# 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:** 3
**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, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/41 "2019-06-07T22:08:05Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > You weren’t responsible for the Jethro Tull/Locmotive Breath “got him by the fun” edit were you?🙂 > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Or Steve Miller’s “funky kicks going down in the city”? Not guilty, but one time, just for fun, we took Rod Stewart’s [The Killing of Georgie](https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&rlz=1C1FLDB_enUS562US562&ei=6N76XIuOF4G0tQWqv4PwDA&q=rod+stewart+the+killing+of+georgie+boy+lyrics&oq=Rod+Stewart%2C+the+killing+of+George&gs_l=psy-ab.1.3.0i10l6j0i8i30.19245.24697..33280...0.0..0.114.1026.7j4......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i7i10i30j0i8i7i30j0i13j0i13i30.8m-U4ke3oQU), a song we unanimously agreed was too controversial for our station, and tried to edit into something we’d be comfortable playing. As I recall our final edit was something just over a minute long and mostly consisted of “Da da da da da da duh/ Da da da da da da duh/ Da da da da da da duh” ---
**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 8, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/42 "2019-06-08T00:04:15Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > 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._ 1. The singer knows he can safely have sex with her, but she’s going away. She doesn’t care that he’s horny. 2. She is having fun sexually, but discovers she is pregnant. It probably happened before before she left and could be there reason she left. “Please Please Me” clearly refers to a blowjob ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/43 "2019-06-08T00:13:49Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > 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. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > There are bits of Liverpudlian slang in many Beatles song. Don’t know if this was strictly Liverpool, but “A soap impression of his wife which he _ate and donated to the National Trust_” (…consumed and subsequently defecated") ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/44 "2019-06-08T00:55:42Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > 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._ The “Ticket to Ride” story comes from journalist Don Short, and is almost certainly just John Lennon screwing with him: > [@](#): > > However, Don Short, who was a journalist who travelled quite regularly with The Beatles, remembers John explaining things very differently. As related in Steve Turner’s book “A Hard Day’s Write,” Don relates: “The girls who worked the streets in Hamburg had to have a clean bill of health and so the medical authorities would give them a card saying that they didn’t have a dose of anything. I was with The Beatles when they went back to Hamburg in June 1966 and it was then that John told me that he had coined the phrase ‘a ticket to ride’ to describe these cards. He could have been joking – you always had to be careful with John like that – but I certainly remember him telling me that.” [From here.](http://www.beatlesebooks.com/ticket-to-ride) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/45 "2019-06-08T08:27:59Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > So because it could mean touching the outside of the genitals instead of insertion, that was enough not to censor it? No other radio song of this era comes close to mentioning anything close to heavy petting. “Rock and Roll Kootchie Koo” has the line: “Come on, little pussy, gonna do it to you.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/46 "2019-06-08T08:33:34Z")
> [@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. Did they ever crack the Top 40, though? I’ve never heard that Steely Dan played on the radio, and I’ve only heard “We Can Be Together,” played a few times, usually on college or independent stations. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/47 "2019-06-08T09:22:04Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > Kind of like how Snoop Dogg or someone similar invented the word indo to mean pot, and it wasn’t bleeped until word got of what meaning they gave to it, which is silly- if someone starts referring to meth as “pencil”, then we may have songs bleeping pencil. My favorite in that regard was when Musical Youth used Dutchie as an intended _oblique_ reference to marijuana, but everyone assumed it was an overt reference they didn’t know yet, so it became a term for a type of joint. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/48 "2019-06-08T13:29:51Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > My favorite in that regard was when Musical Youth used Dutchie as an intended _oblique_ reference to marijuana, but everyone assumed it was an overt reference they didn’t know yet, so it became a term for a type of joint. The song was a cover, and [the original](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3mYgzY5UAI) is called _Pass the Kouchie_, which was Rasta for a dope pipe. The Musical Youth version was a weak attempt at obscuring that fact. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/49 "2019-06-08T13:58:56Z")
Who’d figured that a genre whose [name](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_rock_and_roll#The_term_%22rock_and_roll%22) itself has been a euphemism for intercourse for over a century would have other, similar, euphemisms in lyrics. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/50 "2019-06-08T14:06:24Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Who’d figured that a genre whose [name](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_rock_and_roll#The_term_%22rock_and_roll%22) itself has been a euphemism for intercourse for over a century would have other, similar, euphemisms in lyrics. 😉 That’s why I used the word “literally” in reply #3. ---
**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 8, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/51 "2019-06-08T16:18:48Z")
> [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](#): > > “Rock and Roll Kootchie Koo” has the line: “Come on, little pussy, gonna do it to you.” pretty sure that is supposed to be to be “come on a little closer” ---
**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 8, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/52 "2019-06-08T16:21:31Z")
> [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](#): > > Did they ever crack the Top 40, though? I’ve never heard that Steely Dan played on the radio, and I’ve only heard “We Can Be Together,” played a few times, usually on college or independent stations. The Dan had several top 40 hits- Show Biz Kids peaked at #61. ---
**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 8, 2019, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/53 "2019-06-08T16:34:33Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > See post #2. The term being discussed isn’t “fish finger pie”. It is “a four of fish and finger pie” Yeah, but it would seem to be a pun or play on words of “fish finger pie”. On a superficial reading, it might sound to British ears that the song’s narrator is describing the buying of four [quantity or money’s worth] of fish finger pie, perhaps at the fish and chips shop on Penny Lane. However, the number used is four, and we have four fingers on a hand, so that implies that the “finger” of “finger pie” could be understood as being the fingers of a hand. “Fishy”-smelling is a common descriptor trope of a vagina, and “finger pie” is a euphemism for female sexual stimulation through use of the fingers. So it all ties up together as a pun, and John Lennon was fond of puns, as evidenced by his book _A Spaniard in the Works_ (cf. “a spanner in the works”). ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/54 "2019-06-08T16:51:26Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Censors deal primarily with actual profanity, not adult themes and situations. If you don’t say (according to one well-known list) _shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, or tits_, you can describe pretty much anything you wish. “And tits doesn’t even belong on the list! It sounds like a snack. New Nabisco tits! Tater tits!” As for ‘fish and finger pie’, if we’re going to censor that, what do we do with ‘Cat Scratch Fever’? Burn it in a holy ceremony? I make the pussy purr with the stroke of my hand They know they gettin’ it from me They know just where to go When they need their lovin’ man They know I do it for free I give 'em cat scratch fever The entire song, including the title, is about finger pie. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/55 "2019-06-08T17:03:51Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > The song was a cover, and [the original](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3mYgzY5UAI) is called _Pass the Kouchie_, which was Rasta for a dope pipe. The Musical Youth version was a weak attempt at obscuring that fact. I remember Musical Youth being on the terribly wholesome BBC kids show _Blue Peter_. The explanation for what a Dutchie was was unconvincing (some sort of bowl of food iirc) even for the young me. ---
**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 8, 2019, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/56 "2019-06-08T17:16:02Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > The explanation for what a Dutchie was was unconvincing (some sort of bowl of food iirc) even for the young me. “Pass the duchy on the left hand side” may also have been what kings once said when bestowing titles on their courtiers. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/57 "2019-06-08T18:39:42Z")
Man, I just read this thread while listening to some of Dinah Washington’s 1950s R&B records. Look up the one where she phones her boyfriend late at night to come over and “fix her TV.” The two of them do it on EVERY channel. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/58 "2019-06-08T19:32:52Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Yeah, but it would seem to be a pun or play on words of “fish finger pie”. On a superficial reading, it might sound to British ears that the song’s narrator is describing the buying of four [quantity or money’s worth] of fish finger pie, perhaps at the fish and chips shop on Penny Lane. However, the number used is four, and we have four fingers on a hand, so that implies that the “finger” of “finger pie” could be understood as being the fingers of a hand. “Fishy”-smelling is a common descriptor trope of a vagina, and “finger pie” is a euphemism for female sexual stimulation through use of the fingers. So it all ties up ttogether as a pun, and John Lennon wast tfond of puns, as evidenced by his book _A Spaniard in the Works_ (cf. “a spanner in gathe works”). That’s all well and good, but John didn’t write Penny Lane. Paul did. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/59 "2019-06-08T19:54:22Z")
You are right. But anyone watching the 1967 Penny Lane video could be fooled. Because John is definitely the coolest guy in it. Either tripping balls, or at least completely stoned. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/S-rB0pHI9fU/maxresdefault.jpg "The Beatles - Penny Lane") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-rB0pHI9fU) ---
**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 8, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/60 "2019-06-08T19:59:23Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > That’s all well and good, but John didn’t write Penny Lane. Paul did. While primarily a McCartney composition, Lennon contributed to it, and likely wrote the ‘Four of fish and finger pie’ line. From the [Beatles Bible](https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/penny-lane/): > [@](#): > > John Lennon is said to have contributed the line “Four of fish and finger pie”, which derived from a crude Liverpudlian sexual term. > > “ It’s part fact, part nostalgia for a great place – blue suburban skies, as we remember it, and it’s still there. And we put in a joke or two: ‘Four of fish and finger pie.’ The women would never dare say that. except to themselves. Most people wouldn’t hear it, but ‘finger pie’ is just a nice little joke for the Liverpool lads who like a bit of smut.” > > Paul McCartney, 1967 > Anthology It appears to have been hidden well enough to get past British censors. “I am the Walrus”, on the other hand, released a few months later, was banned by the BBC because of the following line, supposedly because of the word “knickers”: _Boy, you’ve been a naughty girl You let your knickers down_ The BBC also refused to broadcast the song “A Day in the Life” due to the line “I’d love to turn you on”, which they felt advocated drug use. [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=2) [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=4)