“Camptown Races” is written in dialect for a minstrel show, but other than that, what’s racist about the lyrics?
Also, first, as far as I know, “Dem Bones” wasn’t written by Foster. I’m pretty sure it’s a spiritual. It’s the story of Adam and Eve. What’s racist about those lyrics?
The Stones’ “Brown Sugar” is considered racist by some as is “Some Girls”.
“When the Whip Comes Down” gives us, “I was gay in New York, just a fag in LA”
When Taco redid the song in the 80s, the original video showed pictures of children in black face just after the lyric, “…just like Gary Cooper, super duper”. That part was removed and replaced with a still picture of Gary Cooper (which actually makes since).
Another place to look is David Allen Coe. He had horribly racist and sexist songs, especially on his album “18 X-Rated Hits.” He also had gems of songs, recorded by many country and pop singers.
Blame Hal David for the lyric.
In a similar vein as TV Time’s posting, how about Larry Verne’s “Please Mister Custer” ?
From the early 1960’s (as were “Ahab the Arab” and “Speedy Gonzales”), Mister Custer contains less than flattering references to Native Americans.
“There’s a redskin waitin’ out there,
Fixin’ to take my hair”.
Luckily, these 3 songs do NOT get played on oldies stations.
From 1969, yet another novelty song, “Big Bruce” by Steven Greenberg, a parody of the song “Big Bad John” with the title character being gay.
This did not make the Top 40 though.
… and singer Lee Ving, if not the rest of the band, is gay. I think some of this was sarcasm.
A few choices that were in the Top 40 (or at the very least Top 100) as singles:
“Wig Wam Bam” -Sweet
“Indian Giver” - 1910 Fruit Gum Co. of Philadelphia
The renaming of Kyu Sakamoto’s love song “Sukiyaki” was pretty darn racist
“Der Fuehrer’s Face” - Spike Jones… ironically, this is pretty much hatespeak these days
“Ling Ting Tong” - Buddy Knox
“Rockin’ China Doll” - Gene Ross (IIRC)
“Fujiyama Mama” - Wanda Jackson
The Hollies had an LP track “Oriental Sadness” that probably would raise eyebrows today.
There are two series of rerelease albums (to my knowledge) that feature only this sort of thing: the equal opportunity Jungle Exotica and the East Asia-centered Chop Suey Rock… mid 50s to mid 60s rock’n’roll that’s actually quite good but that you wouldn’t want to play at a party without a contextualizing speech. You should be able to track these down easily on the net.
By the by, Larry Verne’s hit was simply titled “Mr. Custer.”
As for mysogeny… I don’t have the time to start listing those!!! My all time favorite (both a genuinely awesome song and completely indefensible) would be the Avengers’ (the 60s band not the 70s punkers) “Be a Cave Man.”
“You gotta treat a woman rough/ You gotta treat a woman tough/ You gotta take her by the hair…”
In the self-defiling category we have a ‘winner’ in the “Pussycat Song” by Connie Vannett, which I can only hope was the stage name of a desperate Nashville studio who needed the cash. I literally found this one still on a turntable in the trash of my apartment building. It’s been a huge hit at parties… jaw-dropping… :eek: 
Not being into reggae, what sentiments are expressed in these lyrics? Presumably, the songs wouldn’t get airplay in the States or UK.
No mention yet of Randy Newman?
I’m impressed. It seems as though some people do understand irony.
Peggy Lee’s *Manana * comes to mind for suggesting that Mexicans are hopelessly lazy and can’t make chile without burning their houses down.
Thank the fates that the crowd here is capable of differentiating between the singer and a character who is brought to life by the singer.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to listen to “Wedding in Cherokee County”.
I’ve sometimes used “Christmas in Capetown” as an idiot-identification tool.
Then again, how many songs from the 20s and 30s get airplay in the States or UK?
Guinastasia, you’re thinking of Michael Jackson’s They Don’t Care About Us (No.2 in UK in 1996) which has ‘Jew me, kike me’ in it.
And the Black & White Minstrels had several No.1 albums in the early 60s.
The lyrics are of the “Kill the faggots” variety.
…and after his first trip South Foster’s abolitionist sympathies caused him to clean up the more overt racism in his older songs and minimize it in his later ones. Sometimes still in dialect, as that was the style, but more sympathetic.
Ahhhh…yeah , I’m aware of that. But what I wasn’t aware of till not to long ago is the the current English army is occasionally refered to as “Oliver’s Army”. In the sense that it is the New Model Army. The military system Cromwell came up with, which is still the current system.
I think that was the sense that Elvis meant it as Oliver’s Army. Although I’m willing to consider the Oliver Tambo question as, to be honest I thought it was about mercenaries myself.
Wasn’t there a big Eminem hit with anti-gay lyrics?
Right, we wouldn’t want to offend Nazis.
This perhaps falls into the same category as “Money for Nothing” (as not an intentionally offensive bit) but I was always struck by the line from “Walk on the Wild Side” by Lou Reed (a #1 hit IIRC):
“And the colored-girls sing,
Doo-de-doo, doo, doo…” etc.
Yeah, it’s a reference to early 1960s girl groups that the drag queens mentioned in this song adored. But why does he specifically mention “colored girls” ? Were there no caucasian girl group singers? In fact “And the girl groups sing” would fit the rhythm just as well.
Just thought I’d mention it.