Regardless of the actual age of the singer in most of these songs, weren’t they geared to teenagers? I’m not seeing the skeevyness of most of these.
Money for Nothing by Dire Straits
David Allan Coe “If That Ain’t Country…” – includes a racial slur. IIRC, several of his early songs as well were openly racist and misogynistic.
Toadies - Possum Kingdom. Rape and murder?
Ray Stevens - Ahab the Arab
I made a similar point in post #4. One of the songs that comes to mind that crosses to the skeevy side of the line is Little Girls by Oingo Boingo, the lyrics of which would definitely never be parodied in a children’s comic in 2013.
And that makes me think of one that should never have been made, not necessarily because it isn’t PC, but because of general awfulness.
Most stations play a radio-friendly edit with the offending verse removed.
And a number of them play the original version. Self-censorship (and that’s all this is) is always unevenly applied, and some stations are more cautious than the norm due to a real or perceived difference in their local audience. Or the station manager has a bigger-than-usual stick up their ass, whatever.
Weren’t the original words to Puttin’ On the Ritz fairly obviously patronising about black people and subsequently re-written?
I Shot The Sheriff. Especially Marley’s version.
i thought the point of the song was the character singing was supposed to be perceived as a loudmouth lout; the song being an indictment of that kind of thinking.
Sweet Little Rock and Roller is about a child. It’s your mind that is making it dirty.
An obscure song to most, written ca. 1975:
Pardon me, compadre,
May I have this place in line?
You see the woman I love is standing there
Underneath the cardboard sign
That says…
Fifty cents a hug at the kissing booth,
To buy a little love at the kissing booth.
Loan me fifty cents for the kissing booth.
Pretty senorita,
Don’t even know my name,
When I tell her how much I love her,
The answer will be the same.
She’s sayin’…
Fifty cents a hug at the kissing booth,
To buy a little love at the kissing booth.
Loan me fifty cents for the kissing booth.
– Bill LaBounty
Another obscure song from the 1970’s, Whambo Bambo:
We made him sit there in the back of the bus,
We didn’t want him sitting up there with us,
Like yesterday into the bank where I went,
Who do you think was the President?
Damn me, Mammy, look at our Sammy,
The kid from next door.
Whambo bambo, little black sambo,
Ain’t so little no more,
Ain’t so little no more!
– Barry Mann
Not everybody gets it, though. Some people hear the word “faggot” but not the context. And some people do get it, but just find the use of the word itself offensive. I get why a station wouldn’t want to play the album version. Why risk backlash from people who can boycott your advertisers? The rock station I listen to plays the edited version.
The Big Bopper song? What am I missing? It doesn’t sound like anything that wouldn’t be played today, I don’t think.
Why? Its sympathetic to, you know, illegal aliens.
Actually, the hits of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap tell a coherent story.
“Young Girl” – he’s attracted, but she’s too young.
“Lady Willpower” – We’re going to do it.
“This Girl is a Woman Now” – We did it.
“Woman, Woman” – “Have you got cheating on your mind?” The relationship is dying.
“Over You” – It’s dead, Gary.
Of course there are dozens of songs from 1950 and earlier that couldn’t even begin to fly today, with their casual racism and sexism.
Let me preface by saying *I *think it’s a great song but perhaps buddha_david is alluding to Mr. Collins’ not so great attempt at a Hispanic accent. Also, the lyrics do refer to his bottle of tequila and his “seester” who will do anything to help him get to the outside.
My mind doesn’t think any of the songs I listed are “dirty.” Just by way of clarification.