# 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:** 2
### Author:  [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/21 "2026-07-20T15:06:20Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> 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.
I’ve run across that argument before, and I would say “Point partially taken.”
Where Smith’s analogy breaks down is, of course, that to whatever extent that artists who are living as outsiders face exclusion, it’s insignificant next to racism. Smith herself can walk down the street and be treated the same as any normie white woman by people who pass by her or who sell her a pack of gum at the drug store. I’ll agree that for THAT reason, the comparison shouldn’t be made.
I don’t think I would agree that artists living as outsiders do so by choice, though. There was never the slightest chance that Smith, or Jimi Hendrix, or Jackson Pollack (both name checked in the song) could possibly have pursued a career as an insurance adjuster or a printing press operator or the manager of a Diary Queen.
My reading of the line “Outside of society, that’s where I wanna be” is not that she’s telling us she’s there by way of a deliberate choice. She’s telling us that that’s not only _where_ she is but _who_ she is, and she’s fine with it. It’s just as good as, and maybe better than, being a normie. And if you (the listener) are an outsider, that’s good too. Don’t let “them” make you feel inferior.
The point I was hoping to make earlier? Mainly that that word interferes with her message.
---
### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/22 "2026-07-20T15:08:27Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> 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.
It’s like that one scene from _The Commitments_ where the group of working-class white Irish young people declare “I’m black and I’m proud”.
---
### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/23 "2026-07-20T15:16:41Z")
On a recent SNL episode, Kirsty MacColl sang that line as “You’re cheap and you’re haggard” (while giving the audience a wink).
---
### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/24 "2026-07-20T15:18:12Z")
Its still a moving song. May we never forget.
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/25 "2026-07-20T15:25:49Z")
> [@Gyrate](#):
>
> It’s like that one scene from _The Commitments_ where the group of working-class white Irish young people declare “I’m black and I’m proud”.
I couldn’t remember that remark, but it doesn’t spoil the movie for me, which I love.
---
### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/26 "2026-07-20T15:33:07Z")
I heard the Ten Years After song “I’d Love to Change the World” the other day, first time hearing it in quite a while, and had a mild twitchy reaction to the opening lines.
I’m not certain where the song’s slurs fall on the current Offend-O-Meter, so I’ll just offer a [link](https://www.google.com/search?q=i%27d+love+to+change+the+world+lyrics&oq=i%27d+love+to&gs_lcrp=EgRlZGdlKg8IABAAGEMYgAQYigUY-QcyDwgAEAAYQxiABBiKBRj5BzIHCAEQABiABDIHCAIQABiABDIHCAMQABiABDIGCAQQRRg5MgcIBRAAGIAEMgcIBhAAGIAEMgcIBxAAGIAEMgcICBAAGIAE0gEIMjI4NmowajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&source=chrome.ob&ie=UTF-8) to the lyrics.
mmm
ETA: And what immediately follows the lines I am referring to is this:
> “Tax the rich, feed the poor, 'til there are no, rich no more…”
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/27 "2026-07-20T15:36:35Z")
Ouch, those lyrics are bad and read like a modern maga complaining about the state of the “woke” world.
ETA: i mean the opening lines.
---
### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/28 "2026-07-20T15:51:06Z")
I would think **Ahab The Arab** by Ray Stevens would likely not be appreciated these days.
---
### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/29 "2026-07-20T15:59:05Z")
I’ve always found it helpful to listen to Puckett’s singles as if they were a theme album.
Young Girl - nope, she’s jailbait
Lady Willpower - I guess she’s old enough now
This Girl Is a Woman Now - okay, just barely old enough
Woman Woman - now he has her, but can he hold her
Don’t Give In - he’s desperately begging her not to dump him
Over You - but she did and he’s crushed. Just desserts for him
A female former disk jockey I know always summed them up as, “Gary Puckett is a pig.”
---
### Author:  [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/30 "2026-07-20T16:18:28Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#):
>
> On a recent SNL episode, Kirsty MacColl sang that line as “You’re cheap and you’re haggard” (while giving the audience a wink).
Not _ **too** _ recent, I am guessing.
---
### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/31 "2026-07-20T16:23:23Z")
Whoops - that would be Melissa McMillan, c. 2024.
---
### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/32 "2026-07-20T16:48:44Z")
> [@JohnnyEcks](#):
>
> Surprised that no one has mentioned “He hit me (and it felt like a kiss)” yet.
The girl who became known as [Little Eva](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_Hit_Me_(And_It_Felt_Like_a_Kiss)) for “Locomotion” was the babysitter from Gerry Goffin and Carole King.
> King has stated that Little Eva, their babysitter who inspired the song, had used that exact phrase to them. …
>
> When they inquired why she tolerated such treatment, Eva replied, with complete sincerity, that her boyfriend’s actions were motivated by his love for her.
The song’s lyrics make that explicit. Why they made that line into a song is still mysterious. Pretty much everyone has disavowed it. Never charted of course.
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#):
>
> I heard the Ten Years After song “I’d Love to Change the World”
Truly one of the greatest 60s songs. The only way to make sense of the lyrics, though, is to treat them as a call and response between Them and Us, the first two lines of each verse Them and the last two Us, with a wistful, helpless chorus in between.
> THEM: Everywhere is freaks and hairies
> Dykes and fairies, tell me, where is sanity?
>
> US: Tax the rich, feed the poor
> 'Til there are no rich no more
“We Can Be Together” by the Jefferson Airplane is another 60s rage against the machine song that feels like it came from an alternate timeline. No matter how sweetly Grace Slick sings “Up against the wall, motherfuckers” the song is about true revolution like the ones in Latin America, in which the rebels literally put their enemies up against a wall and shot them. Imagine that going down in Trump’s America.
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/33 "2026-07-20T16:52:45Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> The only way to make sense of the lyrics, though, is to treat them as a call and response between Them and Us, the first two lines of each verse Them and the last two Us, with a wistful, helpless chorus in between.
Ah, I missed that interpretation, and it makes sense, I only read the first few lines and didn’t listen to the whole song, so there clearly was a misinterpretation on my part.
---
### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/34 "2026-07-20T17:16:49Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Truly one of the greatest 60s songs. The only way to make sense of the lyrics, though, is to treat them as a call and response between Them and Us, the first two lines of each verse Them and the last two Us, with a wistful, helpless chorus in between.
Wow, thanks for that insight. All these years and I never made that connection.
Not just a great song, but what a great and forgotten band they were.
mmm
---
### Author:  [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/35 "2026-07-20T17:40:37Z")
I don’t know how “I Gotcha” by Joe Tex was ever socially acceptable. The whole thing is a man demanding sex from a woman who supposedly promised he’d be next in line when she “quit her boyfriend.” Really sickening. Yet it was on the Billboard top 40 charts for 16 weeks, and made it as high as number 2.
---
### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/36 "2026-07-20T21:54:43Z")
> [@JohnnyEcks](#):
>
> Surprised that no one has mentioned “He hit me (and it felt like a kiss)” yet.
Similarly, I’m a (female) jazz singer and will never perform “It Had To Be You” because these lyrics feel too much like an allusion to domestic violence:
_"Some others I’ve seen_
_Might never be mean_
_Might never be cross or try to be boss_
_But they wouldn’t do_
_For nobody else gave me a thrill_
_With all your faults, I love you still"_
---
### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/37 "2026-07-20T22:17:26Z")
There’s a whole subgenre of love songs in which the woman singing lists the various character flaws of her man but decides she loves him anyway. These range from the merely quirky (e.g. “I Go For That” by Audrey Morris) to the disturbingly abusive (“He Hit Me And It Felt Like A Kiss”).
Tom Lehrer gender-swaps the trope in “She’s My Girl”, of course.
_In winter, the bedroom is one large ice cube_
_And she squeezes the toothpaste from the middle of the tube!_
_Her hairs in the sink_
_Have driven me to drink_
_But she’s my girl, she’s my girl, she’s my girl_
_And I love her_
---
### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/38 "2026-07-20T22:18:16Z")
I was going to suggest _One In a Million_ by Guns ‘N Roses, but that one wasn’t really socially acceptable at the time, either ([link to lyrics](https://genius.com/Guns-n-roses-one-in-a-million-lyrics)).
And a [link to the Wikipedia article about the song](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_in_a_Million_(Guns_N'_Roses_song)?wprov=sfti1#Reception).
---
### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/39 "2026-07-20T22:46:46Z")
The songs that came to mind first were anything by artists with sexual convictions, like Gary Glitter or Rolf Harris. …which I think is going against the spirit of the OP…
However, with Rolf he kind of gets in on lyrical grounds too, as “two little boys […] gaily they played” didn’t age well even before the convictions. ([two little boys](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llezU59ACkc) (youtube link))
And with [Boney](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGWwW1EgNbA) (youtube link) it sounds racist in various ways though from some googling it’s supposed to be about a mixed race detective from a novel.
---
### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799/40 "2026-07-20T23:01:01Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#):
>
> Young Girl - nope, she’s jailbait
> Lady Willpower - I guess she’s old enough now
> This Girl Is a Woman Now - okay, just barely old enough
> Woman Woman - now he has her, but can he hold her
> Don’t Give In - he’s desperately begging her not to dump him
> Over You - but she did and he’s crushed. Just desserts for him
I’ve noticed this too.
I saw Gary Puckett & the Union Gap in concert in 1968, on a triple bill with The Association and Simon & Garfunkel. I remember S&G being terrific, singing “Mrs. Robinson” “America.” Both The Association and Gary Puckett underwhelmed me.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799.md?page=1)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-cant-play-today/1031799.md?page=3)