A thread on controversial songs and no one has mentioned the big deal that was made out of George Michael’s “I Want Your Sex”. And then there was Public Enemy’s “911 is a Joke”.
Nitpick: “Suicide Solution” is not an anti-suicide song. The song is about alcoholism. Solution=A homogenenous mixture in which a solute is disolved in a solvent (i.e. alcohol). Instead of
Solution=Fixed, problem solved.
“Fuck Tha Police” by NWA.
Maybe so, but apparently the song was quite popular on Indian reserves. Go figure.
Just because the video was controversial doesn’t make the song less racy. Madonna moans, pants, and breathes heavily through the whole thing as if she’s getting off, and the very first verse explicitly references sexual intercourse and public nudity.
It was written about Ozzy’s good friend and former AC/DC frontman Bon Scott.
I wanted to add: Ironically, even though Madonna writes 97% of her own songs, her most controversial ones (lyrically) weren’t penned by her.
Papa Don’t Preach, which spawned a finger-wagging response ( I would call it a parody, but it was meant as a public service message) called “Madonna, Don’t Preach”, featuring hugely pregnant and miserable dancing girls, was written by a man named Brian Elliott. He had an office with a one-way window that looked out onto the street. Girls would use it as a mirror for primping on their way to and from the high school down the road. Elliott would hear every word of their conversations and penned the song with their trials and tribulations in mind.
Like A Virgin, written by early-80’s pop dynamic duo Steinberg and Kelly, was originally intended to be sung by a man.
The Beast Within, which prompted people to accuse Madonna of anti-Semitism, was her reading from the Book Of Revelation over a techno beat with Middle Eastern instrumental elements. I’ve never met the composer of THOSE lyrics, but I heard He’s a pretty big cheese. 
I remember reading one Gavin Report in 1967 or 1968 in which Bill Gavin was (a huge influence in rock programming in those days) noted growing concern lyrics such as “be mine tonight,” from the anti-rock folks.
As a small-town DJ and a teenager, who presumably was picking up all these double entendres, my only reaction was, “Oh, so THAT’S what they meant.”
Just wanted to point out that this one was covered in the OP. 
I remember that someone copied a tape of that particular NWA album for me, and I was so scared that my mom would find out I had it. I listened to it very quietly on my boombox with the bedroom door closed…and memorized every single lyric. 
Here is a list of songs deemed to have questionable lyrics after 9/11.
I find it odd that people didn’t know that Brick was about abortion, it seemed like the subject came up every time that damn song played. I was in college, though, not high school, at the time.
A couple of songs I remember people getting all offended by because they misunderstood the songs are “Push” by Matchbox20 and “Sex Type Thing” by Stone Temple Pilots.
With the former, if you actually pay attention to the lyrics he’s singing about her wanting to “push you around” not saying that he want’s to hurt her. Way too many people thought it was about a guy abusing his girlfriend.
And Sex Type Thing… Many people took it to be pro-rape. I guess whether that’s what was intended is debatable, but IMHO it’s a lot like “Date Rape” by Sublime, and not embracing the action.
Wow, I look at the songs listed here and I just get a big meh. Maybe my generation actually is desensitized.
Now I’m thinking about the lyrics Cartman stole in “Christian Rock Hard” where he just took the lyrics to existing songs, including “I’ve Never Been To Me” and “Three Times A Lady” and then replaced words like “baby” and “darling” and stuck the word “Jesus” in there, resulting in songs with lyrics like “I just want to feel you deep inside me, Jesus” or “I wanna get down on my knees and start pleasing Jesus, I wanna feel his salvation all over my face.”
If you play the verse that begins, “If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now,” you could allegedly hear this:
“Oh here’s to my sweet Satan.
The one whose little path would make me sad, whose power is Satan.
He will give those with him 666.
There was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sad Satan.”
I used Audacity to snip that verse from an MP3 of “Stairway” and reverse it, and I can hear it, vaguely, but I suspect that is my brain filling in what
the UL says I’m supposed to hear.
Just for kicks, I reversed Pat Boone’s and Dread Zeppelin’s versions of the song and also could hear vaguely the same thing. I am sure it is just coincidental and that you can hear almost anything in a reversed section of random music if you that was what you were prompted to hear.
For those of you who want to judge for yourselves, Wikipedia has a link to the revrsed section of “Stairway” in question.
Well, that and stigmata, and a black Christ.
A black Christ…with whom she made out, no?
Hallmark produced a line of musical-chip Mother’s Day cards with that tune. :smack:
Wow, I hadn’t heard of that. Some of those are certainly a stretch.
Hee. But it’s got a catchy tune you can’t help singing along with.