# Fish and finger pie, or how did this lyric get by the AM radio censors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 7, 2019, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166 "2019-06-07T15:43:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/21 "2019-06-07T17:19:23Z")
another one, not AM but my local AOR station at the time would on occasion play the album version of “Miracles”, with the line “I got a taste of the real world/when I went down on you girl” intact- ugh. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/22 "2019-06-07T17:24:40Z")
Personally I’ve always wondered how the Beatles got away with John orgasming through the outro of “Lovely Rita”. Fish and finger pie is nothing compared to that. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/23 "2019-06-07T18:01:11Z")
My two favorite examples of “stuff that got right past the bleepers” are Jefferson Airplane’s “We Can Be Together,” which contains the lyric “up against the wall, motherfuckers” (around minute 3:20 or so) and it’s plain as day. Never bleeped that I know of. The other is Steely Dan’s “Show Business Kids,” with the lyric “show business kids making movies of themselves you know they don’t give a fuck about anybody else.” Also never bleeped that I recall. Been on oldies radio forever and apparently nobody ever complained. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/24 "2019-06-07T18:10:14Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > 1. While “finger pie” was a euphemism for genital touching, it wasn’t a widely known euphemism and the censors probably though it just another nonsense phrase from a couple of blokes known for making up nonsense phrases. This, for sure. Take a look at the lyrics for “Come Together” or “I Am the Walrus” – there’s all sorts of word salad in there. Now, take a 50-something American, back in 1967, who isn’t familiar with current slang, and has no idea what “those kids” mean by just about anything they say, and give him the job of listening to songs for naughty words. All sorts of stuff is going to “get by” them. ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/25 "2019-06-07T18:17:23Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > This, for sure. Take a look at the lyrics for “Come Together” or “I Am the Walrus” – there’s all sorts of word salad in there. > > Now, take a 50-something American, back in 1967, who isn’t familiar with current slang, and has no idea what “those kids” mean by just about anything they say, and give him the job of listening to songs for naughty words. All sorts of stuff is going to “get by” them. another great point- I can imagine someone reading the complete lyrics to “Come Together” and saying, ah fuck it, its good to go:) ---
**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:** [June 7, 2019, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/26 "2019-06-07T18:42:51Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > My two favorite examples of “stuff that got right past the bleepers” are Jefferson Airplane’s “We Can Be Together,” which contains the lyric “up against the wall, motherfuckers” (around minute 3:20 or so) and it’s plain as day. Never bleeped that I know of. The other is Steely Dan’s “Show Business Kids,” with the lyric “show business kids making movies of themselves you know they don’t give a fuck about anybody else.” Also never bleeped that I recall. Been on oldies radio forever and apparently nobody ever complained. Apparently someone has because I heard a local radio station a few weeks ago play “Show Biz Kids” with the f-bomb-containing last verse entirely omitted (thereby blunting the point of the song). Similarly, FM rock stations played the album version of The Who’s “Who Are You” for about 20 years without blipping the “who the fuck are you” line before suddenly deciding to play a “clean” version with “fuck” changed to “hell”. Both these cases are proverbial examples of closing the barn door after the horse has escaped except that the horse escaped 40 years ago and has been dead for 30. Incidentally, the “fish and finger pie” is not even the best example of the Beatles getting something past the censors for years. McCartney wrote “Got to Get You Into My Life” about his first experiences with marijuana and_nobody_ caught on for over 40 years. I think we would still be in the dark had McCartney hadn’t finally stated what the song was about. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/27 "2019-06-07T18:47:11Z")
Forgot all about “Who Are You,” that’s a good one. It’s baffling to me that after all this time someone would decide that these old songs need the bleep treatment. There has to be some “cleanup” company out there just busily fucking over old music to suit these corporate garbage radio stations even though nobody’s ever complained. It would be funny AF though, to send irate “How DARE you fuck with the music like that!” letters–I bet you could get Redditors to join a campaign like that. For the lulz. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/28 "2019-06-07T18:58:36Z")
[Fish fingers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_finger) are the British name for fish sticks, and [fish finger pie](https://www.birdseye.co.uk/recipes/crispy-fish-finger-pie) is a pie made out of fish fingers. I agree “fish and finger pie” is probably John Lennon playing suggestively with words, like how in “Day Tripper” “big teaser” was a double entendre for “prick teaser.” _She’s a big teaser She took me half the way there_ ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/29 "2019-06-07T19:03:45Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > [Fish fingers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_finger) are the British name for fish sticks, and [fish finger pie](https://www.birdseye.co.uk/recipes/crispy-fish-finger-pie) is a pie made out of fish fingers. I agree “fish and finger pie” is probably John Lennon playing suggestively with words, like how in “Day Tripper” “big teaser” was a double entendre for “prick teaser.” > > _She’s a big teaser > She took me half the way there_ See post #2. The term being discussed isn’t “fish finger pie”. It is “a four of fish and finger pie” ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/30 "2019-06-07T19:37:57Z")
My guess is that there just wasn’t as much censorship hysteria over things like this as you may assume. Others have said as much here, and I agree; unless something was overtly profane or generated a lot of complaints from the public, it went on the air. Even today, censorship is more of a reactive act than a proactive one. So either most people didn’t get the reference, or they did but weren’t offended. As long as nobody made a stink (ha!) about it at the time, it was kind of a “no harm, no foul” situation. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/31 "2019-06-07T20:09:53Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > See post #2. The term being discussed isn’t “fish finger pie”. It is “a four of fish and finger pie” Still works for the misinterpretation. I, too always figured it was “fish and finger” pie, because Brits eat all sorts of weird shit like Spotted Dick and Toad in the Hole and Larks Tongues in Aspic. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/32 "2019-06-07T20:26:44Z")
The lyrics listed on the Blue Album compilation cover sleeve says “full of fish and finger pies in summer.” ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/33 "2019-06-07T20:28:52Z")
I don’t recall ever hearing a censored version of Start Me Up by the Rolling Stones. “You made a dead man come.” But that was early 80s I think. ---
**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:** [June 7, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/34 "2019-06-07T21:04:27Z")
There are bits of Liverpudlian slang in many Beatles song. It probably got through because the BBC was unfamiliar with it. Liverpool was like the North Pole as far as Londoners were concerned. This I’ve seen “Ticket to Ride” as referring to a medical exam showing you had no STDs, and the “motor trade” in “She’s Leaving Home” referring to an abortionist. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/35 "2019-06-07T21:09:03Z")
I’m another one who figured it was some kind of meat pie, and had no idea it was a double entendre. Doesn’t surprise me, mind you. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/36 "2019-06-07T21:22:00Z")
My friends and I certainly didn’t catch any hidden meaning from fish and finger pie. We probably just assumed it was some weird Brit thing like fish & chips. But I don’t recall even giving this obscure lyric a second thought. So many of the Beatles lyrics were almost incomprehensible. I gave up understanding the story in A Day in the Life decades ago. Don’t even care anymore. It just clever words that go with the melody. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/37 "2019-06-07T21:40:32Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Forgot all about “Who Are You,” that’s a good one. It’s baffling to me that after all this time someone would decide that these old songs need the bleep treatment. There has to be some “cleanup” company out there just busily fucking over old music to suit these corporate garbage radio stations even though nobody’s ever complained. It would be funny AF though, to send irate “How DARE you fuck with the music like that!” letters–I bet you could get Redditors to join a campaign like that. For the lulz. 😉 The song you hear today may not be the song that was played on the radio. Back in the '60s record companies (at least the ones based in the U.S.) regularly sent 45 rpm singles to radio stations that were “Edited for Airplay.” In fact, I believe some still do. Sometimes the edits were simply for time. [QUOTE=Billy Joel _The Entertainer_) You’ve heard my latest record It’s been on the radio Ah, it took me years to write it They were the best years of my life It was a beautiful song But it ran too long If you’re gonna have a hit You gotta make it fit So they cut it down to 3:05[/Quote] Sometimes the possibly offensive lyric was rewritten and the artist (or maybe a soundalike) did an alternate take. The Lou Christie song _Rhapsody in the Rain_ originally had the line “we were makin’ out in the rain,” which became “we fell in love in the rain.” Sometimes the line was chopped out entirely, either skillfully or not.) When I worked at an FM station in the Bible Belt during the 1970s, I had to excise the following portion of the Eagles’ _Life in the Fast Lane_. > [@](#): > > She said, “Listen, baby > You can hear the engine ring > We’ve been up and down this highway > Haven’t seen a god-damn thing” > He said, “Call the doctor > I think I’m gonna crash” > “The doctor say he’s coming but you gotta pay in cash” > They were rushing down that freeway > Messed around and got lost > They didn’t care, they were just dyin’ to get off. The possibly offensive word was “god-damn.” Never mind that the entire song is about a cocaine habit, and there was an earlier verse about the couple having trouble having sex while they were coked up. I knew the one word my boss would hear, and insist we pull the song. But I couldn’t just chop out one word because that would have been too easy to detect. My solution was to edit the section highlighted in red. No one said a word, not even the listeners who were Eagles fans. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/38 "2019-06-07T21:42:43Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > This I’ve seen “Ticket to Ride” as referring to a medical exam showing you had no STDs, and the “motor trade” in “She’s Leaving Home” referring to an abortionist. I can’t wrap my head around either of those. The girl that’s driving him mad is going away…because she doesn’t have gonorrhea? And a different girl has an abortion but in the chorus following immediately after describes her as having fun. Er, people come up with some nutso crap. Let’s not even mention _Brown Eyed Girl._ ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/39 "2019-06-07T21:47:50Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > When I worked at an FM station in the Bible Belt during the 1970s, I had to excise the following portion of the Eagles’ _Life in the Fast Lane_. You weren’t responsible for the Jethro Tull/Locmotive Breath “got him by the fun” edit were you?🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/40 "2019-06-07T21:58:48Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > You weren’t responsible for the Jethro Tull/Locmotive Breath “got him by the fun” edit were you?🙂 Or Steve Miller’s “funky kicks going down in the city”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166.md?page=3)