# Censored Rock 'n' Roll **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 5, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860 "2003-02-05T03:17:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/1 "2003-02-05T03:17:45Z")
1. Whitegirl Georgia Gibbs, covering **Hank Ballard and the Midniters** ’ “Work with Me, Annie” changed it to “Dance with Me, Henry” to make it less sexy. 2. **Elvis** was hidden on Ed Sullivan from the waist down, because dancing like a “Negro” would have offended lilywhite America’s delicate sensibilities. 1960s. They accused **Peter, Paul, and Mary** of singing “Puff the Magic Dragon” to promote marijuana (but was the song actually censored?). 1. A Blue Meanie, i.e. a cop, kicked George Harrison off the stage at a **Beatles** concert in Cleveland (to the eternal disgrace of my hometown). (Postscript: in the film _Let It Be_, George refused to let the cops intimidate him again: when they were playing “Get Back” on the rooftop, and some businessmen called the cops, the other Beatles started to falter when the bobbies appeared on the rooftop. George saved the day by running to his amp, cranking the volume all the way up, and jamming harder than before. Everyone resumed the song and finished it unmolested. Yay George!) 2. Conservatives were outraged at the political content of **Barry McGuire** ’s anti-nuclear war protest song “Eve of Destruction” and tried to have it banned. 3. Because **John Lennon** said the **Beatles** were “bigger than Jesus” the Ku Klux Klan organized mass burnings of Beatles records and threatened John. 4. The producer of Ed Sullivan ordered the **Doors** to change the lyrics to “Light My Fire” when they appeared on his show so nobody would think the word “higher” was a drug reference. Jim Morrison sang “higher” anyway and the Doors were never invited back again. 5. When the **Stones** appeared on Ed Sullivan, they were ordered to change “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together.” 1969? **Jim Morrison** was arrested at a **Doors** concert for saying “fuckin’” on stage. (If the Oliver Stone movie is to be believed.) 1. The Blue Meanies, I mean cops, raided Bag One Productions and seized drawings by **John Lennon** in which he had lovingly depicted his and Yoko’s sex life. At his trial for obscenity, he was acquitted. (OK, this was about art, not music, but still … we’re talking about **John Lennon**!) 2. **Wendy O. Williams** was arrested for showing her boobs onstage. 3. Parents Music Resource Center attacks many bands because of their lyrics and holds Congressional hearings to bring them under control. Frank Zappa calls them the “Mothers of Prevention” and spends the last years of his life promoting voter registration drives to protect First Amendment rights. 4. Several DJs announced a ban on playing **Cat Stevens** records because of his remarks on the Salman Rushdie controversy, and even staged mass destruction of Cat Stevens records (like a bad-trip flashback of the Klan burning Beatles records in the 60s). 5. Police associations demanded a ban on **Ice-T** ’s song “Cop Killer.” 6. Police associations tried to ban **Bruce Springsteen** ’s song “American Skin” about the slaying of Amadou Diallo. Can you think of any other examples? ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/2 "2003-02-05T03:22:47Z")
Sen. Strom Thurmond tried to have John Lennon deported in 1972. ---
**Author:** ![okielady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/fbc32d/32.png) [@okielady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/okielady)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/3 "2003-02-05T03:33:53Z")
**Madonna’s** Like A Prayer video was considered blasphemous and even MTV declined to put it on air during prime time. They would only play it late at night. Not sure if that counts as Rock ‘n’ Roll though. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/4 "2003-02-05T03:37:05Z")
**okielady** — yes, it counts. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/5 "2003-02-05T04:18:17Z")
1968 - The **MC5** ’s debut album _Kick Out The Jams_ contains the stirring spoken introduction: > [@](#): > > “It’s time now to … > KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERF\*\*KERS” Electra records decide to clunkily drop in the phrase ‘brothers and sisters’ instead of the offending word. 1994 - Black Metal band **Darkthrone** ’s _Transylvanian Hunger_ LP comes out with the words ‘Norsk Arisk Black Metal’ on the back (meaning ‘Norwegian Aryan Black Metal’). Their English record label decides to drop the band, then removes the message from the back of future pressings. Darkthrone put out a press release criticising their critics for “Jewish behaviour”, then claim they didn’t mean it as a racial slur. 1986 - The **Dead Kennedys** put out a record called _Frankenchrist_ which includes a poster of numerous willies. The record label offices are raided, and band and label are put on trial for obscenity which, although they win, destroys the band. To this day, CD reissues don’t have the willy picture. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/6 "2003-02-05T04:23:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Sen. Strom Thurmond tried to have John Lennon deported in 1972. Not only that, Lennon was practically J. Edgar Hoover’s obsession until Hoover’s death in 1972. He was also a target of the Nixon Administration. ---
**Author:** ![Junior\_Spaceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Junior\_Spaceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Junior_Spaceman)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/7 "2003-02-05T04:26:09Z")
Oh - two questions about the examples in the OP. 1. I thought that Elvis’ dancing problem was to do with the fact it was so sexual, rather than that it was dancing like a black person. 2. I’d also heard that the story about Jim Morrison saying ‘higher’ on TV was made up by Oliver Stone, and that he’d actually muffled the line, as he was asked to (I’ve heard both versions, though). I thought of one fake incidents of censorship, used by the band for promotion: There was a rumour that **Pink Floyd** had to change the name of the newspaper mentioned in _It Would Be So Nice_ from the real “Evening Standard” to the fictional “Daily Standard”. It seems that this isn’t true, as there has never been a version of the song discovered with the ‘Evening Standard’ reference. ---
**Author:** ![typhoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed8c4c/32.png) [@typhoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typhoon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/8 "2003-02-05T04:29:02Z")
In 1969, the Beatles’ “The Ballad of John and Yoko” was banned in South Africa because of the apparently blasphemous “Christ, you know it ain’t easy” refrain. I’d say unkind things about South Africa’s morals in the sixties, but they aren’t even necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/9 "2003-02-05T04:38:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by okielady \* > \*\ ***Madonna’s** Like A Prayer video was considered blasphemous and even MTV declined to put it on air during prime time. They would only play it late at night. > > Not sure if that counts as Rock ‘n’ Roll though. \*\* Nope. Like A Prayer was in heavy rotation all day long for months on MTV. Perhaps you are either confusing it with the Pepsi commercial that was only shown once, with the Erotica or Justify My Love videos that were either outright banned or only shown late at night. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/10 "2003-02-05T04:40:06Z")
Wendy O Williams (Plasmatics) was arrested for masturbating on stage with a sledgehammer. Jane’s Addiction released the album ‘Ritual de lo Habitual’ featuring stocking puppets in semi-pornographic activities, which led to the white cover album as a protest by JA, after the original was pulled from shelves. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/11 "2003-02-05T05:00:27Z")
Geez…this could include any and all rock songs that included an “obscenity” in the lyrics that was bleeped. Anyone care to make a list? ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/12 "2003-02-05T05:16:27Z")
Of course if you want an actual removal or replacement. The Beatles **The Beatles, Yesterday and Today**. The infamous “Butcher” cover. > [@](#): > > The LP’s original 35-year-old cover photo showed the Beatles dressed in white smocks covered by chunks of red meat and the heads and torsos of toy dolls. The image produced no big controversy in the Beatles’ native England, where it had been published at least twice before to promote the band. > > However, in the United States, public outcry caused Capitol Records to hurriedly recall up to 750,000 copies of the album. The solution to the sticky situation – in lieu of manufacturing entirely new cardboard album covers – was to paste over the offending photo with the now-familiar image of “Yesterday and Today,” a benign shot of the Beatles gathered around a steamer trunk. [http://www.thehollandsentinel.net/stories/060601/ent\_0606010040.shtml](http://www.thehollandsentinel.net/stories/060601/ent_0606010040.shtml) [Yhe original cover](http://music_censorship.tripod.com/beatles_butcher.jpg) [The Replacement cover.](http://music_censorship.tripod.com/beatles_butcher_after.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/13 "2003-02-05T05:45:40Z")
The Rolling Stones on Ed Sullivan had to change “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together”. If you’ve ever seen a clip of this, it’s pretty funny. Mick is rolling his eyes in disgust as he sings the chorus. Van Morrison had to change “Brown Skinned Girl” to “Brown Eyed Girl”. Don’t know if it was because people didn’t like interracial romances or because people thought “Brown Skinned Girl” was itself racist though (Wonder how “Brown Sugar” ever got released in either case). The PMRC tried to ban just about everything (or so it seemed) in 1985 and succeeded in getting records labelled. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/14 "2003-02-05T06:33:38Z")
I think we can skip songs that were edited for bad words for broadcast, which is quite prevalent, especially in rap. Aerosmith’s 1997 Nine Lives album cover was changed due to pressure from Hare Krishnas… > [@](#): > > Two Versions Of The Nine Lives Cover. > The original cover was cat like figure amongst numerous cobras. The images of Hindu gods on the cover spirtually violated American Hare Krishna devotees, who tried to get the album banned. The group eventually licensed the image from the sect. In the meantime, the album cover was changed to a cat on a spinning wheel which happened in the USA in Summer 1997 (Japan in 1998 and Europe, March 1999). [This link](http://www.rockthisway.de/discography/disc_20_cool.htm) shows both covers. (I have the original :D) ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/15 "2003-02-05T06:54:36Z")
**Little Richard** ’s hit “Tutti Fruitti” originally started off: _Tutti Frutti; Good Booty_ A staff lyricist cleaned up the song on the spot before recording. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/16 "2003-02-05T07:07:55Z")
Lennon and Ono also were censored in 1968 for the “Two Virgins” Album cover. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/17 "2003-02-05T11:14:42Z")
**HenrySpencer** , African dance has always featured shaking of the hips. If whitebread America interprets that as “sexual,” well, that’s their hangup. ---
**Author:** ![jinty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dbc845/32.png) [@jinty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jinty)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/18 "2003-02-05T13:24:00Z")
Couple of Queen ones: 1. The elpee Jazz (late 70s) had a titillating fold-out poster of ‘fat-bottomed girls’ on ‘bicycles’ (uniting 2 of the album’s song titles) - this got removed by most recordshop shop owners, IIRC. Don’t know whether the current CD version has a miniature version of the poster - doubt it, though :rolleyes:. 2. They got into litigation over the lyrics in their song ‘Death on Two Legs’. I was intrigued about this for years - heard a rumour it was about Harold Wilson (British prime minister). Googled for it on the net a couple of years ago; apparently it was about a money-grabbing venue owner or something (far less interesting than the rumour!) On their live album, Freddie M introduces this song as “This is about a [bleep] [bleep]”. I’d love to know what he actually said. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/19 "2003-02-05T13:47:53Z")
The **Elvis Presley** classic “One Nigh With You” was originally called “One Night Of Sin”. Both lyrics can be found [here](http://www.webfitz.com/lyrics/Lyrics/1958/311958c.html). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860/20 "2003-02-05T13:58:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jomo Mojo \* > \*\*1956. **Elvis** was hidden on Ed Sullivan from the waist down, because dancing like a “Negro” would have offended lilywhite America’s delicate sensibilities. > \*\* Urban Legend. According to the history of the Sullivan show in American Heritage, Elvis was shown from the waist up because in rehearsals, he kept sticking a beer bottle between his legs despite being told several times to cut it out. The Sullivan show was not going to allow the phallic symbolism on the air, and since the couldn’t count on Elvis to cooperate, they showed him from the waist up. Album covers: The original Blind Faith cover was not used in the U.S. (except by special order) because it showed a nude preteen. Nowadays, it’d be child porn, I guess. A talentless group known as “Mom’s Apple Pie” put out an album that showed a woman holding out an apple pie with a vagina in it. It was pulled and rereleased with a small brick wall covering the spot. However, since the group was managed by Terry Knight, it’s assumed that the entire episode was a cheap attempt to get some publicity. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/censored-rock-n-roll/152860.md?page=2)