Dave Carroll: United Breaks Guitars

How many times have you been screwed over by a commercial airline, only to feel totally helpless when they say, "there is nothing we can do?" If you are like me, this has happened to you one too many times. And other than complaining to your friends and family, and maybe trashing the airline on the internet, there literally is no way you can get the airline to compensate you, financially or otherwise, for mangled luggage, missed connections, or ruined vacations.

Last year Halifax musician Dave Carroll and his East Coast Music Association award-winning band Sons of Maxwell had the unfortunate experience of getting their gear trashed by United Airlines. Specifically, Carroll's $3500 Taylor guitar was rendered unplayable by United's ground crew. After getting the runaround from Untied and spending nine months trying to get compensated for the damage, Carroll gave up and decided to extract revenge using his musical talents. He promised United customer service agent Ms. Irlweg that he would write, produce, and release three songs and accompanying videos about his experiences with United, and post them for all of the world to see. You can read about the entire saga on Carroll's web site.

The first video was posted on YouTube on July 6 and it is hysterical! And the tune is quite catchy. Before you point out that Carroll could have purchased another guitar with this amount of money put into making this video, all of the video production was donated. Carroll's goal is to have one million hits on this video in the next year. I cannot wait for songs two and three! Thanks for sticking it to "The Man," Dave!