five-year statute of limitations had expired). Ten years later, New York District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau wrote an opinion piece in the Times<\/a><\/em> stating that \u201cthe defendant suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and had long believed that the television networks were bugging his home in North Carolina.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Miller of Game Theory was the first musician to get inspiration from the staunchly anti-media Tager. He was a huge fan of pop culture, according to Lolita Nation<\/em> producer Mitch Easter, and dug deep to study references into his music \u2014 like James Joyce with a guitar. \u201cHis lyrics are delightful if you want to pick out all the stuff that\u2019s in them,\u201d Easter tells Rolling Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Miller, who died in 2013,<\/a> found the Rather story charming in its bizarreness, according to Easter. \u201cI think we just created the whole thing in my studio and made it sound like he was on the street,\u201d Easter explains. \u201cHe just wanted to refer to it. That was the idea. Monster<\/em> came out a bit later and they had a song [with a similar name] and it was like, \u2018That\u2019s weird.\u2019 I don\u2019t know if they were aware of the Game Theory thing; they probably weren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: R.E.M. Play \u2018What\u2019s the Frequency, Kenneth?\u2019 on Cursed 1995 Tour<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Coincidentally, Easter also worked with R.E.M. on their early albums. Although he wasn\u2019t present when their song was written, the band was intrigued by the incident as well. Their track seems in-line with Tager\u2019s way of thinking, as the protagonist is disgusted by youth culture and media, with Stipe singing about getting \u201ctunnel vision from the outsider\u2019s screen.\u201d (The band and Monster<\/em> producer Scott Litt declined an interview about this topic.)<\/p>\n

Dan Rather, for his part, took everything in stride. In 1995, he performed the song with R.E.M. at Madison Square Garden, a clip that premiered on Letterman<\/em>, according to Salon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for Tager? He was sent to Sing Sing in 1996 on charges of manslaughter, among other offenses, and was released in 2010, according to the New York Department of Corrections<\/a>. It is unclear if he ever found out what, exactly, the frequency is.<\/p>\n