# Most controversial songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 7, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171 "2007-06-07T20:08:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/41 "2007-06-08T05:46:24Z")
I don’t know how controversial it was, but wasn’t “She Bop” by Cyndi Lauper pretty universally known to be about masturbation? Did anybody object to it back when it came out? ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/42 "2007-06-08T05:55:58Z")
[QUOTE=winterhawk11] I don’t know how controversial it was, but wasn’t “She Bop” by Cyndi Lauper pretty universally known to be about masturbation? Did anybody object to it back when it came out? [/QUOTE] I seem to remember it as the sort of thing that you had to be fairly clever and attentive to detect… I myself never knew this until I read a music trivia book much later after hearing the book. My most vivid memory of a controversial song was Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax.” It was banned by Radio 1 in the UK, because Mike Read got his knickers in a twist about the lyric "relax, don’t do it, when you want to sock to it… when you want to come."It seemingly became more popular after the ban… and generated all of those crap “FRANKIE SAY” t-shirts. Ah, the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/43 "2007-06-08T06:30:22Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Not a single person I knew in middle school, when this song became popular, was perceptive enough to figure out that it was about abortion. [/QUOTE] I was in my late 30s when it came out & I only found out about it when reading an article on the Net about the abortion theme of the song “Freshmen”, in which “Brick” was also mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/44 "2007-06-08T06:56:38Z")
I remember Tipper Gore getting her panties in a bunch over Judas Priest’s _Eat Me Alive_, which wasn’t even released as a single. I also remember reading an article that quoted Rob Halford talking about the song. He said something along the lines of “We were drunk out of our minds when we wrote it. We woke up the next day and read what we’d written, and said, ‘Holy [expletive deleted]!’ We wrote that? We censored it ourselves.” And it still got complaints. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/45 "2007-06-08T07:14:31Z")
[QUOTE=winterhawk11] I don’t know how controversial it was, but wasn’t “She Bop” by Cyndi Lauper pretty universally known to be about masturbation? Did anybody object to it back when it came out? [/QUOTE] I seem to recall some concern about it, but not that much. There were some comments about it, but no one seemed to be up in arms about it. Certainly nothing like the controversy I recall when Madonna released “Papa, Don’t Preach.” ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/46 "2007-06-08T08:06:20Z")
Many radio stations refused to play Billie Holiday’s recording of _Strange Fruit_ when it first came out. ---
**Author:** ![Ellef](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8dc957/32.png) [@Ellef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellef)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/47 "2007-06-08T08:35:45Z")
[QUOTE=Hippy Hollow] My most vivid memory of a controversial song was Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax.” It was banned by Radio 1 in the UK, because Mike Read got his knickers in a twist about the lyric "relax, don’t do it, when you want to sock to it… when you want to come."It seemingly became more popular after the ban… and generated all of those crap “FRANKIE SAY” t-shirts. Ah, the 80s. [/QUOTE] Ah yes, **Relax**. Mike Read played the song at peak listening time on his BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show and then said he was looking at the record sleeve and reading the lyrics, and it was the filthiest thing he’d ever read. (I couldn’t help thinking he must have had a somewhat sheltered life.) He refused the play the song again, the BBC started looking into how it had ever made it onto the air, questions were asked in Parliament (OK, I may be exaggerating), etc. etc. IIRC the whole thing turned out to be a publicity stunt. None of the song’s words taken individually were offensive and unless you were paying attention you couldn’t really tell what the lyrics were. Read’s action did generate huge publicity for the song, and I think it became a tactic for record companies for some time afterwards to deliberately get songs banned by the BBC thus ensuring that the great British public would rush out and buy them. Happy days! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/48 "2007-06-08T10:58:20Z")
In the UK **Paul McCartney/Wings** released _Give Ireland back to the Irish_ in 1972. It stirred up controversy and was banned but was still a minor hit… ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/49 "2007-06-08T11:16:22Z")
Hinkley Had a Vision by the Crucifucks would have offended a lot of people if they had good airplay. Being a moderately successful punk band, not that many people heard the song. quite a few other punk bands had songs that some people found obnoxious. ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/50 "2007-06-08T11:52:02Z")
Frank Zappa’s “Bobby Brown Goes Down” was, at one point, subject to a blanket ban by Brisbane’s then campus radio station 4ZZZ - a station which usually loved to play “controversial” records. mm ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/51 "2007-06-08T12:42:33Z")
[QUOTE=racer72] The Boomtown Rats “I Don’t Like Mondays” brought back some bad memories for some. I wasn’t in San Diego when the killings happened at the McDonalds but I was when the song hit the airways. [/QUOTE] McDonald’s? Wasn’t that about a school shooting? ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/52 "2007-06-08T13:03:47Z")
I remember when “Eight Miles High” by the Byrds was banned because of its “druggie” theme. Although Roger McGuinn explained it was really about a trip on a Lear Jet. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/53 "2007-06-08T13:08:49Z")
[QUOTE=cbawlmer] The Cure’s “Killing an Arab” was controversial, but only because Casey Kasem took offense to it, not realizing it was a reference to Camus’ _The Stranger_. [/QUOTE] Was this even released as a single in the US? It definitely didn’t make anywhere near Casey’s Top 40. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/54 "2007-06-08T13:10:51Z")
[QUOTE=Slacker] McDonald’s? Wasn’t that about a school shooting? [/QUOTE] Yes, a school shooting, by a young girl- the McDonalds incident (San Ysidro, CA) was way after this song was released. ---
**Author:** ![Ferd\_Burfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@Ferd\_Burfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferd_Burfel)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/55 "2007-06-08T13:22:04Z")
"[They’re Coming To Take Me Away](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They're_Coming_to_Take_Me_Away_Ha-Haaa!) " by Louis XIV, according to Wikipedia. > [@](#): > > Some groups protested the apparent mockery of mental illness, while other groups attacked the apparent comparison of Napoleon’s wife to a “mangy mutt”. The protesters put pressure both on radio stations directly and on the stations’ advertisers.[1] This was especially felt in New York City, where Top 40 stalwarts WABC and WMCA soon dropped the record from airplay and skipped it during their countdown shows, much to the confusion of the young teens who made up a large part of those broadcasters’ audience. The record was soon banned from airplay at radio stations in a number of other markets as well. "[Ohio](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_%28CSNY_song%29) " by Crosby, Stills & Nash > [@](#): > > After the double’s release, it was banned from some AM radio stations because of the challenge to the Nixon Administration in the lyrics, but received airplay on then underground FM stations in larger cities and college towns. "[Physical](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_Get_Physical) " by Olivia Newton-John. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/56 "2007-06-08T13:32:59Z")
[QUOTE=racer72] The Boomtown Rats “I Don’t Like Mondays” brought back some bad memories for some. I wasn’t in San Diego when the killings happened at the McDonalds but I was when the song hit the airways. [QUOTE=Slacker] McDonald’s? Wasn’t that about a school shooting? [QUOTE=Wee Bairn] Yes, a school shooting, by a young girl- the McDonalds incident (San Ysidro, CA) was way after this song was released. [/QUOTE] [/QUOTE] [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > [**Brenda Ann Spencer**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Ann_Spencer) > Brenda Ann Spencer (born April 3, 1962 in San Diego, California, United States) wounded eight children and one police officer and killed principal Burton Wragg, and custodian Mike Suchar, in a shooting spree at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, on Monday, January 29, 1979. > > The school was across the street from her house. She used the rifle she had recently been given for Christmas from her father. When the six-hour incident ended and the sixteen-year-old was asked why she had committed the crime, she shrugged and replied, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.” … [San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Ysidro_McDonald%27s_massacre), James Huberty thought Wednesday was a pretty good day for “hunting humans”. CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/57 "2007-06-08T15:01:42Z")
Grace Jones’ “The Bullshit Song” Lene Lovich’s “Lucky Number” ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/58 "2007-06-08T15:31:00Z")
Oh, and “Turning Japanese” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/59 "2007-06-08T15:36:00Z")
Huh. We used to dancercise to “Physical” during high school P.E. class, and we used to dance to “Turning Japanese” at school dances. Never thought anything of it. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171/60 "2007-06-08T15:36:15Z")
And “Relax”. And the party lyrics to “Mony, Mony”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-controversial-songs/407171.md?page=4)