# Once-popular songs that are no longer socially acceptable **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [August 20, 2024, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956 "2024-08-20T20:18:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/261 "2024-09-02T10:35:12Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > I have heard this one on the radio, along with many other ballads singing the praises of the Devil’s dandruff. For example, there is an Eric Clapton song that is straight up called “Cocaine”. I read in an interview that Clapton considers it a subtle, clever anti-drug song, which is not how I took it. The Cale version does sound a bit more sinister to me. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/262 "2024-09-02T10:59:09Z")
Stalking (cf. Every Breath you take, that always comes up in these threads) and there are oh so many. Keep on Running (Steve Winwood/SDG): > Keep on runnin’ > Runnin’ from my arms > One fine day, I’m gonna be the one to make you understand > Ah-yeah, I’m gonna be your man My Sharona (The Knack): > Come a little closer, huh, ah, will ya, huh? > Close enough to look in my eyes, Sharona > Keeping it a mystery gets to me > Running down the length of my thighs, Sharona One way or another (Blondie): > I will drive past your house > And if the lights are all down > I’ll see who’s around Intruder (Peter Gabriel): > I like to feel the suspense when I’m certain you know I am there > I like you lying awake, your baited breath charging the air > I like the touch and the smell of all the pretty dresses you wear I think all these songs are fantastic, but there is something icky about making pop songs about stalking. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/263 "2024-09-02T11:05:51Z")
Well, I don’t consider Gabriel’s Intruder a pop song, at all. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/264 "2024-09-02T15:49:05Z")
I’m pretty sure “I Don’t Like Mondays” still gets played because of the anti-Monday message of the song, glossing lightly over the school shooting part even though plenty of media over the years has been held back after mass shootings. [New Orleans is Sinking](https://youtu.be/LAZUsCONjIQ?si=nvN7OEz0DL1W9GVs) was put on pause during and shortly after Hurricane Katrina but since it’s a song by the Tragically Hip, it will always be on the radio somewhere in Canada. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/265 "2024-09-02T16:28:58Z")
Huh. Don’t see my favorite mentioned. Maybe it wasn’t as popular as I thought? “We Are Siamese” from _Lady and the Tramp_. I originally found it on an old record at my grandmother’s house. I always adored how it sounded, and the lyrics were just that “the funny way the cats speak,” similar to how lolcat, which would be coined much later. I had no idea of the pun on them being Siamese cats and thus singing in Engrish. Nor did I know that the quartal harmony with a nearly pentatonic melody were all Oriental stereotypes. I just thought it was catchy and sounded neat. It definitely fits as no longer socially acceptable, IMHO, as it’s one of those songs that was replaced in the live action remake. ---
**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:** [September 2, 2024, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/266 "2024-09-02T16:33:01Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > “We Are Siamese” from _Lady and the Tramp_. I originally found it on an old record at my grandmother’s house. I had a soundtrack album from that movie when I was a kid, and the moment I saw the title in your post, I could hear it in my head. Even as a kid in the '70s, I recognized the way the cats “sang” as being consistent with how Hollywood depicted Asians, and Asian-accented English (though I was too young and naive then to realize that it was stereotypical and offensive). I’m not sure how popular the song was in the absolute, but it certainly hasn’t aged well. ---
**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:** [September 2, 2024, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/267 "2024-09-02T17:24:15Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Has anyone mentioned “Having My Baby” yet? Although I think that might have ground some gears even when it was new. . . It was a #1 record, so I wouldn’t say it was socially unacceptable when it was new. But lots of people hated that song as soon as it came out. Many women despised it. I saw Paul Anka try to fix things by singing it on a talk show and changing the words to “having our baby.” ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/268 "2024-09-02T21:02:41Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > See, I’m a big Stones fan, but I could make a long list of misogynistic songs they did, "Stupid Girl, “Yesterday’s Paper”, “Out Of Time”, “Some Girls” My take is that their misogynist songs are satirizing that attitude, not unironically championing it. Though, maybe that’s just what I tell myself so I don’t feel bad enjoying their music 😊 ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/269 "2024-09-02T21:36:35Z")
> [@solost](#): > > My take is that their misogynist songs are satirizing that attitude, not unironically championing it. I’m not so sure about that, classic rock always had a very uncomfortable misogynist tilt, not only the Stones but many others. I think it came from the blues which often was even more blatant in its misogyny in its classic form (“I’m gonna beat my woman, until I get satisfied”, “Me And The Devil Blues”, Robert Johnson). ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/270 "2024-09-02T21:38:58Z")
Well, like I said, that might just be a comfortable lie I tell myself… ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/271 "2024-09-02T22:02:15Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > “We Are Siamese” from _Lady and the Tramp_. That one’s up there with “What Made the Red Man Red?” from _Peter Pan_. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/272 "2024-09-02T22:33:08Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > In country music, there’s Kawliga (Hank Williams) […] I thought I would never hear “Running Bear” (a faux-Native American song written by The Big Bopper) on the radio, but I heard it played on a Native Canadian-run radio station a few years ago (with tongue firmly in cheek, I presume). ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/273 "2024-09-02T22:37:49Z")
Well, I guess you don’t please. I remember that and the Red Man Red song too. These are objectionable, certainly, but perhaps not as bad as some mentioned or that scene from Fantasia. _New Orleans Is Sinking_ was stopped for a week or two max after Katrina. But that was in 2005. Not sure about _When The Levees Break_. I can’t really recall the last time I heard _Asshole_ by Dennis Leary, even though tongue-in-cheek. Probably more objectionable folk songs than pop. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2024, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/274 "2024-09-02T23:13:52Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I thought I would never hear “Running Bear” (a faux-Native American song written by The Big Bopper) on the radio, but I heard it played on a Native Canadian-run radio station a few years ago (with tongue firmly in cheek, I presume). I hear it frequently (including just last week) on the 50’s station. I never thought I’d hear [Run Joey Run](https://youtu.be/j0coLSkmIBw?si=r1KJjNX9yHlAzhgW) or it’s ilk again, quite possibly the worst song of the 70’s. Joe knocks up his girlfriend Julie (who sounds like a prepubescent 12 year old girl) and her dad takes after him, only to end up shooting Julie thus killing her and his unborn grandchild. People were singing this song in their cars even though it was a horrible story. Never thought a song about a pregnant girl getting murdered would come into favor again. Yet the cast of Glee did it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/275 "2024-09-03T01:09:58Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > What Made the Red Man Red Probably been done already, and likely still okay, since it is hard to understand- _Take your baby by the hair_ _And pull her close and there, there, there_ _And take your baby by the ears_ _And play upon her darkest fears_ Dance Hall Days Song by Wang Chung ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/276 "2024-09-03T02:39:55Z")
Followed by a song that included the lyrics, “Everybody Wang Chung tonight!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956.md?page=13)