# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/81 "2019-06-10T19:39:52Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > 1. It was the 1960s. Rock and roll got away with a lot of stuff they probably wouldn’t get away with before or after them. > > 2. It was the Beatles, who could get away with a lot more stuff than, say, the Buckinghams. > > 3. I certainly didn’t know what “finger pie” was supposed to mean. I thought it was one of those [meat pies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_pie) the British are supposed to be so fond of. > > 3A) I suspect a lot of Americans, including a lot of radio station owners, shared my ignorance. The ones who knew either didn’t play the record, or didn’t care. > > 1. Even back then, the government didn’t “censor” radio stations over content, unless a bunch of people sent angry letters. We had two rock and roll stations here that lost their FCC licenses during that ear. One of them was to to have run a fraudulent promotion, the owner of the other one was convicted of child molestation. We have an AM station here that is currently under investigation because the “owner” is allegedly a shell corporation hiding the identity of the real owner, who’s a convicted felon. > > 4A) See [“Louie Louie”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Louie#Lyrics_investigation) by the Kingsmen. > > 1. By the time McCartney got around to explaining the lyrics, the song was already a part of the oldies collection of every radio station in America. It would be no more scandalous than today’s news that your grandmother was three months pregnant when she married your grandfather. While the government may not have censored radio, the networks themselves did. There were songs that got banned either because of drug references, like the Blues Magoos’ “Pipe Dream”, or sexual content, like the Standell’s “Try It”. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/82 "2019-06-10T20:34:39Z")
I haven’t read the whole thread, even though I’ve posted in it before, but has anyone else addressed the “He keeps his fire engine clean” line in “Penny Lane”? I have a feeling that it is NOT a reference to an emergency vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/83 "2019-06-10T20:48:32Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > double entendres sure, but finger pie would be a single entendre, there is no second meaning. I’ve heard that song an many, many times, and I can honestly say that I never thought a “finger pie” was anything other than a pie you ate with your fingers. Along the lines of finger food. Maybe the censors, at least in the US, didn’t know what it meant elsewhere. Or, IOW: nm! ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/84 "2019-06-10T21:09:43Z")
Another voice from someone that doesn’t agree with the accepted meaning. If the line is really about finger fucking, how does that fit into the song? Unless you’re going to say the whole song is a sexual metaphor? Is “Penny Lane” a person, and everyone is “in” her? Come on! At the surface level, it’s a song about a simple life in a small town street. Every line is describing the people that live there. So the song is supposed to be: Here are some quaint people that live on Penny Lane Oh by the way I’m finger fucking someone never mentioned in this song And here are some more quaint people What kind of song is that? ---
**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 10, 2019, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/85 "2019-06-10T22:29:04Z")
> [@TimfromNapa](#): > > Ever read the lyrics to Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way”? You would be hard pressed to find another song from that time period that had so much naughtiness. Heh! I was actually thinking about that song earlier today in regards to this thread, but forgot to mention it. Indeed. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/86 "2019-06-10T23:49:49Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > 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. Speaking of innuendoes… There’s all that line in “Pass The Dutchie” that goes “How do you feel when you’ve got no food?” I knew it was a remake of a, ahem, silly drug song (see footnote) but I always interpreted the updated version as being about a Dutch oven (the cookware, not, well, that). Footnote: Someone did a parody of Wings’ “Silly Love Songs” called “Silly Drug Songs”, but I can’t find a recording of it. ---
**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 11, 2019, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/87 "2019-06-11T02:13:56Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Another voice from someone that doesn’t agree with the accepted meaning. > > If the line is really about finger fucking, how does that fit into the song? Unless you’re going to say the whole song is a sexual metaphor? Is “Penny Lane” a person, and everyone is “in” her? Come on! > > At the surface level, it’s a song about a simple life in a small town street. Every line is describing the people that live there. > > So the song is supposed to be: > > Here are some quaint people that live on Penny Lane > > Oh by the way I’m finger fucking someone never mentioned in this song > > And here are some more quaint people > > What kind of song is that? ^^^^^ This ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/88 "2019-06-11T04:12:34Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > [Ed Sullivan (actually one of his producers) attempted to have the Doors change the lyrics to _Light My Fire._ They disagreed.](https://ultimateclassicrock.com/the-doors-banned-from-the-ed-sullivan-show-september-17-1967/) And Dylan walked because the suits (not Sullivan) wouldn’t let him sing [John Birch Society Paranoid Blues](https://time.com/3847730/bob-dylan-ed-sullivan-john-birch/). I have one live version of it where he begins “there ain’t nothing wrong with this song.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/89 "2019-06-11T04:18:28Z")
> [@TimfromNapa](#): > > While the government may not have censored radio, the networks themselves did. There were songs that got banned either because of drug references, like the Blues Magoos’ “Pipe Dream”, or sexual content, like the Standell’s “Try It”. Well, individual stations. My wife’s college roommate’s father owned a radio station in Virginia, and they were absolutely paranoid about dirty words getting on. Including a Tony Orlando song where “we can make it together” was misheard as “wake up naked together” and thus banned. One Firesign Theatre album had a warning on the back about maybe not playing it on the radio because of the F-CC. ---
**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 11, 2019, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/90 "2019-06-11T05:09:27Z")
> [@TimfromNapa](#): > > He may have offered different variations in live performances; however, I had the record and the 7th word was, in fact, tits. He went on about how that word did not even belong on the list since it is such a friendly word and sounds like a brand of snack food (not the kind of snack you are thinking about, you pervert 😉 The ‘prick’ reference was in the same routine, about how context can make a word dirty. For example, you can prick your finger, but you can’t finger your prick. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/91 "2019-06-11T11:05:14Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > [@Czarcasm](#): > > > > 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. I think what you’re both overlooking is that, at the time of “Penny Lane”'s release, the lyrics of Lennon and McCartney were _not_ particularly known for making up nonsense phrases. With the exception of “Strawberry Fields Forever”, which was the flip side of “Penny Lane”, the group’s most celebrated nonsense songs (including the two you mentioned) were later releases. If the censors chose to handwave away “finger pie” as a harmless nonce term, it wasn’t because the boys had made a big name for themselves as purveyors of meaningless lyrics. ---
**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 12, 2019, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-finger-pie-or-how-did-this-lyric-get-by-the-am-radio-censors/835166/92 "2019-06-12T03:35:36Z")
Other stories of small-town radio censorship. The owner of one station I worked at pulled Paul Anka’s [Having My Baby](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=having+my+baby+paul+anka+lyrics) because “we don’t play those kinds of songs.” Oddly enough, he let us play Gordon Lightfoot’s [Sundown](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gordon+lightfoot+sundown+lyrics). At another stop on my small-town dj career, the owner pulled Johnny Paycheck’s _Take This Job and Shove It_ because it offended his wife. [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=4)