Yes, but I believe the line was "I don't want to get caught up in any-o-them funky chicks going down in the city," which it could be argued is even worse. But I guess everything depended on who owned the radio station. If it was owned by a big broadcaster like CBS or ABC, you were playing the sanitized 45 RPM cut, full stop. If you were more independently owned, maybe your DJs were throwing on the album track. For what it is worth, radio in the northeast ALWAYS played the single version of Jefferson Airplane's "Miracles" mostly because it was shorter, not because it was clean. I think the single version is even the one on the Gold best-of collection.
I was stationed in Germany in the late 70s. For a *very* brief time (I think I heard it 3 times), American Forces Radio played Rick James' "Mary Jane." Then I think someone higher up figured out what Rick was singing about.
I listen to a New Zealand radio station called The Sound. It's very refreshing that none of the classic rock songs are censored. Can hear original Money for Nothing by Dire Straits. I highly recommend this radio station.
ZZ TOP , "Pearl necklace" ..." She was getting bombed and I was getting blown away. She took me in her hand and this is what she had to say, I want a pearl necklace!!"
There was a time when you let me know What's really going on below But now you never show it to me, do you? And remember when I moved in you The holy dove was moving too And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
"and the coloured girls said, doo-da-doo", Walk On The Wild Side was such an outstanding song that would not be able to pass the politically correct bar from beginning to end. Btw, those coloured girls on that cool song were in fact the fantastic Pointer Sisters 😍 who were still a brand new act in the world of popular music back then. Tom, I love when you test the boundaries with video's like this, you are an awesome RU-vid star!
@@tomrobinson5776 "Island Girl" (Elton John) and "Brown Sugar" (Rolling Stones) have PROBLEMATIC lyrics and yest get plenty of mainstream airplay today.
Most obvious response would have been The Who’s “Who Are You?” (“Who the f*ck are you?” - twice, in case you didn’t get it the first time). Meanwhile, over our side of the Pacific we had Cold Chisel’s “Flame Trees” (“Who needs that sentimental bullsh*t anyway?”) and Crowded House’s “Four Seasons In One Day” (“Smiling as the sh*t comes down”), as well as a song from Divinyls that was quite clearly about self-pleasure.
What about "I Touch Myself" by Divinyls? That song was being played like crazy on the radio in 1990. And the music video was all over MTV at that time as well.
Just a note about Prince: It's really more amazing how MANY songs "slipped by the censors." His first national hit, "I Wanna Be Your Lover," contains the line "I wanna be the one you come for" (and it's more than clear from the context, he means "orgasm") and that was a #11 pop and #1 R&B hit. His single "Controversy" includes "am I black or white, am I straight or gay" and the song "Uptown" has a verse where he meets a girl who asks "Are you gay" and he eventually responds, "No. Are you?" We don't even really need to get into a lot of his album cuts like "Sister," and "Head" and "Jack U Off." Oh, a song from the "Purple Rain" soundtrack that would later become a source of lyric controversy was "Darling Nikki" (you know, the girl masturbating with a magazine in a hotel lobby). Another song that "slipped" was the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up" which ends with a fadeout of "you make a dead man come" (again, meaning orgasm).
The Beatles "Hey Jude"- in the background during one of the last verses, you call hear Paul shout "Wrong Chord!" or "Wrong note!" followed by Lennon saying "Fucking hell!". It's kind of buried, but you can hear it. LOL!
This is my favorite of all your videos so far, mostly because of your mentioning that you worked some crummy job in the early 80s where they played KIIS-FM all day. I worked an office job in Encino in the mid-80s where they piped in some local FM station that played soft rock (KOST-FM?). "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro, "You're Only Lonely" by J.D. Souther, etc. Haha, good times and bad coffee.
Starfu💥💦er is still my emotionally favourite Stones song after literally 50 years today. I got it after having David Dalton's Rolling Stones checked out of the city library (small town NC!) all summer. That's also when I started reading Circus and Creem. I thought I was sooooo baaaaad!
@@tomrobinson5776 Another great song of theirs. Though a touchy subject, it wouldn't have generated as much vitriol as it would would it have come out today instead. Maybe would be the more controversial track of the two at this point in time.
Going all the way back to the earliest days of rock and roll. In 1954 Bill Haley covered Big Joe Turner’s Shake Rattle and Roll. They changed the intro from “Get out of that bed” to “Go down to that kitchen” BUT left in “I’m like a one eyed cat peeping in a seafood store, can take a look at you and see you ain’t no child no more”.
Great! Check out an all-time favorite of mine, “I’d Love to Change the World” by Ten Years After. They don’t mince words in the opening lines. To my amazement, I heard it recently on a classic rock station, after not hearing it for many years.
@@tomrobinson5776 I actually just heard it TODAY on a FAMILY restaurant's "muzak" Dikes, fairies and all. I also heard "Imaginary Lover" (A.R.S) A song about well. Ya know...Jerkin' it. as well as "Whip it" (Devo) all in less than an hour! The Place plays a lot of 60's - 80's stuff.
The obvious allusions to cocaine sniffing "lines on the mirror, lines on her face" were much more of a reason I was surprised every radio station spun eagles' '76 classic
Timothy by the Buoys. A 1970 hit (#17 on Billboard). The song was about 3 miners trapped in a mine, but only 2 make it out. Lyrics alluding to cannibalism abound! It created some controversy at radio stations.
This is a good video. I heard Pink Floyd's "Money" on the radio several times, with the "f" word intact. Also, "Who Are You" got played a lot with that same word uncensored.
in the song Nothing to Hide on the 12 Dreams album from Spirit, Randy California says Fuck it when he makes a guitar mistake. So the band keeps playing and the rest is history
"Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" is in my top five tunes of all times. That line SOUNDS "dirty" (and can be taken that way I guess)" but it's a song about a failed relationship, So "she" was making it (said relationship) hard.
Good Girls Don’t from Get the Knack also has the lyric “And it's a teenage sadness Everyone has got to taste An in-between age madness That you know you can't erase Till she's sitting on your face.”
It also had the original line of "wishing you could get inside her pants" make the airwaves, then later changed to "wishing she was giving you a chance" ..
Superb video and a very interesting topic to explore, Tom! Here’s some that immediately spring to my mind: R.E.M. - ‘What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?’ (‘I never understood, don’t f*** with me oh ho’) Captain Sensible - ‘Happy Talk’ (‘Golly baby I’m a lucky c***’) Sex Pistols - ‘Pretty Vacant’ [same expletive as above] Chumbawamba - ‘Tubthumping’ (‘Pissing the night away’) The Stranglers - ‘Peaches’ (Prior to a hasty radio edit, when the song had already become a hit, we get an ‘Oh shit!’ and ‘Is she trying to get outta that clit ares?’ in the same song)
@@BakedRBeans Thank you for the clarification on my post 🙏 It is, most likely, an urban myth as regards what I stated; however, the way he ‘elongates’ the word when singing it, it does sound like it’s sailing very close to that other word - plus it’s the sort of thing a rapscallion like the Captain would not only think of doing, but get away with too.
KROQ actually started out as a pirate radio station [at one point broadcasting out of a motel room], and took that operational philosophy with them as long as they could once they went legit, which goes a long way toward explaining what they could get away with back then. P.S. The 'she' who had to leave L.A. was Exene's sister, Mary, who was later killed in a car crash, as revealed in their track from Under The Big Black Sun, 'Riding With Mary'.
KROQ also briefly on AM in the exact same dial position. One could switch back and forth between AM and FM and hear the same broadcast. Rodney's show was originally "Rodney On the Roqs"
The single version of "Miracles" actually cuts out the Col Angus line. The Isley Brothers "Fight the Power" "All that bullshit going round/down (?)" Mick's slightly slurred line of "Women think I'm tasty" on "Tumblin' Dice." Starbuck "Moonlight Feels Right" "The Eastern Moon looks ready for a wet kiss." Rod Stewart "Ain't Love a Bitch?"
And let's not forget the late great Charlie Daniels "Devil Went Down to Georgia." While the line is either bleeped on 70s0n7 or changed to "Son of a Gun" on Casey Kasem
Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl"...to this day, some stations replace the line "makin' love in the green grass behind the stadium" with"laughin' and a-runnin' hey hey behind...." Also, Frank Zappa had a problem with "I still remember Mama with her apron and her pad.." MGM records had a fit and said, "You cannot mention a sanitary napkin in a song!" He angrily explained that he was singing about an ORDER PAD, cause she was a waitress! "Let's Make The water Turn Black"
Funny, I’d forgotten about that ‘ head ‘ lyric from Walk on the Wild Side. But I do remember hearing about it quite some time ago. And I don’t really have anything to add to what’s already been mentioned. I am glad you brought up free form radio stations. I don’t know if they even exist anymore, but they sure were a cool deal back in the day. I’d love to see a resurgence of those stations, if it were possible.
"No man is an island he's a penisula." from the Airplane track "A Small Package of Value Will Come to You" on 'After Bathing At Baxters'. FWIW: Jefferson Airplane used the name "Baxter" as code for LSD. Hence, the title of their album, After Bathing at Baxters, can be interpreted to mean "after taking acid."
@@babybro70 You’re correct regarding the “piano” phrase. Someone else in the comment section corrected that error. All these years I thought it was Vienna due to the subject matter. 😉
The story I head about the Kingsman is the drummer realized he missed a fill. Listening to the song, that is what it sounds like since there's a gap right there.
In the 60's there was some "underground" radio stations where I heard "Up Against the Wall" by David Peel and the Lower East Side. I couldn't believe what I was hearing!!
I give you this: the 1965 episode of Gilligan's Island featuring the Mosquitoes singing "He's a loser, he has rocks in both his heads..." Now when l first heard this as a kid l thought, well, okay, the dude has two heads. It's a Zaphod Beeblebrox kinda situation. But then, on reflection, l thought, no, in fact, one of those heads full of rocks is something the network standards and practices person on set should have been paying attention to. Whatever. I love that episode of Gilligan's Island.
Sheila got that dodge from The Brothers Johnson's " Get the FUNK Out of My Face" ( and they never said funk either....and this was a semi-hit played on AM radio as well)....Peace and Love, Terry Tutor
@@tomrobinson5776 Supernova on the album Whip-Smart. As I mentioned , I only heard the uncut version once. This was 30 years ago, so I can't recall which station played the song.
Greased Lightnin' from Grease was a HUGE hit in the late 70s, played constantly on the radio, video and on tv. The lyrics are eye popping to say the least!
“relax” frankie goes to hollywood “good girls don’t” the knack “they don’t care about us” michael jackson “building a mystery” sarah mclachlan “squeeze box” who
Scream by Michael and Janet Jackson the the chorus is "Stop Pressurin; me" around the middle of the song they throw in "Stop fu*kin' with me" and then there was Stevie Wonder's Rocket Love when he says "You dropped my Black Ass back down to this cold, cold, world."
Patti Smith : Rock and Roll N…….. I believe it is removed from streaming services today More recently I was always amazed that Pumped up Kicks got so much airplay
Let’s live for today by the grassroots was censored for am radio back in 67. Lyrics were changed from baby, I need to feel you inside of me to feel you beside me. Original Dunhill 45 has this version.
Tom , there was a shorter version of Walk on the wild side for AM radio. It basically cut out the second verse. The local stations around Boston never played the album version.(AM)
Elton had a song called Screw You, it was the b-side of the Goodbye yellowbrick road single. It could have been a hit, the guitar intro sounds just like More than a feeling by Boston.
Regarding the Elvis Costello song the white n word was a derogatory term used to describe Irish Catholics during the northern Ireland troubles by British soldiers. I would include crazy horses by the Osmond's which I believe was something to do with drug addiction which considering their clean cut image was odd.
@@kawarps Crazy Horses was so out of step with The Osmond’s style and image. There’s a few videos online that are just hysterical with their moves and posturing.
@@tomrobinson5776 it's also a cover of an Ian & Sylvia track, written by Sylvia. So if that's what it's about, that's what the actual writer's intention was. It's on Spotify, so you can look it up. :)
Very interesting examples you mention, like “Miracles.” Somewhere I believe I’ve read where Janis Ian’s 1967 hit “Society’s Child” was banned in a few areas, because of mixed-race relationships, but I clearly remember hearing it on my hometown radio station growing up. Maybe it was simply a case of more progressive stations playing it. Interesting how the subject of mixed-race offspring has come up full circle to the current political scene.
"Girl of my Dreams" - Bram Tchaikovsky. Entire song devoted to a blow up doll. "Let go the Line" - Max Webster is another song featuring a blow up doll, but I don't think it got radio play outside Canada.
Very interesting video. Off topic, but hoping you might review the new album from X (Smoke & Fiction) I know you are a fan. Personally I find the new album significantly bettere than their previous release. (Alphabetland) Thanks Tom.
@@toddhill7483 I just noticed they released a new one on the Amoeba Music website. Yes, I need to hear it. I have a few new archive releases I’d like to give a shout out on an up and coming video post. I thought Alphabetland was sort of mediocre. Does Smoke and Fiction have some notable hooks and memorable tunes?
@@tomrobinson5776 yes, it does. And I'm relieved that Alphabetland was not their "swan song" album. The best from that album is found in the first 2 or 3 tracks. I find Smoke and Fiction consistently good from start to finish. And very good studio engineering. No, it is not in the same league as albums like Wild Gift or Under the Big Black Sun, (what is?) but this is an album that I will actually pull out and listen to. Hope you enjoy it.
Neil Sedaka's "Bad Blood" was a hit in 1970s, and features Elton John on backing vocals. There is the word "bitch" in the song. When he played that song live on the TV program Wonderama, he had his young son singing part of the chorus, and he didn't include the original lyric. I do miss KMET.
Miracles whole song is the act of sex. Another example: You ripple like a river when I touch you When I pluck your body like a string When I start dancin’ inside ya Oh baby, you make me wanna sing Yeah, baby, baby, baby, baby
Almost forgot English Beat's "Save It For Later" -- "just hold my hand while I come... to a decision on it". I pulled the lyric sheet out and saw that the title line was printed repeatedly as "save it fellator". Good lord, what a naughty song!
Working on a playlist (not final order): 01. Sam and Dave - Hold On I'm Coming 02. Beatles - Come Together 03. Badfinger - Come And Get It 04. Chuck Berry - Come On 05. Goo Goo Dolls - Come To Me 06. Fleetwoods - Come To Me Softly 07. Del-Vikings - Come Go With Me 08. Redbone - Come And Get Your Love Off the top of my head. More nominees?
Considering the times (remember this is the era when "Puff the Magic Dragon" was controversial), there were 3 songs that always surprised me weren't censored when I first heard them in the 60s/70s: 1) The Beatles "Girl" (Paul and George repeated sing "t*t, t*t, t*t" on the backing vocals), 2) Major Harris's "Love Won't Let Me Wait" with the arousal moanings of an anonymous female singer in the background, and 3) Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-Ling" -- were the censors napping when the song played.
I think it was 65 or 66 there was this song called Cherry Hill Park? It was about a girl who was there till way after dark. Practically waiting in line to lose their virginity. As a 8-9 y/o I'm thinking kissing and touching her hair. Ah, sweet, sweet, long gone innocence.
It's so funny that from the 60s up until the 90s all artist's where so free to express themselves and freedom of expression was also freedom of creativity some artists who did this and slipped by the censors where sly and the family stone, prince, Curtis Mayfield and Lou Reed to name a few their music at times might've had harsh subject matter and unsettling lyrics that some might've found offensive point is its their art and expressing what's on their hearts and their experiences I could be wrong but this is just an observation
I remember when the album The Final Cut came out that the tilte song was first played, but the second was Not Now John which I clearly remember being played on FM radio. That's got to be the most over the top song with a repeated vulgar lyric sung over and over. I know there's a version with the word changed, but I definitely remember hearing the album version on an FM station.
The Who's "Who Are You" has a line, "who the fuck are you" that was still played on the radio until the mid 90s. ZZ Top's "Legs" has "shit, I've got to have her". And there's also Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing" that had the verse with "little fa.. with the earring and the makeup" that was played during the 80s & 90s, but now that whole verse has been cut out on airplay. The "funky shit going down in the city" on Steve Miller's "Jet Airliner" was replaced by "funky kicks.." on their Greatest Hits album and is now the version you hear on the radio.
@@tomrobinson5776 true, most people don’t know the song is from the point of view of a couple of workers at an appliance store that Knopfler overheard talking about videos that were being played.
Here in surprisingly highly-censored Australia, local band Supernaut had a No. 1 hit with "I Like It Both Ways" apparently because the censors simply didn't understand what it was about ... though with lyrics like "He can't make up his mind between a high or low-pitched voice" you'd have thought it might have dawned on them. Here they are playing it to a nation of impressionable teens on national government-funded music show Countdown: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9VDMmz_ITyw.html Countdown is interesting because Australia was behind the world in censorship but we had a national pop video show 7 years before MTV started. This led to some anomalies: overseas bands who had surprise hits here sometimes had not made a video for the song. This led to Countdown calling the local record company asking for a video, and the record company calling their parent company overseas desperately asking for a video to get the free nation-wide promotion. In one celebrated case, the parent company told the local company, "Oh, just make a video yourselves." And they did, resulting in American masculine hard rock band Skatt Brothers getting this video (featuring people who were most definitely NOT in the band) made for them: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6X9tBHX_Fl4.html By all reports, the actual band were not amused.
@@tomrobinson5776 Incredibly, the lead singer of Supernaut, Gary Twinn, has spent the last decade singing with The International Swingers ... Clem Burke (Blondie) on drums, Glenn Matlock (Sex Pistols) on bass, and James Stevenson (Gen X/The Cult/Chelsea) on guitar.
All from one of pop's most influential albums, Laura Nyro's revolutionary Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (1968): "Love to love you baby, love my lovething, super ride inside my lovething" from The Confession. " my lover's mouth been good to me, it promised joy for a jailhouse" From Women's Blues, Walter Becker's favourite track off the album. " baby i can't wait for your cornfields to grow, baby there's a train whistle coming" from Once it Was Alright Farmer Joe. Nyro also wrote a song about abortion Gibsom Street (1969), and Descent of the Luna Rose (1993) about a woman's period, and mentioned in Bob Dylan's book of the last few years. The Carpenter's Wife in Dylan's Tangled Up in Blue is a reference to Nyro. I'm sure Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer listed to The Confession.
@@lupcokotevski2907 Eli is an amazing album. One of my most listened to the past 20 years. I’ll have to pay closer attention to the lyrical content. There is so much going on musically that I’m always focused on her phrasing and the sudden shifts in tempo and rhythm.
@@tomrobinson5776 Yep, I certainly agree. I dont normally pay too much attention to lyrics, but because she's my favourite artist, I tend to read them. Cheers.
Hey, remember DJ Dusty Street from LA radio? She started out in my territory, San Francisco, and died not all that long ago. She was an intimate part of my early TO radio experience. There might be a channel topic in old rock radio DJs and their pet songs.
Yeah I raced to buy a copy of Book of Dreams after I heard Jet Airliner on the radio. When I played it at home my mom flipped. Same thing with Elvis’ Armed Forces. My old man laughed at Oliver’s Army cuz he was racist as hell …
In the 90s, Sarah Mclachlan got away with, "You're a beautiful... beautiful f***ed up man." For the longest time, I thought I had to be misunderstanding the lyric because it was playing on FM radio and at shopping malls.
Bill Hailey and the Comets "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" has the line, "Like a one-eyed cat peeping through a seafood store". Yes, the boy part is the one-eyed cat and the girl part is the seafood store. The Clash, "Death or Glory" manages to bury the line, "He who fucks nuns will later join the church". I've never heard it censored on the radio. Elvis. "Jailhouse Rock" takes place in a men's prison in the 1950s where "Number forty-seven said to number three: "You're the cutest jailbird I ever did see. I sure would be delighted with your company, Come on and do the Jailhouse Rock with me."
James Brown, Get Up (I Feel Like a Sex Machine), he says Taste (get on up) Piano (get on up), which is before the piano solo. I mean, seriously "Taste Vienna", what does that even mean?
"Rich Girl" by Hall & Oates features "Bitch" As does "The Bitch is Back" by Elton John (Of course). Both still get plenty of airplay on "Classic Rock" stations today.
Chuck Berry's My Ding A Ling, a UK number one from late 1972, never banned by the BBC, he even performed it here on Top Of The Pops. What about the next UK number one by Jimmy Osmond with the line I'LL DO ANYTHING YOU SAY. We had Bras On 45 by Ivor Biggon, also not banned. The Scott Walker single Jackie got plenty of UK airplay, despite it's opening line.
I think the great Beach Boys song Wild Honey slipped the censors - it charted here in the UK and is on many Beach Boys compilations - listen to the words!
KROQ! Beat Her With a Rake by The Weasels comes to mind. They certainly had no filters then. Roll It Over by Derek and The Dominos is about buggery. In Five Man Electric Band"s Signs it always sounded to me like they were saying "fucking up the scenery".
I have heard "bullshit" in "Money"~Pink Floyd, "shit" in "Jet Airliner ~Steve Miller, "fuck" in "Who are you" ~ The Who, (twice!) and the CHAMPION: "faggot" in "Money for nothing" ~ Dire Straits (THREE times!) all ON AIR when these songs were new/in their prime. Nowadays on the radio: In Miller's case "shit" became "kicks", The Who and Dire Straits offending words are merely muted, HOWEVER Pink Floyd's "bullshit" goes "unnoticed" to this day!
