# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Intelligently\_Designed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intelligently_designed/32/20957_2.png) [@Intelligently\_Designed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intelligently_Designed)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/61 "2007-02-15T22:41:22Z")
Rod Stewart’s album _Blondes Have More Fun_ has quite a few. Among them, the song _Dirty Weekend_: “_I’ll bring the red wine you bring the ludes Your mother’s doctor must be quite a dude We’ll hang the ‘Don’t Disturb’ outside our door I’m gonna rock you till your pussy’s sore_” ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/62 "2007-02-15T22:49:14Z")
[QUOTE=fishbicycle] In one of my Beatles biographies, I think it’s Paul who explains that “finger pie” is what they’d call what they did with their girlfriends, riding home late at night on the top level of the double-decker bus. Digital stimulation, as it were. [/QUOTE] Yeah, he’s big with the retrospective explanations of song lyrics. He also claims that “Got to Get You Into My Life” is about marijuana, which just makes no sense. Anyway, I bet when he wrote the “fish and finger pie” line he was thinking of the ubiquitous Fish Fingers rather than some memory he claims to have of manually stimulating girlfriends on 1950s Liverpool buses, something so shocking that it would probably have got him deported in those straight-laced times. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/63 "2007-02-15T22:53:58Z")
[QUOTE=CapnPitt] As far as “Ramrod,” just remember that all songs about cars are really songs about sex. Always. [/QUOTE] I had figured this out about '50 rock and blues songs. I also knew of this fairly innocent number by the Beatles called “Drive my Car”. I never connected the two until a couple years after I learned that classic blues had a major influence on them. The song is full of double entendres, most of which seem intentional given the Fab Four’s grounding in blues. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/64 "2007-02-15T22:57:51Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] So-called “race music” was definitely being heard on the airwaves, at least in the South. Nat Williams, a black DJ at WDIA started airing this music in Memphis in the 40s. [Cite](http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=M076). Dewey Phillips, a white DJ at a rival station in Memphis started spinning these records in 1950. [Cite.](http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/radio/c1.html) That’s where all those future rockabillies like Elvis and Carl Perkins picked up the sound. [/QUOTE] Similar radio shows originated in Nashville in the 50’s and later. We used to sit out in the gravel pit in our cars and listen to WLAC and hear Hoss Allen and others play R&B stuff. Randy’s Record Rack was a big sponsor. ---
**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, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/65 "2007-02-15T23:53:08Z")
Sure, _some_ of these records were played on _some_ stations in _some_ locations. And the closer you get to the present the more of them you heard. But race records go way back in time, long before the late 1940s. And even by the 1960s, the overwhelming majority of white Americans had never heard them. Or even heard of them. Rock music had no written history, and compilation LPs were scarce to nonexistent. Early history was rediscovered very late in the game. Paul’s line about the origin of “finger pie” probably isn’t some retro revisionism, though. It goes back a long ways, at least 30 years, and maybe into the 60s. I can’t remember when I first heard it, but it was early enough that they still had a “nice” image despite some known drug use. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/66 "2007-02-16T00:02:10Z")
Another song that was unstoppable, but had to be censored first, was The Knack’s “Good Girls Don’t.” Parts of the vocal were changed for the single: from “wishin’ you could get inside her pants” to “wishin’ she was givin’ you a chance” and “‘til she’s sittin’ on your face” to “'til she puts you in your place.” (“and it hurts!”) ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/67 "2007-02-16T01:22:58Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] And even by the 1960s, the overwhelming majority of white Americans had never heard them. [/QUOTE] How are you defining “race music”? Because the industry used the term to describe R&B. And if you are claiming that an “overwhelming majority of white Americans” hadn’t heard R&B by the 60s, well, that’s an indefensible statement. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/68 "2007-02-16T03:01:09Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] And I KNOW Lady Marmalade must be tremendously dirty, but I cant understand most of the words. [/QUOTE] I remember the first time my dad heard that song - he was driving the car, and almost wrecked it. He was amazed (back then) that they could say **Voulez-vous couchez avec moi?** on the radio, since it translates as “Would you go to bed with me?”. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/69 "2007-02-16T03:35:05Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] Yeah, he’s big with the retrospective explanations of song lyrics. He also claims that “Got to Get You Into My Life” is about marijuana, which just makes no sense. Anyway, I bet when he wrote the “fish and finger pie” line he was thinking of the ubiquitous Fish Fingers rather than some memory he claims to have of manually stimulating girlfriends on 1950s Liverpool buses, something so shocking that it would probably have got him deported in those straight-laced times. [/QUOTE] I think Paul has also said that “Got to Get You Into My Life” is about marijuana. I don’t have a cite though. Maybe **fishbicycle** knows… ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/70 "2007-02-16T03:37:26Z")
It was either said in “Anthology”, or maybe his book, “Many Years From Now.” ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/71 "2007-02-16T03:40:10Z")
[QUOTE=picker] Let’s not forget Ted Nugent’s _Cat Scratch Fever_ [/QUOTE] “Well I make her pussy burn with a stroke of my hand…” Nope. Nothing dirty there. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/72 "2007-02-16T03:45:21Z")
Speaking of The Beatles, I heard that \*\*Come Together \*\* was John Lennon’s fantasy about a group simultaneous orgasm in which he was the recipient, if you will. “Come together, right now, over me.” ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/73 "2007-02-16T03:51:36Z")
That’s new to me. To quote him from the “One To One” concert before they played it, “We’re gonna go back in the past just once. You probably remember this one better than I do…I’ve gotta stop writing these gobbledygook lyrics…” He was strung out on smack for most of 1969, and had little or no memory of what he’d done then. “Come Together Right Now” was originally conceived as a slogan for Timothy Leary’s failed run for office. John promised to write him a song for it. After one thing or another, that idea fell by the wayside, and culminated in possibly the most interesting record they ever made. I’ve never read anything to suggest what you suggested he was suggesting. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/74 "2007-02-16T03:56:30Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t see why these should be censored I guess I don’t see how my suggestions are any different from anything else being discussed in this thread? You’re talking to a girl who doesn’t believe _anything_ should be censored. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/75 "2007-02-16T03:59:01Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Chuck Berry’s My Ding-A-Ling [/QUOTE] From that same album, a minor hit called _Reelin’ and Rockin’_. It’s in the same vein as _Rock Around The Clock_. Remember the lyrics: _Looked at my watch and it was quarter past one, I said "Come on baby, let’s have us some fun … Looked at my watch it was a quarter past two, You know, she said she didn’t but I know she do!_ The last verse went: _We boogied in the kitchen We boogied in the hall I got some on my fingers So I wiped it on the wall!_ I could not believe that Los Angeles stations would play that last verse in 1971! Chuck Berry was a nasty little duck-walker! ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/76 "2007-02-16T03:59:49Z")
I think the Beatles song “Daytripper” contains the line “She’s a prick teaser.” I believe it’s usually transcribed as “big teaser,” but I’m fairly certain I read in some Beatles biography that John was actually saying “prick” in the studio. ---
**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 16, 2007, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/77 "2007-02-16T04:41:17Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] How are you defining “race music”? Because the industry used the term to describe R&B. And if you are claiming that an “overwhelming majority of white Americans” hadn’t heard R&B by the 60s, well, that’s an indefensible statement. [/QUOTE] Nobody had used race music as a genre term for a decade by the 60s. Billboard, among the first, dropped use of the name for its charts of that music as of June 17, 1949 and used r&b instead. By the end of the 50s I don’t think anybody was publicly using the term as a genre label. It’s come back since as an overall term for black popular music in the title of a couple of historical books, but race music was its own field for perhaps two or three decades. It’s that late 40s/early 50s music that was, I believe, exclusively black, that is considered the forerunner of rock and roll (and indeed often had those words in their titles) I was referring to. Although some of the names of the people who made it would become better known later, few Hit Parade listeners would have recognized any of them. And would have been scandalized by their music. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/78 "2007-02-16T05:06:56Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] It’s that late 40s/early 50s music that was, I believe, exclusively black, that is considered the forerunner of rock and roll (and indeed often had those words in their titles) I was referring to. [/QUOTE] OK, given that definition, I would agree with you that most white folks weren’t hearing that music _at the time it was produced_. However, it _was_ on the radio, and white kids in the South _were_ listening to it. And that was a problem. White kids started showing up at Little Richard shows. And more to the point, white _girls_ were showing up at Little Richard shows. And ::_harumph_:: we just can’t have white girls watching this gyrating negro and getting _ideas_. Maybe we can distract them with this nice clean-cut kid, Pat Boone. Here, Pat, try singing “[Tutti Frutti](http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/little_richard/tutti_frutti.html)” for us: \*Got a gal named Sue She knows just what to do She rock me to the east she rock me to the west \* Hmmm. Wait a sec. Better scrub those lyrics a bit. How about: _I’ve been to the east I’ve been to the west_ Yeah, that’s the ticket! Nice and safe. And Pat, _no gyrating_. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/79 "2007-02-16T05:54:04Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] And Pat, _no gyrating_. [/QUOTE] It’s not like you had to tell Pat not to gyrate. The thought would never pop into his head. And while I’m here, another lyric that got cleaned up: ‘At My Front Door (Crazy Little Mama)’ as done by the El-Dorados: “If you got a little mama and wanna keep her neat Better keep your little mama off my street” As done by Pat Boone: “If you got a little mama and want to get along Better teach your little mama right from wrong” ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/80 "2007-02-16T08:09:12Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] 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.” [/QUOTE] Yep, and when they came to the lyric, “and you do your best to get balled and high,” RCA bowlderized it to read “and you do your best to get bald and hi.” Seriously pathetic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337.md?page=5)