Songs with only one or two swear words

Cafe Society
1

Uh, yeah, topic. Something that’s been bugging me for a while. One Republic - Good Life, Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend, that sorta thing.

The way I see it, cuss words are like cheat codes. (I’m talking the good stuff you get from a Game Genie or Codebreaker, not those pathetic in-game crumbs.) It’s absolute black and white…in for a penny, in for the whole dang mortgage payment…so if you’re gonna use them, use a lot of them. Crazy Town understood. So did Dead Kennedys. I don’t recall a single hip-hop band that ever skimped. I recall a Toad The Wet Sprocket song, Hold Her Down, that had two extremely incongruous F-bombs, but at least that song never made it to radio.

The thing that I find annoying about this is that in nearly every case, it seems completely thrown in. There’s absolutely no reason Good Life needed one. There’s gotta be at least five ways that sentiment could’ve been delivered without having to blank out four seconds on the radio edit. Hey, here’s an idea: “BS” Bee Ess! Same number of syllables, no muss, no fuss! If it’s good enough for Penn & Teller, it’s good enough for you! So what was the point, shock value? Since when does a mellow alt-pop outfit need that? NWA needed it. Hell, they wouldn’t have had any point without it.

I mean, why the hell did Green Day ever grumble about Wal-Mart censorship? Release something that doesn’t need to be censored! I have your music, you don’t seem to have a problem with this!

Gah…gaps in the lyrics are just so…so jarring.

2

Kate Bush has used profanity in a song only once, and that rarity made it have some amount of power. “Don’t want your bullshit, just want your sexuality.” from "Song of Solomon.

3

The Babys, Midnight Rendezvous. Only one swear word, an F bomb at the very end.

4

There are a few classic rock songs with cuss words that are routinely played on FM radio without getting the station in trouble with the F.C.C.

The Who’s “Who Are You?” has the line “Who the fuck are you?” a couple of times.

Steve Miller’s “Jet Airliner”: “I don’t want to get caught up in any of that funky shit going down in the city.”

And Pink Floyd’s “Money”: “Money, it’s a hit. Don’t give me that do goody good bullshit.”

5

“I Could Have Lied” - Red Hot Chili Peppers. Repeated in the chorus.
“You Oughta Know” - Alanis Morissette. A single “fuck”, referring to actual fucking.

They don’t censor the radio here, so the amount of profanity doesn’t bother me. They’re just words like any other.

6

John Mellencamp, “Play Guitar”: “Forget all about that macho shit/And learn how to play guitar.” Good advice.

Steve Forbert, “Romeo’s Song”: “Been shoveling shit for so long…”

7

AC/DC- Rock and Roll Singer:
And all the other shit
That they teach to kids in school

8

Streetlight Manifesto does this all the time.

We Will Fall Together:
I once knew a guy, obsessed with the afterlife
Oh what a terrible day that was, he realized he’d wasted all his time
Time was ticking by, and he’d been left behind
And as the clock tick-tocked his heart did stop and everything he had was fucked

Point/Counterpoint has a COMPLETELY random “fuck” in it:
So I waited by the phone but that phone never rang
And I sang so loud so I wouldn’t hear the bang
When the bang never came
And I never got the call: Fuck it! Thank you! I love you all!

There are other examples, and other than the Point/Counterpoint example I think they usually serve the song well, though. I think as a general rule if you’re trying to make a point a single, laser-guided F-bomb is much more effective than throwing curses all over the place.

9

Krusty: Here when you say “What I got, you gotta get it, put it in you”, how 'bout just “What I’d like is I’d like to hug and kiss you.”
Flea: Wow. That’s much better.
Arik: Everyone can enjoy that.

10

Some radio stations refused to play The Ballad of John & Yoko because they considered “Christ” to be used as a swear word.:rolleyes:

11

“Money for Nothing” has a couple of naughty words.

12

Not sure it’s FM radio, but I’ve heard the censored version with “funky kicks” substituted on some audio outlets.

BTW, just to drop a name, I did the original copyright lead sheet for that song (and album) for the publisher.

13

I don’t think they were that offensive back in 1984 - or more precisely, I think people didn’t care how offensive they were back then.

14

Nazareth “Hair of the Dog” only uses one, but they use it a lot.

15

Oh, I don’t know, for example, I think the radio edit of I Write Sins, Not Tragedies by Panic! At the Disco is more interesting than the uncensored version.

16

Barenaked Ladies’ album Maroon has a song called “Go Home” that ends with “FUCK YEAH!”

17

Warren Zevon: “Send lawyers, guns, and money - the shit has hit the fan!”

18

The radio version typically removes the entire 2nd verse, which is even more jarring than just taking out a word or two.

I always thought James Blunt’s “Beautiful” had the strangest cuss.

It’s just very weird in a love song. It’s usually changed to “flying high” on the radio.

19

Walk on the Wild Side: “But she never lost her head, even when she was giving head.” I was always surprised when the radio didn’t edit that.

But I was more surprised that they did edit “ass” from that Pink song from a few years ago. “I’ll be burnin’ rubber you’ll be kissing my enzzz.” :confused:

20

mumford and sons have the song Little Lion Man that I’ve heard on the radio quite a bit with the word blanked out. Personally, I like that in there as I feel that it adds a lot to the song to say you fucked up the relationship as opposed to messing up or screwing up.