Song over guitar broken by airline a YouTube hit

Song over guitar broken by airline a YouTube hit

Call it the Broken Guitar Blues. And it's become something of an Internet hit in YouTube.

Canadian musician Dave Carroll says he had his $3,500 Taylor guitar smashed by United Airlines workers during a spring 2008 trip from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Omaha, Neb.

After the carrier refused to pay $1,200 in repair costs, Carroll channeled his ire into a song, "United Breaks Guitars,'' which he performed with his Halifax-based band Sons of Maxwell, filmed, and put on YouTube. The video has reportedly been viewed nearly 400,000 times since being posted Monday.
The Chicago Tribune reported that United has since had a change of heart and is talking to Carroll about compensation. But Carroll told the LA Times travel blog that he's no longer interested in the money and harbors the company no ill feelings.

But he does plan to make good on a promise to write a trilogy of tunes about the incident, the second part of which is due out in August and focuses on his relationship with Ms. Irlweg, a customer service representative.
It is, he tells the Times, the first song he’s ever written with a tuba in it.