Secret Profanity Hidden In Songs and Unnecessary Censorship (Vinyl Community) 

The funny thing about Louie Louie is the drummer dropped a stick and can be heard yelling “f*ck!” at around 54 seconds in, that was never part of the obscenity investigation.

Great video. The barely 'audible obscenity' in "Hey Jude" was actually uttered by John Perry, of the UK pop group Grapefruit, who was providing backing vocals. He exclaimed 'Oh f***ing hell!' When he put on his headphones and was startled by the loud volume of the music coming through.

There's also the part on Louie Louie where someone in the background yells out 'F#@k!". The story I heard was the drummer broke or dropped a stick and yelled out.

The radio edit that always bugged me was “You Don’t Know How it Feels” by Tom Petty. “Let’s get to the point. Let’s reeeeoughhhhzzz another jhhhhhouuyy”. But, “One Toke Over The Line” and how many other songs about smoking, no problem 🤷‍♀️ - Heidi

There was an early Rolling Stones song, that 42 years after I heard it, for some unknown reason I was walking down the sidewalk and I just randomly thought of it and I thought ooooooh. It finally dawned on me what the lyric meant. The song was called Walk The Dog. The lyric went, "If you don't know how to do it, I'll show you how to walk the dog." On that Frampton album that wasn't a robot. It was Frampton singing with one of these air hoses in his mouth. It makes someone's voice whether talking or singing sound synthetic. His most optimistic song on the album and a good one was "I Want To Go To The Sun." Unfortunately it would be about a million degrees before you'd get halfway there.

There is a track on ELO's third album *On The Third Day* - entitled *Oh No Not Susan* - which features the f-word in each chorus. The line goes: _"Her money and her place, they just don't mean a f--king thing",_ although Jeff Lynne cunningly manages to make it sound like _"foggy thing"._ They even managed to get it past the BBC censors, and it was broadcast on February 1974. The live version can be heard on the Eagle compilation *Live At The BBC.*

Man, my buddies and I would have lost it, if we ever heard Wang Dang Sweet Poontang, live, on the radio. Great Video.

This channel...keeps getting progressively better everytime I catch something new.

I always thought it was "electric bo_obs" not "electric moves" in Bennie and the Jets

Great video, dude! When I was working the all-night shift back in the early 80's, I used to put on "Pigs (3 Different Ones), from Pink Floyd's Animals LP as a bathroom break song... I didn't realize it had the lyric "You fuc**d up old hag"! Never got complaints... Even got really daring and played it in prime time! It's the best song on the album...

Impossible to count how many times I heard Jeremy uncensored on radio in the 90s.

We have a radio station over here that regularly plays "Laid" by James, that clearly says "But she only comes when she's on top", they play it completely uncensored even during the day. But yet, the other day when they played "Fairytale of New York" they play the alternate version with "cheap and you're haggered".

I just got hip to your vids. Awesome! Please keep up the hilarious sarcasm. I'm spitting out my coffee!

Another great topic! 😀👍 Reminds me of driving in my car together with my two Sons in the back 7 years ago, when they were only 8 and 10: I'd put The Damned's 'Damned But Not Forgotten' album on, and during 'Lovely Money' suddenly both Boys exclaimed, "He said the S-word, Papa!! 😯". To which I replied, "What?? Surely not!?", but it would later turn out that they were actually right, and I couldn't believe that I'd never picked up on it myself during the 25 years of knowing that song! 😅

It blows my mind how Jim Morrison got away with saying fuck profusely on the end of the self titled doors album

Awesome topic for a video! Kind of the opposite of this is that Fear live radio album where Lee mumbles the swear words in order not to trip up the censors. In grade school some people thought that the F and EMF was the F word and that sample in Unelievable was proof

Once again another enlightening video you have to listen to frampton all the way through great production

Interesting take. I really find the radio story particularly funny. I wonder how much secret profanity happens vs someone thinks there’s secret profanity in a song.

Hey, I'm new to this channel. I gotta say, the thing about Tom Petty's You Don't Know How It Feels is that he says in the chorus, "Let's get to the point Let's roll another joooooint," and joint got censored cause joint is supposed to be a reference to marijuana. "Let's roll another joint." And he couldn't understand why they censored the word. I remember watching a short segment with Tom Petty about the song on, I think Entertainment Tonight. They played the clip of the video to that song and the lyric went, "Let's get to the point Let's roll another tnioooooj." They just played the word joint backwards. And he just could not understand why. He never meant to put in a pot reference in his song. It was probably meant let's roll to another place or something.

Robert Filthien, thank you for sharing so many dirty words.

The fact that Walk On The Wild Side is a regular choice on BBC radio just highlights that no one knew what “giving head” meant in 1971. You wouldn’t get away with that now! Cheers

great stuff, very interesting. Thanks!

I've always heard it as, "Sure I've got to have her" in Legs.

In "Little Red Corvette" I always took it to mean she had a partially-empty multi-pack of Trojans, so some had been used (and presumably discarded) and some still in the package (unused.) It never occured to me that she'd be carrying around used condoms in her purse. And no, that was never a Thing we did in 1983.

On the Aerosmith album 'Live Bootleg' about halfway through 'Toys In The Attic' someone tells someone else to "f*ck off" but you can only hear it on headphones.

All the times I've heard Unbelievable, it never hit me, even tho its very obvious.

I'm in okc and I heard got to give it up on the radio yesterday and thought of this video instantly. They still don't know about it Robert lol

It's very clear Frampton is singing I Want To Thank You....

In the beginning of the video you mentioned some obvious profanity that you weren't going to talk about. One of them was Jefferson Airplane. I assume you were referring to the two f-bombs they dropped on the song We can be together, from their Volunteers album in 69. While I agree that is not a secret. Not a lot of people know that they played that song live on TV on the Dick Cavett show in August of 69 and included the f-bombs and it wasn't really noticed. Anyway, cool video. Cheers.

I remember loving that EMF song so I bought the CD single and album. I always assumed the F bomb was being used repeatedly it reminded me of Andrew Dice Clay for some reason cos he was big around that time with his “vulgar fairy tale” humor comedy show on HBO. I was about 23-24 years old at the time and didnt realise that song was being played on the radio cos I mostly listened to college stations around then. Wild to think about. Good stuff!!

I agree with you, sounds like High Class Game to me as well, Apple Records released a single The Fuh Kings, mega rare. Great video.

Peter Frampton was saying ' I Want to Thank You'.

Great video Robert….I’ll come back later and add my 2 cents after I read all these dang comments. Don’t want to retread on all that!

Ironically, the Marvin Gaye album you were holding has a song called "Soon I'll Be Loving You Again", where the background vocals start singing "Gimme some head". There's no mistaking his intent... Also, another song where he asks for a "J" at the very beginning of the song. Great album....

What about Lou Reed ,Walk on the wild side ?

Theres another Marvin Gaye one I heard for the first time the other day that caught me off guard. On his song "Midnight Lady" there's a line where I swear to god he says "shake your titties". I even checked the lyrics in the cd booklet it came with but it said "shake it pretty", which he is most definitely not saying.

The one that killed me was when they suddenly stopped playing Brown Eyed Girl version where he says makin love. Seriously??? Also the BBC supposedly wouldn't play Turn it Down by The Sweet because Brian said "for God's Sake." 🙄 So different than German TV where on the show Disco, they played their song Live for Today, and they say "this musical masquerade has gone too f-ing far." 😂 The video of it is on YT now.

I only gave these comments a "cursory" (no, I ain't sorry) look, but am surprised no one seems to have mentioned that the Kings men' "Louie, Louie" really did have the f-bomb in it - softly uttered by the drummer who messed up a beat.

2 I can think of right off the top of my head: 1) "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen - around 45 seconds into the song you can hear the drummer yell "f--k!" as his hand apparently hit the drum kit (I think another use already mentioned this) 2) There is a stereo and mono version of "I Fought The Law" by The Bobby Fuller Four. In the mono version, there's a line that says "I miss my baby and good fun". In the stereo version, the lines are sung differently and it sounds like he says "i miss my baby and a good f--k".

Let’s not forget Jumpin’ Jack Flash Shits a Gas

So true about EMF. Thanks for clarifying where the sample came from, I always assumed it was Andrew Dice Clay.

Profanity is nothing new in recordings. Thomas Edison claimed that "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was the first recording he ever made, in 1877, but some say that he and his assistants actually first recorded the words "mad dog" and played it backwards. And Alexander Graham Bell proposed developing a "swearing top," one that would blare curse words as it spun. (Imagine receiving one of those at Christmas, when you were a kid).

Wow, I have that EMF CD and I will go listen to Unbelievable right now!

Amazing how this Hey Jude expletive isn't detected as often as you would imagine ? Mcartney apparently even though it sounds like Lennon.

I'm new to your channel but have you ever done a video on misunderstood lyrics in songs? That would be a funny one if not.

Let's not forget The Kink's Plastic Man being banned in the UK for its repeated, flagrant use of the word "bum". And quite right too.

One step, Two Step, DSD step, profit...

Cool vid. I thought Frampton was saying I wanna Rock You. Who knows

Sir you have heard of the group Funkadelic, right?

By the Live Aid concert (1985) Mark had already stopped singing f****t live. Album was released in May. Live Aid was in July.

I'm sure I heard the line "You sure enjoyed a f-" in "The Good's Gone" by the Who (on 'The Who Sings My Generation'). I also remember hearing that line in the song on a recording of a BBC broadcast. I wondered how they got away with it. I also thought I heard Bob Dylan sing "They'll stone you when you're trying to have a f-" on "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" (from 'Blonde on Blonde'). The Village People got some airplay on the Roman Catholic Church-owned Sydney radio station 2SM for "Macho Man" (from the album 'San Francisco'). Then they stopped playing it. One journalist surmised 2SM's management must have noticed the song contained the line "Dig my big dick."

I thought I was the only person who had that Baby's album. Let alone heard that line. But here's one more for you , Poker Face by Lady GA Ga.

WOW. didnt know about the hey jude. will listen closely to that part next time

In the 80s K-Mart sold clean records. If you wanted the "real" version you had to buy it elsewhere. This was mostly rap titles but pop also. After a couple years they switched to explicit language stickers.

i didn't notice if anyone mentioned this song but Billy Joel's Keeping The Faith mentions trojan condoms too!! i never heard the song ever edited either!

I’m convinced that Anita Baker’s 2nd line in “Sweet Love” is suggestive! “Stay with me and you will feel my ***”

I’m surprised that nobody ever caught Bob Seger swear on the Live Bullet album (“Nutbush City Limits”: he says “shit” during his rap to the crowd in the break down.)

Hi Robert, I love more subtleties. Try Bobby Gentry's Slow Cooking. Nothing is better than that.

There is the word F__k yelled in Louie Louie that everyone seemed to miss when the drummer drops a drum fill, you can hear him yell f__k @ 56 into song! see W: "However, drummer Lynn Easton later admitted that he yelled "Fuck" after fumbling a drum fill at 0:54 on the record."

Doesn’t Jagger sing “kissing cu*t in Cannes” on Casino Boogie on Exile?

Love the Video. How about Aerosmith big 10 inch. Made me think how many times I hear that on the radio!

How did Ebeneezer Good get through censor, with the line "E's are good , Ebenezeer good"

I always heard "shit I've got to have her". Knowing ZZ Top and their lusty lyrics in most of their songs....

12: 17 funny I always though he was saying God damn...😅😅😅

Classic Canadian band April Wine has a song called "If You See Kay"...spells out a certain word...

"So fuck all those West Nashville grand ballroom gowns" - Jimmy Buffett; Living and Dying in 3/4 Time

I have profanity in my record collection. Two that come to mind are Jimi Hendrix cover of song Gloria . Two Frank Zappa song Catholic Girls .There are also inappropriate lyrics in a Dire Straits album but I don't have that album . I am an adult and I don't want my tunes cencored . I forgot to mention Marianne Faithful album Broken English but can't remember which exact song had the profanity .

I keep thinking of songs that had profanity in them. Some weren't actually said but they sounded like it (to me). I always thought Mick Jagger was saying "I'm a motherfuckin Monkey Man at the end of Monkey Man, where he goes into a vocal frenzy. According to the lyrics he's not. But I swear he does!

1 song that comes to mind, that still gets played on the radio from time to time, is "Everybody Wants Some" by Van Halen. As the song is fading at the very end, David Lee Roth says something like, "Look, I'll pay you for it, what the fuck." Sometimes the radio stations will cut it early, sometimes they don't!

Not profanity, but The Knack's My Sharona features the line, "I always get it up from the touch of the younger kind"

Steely Dan-"Show Biz Kids"...at the 3:50 mark "Show business kids making movies of themselves-they don't give a f- about anybody else "

"The King Of Fuh" by Brute Force is a classic too.

First pressing of the 1970 kinks Lola money go round LP features the word f***ing in the song Apeman i have second copy which is changed to fogging

Johnny Rotten, everytime he sings 'country'.

One that always surprised me in that they didn't edit it is Led Zeppelin's Trampled Underfoot. Plant clearly sings..."Mama that ain't no sh**. Talk about love, talk about love... And it is repeated how many ever number of times. I'm trying to think of one other Led Zeppelin song that has a curse word in it but it's evading me right now. I've noticed a huge number of songs that never got edited from the classic rock 1970s and on through the 1980s era. And for the life of me I can't think of any of them right now 🤔 And speaking of Ted Nugent, I'm surprised they didn't pull the Wango Tango song haha. I think that's the sweet poontang song or maybe it's just a song on that same album :-) I guess if you're popular enough and big enough you can get away with it without WW III being started? I think it would be interesting to do a video of the songs FM radio always played in doubles. They would play the music as if it was one single song but you got used to hearing it through the years. Songs like Journey's Feeling That Way and Anytime or Led Zeppelin's Heartbreaker and Livin' Lovin Maid. I know most of the big artists, groups like Queen and many others, all had their "two as one" songs and even on the "two for Tuesday" types of deals, you'd get three songs from the artist that had these types of songs because they would play two of them as one and play the third song as the second song. I don't know if it was just difficult for the DJs to stop a song at the right spot right before the next song began immediately or what the reason might have been? I enjoy these videos on things we've all noticed and thought of through the years but never really see discussions on them. Keep up the good fu**ing work Robert ⚡🎶⚡

25 years ago I put Nirvana's "Nevermind" CD on and after a while I went to sleep. About 40 minutes later I was shocked awake at what I thought was my neighbor starting up his motorcycle with something terribly wrong with the engine. Turns out it was the hidden track "Numberless Nameless" or whatever it's called. At that time I didn't even know there was such a thing as hidden tracks. So it really freaked me out. Also, as I lay there, I realized what a gonzo great track it was. 7 minutes of brutalist pain. So much talent.

How about Steve Miller's, " funky Shit goin down in the city" from Jet Airliner? Most radio stations still snub it out or replace the "shit" with "kicks". Maybe this is mentioned down the thread.

How about Apeman by The Kinks? It sounds like Ray is singing 'the air pollution is fucking up my eyes'. Though he claims he sang 'fogging'.

Beautiful South "Don't Marry Him **** Me"

And not quite so profane, but Supergrass actually sing "Can you hear us humping..." in their song 'Pumping On Your Stereo' 😄

The kinks Apeman... says "The air pollution is f*cking up my eyes" Ray the Eco sensitivity burnin his globes in 1970...

2:13 OH COME ON, REALLY?? 😅😅😅😅😅😅

You're right about that Prince album, for instance, and ideas being OK, but specific words are censored. Other stuff that was censored, although not for profanity: "Coca Cola" in "Lola" when it was played on the BBC and that post 9/11 list that asked radio stations not to play any songs that mentioned airplanes. In the mid 80's was "Money for Nothing" censored on the radio and on MTV? I can't remember. I heard it on the radio last week and that 6 letter F word was obscured.

I had to laugh at the pocket full of Trojans comment. I'm going to have to give you a jab because I can't hear anything about it being "used". I took it as he meant she carried wrapped Trojans in her pocket to use when the occasion rose (pun) I think it was not referring to a used one, but one in the wrapper. Still laughing 😃 And....EMF, damn I love that song and at 68, it still makes me shake my bootie!

All aboard the pottymouth express!

Was surprised that he did not bring up Debbie Harry sing “finger f--ing” in Rapture. Also, my brother and I swore that Rickie Lee Jones used the “n” word in Chuck E’s in Love”

9:48... WHAT?????

Try listening to the first album There's a track called Mommy What's A Funkadelic.

What filth, Robert.... you should be ashamed of yourself. 😃

Always surprised that Elton John got away with singing "someone shaved my wife tonight."

4:19😮😮😮😮😮😮 who KNEW????

Here's a suggestion for hidden words or song meanings. How about you doing a show on pleasuring ones self. There are so many songs on the topic. It'd be funny and entertaining. I'd start with "Pictures of Lilly." Hey, and what about band names, The Loving Spoonful, 10cc, and Steely Dan being filthy in plain sight. Also, in Toni Basils "Mickey", she claims to take it where the sun doesn't shine. C'mon. Why does Trump love YMCA so much?

For me it was shock when I learned that Lady Gaga in "Poker Face" was actually singing "P-p-poker face f-f-f... her face". And it was and is all over radio. So it's actually about girls having some fun.

9:37 Think he’s saying should 11:14 There IS profanity in Louie Louie though, kind of like Hey Jude

...and of course there's Wild Cherry: "Play that funky music, white boy. Play that fuckin' music right!"

I love this topic! How about the Who, at the end of Who Are You? Roger definitely says, Who the fuck are you. Great song. Most stations would fade it out but some let it spin! Maybe someone mentioned this song way down the thread.

How about "cloaked" profanity ? The single for John Lennon's "Meat City" has a brief backwards section that, if you reverse it, says "Check the Album". Then, the album version says "F%#* a Pig".

What about 'finger pie' in Penny Lane?

Didn't mention The Guess Who's "American Woman". At the tail end fade out Burton Cummings sings "Goodbye American woman, goodbye American shit."

One thing I'll never understand is how The Who's Who Are You got past the censors---Roger says "Who the fuck are you?" and it's not that hard to decipher! Also, in R.E.M.'s What's The Frequency, Kenneth? the very last lyric that Michael Stipe sings is "Don't fuck with me" but it's buried in the mix and kind of hard to notice...........................guess that explains why it was never censored. Another one I thought of that wasn't a single is Bruce Springsteen's Darlington County. As the song fades out, the last lyric he sings is "Fuck off and die."