# Songs you can't play today
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 20, 2026, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799 "2026-07-20T03:34:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/1 "2026-07-20T03:34:44Z")
Almost a decade ago, _[Baby It’s Cold Outside](https://www.npr.org/2018/12/05/673770902/baby-it-s-cold-outside-seen-as-sexist-frozen-out-by-radio-stations)_[was flagged as sexist](https://www.npr.org/2018/12/05/673770902/baby-it-s-cold-outside-seen-as-sexist-frozen-out-by-radio-stations). Today, _[Zulu Warrior](https://genius.com/The-brothers-four-the-zulu-warrior-lyrics)_[](https://genius.com/The-brothers-four-the-zulu-warrior-lyrics)by The Brothers Four came up on my iPod. The lyrics:
> _Ay-come-a-zimba-zimba-zi-a
> Ay-come-a-zimba-zimba-zee_
… seem like they may be racist, as they seem to be (I don’t know, myself) a stereotype of native African language. That made me think of _[Superman](https://genius.com/The-brothers-four-superman-lyrics)_ by the same group:
> I know a story, eh , about a Little fellow named Rodríguez González, a little Swiss fellow
>
> Swiss?
> Si, that way we don’t offend nobody
So even in the song, it suggests it’s offensive.
That got me thinking about the _Witch Doctor_ lyrics. _Ooh eee, ooh ah-ah, ting tang, Walla-walla, bing-bang_ is a Euro-American version of what ‘African’ languages sound like. Seems a bit insensitive nowadays.
OTOH, _WitchDoctor_ and _Zulu Wairrior_ seem respectful, other than the ‘English making fun of indigiounour languages’ thing. What do you think?
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/2 "2026-07-20T04:41:57Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> _[Baby It’s Cold Outside](https://www.npr.org/2018/12/05/673770902/baby-it-s-cold-outside-seen-as-sexist-frozen-out-by-radio-stations)_
We more than one discussions about this song several years ago:
> [@In defense of "Baby, It's Cold Outside"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defense-of-baby-its-cold-outside/775155):
>
> Every year (in recent years at least), there seems to be an increasingly loud chorus of PC voices insisting that this song is “rapey” and should, I dunno, be banned or something? Now, this year we’ve even got a [PC replacement version](http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/02/us/baby-its-cold-outside-cover-trnd/index.html) penned by an earnest young singer and her boyfriend (whether he’s also a singer is more of an open question). Hoo boy. Here’s the thing. The woman singing \*is \*being oppressed, but not by the man singing! He’s not the bad guy. She’s having a lovely time hang…
> [@Baby It's Cold Outside - date rapey?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-its-cold-outside-date-rapey/774546):
>
> Sorry if this is discussed elsewhere, but search was being uncooperative. Saw an article in the paper the other day about some folk who wrote new lyrics to the song Baby It’s Cold Outside to remove the “date-rapey” elements. Characterized the original as simply unacceptable today. Never crossed my mind. So whaddya think? I think such an attitude is silly. What next - Deck the Halls is about some homosexual named Donald? wink Also sorry if this is better suited somewhere other than CS. …
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/3 "2026-07-20T04:59:46Z")
I don’t think you’ll be hearing Patti Smith’s “Rock & Roll N\_\_\_\_\_” on the radio any time soon.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/4 "2026-07-20T09:26:13Z")
“Baby It’s Cold Outside” isn’t remotely sexist.
However, Jimmy Soul’s “If You Want To Be Happy” very much is, which is a pity because it’s so damn catchy.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/5 "2026-07-20T09:43:32Z")
I think the Stones don’t play Brown Sugar anymore (slavery related) and Elvis Costello doesn’t play Oliver’s Army (“white n-word”).
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### Author:  [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/6 "2026-07-20T10:00:08Z")
[Previous discussion](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-popular-songs-that-are-no-longer-socially-acceptable/1005956/4)
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/7 "2026-07-20T10:41:44Z")
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> I don’t think you’ll be hearing Patti Smith’s “Rock & Roll N\_\_\_\_\_” on the radio any time soon.
On Deezer (and I’m sure on other streaming services, too), on the “Easter” album the song is not-playable. Though I have the CD that still contains it.
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/8 "2026-07-20T12:25:15Z")
Even back when their songs first came out, I hated Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. Today, they all sound especially rape-y or like pedo anthems. _ick ick ick_
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/9 "2026-07-20T12:37:51Z")
My daughter was just telling me yesterday that she can’t listen to Into the Night, by Benny Mardone anymore. I remember liking it when I was, I dunno, about sixteen years old.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/10 "2026-07-20T12:39:34Z")
Don’t Go Near The Eskimos - Ben Colder
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### Author:  [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/11 "2026-07-20T12:40:17Z")
I saw them when I was in third grade. No, I didn’t completely understand the lyrical connotations at the time. I wonder if the Church Of God did- the venue was their Warner Auditorium at Anderson College.
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### Author:  [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/12 "2026-07-20T12:50:21Z")
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> I don’t think you’ll be hearing Patti Smith’s “Rock & Roll N\_\_\_\_\_” on the radio any time soon.
It was an unfortunate choice of word. If you pay attention to the song, it’s clear that there’s no racial meaning in context; she uses it as an umbrella term for certain types of people who are, in one way or another, “outside of society.” I get that she would have wanted a word that packed some punch, but still. A lot of folks don’t pay attention to what lyrics actually mean, and a word like that will just sort of jump out at you and take over the song (in the not-attentive-enough listener’s head). And, you know, I’m not going to argue that you’re wrong if you want to say it wasn’t her word to redefine.
It’s a rousing rock-n-roll number, too, but I’m surely not going to drive around town blasting it out my open car windows.
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/13 "2026-07-20T12:57:14Z")
I don’t think John Lennon will be performing “Woman is the N of the World” again.\*
mmm
\*for various reasons
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### Author:  [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/14 "2026-07-20T12:57:33Z")
There’s also “Woman is the N\_\_\_ of the World” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, but I don’t think many people were too keen playing it in the first place. My bass teacher Gary Van Scyoc played on the record and even he didn’t like it.
ETA: Ninja’d
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/15 "2026-07-20T13:04:03Z")
I can’t listen to CSN&Y song Ohio because obviously we have learned nothing.
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### Author:  [@JohnnyEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyEcks)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/16 "2026-07-20T13:18:18Z")
Surprised that no one has mentioned “He hit me (and it felt like a kiss)” yet.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/17 "2026-07-20T13:34:05Z")
And the version of Jerome Kern’s “Cotton Blossom” (from _Show Boat_) that begins “N\_\_\_\_s all work on the Mississippi.” (Later performances changed this to “Colored folks work…” and then to “Here we all work…”)
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/18 "2026-07-20T13:41:25Z")
The problem with the song is not that she uses the n-word in a racist way (she doesn’t, and I’m not a person who is triggered by the word itself, in any context), but that the whole song is a case of cultural approbation. She basically says that the rock’n’roll folks are hated and discriminated against like black people in America without taking into account that the rockers _chose_ to live out of society (which she admits to with the line “Outside of society, that’s where I wanna be!”), while the Black community is actively excluded from society by mainstream America. And that’s bad and gives me pains listening to the song, although I really like it musically.
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### Author:  [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/19 "2026-07-20T14:55:36Z")
Fairytale of New York, by The Pogues.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/20 "2026-07-20T14:58:28Z")
Still played every Christmas, although some stations blank out the f-slur.
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