# 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:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/101 "2024-08-21T13:48:50Z")
I don’t know if it was “popular” at the time and I only first heard it a couple of years ago, but there is the “funny” song _Uneasy Rider_ by the Charlie Daniels band where a group of friends accidentally go into a gay/LGBT bar and begin beating up people for being gay/LGBT. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/0Fohoawphzw/maxresdefault.jpg "Uneasy Rider '88") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fohoawphzw) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/102 "2024-08-21T13:50:37Z")
So when I sing it, my accent is “stereotypical”? ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/103 "2024-08-21T14:00:58Z")
Its come up previously on the dope but Under My Thumb by the Stones is extremely dodgy. Its basically boasting about controlling emotional abuse. I don’t think it gets played on the radio anymore? Brown Sugar is also very dodgy, but I don’t think it was ever claimed that the The Stones were advocating for the things described in it. But still, it’s a catchy upbeat song by white English kids about errrr raping enslaved African girls. AFAIK it still gets air time? Its helps that it’s a very good song and you have to listen a bit carefully to realize what it’s about. Its not a recent “wokeness” thing though IMO. I was never comfortable (growing up into in the 1980s being a massive Stones fan) with the content of either of those songs. Under My Thumb I always had a huge problem with it’s a really nasty unpleasant song. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/104 "2024-08-21T14:01:22Z")
No idea! The way Peggy Lee sang it, in my opinion, she was hamming it up: it sounds to me like she was exaggerating a stereotypical accent for laughs. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/105 "2024-08-21T14:44:32Z")
I’m not even going to bother looking up if The Police’s first two albums have been pillorized for their tendency to be “Regatta de Blanc” along with sorta faux accents. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/106 "2024-08-21T15:43:48Z")
I think you’ve got that song all wrong. Charlie Daniels as the narrator gets a flat, goes into an empty bar and sticks his hair up in his hat, not wanting to get into a fight in Jackson, MS. He calls a tow truck to come change the tire, and sits down to wait. Some other people come in and want him to tip his hat to the drunk lady they’re with, and when he does, his long hair falls out. So he kicks “green teeth” in the knee, and starts making up a huge line of BS about him, saying he’s a communist, etc… And after a bit of confusion, he bolts for the door, gets in his car and tears out of there. I’m not sure that harassment of long haired men in the late 60s/early 70s automatically equals LGBT hate. It was probably more hippie hate than anything I’d guess. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/107 "2024-08-21T15:45:08Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Under My Thumb I always had a huge problem with it’s a really nasty unpleasant song. The character singing it is a nasty unpleasant person, but I always feel that he’s not quite as in control as he thinks he is. ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/108 "2024-08-21T15:45:35Z")
I was singing _I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad_ with my grandchildren the other day when it dawned on me that “Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah, strummin’ on the old banjo” was more obvious to me than it had ever been before. Maybe not offensive, given that concensuality could be inferred. But “Fee fi fiddle-ee aye oh” indeed! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/109 "2024-08-21T15:53:18Z")
Great people like you and me have dirty minds! 😁 ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/110 "2024-08-21T15:53:36Z")
> [@sunacres](#): > > “Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah, strummin’ on the old banjo” was more obvious to me than it had ever been before. I don’t think it is “obvious”. Sometimes a banjo is just a banjo. And momma really had an accordion she played all night. The music really wasn’t all right, though, because she kept playing Lady Of Spain over and over. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/111 "2024-08-21T15:56:37Z")
I see it’s already been mentioned, but I second Ahab the Arab. Haven’t heard it in donkey’s years. If you go back to the early years of the century, there’s the entire genre of “coon songs”, intended to poke fun at blacks. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/112 "2024-08-21T15:56:57Z")
> [@sunacres](#): > > I was singing _I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad_ with my grandchildren the other day when it dawned on me that “Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah, strummin’ on the old banjo” was more obvious to me than it had ever been before. > > Maybe not offensive, given that concensuality could be inferred. But “Fee fi fiddle-ee aye oh” indeed! If we want to mention old popular songs with sexual innuendo, we’ll be here all night, but I don’t think that merely hinting at sex has became socially unacceptable, at least I hope so. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/113 "2024-08-21T15:58:51Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I think you’ve got that song all wrong. There are two versions. The Original Ballad of the Uneasy Rider is the one you are remembering. It’s a hippie kind of song, a post smoking “long haired hippie type pinko fag” (quoting) is driving to LA through the rural south (why he doesn’t take I40 no one knows). Uneasy Rider '88 is his “now I am a red neck conservative republican” version where he and his buddies go into a gay bar and get their asses kicked. I bet they aren’t going to LA, either. It isn’t worth a listen. It also doesn’t send the message I think he thinks it does. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/114 "2024-08-21T16:06:46Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > It also doesn’t send the message I think he thinks it does. Yeah, it’s a disappointing commentary on CD’s turn to the dark side. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/115 "2024-08-21T17:20:13Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > The character singing it is a nasty unpleasant person, but I always feel that he’s not quite as in control as he thinks he is Nahh I never got this from the song. Even if it’s not a completely honest recounting of an actual relationship, it’s fantasizing about how awesome it would be to be a really abusive controlling boyfriend. Its definitely a product of its time, there is undoubtedly a rather unpleasant streak of misogyny in 60s counterculture ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/116 "2024-08-21T17:27:17Z")
The issue with “I’ve Been Workin’ On The Railroad” isn’t that it’s sexual (I don’t think it is) but that it’s an old black-and-white minstrel show song. The original lyrics are in a “minstrel” dialect, and “Dinah” was a generic name for a slave woman. In its current incarnation (or the “Eyes of Texas” version to roughly the same tune) there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with it, but its history is quite, quite racist. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/117 "2024-08-21T18:02:55Z")
The Andrews Sisters again. This might raise an eyebrow nowadays: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VEyDNTLlRgU/hqdefault.jpg "Andrews Sisters & Danny Kaye - Civilization (Bongo Bongo Bongo) 1948") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEyDNTLlRgU) ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/118 "2024-08-21T18:21:18Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > If you go back to the early years of the century, there’s the entire genre of “coon songs”, intended to poke fun at blacks. Or go back to the 1970s and Peter Gabriel’s _Games without Frontiers_ where they get pissed on. The rest of the song is not much better. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2024, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/119 "2024-08-21T18:31:51Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > Or go back to the 1970s and Peter Gabriel’s _Games without Frontiers_ where they get pissed on. The rest of the song is not much better. Huh? I’m totally perplexed. Where do Blacks get pissed on in that song? That song was on the same album as fucking “Biko”, not exactly a racist hymn. ETA: wait, I have a theory: did you perhaps totally mishear the line “we’re kissing baboons in the jungle”? Else I have no explanation. ETA2: I also have no idea what else is objectionable in the song. It’s a cryptic song, but I always took it for being about the Cold War, war in general and mankind’s general stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2024, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/120 "2024-08-21T18:38:15Z")
I love the Pogues, but Shane McGowan could really push the envelope at times. “The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn” drops an antisemitic slur. On the same record, “Billy’s Bones” has this charming verse: _Billy saw the Arabs and he had 'em on the run_ _When he got 'em in the range of his submachine gun_ _Then he had the Israelis in his sights_ _Went a ra ta ta and they ran like Shiites_ Though that pales compared to what they almost recorded. “The Boys From The County Hell,” in addition to gleefully celebrating assault (“…we took him out the back and we broke his fucking balls…”) contains this verse: _The boys and me are drunk and looking for you_ _We’ll eat your frigging entrails and we won’t give a damn_ _Me daddy was a blue shirt and my mother a madam_ _My brother earned his medals at Mai Lai in Vietnam_ Which still reads kind of edgelord and punk, but I’ve read the original lyric was “My brother earned his medals raping g\*\*\*\*s in Vietnam.” Whether one ascribes that to a general punk “up yours” to propriety or just part of the tradition of yob drinking songs, I’d guess those songs wouldn’t be as well-received today. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956.md?page=7)