Songs with only one or two swear words

“We R Who We R” by Ke$ha:

I’m just talking true
I’m telling you 'bout the shit we do
We’re selling our clothes, sleeping in cars,
Dressing it down, hitting on dudes…hard

I’ve heard some radio stations also edit out the word “down” when she sings, “would she go down on you in a theater?”

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s American Troglodyte

Americans are wearin’ that lingerie
Americans are throwin’ that shit away
Americans are watchin’ reality
Americans are goin’ from a to z

I wondered if we were going to count “nigger” as a swear word. If so, Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army” has the following line:

“Only takes one itchy trigger / One more widow, one less white nigger”

A few of my favorites:

Cowboy Junkies “Floorboard Blues”:

Cowboy Junkies again, with Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning:

Elvis Costello “Suit of Lights”:

mmm

Oops, I forgot…

“Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down”

So call it 2 to 3 1/2 swears in one song.

Jefferson Airplane’s “We Can Be Together” contains the line “Up against the wall, motherfucker”. You could argue that the entire phrase didn’t need to be in there (it seems at odds with the overall message of the song), but once you use that phrase, ain’t no other word going to stand in for that last one.

Fish Cheer
I never heard the version where they spell F-I-S-H

It also has the words, “We are all outlaws in the eyes of America/In order to survive we steal, cheat, lie, forge, fuck, hide, and deal.”

Although, I recall the lyrics sheet that came with the record (remember those?) read “cheat, lie, forge, fred, hide, and deal.”

I guess it was illegal to print “fuck” on a lyrics sheet, but you could sing it on the album!

oops! Double post

I ran into something similar years ago when watching a video of a Bill Cosby live performance. He was talking about asking a cocaine-using friend, "Why do you do that? What does it do for you? The friend answered, “It enhances your personality!” to which Bill responded, “But what if you’re an asshole?” It was just so unexpected, given Cosby’s usual “clean” comedy, that it was that much more powerful than it would have been coming from a comedian who swears all the time.

I’ll add The Eagles’ “Life in the Fast Lane”, with its line, “We’ve been up and down this highway, haven’t seen a goddamned thing.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard that censored.

And their “Those Shoes”, depending on whether you think “jerk-offs” is a swear word or not.

It was years before I noticed that the line appears twice (once after the second verse and again after the last verse). It’s a bit like John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero,” where Lennon, having recorded the song in two halves that were spliced together (the edit is obvious–the sound changes quite noticeably), didn’t realize until he heard the finished recording that he had used the word “fucking” twice.

Sheesh…I recognize, like, 4% of the songs mentioned. :confused:

It it really just a “sudden impact” thing? Or just something out of left field? (I never would’ve guessed John Mellencamp would’ve bothered.)

Poi Dog Pondering’s song God’s Gallipoli uses “fuck” twice, but it’s used for emphasis and the song wouldn’t be the same without it.