Any Song With Blatantly Homophobic or Racist Lyrics to Make the Top 40?

Cafe Society
1

Obviously some songs with less enlightened attitudes toward women, blacks, etc. have made the Top 40 charts. I’ve heard a lot of Jazz songs from back in The Day where the musicians (themselves black) portray negative attitudes about blacks.

However, I’m wondering if any blatantly racist, homophobic, or whatever lyrics have been included in a Top 40 song. The only examples I can think of off the top of my head are some lyrics in a couple of Eminem tunes. Also, ISTR some flack in the 80’s about some pop metal band (like Ratt or somesuch) slipping a song into the Top 40 with some vividly anti-gay lyrics.

Any other examples?

2

There is lots of anti-gay Jamaican reggae but I don’t know that any were “hits”.

3

I don’t know how high it charted but Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” includes what I consider to be anti-gay lyrics (although many people seem to give them a pass since the song is supposedly just a “report” of things they overheard Teamsters or somebody say).

4

The only thing that popped into my mind was the old Dire Straits hit, “Money for Nothing.” There’s a line that goes, “The little faggot with the earring and the makeup, yeah buddy, that’s his only care. The little faggot got his own jet airplane. The little faggot, he’s a millionaire.” I don’t think that’s really blatantly homophobic, but the use of the word “faggot” always makes me wince.

5

I THOUGHT the line was “Yeah buddy, that’s his own hair.”

One of us (or both) may have fallen victim to a mondegreen.

I can’t think of any racist or homophobic hit SINGLES, but there have been loads of platinum albums that featured some atrocious stuff. And I’m not talking about cult bands on skinhead labels, I mean mainstream acts on major labels. Guns ‘n’ Roses had a pretty horriffic song called “One in a Million” and they were definitely a mainstream rock band whose albums sold extremely well. “G n R Lies,” the album on which this track appeared, was a huge hit.

Lyrics here:

6

Since the song is about some working class bloke talking about rock stars, I give it a pass. In this case, it’s obviously a character, with attitudes not shared by the artist, and is no more bigotted than an actor playing a Nazi in a Holocaust drama.

I think we’re looking for bigotted statements supposedly shared by the authors.

7

One that comes to mind is I’d Love To Change the World by Ten Years After:

*It may be “Hares”, referring to Hare Krishnas; I’m not sure.

8

I don’t know if there was a Top 40 back then, but the original lyrics to “Puttin’ on the Ritz” are pretty wince-making.

And “Let’s Do It” originally opened with,

9

Hasn’t Oliver’s Army got in it ‘an itchy trigger…one less wild nigger’
And still gets played happily :slight_smile:

10

Since the OP also mentions “songs with less enlightened attitudes toward women…(that) have made the Top 40 charts,” let’s go for Domestic Violence’s Greatest Hits! POW!

At Number Three we have Joannie Sommers and “Johnny Get Angry.”

Johnny get angry, Johnny get mad
Johnny give me the biggest lecture I’ve ever had
I want a brave man, I want a caveman
Johnny, Johnny do you really care for me?

At Number Two with a bullet is one from “Philla da Killa” Spector’s hit factory, the Goffin and King song, “He Hit Me (It felt like a kiss)”

*He hit me
And it felt like a kiss.
He hit me
And I knew he loved me.

If he didn’t care for me
I could have never made him mad
But he hit me,
And I was glad.*

And the song you’ve all been waiting for, Big Number One, John Lennon and the Beatles’ “Run For Your Life!”

I’d rather see you dead little girl than to be with another man…

11

You mean,

I don’t know. It’s certainly a lyric you wouldn’t see today, but it’s not blatantly racist, in the way that some of the other examples are. That’s more one of HeyHomie’s “less enlightened attitudes”. Unless there are other, more offensive lyrics that I don’t know about.

12

“Killing an Arab” by the Cure?

13

Didn’t they ‘borrow’ that line from somewhere else? I thought I read that in some other thread.

14

Well, certainly condescending: “Looka dem uppity darkies, dressed up like they thinks dey’s white folks!”

15

One less white nigger. I’m entirely sure it qualifies, I doubt Elvis Costello was trying to make a blatant racist statement, especially in that tune.

16

Shite. I’m not entirely sure. Proofread, Paul.

17

all it takes is one itchy trigger
one more widow, one less white nigger

I doubt Costello was espousing his own views in that song. Could be wrong…

18

That’s a good tune, but it’s not my favorite creepy Beatles song. Not when there’s “Getting Better” out there.

I used to be cruel to my woman
I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved
Man I was mean but I’m changing my scene
And I’m doing the best that I can

I also hear that over on the Nashville Network, they’re having an “All Johnny Cash Singin’ About Getting Coked Up and Murdering His Wife/Girlfriend” marathon. I know I’m taping it!

And people complain about Eminem.

19

Well, yeah, it’s certainly condescending, but can you think of any popular song from the 20’s or 30’s (or any form of popular entertainment) where blacks are mentioned that isn’t condescending (Maybe “Imitation of Life”, but that’s doubtful)? The lyrics aren’t racist in the same way as some of that Jamacian reggae, as mentioned by an earlier poster, is homophobic.

20

Yep, from an old Elvis song. No, I don’t know which one it was, I just remember that’s what John said in his interviews with Playboy.

Michael Jackson wrote a song that included the charming phrase, “Kike me”. Of course, I can’t remember if that made the Top 40 or not.