# Any Song With Blatantly Homophobic or Racist Lyrics to Make the Top 40?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 18, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360 "2005-01-18T14:01:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/1 "2005-01-18T14:01:43Z")
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?
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/2 "2005-01-18T14:07:34Z")
There is lots of anti-gay Jamaican reggae but I don’t know that any were “hits”.
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/3 "2005-01-18T14:10:37Z")
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).
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### Author:  [@shadowfax33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shadowfax33)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/4 "2005-01-18T14:12:38Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/5 "2005-01-18T14:27:30Z")
> [@shadowfax33](#):
>
> 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.
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:
> **[Guns N' Roses - One In A Million Lyrics | AZLyrics.com](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/gunsnroses/oneinamillion.html)**
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### Author:  [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/6 "2005-01-18T14:35:12Z")
> [@Otto](#):
>
> 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).
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.
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### Author:  [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/7 "2005-01-18T14:36:05Z")
One that comes to mind is _I’d Love To Change the World_ by Ten Years After:
> [@](#):
>
> Everywhere is freaks and hairies\*
> Dykes and fairies, tell me where is sanity
\*It may be “Hares”, referring to Hare Krishnas; I’m not sure.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/8 "2005-01-18T14:36:54Z")
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,
> [@](#):
>
> Chinks do it, Japs do it,
> Up in Lapland little Laps do it.
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### Author:  [@Iceland\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iceland_Blue)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/9 "2005-01-18T15:38:08Z")
Hasn’t Oliver’s Army got in it ‘an itchy trigger…one less wild nigger’
And still gets played happily 🙂
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/10 "2005-01-18T15:55:45Z")
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…_
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/11 "2005-01-18T15:57:29Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> 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.
You mean,
> [@](#):
>
> Spangled gowns upon a bevy of high browns
> From down the levee, all misfits
> Puttin’ on the ritz
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.
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### Author:  [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/12 "2005-01-18T15:58:35Z")
“Killing an Arab” by the Cure?
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/13 "2005-01-18T16:22:10Z")
> [@dropzone](#):
>
> 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…_
Didn’t they ‘borrow’ that line from somewhere else? I thought I read that in some other thread.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/14 "2005-01-18T16:25:41Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#):
>
> 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.
Well, certainly condescending: “Looka dem uppity darkies, dressed up like they thinks dey’s white folks!”
> [@](#):
>
> Have you seen the well to do
> up on Lennox Avenue?
> On that famous thoroughfare
> with their noses in the air
> High hats and arrow collar
> white spats and lots of dollars
> Spending ev’ry dime for a wonderful time
>
> If you’re blue and
> you don’t know where to go to
> why don’t you go where Harlem sits
> Putting on the Ritz
>
> Spangled gowns upon the bevee of high browns
> from down the levee, all misfits
> Putting on the Ritz.
>
> That’s where each and ev’ry Lulu-belle goes.
> Ev’ry Thursday evening with her swell beaus
> rubbing elbows
>
> Come with me and we’ll attend the jubilee
> and see them spend their last two bits
> Putting on the Ritz.
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### Author:  [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/15 "2005-01-18T16:26:18Z")
> [@Iceland\_Blue](#):
>
> Hasn’t Oliver’s Army got in it ‘an itchy trigger…one less wild nigger’
> And still gets played happily 🙂
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.
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### Author:  [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/16 "2005-01-18T16:28:23Z")
Shite. I’m **not** entirely sure. Proofread, Paul.
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/17 "2005-01-18T16:33:56Z")
> [@Iceland\_Blue](#):
>
> Hasn’t Oliver’s Army got in it ‘an itchy trigger…one less wild nigger’
> And still gets played happily 🙂
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…
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/18 "2005-01-18T16:34:00Z")
> [@dropzone](#):
>
> 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…_
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.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/19 "2005-01-18T16:35:42Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> Well, certainly condescending: “Looka dem uppity darkies, dressed up like they thinks dey’s white folks!”
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.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-song-with-blatantly-homophobic-or-racist-lyrics-to-make-the-top-40/285360/20 "2005-01-18T16:59:15Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> Didn’t they ‘borrow’ that line from somewhere else? I thought I read that in some other thread.
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.
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