I nominate Winter Wonderland:
In the meadow we can build a snowman
And pretend that he is Parson Brown.
He’ll ask, “are we married;” we’ll say, “No, man,”
But you can do the job when you’re in town.
I’m not even sure what it is supposed to mean!
There is actually an “official” replacement verse that goes like this:
IIRC, it’s one of those “at the director’s discretion” choices, much like “It Depends on What You Pay” and the “Rape Ballet,” both from the musical The Fantasticks.
The first time I saw Anything Goes was at a community theater in Minnesota, and the director chose to use the original lyrics. The last time I saw Anything Goes was a high school production where the (generally clueless) director chose to replace “cocaine” with “perfume,” thus destroying the internal rhyme scheme. This was the least of this particular production’s problems, though.
Hey, what about “Turning Japanese”?
:eek:
I really think so!
What about The Cure’s “Killing An Arab”? There wasn’t a whole lot of fuss about that song when it came out, but imagine if it came out today!
Jon
Regarding Winter Wonderland: I have had more than one person try to convince me, in all seriousness, that the “do the job” line is really some veiled sexual reference. Geez! The guy is addressing the snowman! As in, “Parson Brown, you can marry us when you’re in town.” Next thing you know, people will be reading things into “Don we now our gay apparel.”
Anyway, my vote goes to the Beatles’ Run for Your Life, a catchy, cheerful little tune in which the singer repeatedly threatens to kill his girlfriend if she ever cheats on him. I’ve never heard of this being a controversial song when it was released, so maybe back then people just laughed it off. And actually, I’m not sure why that song is more disturbing than, say, Mack the Knife, or a dozen other murder-oriented tunes. Heck, the Beatles also did Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, and I don’t find that disturbing. Perhaps it’s because it’s a more common experience to know someone who’s been victimized by a spouse/boyfriend than it is to know someone who’s been attacked by a mallet-wielding loony.
Mungo Jerry’s In the Summertime has the lyrics “Have a drink, have a drive, go out and see what you can find”. I can see some groups getting MADD about that nowadays.
AC/DC’s “Let There Be Rock” may be a classic, but I always wince at the line: “The white man had the smarts, the black man had the blues.” On the other hand I’m glad they’ve never bowed to PC pressure and changed it…
Actually it was quite controversial when it came out in '79, I think. Interestingly, when Clear Channel released their infamous banned song list a couple years ago, this song wasn’t included.
The old 50s song I Will Follow Him sounds creepily stalkerish today.
We still hear ‘In The Summertime’ now–I think it’s accepted that attitudes to said offence were different back when it was released.
How about ‘Melting Pot’ by Blue Mink, with its reference to “yellow chinkies” (even though its an overall plea for racial tolerance).
Also Maxwell’s Silver Hammer is about karma. That is it is a sort of metaphor for the effects of karma.
(or so I’ve heard, the lyrics are kind of violent on the surface)
That song is a reference to masturbation… apparently it refers to the expression on a guys face just before shooting
OOO I remember the furor over Short People I always thought someone should have countered with a song about TALL persons.
I loathe Under My Thumb by the Stones. Just makes me want to smack Mick into next month.
I have always despised the song “Lightnin’ Strikes” by Lou Christie, partially because of its double-standard-y message that the female should wait quietly in the wings (virginally, of course, because “every boy wants a girl he can trust till the very end”) while her future husband jumps on everything that turns his head. Also irritating are his assurances that when the time comes he will stop that behavior, but until then he’s just powerless against the impulses. :rolleyes:
That song was released a long time before I was born, so I’m not sure if it raised eyebrows when it was new, but it sure gets a lot of airplay on oldies stations now.
The drinking lyric isn’t what bothered me about “In The Summertime.” What makes me want to hurt someone are the lines: “If her daddy’s rich, take her out for a meal; if her daddy’s poor just do what you feel.” Ugh.
Oh, here’s another lyric deliberately changed because it was later considered “inappropriate”:
In the musical Evita, the “Rainbow Tour” song begins:
When it came time to turn the musical into a movie, and they cast Madonna in the starring role, they decided to change that last line.
I’ve heard someone say this before, but this song never bothered me. The very first verse
Under my thumb
The girl who once had me down
Under my thumb
The girl who once pushed me around
plus the repeated line “the change has come” pretty much establishes (for me anyway) that this state of affairs is a reversal of the former status quo. I’ve always seen it as an I’m-getting-even-now song rather than a let’s-oppress-women song.
Why was it controversial? Looking at the lyrics it just seems to be about Camus’ The Stranger. Am I missing something?
Unfortunately, not everyone reads Camus.
Exactly.
Once again, back to the OP:
I Enjoy Being a Girl
“When men say I’m cute and funny
And my teeth aren’t teeth, but pearl,
I just lap it up like honey
I enjoy being a girl!”
Alice’s Restaraunt
“And if two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them.”
Three-Five-Zero-Zero
“Prisoners in Niggertown,
It’s a dirty little war;
Three-Five-Zero-Zero”
Every Picture Tells a Story
“I moved right out east yeah!
On the Peking ferry I was feeling merry
sailing on my way back here
I fell in love with a slit eyed lady…”
Because it’s ok to hurt a woman if she hurt you first? How many Police Officers have heard perps say"The bitch had it coming"?
The phrase “under my thumb” connotates controlling someone, pinning them.
I know The Stones are playful and flippant, but it’s something that hits close to home for people and it just seems callous.