# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/101 "2007-02-17T15:44:00Z")
_Relax, Don’t do it, When you wanna come._ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (I believe this is pre-1985). The 80’s had their share of innocuous little songs about masturbation (She-Bop, Turning Japanese, Blister in the Sun\*), but this little ditty was about _ejaculation_. How this made it to the radio in the Reagan era I’ll never know. Maybe we were just too innocent. \*There’s debate about whether BitS and TJ are actually about masturbation. Either way, the intent seems to be there. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/102 "2007-02-17T18:42:11Z")
Did I miss it or has no one mentioned “Whole Lotta Shaking Going On”? Or Jerry Lee Lewis in general? He was at least as bad as Little Richard. Great balls of fire! ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/103 "2007-02-17T19:58:51Z")
[QUOTE=HeyHomie] _Relax, Don’t do it, When you wanna come._ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (I believe this is pre-1985). [/QUOTE] Only just, and it was banned by the BBC. > [@](#): > > The 80’s had their share of innocuous little songs about masturbation (She-Bop, Turning Japanese, Blister in the Sun\*), but this little ditty was about _ejaculation_. How this made it to the radio in the Reagan era I’ll never know. Maybe we were just too innocent. > > \*There’s debate about whether BitS and TJ are actually about masturbation. Either way, the intent seems to be there. Hasn’t anyone mentioned Teenage Kicks? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/104 "2007-02-17T20:46:12Z")
[QUOTE=betenoir] Did I miss it or has no one mentioned “Whole Lotta Shaking Going On”? Or Jerry Lee Lewis in general? He was at least as bad as Little Richard. Great balls of fire! [/QUOTE] Plus, he wasn’t afraid to cover some of the bawdier R&B songs. Like “Big Legged Woman,” featuring such lyrics as: _You got somethin up under there, baby That’ll make a bulldog howl like a hound_ and _I bet my bottom dollar There ain’t a cherry in this house_ Of course, “Big Legged Woman” didn’t get airplay, but it was a helluva song to record at the time. ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/105 "2007-02-17T22:43:37Z")
Hank Williams’ seminal “\*Move it on \* Over” is widely thought to be about ole Hank tryin’ to get his leg over during Miss Audrey’s “delicate time” and the alternative remedies Miss Audrey may have been prevailed upon to provide. mm ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/106 "2007-02-17T22:58:13Z")
[QUOTE=mamboman] Hank Williams’ seminal “\*Move it on \* Over” is widely thought to be about ole Hank tryin’ to get his leg over during Miss Audrey’s “delicate time” and the alternative remedies Miss Audrey may have been prevailed upon to provide. [/QUOTE] That seems like an awfully big stretch to me. Hank wasn’t one for hidden symbolism in his lyrics. In fact, I can’t think of any of his songs that feature any such clever metaphors. They’re all pretty straightforward. I can see how you could _interpret_ the song the way you’re talking about, but I don’t think Hank _intended_ it that way. It’s just a straight-up song about coming home late and having to spend the night in the doghouse because Hank’s wife wouldn’t let him in. (Being “in the doghouse” in this manner was a common enough concept in that era.) ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/107 "2007-02-17T23:22:33Z")
To quote Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), "Some people don’t know this, but ‘bitch’ actually means ‘a female dog.’ " Seems odd that radios are actually more skittish today about “dirty words” than they were in the late 70s/early 80s, but they are. Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” contains the lyric "“Cuz I told you once, you sonofabitch, I’m the best that’s ever been!” This played intact on the DC-area radio stations when the song originally came out. Today it’s the AM version on the FM stations: “I told you once, you son of a gun…” From roughly the same time period, Steve Forbert’s "Romeo’s Song " (“Been shoveling shit for so long…”, 1980) and John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Play Guitar” (“Forget all about that macho shit and learn how to play guitar,” 1983); these last two don’t get much airplay today. Really, context is everything. ---
**Author:** ![mikeargo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@mikeargo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikeargo)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/108 "2007-02-18T01:51:47Z")
[QUOTE=fishbicycle] 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…” [/QUOTE] Hey, later on in the song he sings, “I’m like a one-eyed cat, peepin’ in a seafood store…” Only the cool kids knew that the “one-eyed cat” was his dick and the “seafood store” was, well, you know… ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/109 "2007-02-18T03:01:49Z")
[QUOTE=cbawlmer] A lot of ZZ Top’s songs are openly filthy, like “Tubesteak Boogie” and “Pearl Necklace,” but they get tons of airplay. [/QUOTE] Double-entendre, there’s no actual dirty words in them. Dirty songs, definitely, although they have claimed (tongue in cheek) that Tubesteak Boogie refers to surfing and Pearl Necklace is just about accessorizing. Uh huh. However “Legs” has the line “…shit, I got to have them, the girl is all right…” “Hot For Teacher” off Van Halen’s album “1984” opens with the spoken words: “Hey man, what do you think the teacher’s gonna look like this year?” and immediately, in the background, you can hear someone saying “Butt fuck!” Both of those got lots of airplay, unedited as I recall. Dire Straits’ “Money For Nuthin” was pretty controversial because of the repeated use of the word “faggot” which I think did get played on the air. Prince’s “Darling Nikki” opens with “I met her in a hotel lobby, masturbating with a magazine”. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/110 "2007-02-19T14:47:04Z")
[QUOTE=Krokodil] Steve Forbert’s "Romeo’s Song " (“Been shoveling shit for so long..”, 1980) [/QUOTE] **Krokodil** , if you’re still around, can you advise where that line should be in the song? I used to love that song, but don’t remember anything close to that. Was it an extra verse on the album version? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/111 "2007-02-19T18:35:19Z")
[QUOTE=Valgard] Double-entendre, there’s no actual dirty words in them. Dirty songs, definitely, although they have claimed (tongue in cheek) that Tubesteak Boogie refers to surfing and Pearl Necklace is just about accessorizing. [/QUOTE] They can claim that all they want, but “Pearl Necklace” includes the lyrics: That’s not jewelry I’m talking about It really don’t cost that much. It’s not just specific obscentities that could get a song censored. If they said “I’m going to ejaculate on your breats,” it wouldn’t technically contain any dirty words, but would still be fairly surprising to hear on the radio. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/112 "2007-02-19T18:37:40Z")
[QUOTE=Valgard] Prince’s “Darling Nikki” opens with “I met her in a hotel lobby, masturbating with a magazine”. [/QUOTE] Have you _ever_ heard that song played uncensored on regular over-the-air radio though? ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/113 "2007-02-19T18:45:08Z")
[QUOTE=Zakalwe] Have you _ever_ heard that song played uncensored on regular over-the-air radio though? [/QUOTE] I’ve heard it quite a few times, and again when the Foo Fighters did a great cover of it a few years back. ---
**Author:** ![want2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/114 "2007-02-19T19:41:53Z")
From _Little T & A_ by the **Rolling Stones** : _“Her tits, her ass got soul, baby”_ And one I’ve brought up before: [_Stay Awhile_ by **The Bells**](http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/the_bells/stay_awhile.html). Very daring content for top 40 radio in the early 70s. And I always chuckled at the **Peter Frampton** title, _I’m In You_ . Yeah, I know its probably metaphorical, but still a great double entendre. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/115 "2007-02-19T22:11:16Z")
[QUOTE=cbawlmer] I’ve heard it quite a few times, and again when the Foo Fighters did a great cover of it a few years back. [/QUOTE] So all since 1985 (per the OP)? ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/116 "2007-02-19T22:25:04Z")
[QUOTE=Zakalwe] So all since 1985 (per the OP)? [/QUOTE] Hey, you said _ever_. 😛 I can’t personally testify that I heard “Darling Nikki” on the radio prior to 1985 since I was about 8 then. It was not a single, but gained a lot of notoriety when Tipper Gore flipped out about how dirty it was. I do remember hearing later in the '80s on Houston radio when I was a little older and listening to popular music. They may have played it later at night, but I’m pretty sure I heard it then. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/117 "2007-02-20T02:56:26Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] **Krokodil** , if you’re still around, can you advise where that line should be in the song? I used to love that song, but don’t remember anything close to that. Was it an extra verse on the album version? Thanks. [/QUOTE] **Bairn** , for a song I remember so vividly even though I haven’t heard it in over 25 years, I was pretty sure about that lyric (I even got the title of the song wrong; it’s Romeo’s _Tune_"). I can’t back the claim up from anything online, and while I was somewhat aware of two albums of his back in the day, that’s the only single I can even remember the name of. Evidently, I was mistaken and I withdraw the claim. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/118 "2007-02-20T06:32:31Z")
[QUOTE=WOOKINPANUB] I ask this as I listen to Everlast’s “What its Like” with the word “whore” safely edited out. WTF? [/QUOTE] Don’t forget about the word “green” edited out. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/119 "2007-02-20T09:47:48Z")
[QUOTE=zelie zelerton] Cite! Or at least tell me the name of the episode so I can go and buy it. 😃 [/QUOTE] Not sure. It was an early-series episode, but we don’t watch Bob as much as we used to as both boys are utterly Star Wars obsessed now. When it’s not SW, Scooby Doo and Winnie the Pooh are getting the major airtime these days, and dear old Bob, not to mention Rosie & Jim, is gathering dust in the corner. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2007, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337/120 "2007-02-20T12:41:10Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] I’ve always thought that seventies hit “Afternoon Delight” is remarkably rude if you look at the [lyrics](http://users.cis.net/sammy/starland.htm) in the cold light of day. [/QUOTE] To quote Ron Burgundy: “This song is about afternoon lovemaking!” 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-songs-that-somehow-got-past-the-censor-1955-1985/392337.md?page=7)