# Songs in which you were unaware a censored version existed **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 17, 2008, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024 "2008-09-17T20:00:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/21 "2008-09-18T02:46:03Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > “Who are You?” - The Who. Up until about 5 years ago, FM stations didn’t have a problem playing the album version with “ah, who the fuck are you” intact. But for some reason (Janet Jackson Super Bowl nipple hysteria??) stations switched to an edited version with the line completely missing. What I want to know is what ever happened to the 1978 Top-40 radio edit with “who the hell are you” replacing the offending line? I can’t convince people this version ever existed, but I remember it quite clearly. Isn’t it the version used by one of the CSI offshoots? ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/22 "2008-09-18T02:51:26Z")
> [@Sir\_Prize](#): > > I was surprised to find out that the familiar lyrics to Puttin’ On The Ritz were a replacement for a less politically correct version. Cole Porter had a lot of un-PC lyrics that were changed: _You’re The Top_ originally had a reference to Mussolini, and _Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love_ opened with Chinks and Japs doing it rather than birds and bees. > [@Lakai](#): > > “I got pros, in different area codes” made a lot more sense in its uncensored version, “I got hoes, in different area codes.” [Area codes in which Ludacris claims to have hoes](http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/03/09/254-ludacris-rap-map-of-us-area-codes/) ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/23 "2008-09-18T03:02:00Z")
Ditto on “Let’s Get Retarded.” When I heard radio personalities Don and Mike talking about the song, I thought they were talking about some sort of parody of “Let’s Get it Started.” “Let’s get Retarded” just sounded ridiculous, but I looked it up and found it was the original. Also “Creep” by Radiohead. I think I prefer the clean version. (“you’re so very special” instead of “you’re so fucking special.”) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/24 "2008-09-18T03:06:58Z")
Jefferson Starship, Miracles. The radio version simply skipped (IIRC) the following couplet: I got a taste of the real world, When I went down on you girl. And the radio version also left out the lyric: “when I’m dancin’ inside you.” A dirty, dirty song. And I didn’t even know it was censored until I bought the album many years later. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/25 "2008-09-18T03:14:02Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > Cole Porter had a lot of un-PC lyrics that were changed: _You’re The Top_ originally had a reference to Mussolini, and _Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love_ opened with Chinks and Japs doing it rather than birds and bees.] More obviously, changing the line “I get no kick from cocaine” to “Some like the perfumes in Spain.” For years, the latter was the usual film/broadcast version until Mel Brooks went back to the original in **Blazing Saddles**. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/26 "2008-09-18T06:01:55Z")
Do the Dresden Dolls get played on the radio? Because in the original version of the song “Coin-Operated Boy”, there’s a line “I could even fuck him in the ass”, which was changed to “I could even take him in the bath” for the album that was released more widely. ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/27 "2008-09-18T12:25:35Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > [Area codes in which Ludacris claims to have hoes](http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/03/09/254-ludacris-rap-map-of-us-area-codes/) Well whaddya know, Ludacris has hoes where I used to go to school. Maybe I should check up on my old high-school classmates and see what their preferred male companionship is nowadays… Gwen Stefani’s _Hollaback Girl_ has “shit” censored out several times; rather, they’ve taken out the “it” but left the “shh.” On the video, the singer and dancers put their finger to their lips in a few corresponding places. Also, same singer, _Whatcha Waiting For?_: the word “ho” is removed from “take a chance you stupid —”. ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/28 "2008-09-18T13:23:34Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > Do the Dresden Dolls get played on the radio? Because in the original version of the song “Coin-Operated Boy”, there’s a line “I could even fuck him in the ass”, which was changed to “I could even take him in the bath” for the album that was released more widely. :smack: Now the video makes so much more sense. ---
**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:** [September 18, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/29 "2008-09-18T15:37:13Z")
The album version of **Jethro Tull’s** “My God” on the Aqualung album is heavily sanitized. The lyrics that they use live are much more directly specific and cutting, directly calling out Catholicism, the pope, and Islam by name instead of just alluding to them. ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/30 "2008-09-18T17:12:11Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > “Who are You?” - The Who. Up until about 5 years ago, FM stations didn’t have a problem playing the album version with “ah, who the fuck are you” intact. But for some reason (Janet Jackson Super Bowl nipple hysteria??) stations switched to an edited version with the line completely missing. It was the other way around in these parts: you never heard the uncensored version until maybe ten or fifteen years ago. Before that, it was edited. RR ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/31 "2008-09-18T17:47:52Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > “Who are You?” - The Who. Up until about 5 years ago, FM stations didn’t have a problem playing the album version with “ah, who the fuck are you” intact. But for some reason (Janet Jackson Super Bowl nipple hysteria??) stations switched to an edited version with the line completely missing. What I want to know is what ever happened to the 1978 Top-40 radio edit with “who the hell are you” replacing the offending line? I can’t convince people this version ever existed, but I remember it quite clearly. Seems they are doing this on a lot of classic rock songs these days. Pink Floyd’s “Money” has the word “bullshit” bleeped out. Steve Miller Band’s “Jet Airliner” has “funky shit going down in the city” changed to “funky kicks…”. Songs I grew up listening to don’t sound the same anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/32 "2008-09-18T18:07:49Z")
The uncensored version of Eminem’s “My Name Is” is pure brilliance in its unbelievable offensiveness. The radio edit, which took out the more offensive lines along with the profanity… not so much. I still laugh my ass off when I hear the original. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/33 "2008-09-18T18:09:15Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Seems they are doing this on a lot of classic rock songs these days. Pink Floyd’s “Money” has the word “bullshit” bleeped out. Steve Miller Band’s “Jet Airliner” has “funky shit going down in the city” changed to “funky kicks…”. Songs I grew up listening to don’t sound the same anymore. There are quite a few people, including me, who have never heard the uncensored version o f Jet Airliner. Up until a couple years ago when it was mentioned on this board I always wondered what “funky kicks” were. But thankfully I’ve never heard the censored version of “Money” except in a stupid PBS special (which caused me to turn off the TV, which I only kept on because it was the Floyd.) Ironically, they are editing “Money” in order to not be fined by the FCC, which means they’re making decisions around mostly…money. (Okay, it’d be more ironic if they edited “Have a Cigar”.) ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/34 "2008-09-18T19:01:27Z")
The entire second verse of Dire Straits’ "Money For Nothing has been removed from the single version. The one talking about the “little faggot” with his earring and his makeup. The sanitized version was even substituted for the original on the Dire Straits greatest hits compilation “Sultans of Swing.” From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_for_nothing#Controversy): > [@](#): > > In a late 1985 interview in Rolling Stone magazine, (Dire Straits leader Mark) Knopfler expressed mixed feelings on the controversy: > > “I got an objection from the editor of a gay newspaper in London - he actually said it was below the belt. Apart from the fact that there are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests that maybe you can’t let it have so many meanings - you have to be direct. In fact, I’m still in two minds as to whether it’s a good idea to write songs that aren’t in the first person, to take on other characters.” ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/35 "2008-09-18T19:27:01Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Up until a couple years ago when it was mentioned on this board I always wondered what “funky kicks” were. At least, thanks to Cecil, we know what the [pompatus of love](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/972/in-steve-millers-the-joker-what-is-the-pompatus-of-love) is. ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/36 "2008-09-18T19:28:43Z")
“At the Hundredth Meridian” by the Tragically Hip. One of my favorite songs. One line as heard on the radio: “It would seem to me I remember every single fucking thing I know” It’s sort of slurred, but I’ve never heard it bleeped or otherwise censored. So I had a good laugh when I noticed that the Hip themselves give the lyric on their website as: “It would seem to me I remember every single bloody, warm, and horrible thing I know” I wonder just what radar they’re trying to fly under… ---
**Author:** ![Stopfordia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Stopfordia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stopfordia)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/37 "2008-09-18T20:19:07Z")
Wheatus’s _Teenage Dirtbag_ includes the following lines: > [@](#): > > Her boyfriend’s a dick > And he brings a gun to school > And he’d simply kick > My ass if he knew the truth When UK music channels played the video, ‘dick’ and ‘ass’ were left in; the word ‘gun’ was not. The Lemonheads song _Big Gay Heart_ includes the line _You don’t need to suck my dick_; when the track was released as a single, it became _duck my sick_. Kirsty MacColl’s _Free World_ had _Gotta get it up and shag it_ cleaned up to _Gotta get it up and wag it_ when it was played on the radio. ---
**Author:** ![CircleofWillis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/54ee81/32.png) [@CircleofWillis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CircleofWillis)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/38 "2008-09-18T20:34:57Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > For the same reason, the single version of “Lola” runs: > > “I met her in a club down in old Soho where they drink champaigne and it tastes just like cherry cola.” > > While the original (album version) was: > > “I met her in a club down in old Soho where they drink champaigne and it tastes just like Coca Cola.” I just heard this song last night and had never heard the censored version before. Was quite jarring… especially when you are singing along… …and it tastes just like Co---- WTF? ---
**Author:** ![unspun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b9bd4f/32.png) [@unspun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unspun)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/39 "2008-09-18T21:05:20Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I remember a couple years back (Kanye West?) had that gold-digger song out. Since I’m not really into rap I only heard it played on the radio or on the MTV awards show. It was catchy but I always thought the lyrics were kind of stupid. I always misheard the background singer’s line of ‘I gotta leave’ as ‘I gotta wee’. :o I never realized the version of Anthrax’s “I’m the man” I knew was censored - I thought the weird sound effects were just part of the song, but it turned out it very much was. I still can’t figure out why, as it’s not really mainstream. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024/40 "2008-09-18T22:03:08Z")
Back when I was young, Carole Pope and Rough Trade had a hit with a song called “High School Confidential.” Local FM Stations played the original version of the song which contained the lyric “she makes me cream my jeans/ when she walks by.” The solution for AM stations was a version that simply blanked the first part of the word “cream,” resulting in the odd-sounding lyric “she makes me \_\_\_\_m my jeans/ when she walks by.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-in-which-you-were-unaware-a-censored-version-existed/464024.md?page=3)