RocShemp

As a kid, I loved "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits. I decided to give it a listen today and realized I never noticed they say faggot a few times during the beginning of the song.

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It made me wonder, what other seemingly harmless songs from yesteryear wouldn't air on the radio uncensored today?

RagingBull80

Depending on which radio station you're hearing "Money for Nothing" here you could be listening to the uncut or the edited version of the song.

cungar

RocShemp's version of "I can't find the Music Talk Forum"

RocShemp

In all honesty, until you mentioned it, I totally forgot we even have a music talk.

kvrdave

It's by the book forum.

Mazje

Obviously not. If it was "by the book," he'd have put it in the music forum.

Mrs. Danger

The Streak

Spottedfeather

Most songs by 2 Live Crew...though I don't imagine them playing that stuff back when it came out.

Josh-da-man

...and the colored girls go "Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo."

Hiro11

That I don't want to get caught up in any of that
Funky shit goin' down in the city

..although you still hear it played sometimes.

Cabman Gray

This. Also, Pink Floyd's "Money":

Money, it's a hit
Don't give me that do goody good bullshit

wishbone

Forget all about that macho shit
And learn how to play guitar

A local radio station talked about how they edited Mellencamp's song by replacing "shit" with a reversed recording of the word. Nowadays the record company would just send the edited version to the record station.

PopcornTreeCt

I remember I used to hear "Jeremy" unedited on the radio. Now when it's on, it's always censored.

Rypro 525

also many times they would play "Who Are You" by the Who uncut too, as it has the line "ohh who the fuck are you"

Numanoid

I still hear most songs listed in this thread on the Chicago stations. You typically hear the unedited versions after the watershed. And I've never heard an edited version of "Money For Nothing".

Ash Ketchum

Going back a few decades...

"Wives should always be lovers, too/
Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you"

Going back a few more decades...

"That field of corn would never see a plow
That field of corn would be deserted now
*A darkie's born but he's no good no how
Without a song"

* Bing Crosby sang it this way around 1930 or '31. Paul Robeson later changed the lyric to "A man is born..." and Frank Sinatra followed his example.

arminius

"I Wanna Be Black"
=====================
album _Street Hassle_
(Lou Reed, 1978)

written by Lou Reed
=====================


I wanna be black, have natural rhythm
shoot twenty foot of jism too
And fuck up the Jews

I wanna be black, I wanna be a panther
have a girlfriend named Samantha
and have a stable of foxy whores
Wow-wow, I wanna be black

Oh, I don't wanna be a fucked up
middle class college student anymore
I just wanna have a stable of
foxy little whores
yeah-yeah, I wanna be black
Oh, I wanna be black
yeah-yeah, I wanna be black

I wanna be black, wanna be like Martin Luther King
and get myself shot in spring
lead a whole generation too
And fucked up the Jews

I wanna be black, I wanna be like Malcolm X
and cast a hex
over President Kennedy's tomb
And have a big prick too

Oh, I don't wanna be a fucked up
middle class college student no more
Yeah, I just wanna have a
stable of foxy little whores

Yeah-yeah, I wanna be black
I wanna be black
I wanna be black
I wanna be black
yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah, I wanna be black
Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah, I wanna be black
yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah, I wanna be black
Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
(yeah-yeah, I wanna be black, oh-oh)
(Yeah-yeah, I wanna be black, oh-oh)
(yeah-yeah, I wanna be black, oh-oh)
(Yeah-yeah, I wanna be black, oh-oh)

Decker

No profanity, but seriously, is there a more culturally insensitive hit single by a major R&R HoF artist than this one?

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It's got fake accent, stereotypes, cultural insensitivity and suggestions of loose morality all to a catchy beat. It really feels like something Dewey Cox might have released

mickey65

I remember when the song "Sex...I'm A" by Berlin wouldn't be played during daytime hours on a radio station in a hick town I lived in back in the early 80's. I had called the radio station to request it, and he said that was a song they'd only play late at night due to it's "content". Puhleeze...

kd5

Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time,
for y'all have knocked her up.
I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe
and I was not offended.
For I knew I had to rise above it all
or drown in my own shit...




-kd5-

Mabuse

Regarding Money for Nothing just take a look at the Wikipedia entry. The song has been controversial since it first came out and while I occasionally hear the longer un-cut version most air play, and most Dire Straits Greatest Hits packages, contain the shorter version that basicly cuts out the entire second verse.

Money for Nothing and the Lou Reed song have a lot in common. They are songs writen in the first person. The words don't represent the words of the writer (Knopfler/Reed) but are the words of an undeducated or absurd character singing in the first person; one a laborer and the other a " fucked up
middle class college student"....and people just don't seem to be able to handle that.

Canadian radio banned Money for Nothing in 2011.

Mabuse

Adam Carolla does a bit on his podcast where he talks about how the Gary Puckett songs Young Girl and Lady Willpower are ballads about how badly the singer wants to fuck an underage girl and simply can't help himself. The songs really are truely strange and I don't know why no one batted an eye back then.

bralph

I had forgotten all about that song. You're right though, it would never fly today. It is pretty damn catchy though...

Drexl

"Into the Night" by Benny Mardones is also like this.

Rival11

This is the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title.