# "Pissing the night away": How can "Tubthumping" be played on U.S. radio? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2006, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838 "2006-10-17T21:51:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/21 "2006-10-18T18:26:31Z")
[QUOTE=WordMan] MTV wants to show the video for the first single “Le Disko” - but at the end of a verse there is a line that ends “…with loaded guns.” The song is not about using guns, the line is meant to be like “and we really mean it” - but MTV is making them edit out the line before they’ll show the video. And it’s a killer because it comes at the end of a verse, so there is this random stop in the vocal, then a shift to the chorus. Very very complex to mix around… [/QUOTE] I’ve never understood the censoring of lines about guns for US radio airplay. You can play “Janie’s Got a Gun” by Aerosmith, or “Barrel of a Gun” by Depeche Mode, or plenty of other songs that mention firearms with no cuts. But if you’ve got something like your friend’s song, or “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus, one mention of the word “gun” gets censored. What is up with that? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/22 "2006-10-18T18:52:33Z")
[QUOTE=Lizard] The last nail in the coffin of MTV’s cultural relevance. [/QUOTE] Pfft. Two years ago, I saw somebody on MTV reading from the [Ken, not Ringo] Starr Report - discussing what Bill Clinton did with that famous cigar. The network bleeped the word “inserted.” I’d say you’re at least a few years late. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/23 "2006-10-18T19:29:30Z")
Also still played commonly without editing: _Pigs_ by Pink Floyd. “You fucked up old hag…” _FM_ by Steely Dan. “…fucked up muzak…” _Man in the Box_ by Alice in Chains. “Shove my nose in shit” gets played here either unedited or editied, depending upon station and time of day. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/24 "2006-10-18T20:29:02Z")
[QUOTE=Lucky 13] Star 98.7 plays “Soak Up the Sun” by Sheryl Crow but changes the line “I’ve got a fucked-up job” to “I’ve got a crummy job”. [/QUOTE] I can find no reference to that being one of the lyrics on the Internet, but I could be wrong- after all, there are radio edits for other songs (_You’re Beautiful_ by James Blunt, for example- “flying high” replaces “fucking high.”) But the strangest thing about that song is that some radio stations edit out the first verse, so the song starts with “I don’t got digital…” Are the radio stations run by Communists? ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/25 "2006-10-18T22:59:02Z")
Steely Dan’s _Show Business Kids_ seldom gets an edit despite the line: “Show business kids making movies of themself you know they don’t give a fuck about anybody else” and I’ve heard Jefferson Airplane _Volunteers_ run with the line “Up against the wall, motherfuckers” many a time. Perhaps it’s just that these songs are so old, culturally speaking, that the naughty language goes unnoticed. ---
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/26 "2006-10-18T23:04:59Z")
In the past they edited out stuff on radio that wasn’t even four letter words. The Stones" Let’s Spend the Night Together" got changed to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together.” ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/27 "2006-10-19T02:06:22Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] I had no idea they were saying “pissing.” Maybe that reduced the complaints. [/QUOTE] I didn’t know, either. I thought it was either “passing the night away” or “kissing the night away.” This is probably one of those songs that slips by because no one understands what the singer is trying to say. And what does that line mean, anyway? I’ve heard the British use the word “pissed” to mean drunk. In America, “piss” means to urinate. Depending on which meaning is intended, that line can be interpreted in two very different ways 😃 ---
**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:** [October 19, 2006, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/28 "2006-10-19T02:38:17Z")
[QUOTE=YWalker] In the past they edited out stuff on radio that wasn’t even four letter words. The Stones" Let’s Spend the Night Together" got changed to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together.” [/QUOTE] I thought that was only when the Stones appeared on Ed Sullivan. I never heard about a radio edit of the song. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/29 "2006-10-19T02:39:47Z")
[QUOTE=YWalker] In the past they edited out stuff on radio that wasn’t even four letter words. The Stones" Let’s Spend the Night Together" got changed to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together.” [/QUOTE] Ed Sullivan made them change the words when they appeared on his show. The song wasn’t changed for radio that I know of. Sullivan required lots of groups to change or censor their words. He banned the Doors from ever again appearing on his show when Jim Morrison went ahead and sang “we couldn’t get no higher” despite promising that he wouldn’t. But that was almost 40 years ago. And it was live television, not radio. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/30 "2006-10-19T04:10:12Z")
[QUOTE=Diceman] And what does that line mean, anyway? I’ve heard the British use the word “pissed” to mean drunk. In America, “piss” means to urinate. Depending on which meaning is intended, that line can be interpreted in two very different ways 😃 [/QUOTE] “Piss” can also mean to waste which, in the context of the song, would also work (i.e., wasting “the night away”). ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/31 "2006-10-19T04:18:45Z")
Has to be. ‘Urinating’ the night away away don’t make much sense. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/32 "2006-10-19T04:33:56Z")
[QUOTE=NDP] “Piss” can also mean to waste which, in the context of the song, would also work (i.e., wasting “the night away”). [/QUOTE] In the context of the song, they’re pissing the night away, by pissing it up. ---
**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/33 "2006-10-19T14:38:58Z")
The simple answer is that “piss” just isn’t that severe of a profanity. TV shows routinely use it and “ass,” and it’s no big deal. The FCC mainly goes after “fuck” and words of that ilk. Even then, their enforcement is uneven. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838/34 "2006-10-19T21:50:13Z")
[QUOTE=spooje] Has to be. ‘Urinating’ the night away away don’t make much sense. [/QUOTE] I take a whisky drink, I take a vodka drink And when I have to pee, I use the kitchen sink I sing the songs that remind me I’m a urinatin’ guy -H.J. Simpson [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pissing-the-night-away-how-can-tubthumping-be-played-on-u-s-radio/376838.md?page=1)