OK, on several versions of this song I’ve heard, most notably on Van Morrison’s Greatest Hits CD, the lyrics have been changed! The version I remember, and the version still played on the local oldies station here in Houston (107.5 KLDE), goes:
Sometime I’m overcome by thinkin’ 'bout
Making love in the green grass
Behind the stadium with you…
But the changed version seems to have a clip from earlier in the song pasted over a line, so that is goes:
Sometime I’m overcome by thinkin’ 'bout Laughin’ and a runnin’
Behind the stadium with you…
If you are listening well it sounds HORRIBLE. My question is, why did they change it? Too risque? It was obviously ok’ed by Van Morrison or his management for it to make it on his CD like that. What the hell?
Welcome to the wonderful world of censorship. Here’s your sidearm, the station is over there.
Nothing pisses me off more that this kind of lame ass WTBS-dubbing-over kind of censorship.
Why can’t Steve Miller try to avoid the ‘funky SHIT’ going down? Why does it have to be ‘funky kicks’?
Because some ignorant overly sensitive dumbass was offended by the word ‘shit’.
Why can’t Van Morrison make love in the green grass? You got it, someone somewhere was offended by the image that provoked.
It absolutely infuriates me when this happens (not that you could tell, huh? ). Why do these people insist on listening to this kind of music if they have a problem with the subject material? I’m sorry, freedom of choice and all, but if you don’t like it CHANGE the freakin’ STATION! Dont write your damn congressman or whatever and get the lyrics changed! Find some other music to listen to that doesn’t offend your delicate sensibilities!
Leave me and my rock 'n roll devil-music alone!!
I appologise for the Pit-like response. This is just a hot subject with me.
Are you sure? Those lines are in two different verses according to all the versions I’ve ever heard. Lots of songs include the phrase “making love,” including plenty o’ oldies. I don’t think that would get edited out, since it doesn’t include any swear words. I could be wrong. Here are the lyrics in question, though:
Hey, where did we go
Days when the rains came ?
Down in the hollow
Playing a new game,
Laughing and a-running, hey, hey,
Skipping and a-jumping
In the misty morning fog with
Our, our hearts a-thumping
And you, my brown-eyed girl
-----
So hard to find my way
Now that I’m all on my own.
I saw you just the other day,
My, how you have grown!
Cast my memory back there, Lord,
Sometime I’m overcome thinking about
Making love in the green grass
Behind the stadium
With you, my brown-eyed girl
beadlin: Absolutely positive. I first noticed it a couple years ago when, ahem, downloading the song on mp3. Growing up, my parents always tuned in to the oldies station. I knew the song by heart. I immediately noticed that it was different, and assumed that some prankster had changed it himself when encoding the mp3. It basically sounds like someone copied the line “Laugin’ and a runnin’” from earlier in the song and pasted it over “Makin’ love in the green grass” If you listen, you will notice that since the tempo and volume of the song has changed slightly since the first verse and it doesn’t quite match.
I sort of dismissed it, but after borrowing my friend’s Van Morrison’s Greatest Hits CD (bought from the store, not burned from mp3) … there it was, they CHANGED it! The oldies station is the only place I’ve heard it unchanged, besides a few movies. This leads me to believe they changed it quite a few years after the song came out. Any ideas when, exactly?
Hi Chris…
I’m in Houston too. KLDE plays the voice-over version. They also play a shortened version of American Pie. I listen to KKRW (the Arrow) 93.7, where all the nasty bits are played correctly. Steve Miller’s funky shit, and other songs with “bad” words are played in their entirety, with all the original lyrics intact. I listen to KLDE some too, but for un-PC classic rock, The Arrow is the way to go.
A number of years ago I heard that the change in “Brown-Eyed Girl” was made at the request of Van Morrison himself after he was “born again.” He didn’t want the sexual reference to remain in the song. Anyone else ever heard that explanation? Sorry I can’t remember where I heard it. But if it’s true, it gets those evil censors off the hook.
Whether the original or “cleaned” version of the song airs on the radio may just depend on what CD the radio station happens to own. I can’t imagine there would be a public outcry over “making love in the green grass” in today’s world. After all, classic rock stations play “Feel like makin’ love” all the time, and “modern rock” stations play much racier stuff. On a local station (WHFS or DC101) I even heard the uncensored version of a new song with the line “I promise not to try not to f**k with your mind…” If that didn’t get censored, why would Van Morrison?
Another cleaned up song that REALLY bugs me is “MOney for Nothing” by Dire Straits. THe second verse (or the 3rd, I’m not sure) starts “The lil faggot with the earrings and the makeup…the lil faggot’s got his own jet airplane, the lil faggot is a millionaire.” I know it’s not PC. I know it’s not even very nice. But the WHOLE verse is cut out of radio versions. Do they really HAVE to censor that? I mean, does it honestly hurt and offend somebody that much?
God, I hate that. I paid 20 bucks for what I thought was the 1st pressing of that record. The sleeve had the liner notes by Sinclair and everything. I went home, put it on… some mook had switched the two versions. Bastards.
As I understand it, most broadcasters change mainstream stuff based on recieving just one complaint. If it was something that was limited to just late night airing, and had a “warning: the following song/show/etc. is not for all audiences due to it’s sexual nature…” then they say we warned ya. I noticed this when Dr. Demento had to start editing stuff, and mentioned that the bleeps were the result of just one letter objecting to the word “titties” in a Frank Zappa song. Some morning jocks mentioned the same thing. Knowing this, a fairly small group of people can (and have) cause major problems for broadcasters.
I am fairly certain folks like Howard Stern don’t have such a policy, and probably take pride in getting such letters. While I am not a fan of his show I think it does show some integrity and character.
An interesting aside, when I hear the version of Jet Airliner that they play on the radio here, the one with the long intro, they DO use the “funky shit” line. In fact, I don’t think I’ve heard the censored one on the radio (presumably the expletive is thought to be discreet enough to go unnoticed). Rock on, Miller.
Just to kind of defend Dire Straits here (in case anybody doesn’t know), Money for Nothing is sung from the perspective of typical “workin’ class guys” complaining about the easy life musicians lead. Note the “we’ve got to move these refrigerators, we’ve got to move these color tv’s”, etc. So, yeah. Before anyone starts bitching about Dire Straits being insensitive, remember who’s talking in the song.
What I find funny is that I have heard edited versions and original versions… on the same station. Not generally of the same song, mind you. Steve Miller has “funky kicks” which sounds to me like something Brandi Chastain does when she’s high. But on the same station, The Who can ask “Who the fuck are you?”, and Pink Floyd sings, “Don’t give me that do goody good bullshit.” And I’ve heard some of the more interesting lyrics from the Animals album as well.
Perhaps it’s that in these songs, the “indecent” (whatever) lyrics are so mumbled that it doesn’t matter?
As far as Brown Eyed Girl, I believe the mono version has the edited lyrics, the stereo version the “making love” lyrics. I’m guessing, though I wasn’t there at the time, that the single released in the 60’s was the mono version. That’s a stab in the dark.
Interestingly, when I first bought the Van Morrison Greatest Hits cd in the early 90’s, and realized it had the mono edited version, I was full of righteous anger. I lost the cd while moving once. I finally replaced it this year, and the cd now has the stereo/unedited version!
I’ve never noticed any censorship on WZLX in boston. They play:
“making love”
“Even while she was giving head”
“who the fuck are you”
“funky shit going down”
and “Goody good bullshit.”
I don’t know why some stations censor and others don’t, but that’s the rundown of what I’ve heard on the air. I’m sure there’s some I’ve missed.
). Why do these people insist on listening to this kind of music if they have a problem with the subject material? I’m sorry, freedom of choice and all, but if you don’t like it CHANGE the freakin’ STATION! Dont write your damn congressman or whatever and get the lyrics changed! Find some other music to listen to that doesn’t offend your delicate sensibilities!