Two jumped out at me:
The Devil Went Down To Georgia: “I told you once you son of a bitch…” to “I told you once you son of a gun…” on AM radio, and
Brown Eyed Girl: “Making love in the green grass…” to “Having fun in the green grass…”
Jimmy Buffett’s Come Monday
Original: “…that’s the reason I just let you go…”
New: “…that’s the reason we just had to go…”
Lil’ Jon’s “Get Low” appears in the game Need for Speed: Underground. But since EA is very PC, they’ve removed all of the drug and sex references, leaving not much of a song behind. What they didn’t realize is that “skeet” is slang for “shoot sperm all over.” So the chorus, instead of being “Down skeet skeet muthafucka, down skeet skeet goddamn” becomes “Down skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet…”
There’s also a song by Sly Boogy and one by DMX that have large chunks removed because of violent or drug-related content. It’s almost hilarious listening to the long gaps in the songs.
Another un-PC Cole Porter one, before the birds, bees, and educated fleas:
Chinks do it, Japs do it,
Even up it Lapland Lapps do it,
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love.
You’re A Grand Old Flag was originally You’re A Grand Old Rag, but it was changed because it was considered offensive to refer to the American flag as a rag. Rhyming “flag” with “flag” kind of messes up the clever rhyme of the original: “You’re a grand old rag, you’re a high-flying flag…”
Wasn’t Let’s Get It Started by Black Eyed Peas originally released as Let’s Get Retarded?
“Let there be Peace on Earth” has been changed from “brothers all our we” to “family all our we” or something like that. I refuse to sing it that way.
In “Amazing Grace” “…that saved a wretch like me.” has been changed to “that saved a good person with some minor, correctible psychological shortcomings.”
Okay, I’m kidding about the last one.
I’ve heard “Amazing Grace” where “wretch” has been replaced by “soul” or “child”. I don’t like it.
The change to “Let there be Peace”, however, does fit a bit better, though I admire your refusal. I’d totally refuse to sing the revised Christmas Carols mentioned above.
In the movie Evita, the lyric “She’s a new world Madonna with the golden touch” was changed to “She’s our lady of the new world with the golden touch.”
Evita was portrayed by Madonna, and I wish the original lyric had been kept.
This thread reminds me of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on the Simpsons:
Krusty: Now boys, the network has a problem with some of your lyrics. Do you mind changing them for the show?
Anthony: Forget you, clown.
Chad: Yeah, our lyrics are like our children, man. No way.
Krusty: Well okay, but here where it says, “What I got you gotta get and put it in ya,” how about just, “What I’d like is I’d like to hug and kiss ya.”
Flea: Wow. That’s much better.
Arik: Everyone can enjoy that.
Not sure if it was changed for PC or other reasons, but when Leadbelly sings “In the Pines,” he sings “Black girl, black girl, don’t lie to me”. When Kurt Cobain sings it, it’s “My girl, my girl…”
Not lyrics, but sound effects. Sri Lankan hip hop artiste MIA has a slightly amateurish, but strangely alluring, track called Paper Planes (original mix) - about her disdain for the moneygrabbing attitude of some fellow immigrants. The chorus has sound effects that go:
“All I wanna do is [four gunshots]
And [ka ching!]
And take your money”
When she performed it live on Letterman the sound of gunshots was censored merely to be clicks. Not only did this kinda ruin the ethos of the song, but if you watch the clip, you can see that she clearly wasn’t told about the alteration.
It’s not really a PC change, but The Connells did a cover of “Insane in the Brain” (I first heard this song on XM Saturday Night on Lucy) on a compilation of weird covers called “When Pigs Fly - Songs You Never Thought You’d Hear”. Since the Connells are an all-white band from North Carolina, they changed several of the lyrics; for instance, “Cause a nigga like me is going insane” becomes “Cause a cracker like me is going insane” which made me laugh so hard it made it a little difficult to drive the car.
“Peaches” by the Stranglers.
The line “is she trying to get out of that clitoris” was replaced by “is she trying to get out of that bikini” on the radio version, “oh shit” with “oh no” and “what a bummer” with “what a summer”.
Speaking of Brown-Eyed Girl (somebody did, up above, right?), I understand that Van Morrison had originally titled the song Brown-Skinned Girl.
Apparently the record company execs felt it would risk offense to fewer uhhhh, demographics if they had the oblique reference to interracial dating toned down.
While I was growing up ‘Tie me kangaroo down sport’ was popular children’s song. http://www.rolfharris.com/Music/lyrics/lyrics_tieme.htm
It wasn’t untill a couple of years ago that I realised that the original song included these lyrics
:eek:
(Abo=Aboriginal)
Rolf says sorry:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20878429-2,00.html
The most recent times I have listened to the song there is now no mention of the stockman dying or his hide being tanned and hung on the shed (I always thought that was the best bit of the song and sung it extra loud)
MRW
I’ve never been sure if that was changed because it was rude, or because the uncensored version doesn’t make any fucking sense.
You beat me to it, madrabbitwoman!
The version I have does have the dying stockman and the hide on the shed bits.
Puttin’ On The Ritz was originally about Thursday nights in harlem when the servants of the well to do had the night off.
And your post reminds me of post #4. Anyway, it’s a reference to when the Rolling Stones performed “Let’s Spend [del]the Night[/del] Some Time Together” on Ed Sullivan’s show.
Didn’t the final words to The Flinstones theme change from “a gay old time” to “a great old time” at some point?
Son and Daughter by Queen.
“Buckle down and shovel shit” was changed at times to"Buckle down and a-shovel it"