The song was from the POV of a merc in Oliver Tambo’s anti-aparthied army. The “white nigger” was the protagonist himself musing on his own death and regretting his decision (“I’d rather be anywhere else than here today”).
So it’s not racist.
Funny, I don’t find a single creepy thing about this. Just like Run for Your Life, they’re inhabiting characters–highly imperfect ones, but at least in “Getting Better”, redemption is on the horizon…
My CD of Brutal Youth only has one line of lyric in the liners: from “20% amnesia”: “Strip Jack naked with a Stanley knife”, surely so that it would not be confused with “Strip Jack N-----”, which to be truthful, I misudnerstood it as.
I think it was done to avoid his bad rep he gained from perhaps Oliver’s Army but maybe more from the use of the word on air? (But I don’t recall the details of that.)
The song was based on L’etranger (The Stranger) by Albert Camus, which was not racist literature, so IMO this falls under the same category as “Money for Nothing.”
The actions described in the song are a retelling of a story and are not condoned by Robert Smith and the rest of the Cure.
I assume that’s a joke since there is no such thing as The Nashville Network?
After a bunch of DJ’s started making racist comments while playing this song, Smith tried to get it pulled from the airwaves. I’m not sure how successful he was in this. He then gave a benefit for Palestinian orphans.
Did G’n’R’s One in a Million get released as a single.
Character or not, I’ve always found the juxtaposition of the rather bubbly music with the actual lyrics to be more than a little disconcerting.
I still like the song, mind. Heck, that’s probably why I like the song.
There used to be. But yes, that was a joke. I’m also a big Johnny Cash fan, lest anyone think I was disrespecting The Man in Black.
Johnny Cash, Beatles, Eminem. Basically, I just like songs about beating up women. Is that so wrong?
I don’t know if it became a hit or not, but Kate Smith starred in a movie called Hello Everybody! in which she dedicated a song to “a bunch of colored children in an orphanage in Harlem”. The song was called “Pickaninny Heaven” and mentioned pork chop bushes and watermelon trees and mammies waiting for you.
The Winan Sisters had a hit on the Gospel Charts with the song “It’s Not Natural” which is solely dedicated to their views on homosexuality.
The most un-PC song that comes to mind is 'They’re Coming to Take Me Away (Ha Ha)" by 'Napoleon XIV (aka Jerry Samuels). In 1966, when I was eight years old, it hit #3 on the US charts (and #5 in the UK). Even in those benighted days, it raised a firestorm as to its “making fun of” mental illness.
I seem to recall it went to #3 then was dropped from playlists across the country as if it were a live grenade.
The lyrics are here:
Linky
Oh yeah I know there used to be. I worked for Gaylord for nearly a decade during those days.
As long as you paid your respects to Johnny, I’ll let it slide this time. Sigh. He was the coolest man in Nashville. Now I guess the burden falls on my shoulders.
Also, “white nigger” is a term used to contemptously refer to lower-class British whites–the same lower-class British whites who have made up the bulk of the British armed forces. Costello was basically making the point that wars are often started by the rich and powerful but fought by the poor and powerless.
Well there was a couple of throw-away lines by the well-known L.A. punk band Fear ( who actually made it on to SNL ):
*New York’s alright if you wanna be pushed in front of the subway!
New York’s alright if you like tuberculosis!
New York’s alright if you like art and jazz!
New York’s alright if you’re a homosexual! *
from “New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophones”
or
Let’s have a war!
Sell the rights to the networks!
Let’s have a war!
Let our wallets get fat like last time!
Let’s have a war!
Give guns to the queers!
Let’s have a war!
The enemy’s within!
from “Let’s Have A War”
- Tamerlane
I don’t know whether it charted, but the Hank Williams classic Kawliga was about a wooden Indian in a cigar store who falls in love with an Indian maiden mannequin in the antique store across the street.
But he’s shy, and doesn’t act on his feelings. So one day a customer buys the mannequin, and takes her away.
And, as sung in the chorus,
Poor old Kawliga, he never got a kiss
Poor old Kawliga, he don’t know what he missed
Is it any wonder, that his face is red?
Kawliga, that poor wooden head
Many blues recordings from the 1920s and 1930s contain references to individuals’ race that would sound offensive today. I consider most of these pretty benign – more descriptions than insults, sort of like referring to a ‘brown-eyed girl’ today.
Cite? 'Cause I was under the impression it was about Oliver Cromwell’s army (aka England’s New Model Army.)
What about Dreadlock Holiday by 10CC? I’m not sure if it is racist, but I’ve often thought so when I hear it.
I dont think that “London was full of Arabs” or “Honk Kong was up for grabs” in Oliver Cromwell’s time.
Lyrics Warning, site has pop-ups.
However, after reading NDP’s post, I now think that the hero may have been a merc for the SA gov’t.
I’ve always heard it as Oliver Cromwell as well, since this is the first time I’ve heard of Oliver Tambo.
However, the song does mention both Johannesburg and other flashpoints in the world (the first of which would point more toward Tamob, the others toward British peacekeeping missions.) And it is Elvis Costello, so it’s most likely both Olivers.
Bleah. All the songs about beating up and killing blacks and Arabs and homos, it’s nice sometimes to just get back to good old-fashioned misogyny. How about “Wives and Lovers” by Burt Bacharach?
The one that comes most readily to mind that charted well was “Ahab the Arab” by, I believe, Ray Stevens in the early '60s.
Probably it could be argued that “Speedy Gonzales” (also from the early 1960s) could also be considered in rather bad taste more for the spoken words in the song than the song itself. It was meant as humor at the time but it has not stood up too well.
Songs like “Camptown Races” and “Dem Bones” (and most of Stephen Foster’s songs) come across as rather racist too when we examine the actual lyrics. And I believe Paul Robeson said he changed the lyrics to “Old Man River” whenever he sang it because he found them offensive.
I also might look at about half of the songs from the Broadway show Finnian’s Rainbow. They were made less offensive in the film but in the original musical they are somewhat strident in their dipiction of blacks.