# Pop songs that somehow got past the censor, 1955-1985 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 15, 2007, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337 "2007-02-15T14:10:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/21 "2007-02-15T16:21:27Z")
**Lou Reed** _Walk on the Wild Side_ [quote=] But she never lost her head even when she was given head She says, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side and the coloured girls go… [/quote] Always suprises me when I hear it on the radio. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/22 "2007-02-15T16:24:21Z")
Rolling Stones – You’d make a dead man come." Steely Dan – “Show biz kids / Makin’ movies of themselves / You know they don’t give a fuck about anybody else.” ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/23 "2007-02-15T16:35:21Z")
Don’t forget “If You See Kay” And I KNOW Lady Marmalade must be tremendously dirty, but I cant understand most of the words. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/24 "2007-02-15T16:39:34Z")
Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy”: Some stations bleep it when they get to the line “Seemed a harmless little fuck” and some don’t. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/25 "2007-02-15T16:41:13Z")
:smack: Ooops, that was post-1985. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/26 "2007-02-15T16:44:23Z")
[QUOTE=fishbicycle] Odd how you can still hear Styx’ “Light Up”, but nobody plays The Monks’ “Drugs In My Pocket.” The latter is not even listed in Billboard (not only did it not enter the Hot 100, it didn’t even Bubble Under), but it was #1 in several markets in Canada. [/QUOTE] I well remember the Monks and “Drugs in my Pocket.” Couldn’t get away from it in the Toronto market in the early 1980s; they got airplay on every station that mattered and the _Bad Habits_ LP seemed to be everywhere. Now, it seems I’m one of the few who remembers them. **Fishbicycle** , a couple more you may remember from southern Ontario radio in those days, although I’m unsure how much exposure they got elsewhere. Still, they’d fit within the topic of this thread: “Moscow Drug Club,” by BB Gabor. IIRC, “Metropolitan Life” was supposed to be the single from Gabor’s debut LP and had some success, but the AOR stations picked up on “Moscow” and it took off. A sample lyric: “The party line is just a joke/Comrade, come on in and have a toke…” “I Don’t Wanna Get Drafted,” by Frank Zappa, from roughly the same time. A little unusual, since you rarely heard Zappa on the radio, but IIRC, this got a decent amount of airplay, at least in the Toronto market. In those days of increasing Cold War tension, the song sounded like an anti-war tune, until Zappa sings that not only does he not want to be drafted, but he doesn’t want his sister to be either because, “I don’t want nobody to shoot her in the foxhole.” ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/27 "2007-02-15T17:03:28Z")
Oh, man, “Moscow Drug Club” is one of my favorite records, by anybody. I’ve got the single (with picture sleeve!). My wife was floored by it the first time I played it for her, now it’s one of her faves, too. “Smoking Georgian gold, they refuse to do what they are told…” ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/28 "2007-02-15T17:12:38Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] Supposedly some stations changed the line in Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath” from “got him by the balls” to “got him by the fun” for airplay. [/QUOTE] It wasn’t the radio stations that did that; it was Reprise records who pressed up a special DJ single with the word “fun” from the second verse spliced in place of the word “balls” in the third verse. Similarly, I’ve heard the Steely Dan song cited by **Contrapuntal** on the radio with the word “fuck” replaced by a one-beat pause. Since the instrumental track continues without interruption, this must have been a special airplay version prepared by the record company. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/29 "2007-02-15T17:17:00Z")
The Beatles - “Penny Lane” …_four of fish and **finger pie** _… ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/30 "2007-02-15T17:17:31Z")
[Lola](http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Kinks/Lola.html) - the Kinks. I don’t have a cite, but I believe this little ditty made it all the way to the #1 slot on ‘Billboard.’ ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/31 "2007-02-15T17:17:54Z")
I’ve got a promo by The Stones, of “She’s So Cold.” On one side, it includes “god damn cold” (the LP version) and on the other side, that bit has been removed by skillful editing. ---
**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:** [February 15, 2007, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/32 "2007-02-15T17:21:08Z")
On the song " “We Can Be Together,” from the 1969 album Volunteers, Grace Slick turns “up against the wall, motherfucker” into a lovely plaintive plea. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/33 "2007-02-15T17:22:25Z")
Not exactly pop, but the closing song for the satirical BBC series _Not the Nine O’Clock News_ was called “Kinda Lingers”, sung in a mid-Atlantic accent that swallowed the “d”. A very clever piece of censor-busting, as it must have looked merely sentimental on paper. ---
**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:** [February 15, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/34 "2007-02-15T17:23:02Z")
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] [Lola](http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Kinks/Lola.html) - the Kinks. I don’t have a cite, but I believe this little ditty made it all the way to the #1 slot on ‘Billboard.’ [/QUOTE] I wish. #9 on Billboard and #2 in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/35 "2007-02-15T17:30:20Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] For that matter, “rocking and rolling” started as a euphemism for sex. _The way you’re rockin’ and a-rollin’ Can’t hear your momma call_ That whole song is not-too-subtle double entendre. [/QUOTE] I only opened this thread to mention Bill Haley’s _Rock Around the Clock_ wasn’t about dancing… ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/36 "2007-02-15T17:30:52Z")
[QUOTE=Dung Beetle] I always fantasize that if I were a DJ, I’d do a “Curse Words Weekend” and just play all the songs that have one or two little bad words in them. There are scads of them that get played all the time…Leroy Brown, Dirty Laundry, Rich Girl, Bad Blood, etc. [/QUOTE] Um, yeah, that’d probably be one of the shortest careers in radio history, unless you’re working for XM or Sirius. We still hold our breaths every time the Sunday afternoon oldies guy plays “Louie Louie,” even though we know for certain there really aren’t any dirty words in it. Yeah, this stuff gets past the censors (if there really are censors – I’m not convinced there are) and it’s up to the individual statons to decide what to play. That, of course, depends on the audience. We air unsavory lyrics occasionally, but not very often. I think if we tried to do it frequently, the local self-appointed decency police would be knocking on our doors. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/37 "2007-02-15T17:52:08Z")
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] [Lola](http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Kinks/Lola.html) - the Kinks. I don’t have a cite, but I believe this little ditty made it all the way to the #1 slot on ‘Billboard.’ [/QUOTE] Ah, but it _was_ censored! They had to change “Coca-cola” to “cherry cola” to get it played on the BBC. Their following single, “Apeman,” contains the line “The air pollution is a-foggin’ up my eyes”—although some listeners claim that what Ray Davies is really singing isn’t exactly “foggin’.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/38 "2007-02-15T17:58:48Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] [White Rabbit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rabbit_(song)) by Jefferson Airplane snuck drug references by the censors. [/QUOTE] You mean snuck by in the same way a tank would sneak past a fast food drive in window? There are no drug references in there. Every line refers to real stuff in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I’m not quite sure what would get censored,. absent a theocratic environment. But who are the censors of which you speak? There are the words you can’t say on radio, and after that things were pretty much in the open - especially by the late '60s. For another example, there is the Robert Johnson line that Led Zeppelin used about squeezing my lemon until the juice runs down my leg. That is way pre-1955, of course. I assure you no one I knew was giggling about this stuff. And no one in the US really tried to stop it (not in big markets) not that they could, for, to quote Tom Lehrer, “when correctly viewed, everything is lewd.” ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/39 "2007-02-15T18:06:45Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] On the song " “We Can Be Together,” from the 1969 album Volunteers, Grace Slick turns “up against the wall, motherfucker” into a lovely plaintive plea. [/QUOTE] I like the way RCA wouldn’t let 'em print the real words on the lyric sheet. Wherever the word “fuck” appears on the album, it’s replaced with “fred.” As in “cheat, lie, forge, fred, hide and deal,” and “Up against the wall fred.” ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/40 "2007-02-15T18:08:30Z")
[QUOTE=Jet Jaguar] I only opened this thread to mention Bill Haley’s _Rock Around the Clock_ wasn’t about dancing… [/QUOTE] Were you perhaps intending to mention “Shake, Rattle And Roll”? Haley’s version is more about dancing or something nebulous and obscure than Big Joe Turner’s original, which was not about dancing AT ALL. “Get outta that bed and wash your face and hands” became “Get out in that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337.md?page=3)