Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl

[KevInVegas]

As for why some censored tunes are on air, while Pink Floyd and The Who can curse…

A lot of that has to do with the fact that the Who and Pink Floyd et al never released a revised version. With the Who, I think it was because it was so mumbled. With Floyd, I just don’t think anyone cared by the time it started getting airplay.

The one I haven’t heard about here is the Doors, Break on Through… She gives… She gives… She gives… Bleeeeehhhh. I heard that was head in live shows, but that it was never recorded (in a studio) as anything but a scream.

[ElvisL1ves]

And while we’re at it, didja ever notice how no station, oldies or not, plays the original “Johnny, Get Angry” anymore? I’m SURE I remember the female singer in the original song going

“Johnny, get angry, Johnny, get mad,
Give me the biggest lickin’ I ever had.”

Once in a GREAT while, it’ll be on with “lickin’” replaced by “lecture”. Never mind, I know why and I don’t even disagree.

[mazzer]

Thanks, Teach! I’m off to the record store!

[Salieri2]

pepperlandgirl said:

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?

Apparently so. I don’t see ANYTHING nice about it.

I love the song, most of it, but ultimately, in this case, I appreciate not having to hear one more slur on the airwaves. And IMHO if revisionist surgery is going to be peformed on a song, it seems a lot cleaner to nix the verse than to slap a static/dub-over/lame substitution/fig leaf Band-Aid over that one word. Witness the ghastliness of “Brown-Eyed Girl.” Does anyone know Mark Knopfler’s opinion? I once saw concert footage where he substituted “queenie” for the British audience’s benefit, but I have no grasp on whether this term shares the negative connotation of its American cousin.

I can’t speak for gay folks but if I were one myself, I’d probably call this just another drop in the bucket, an unnecessary element of nastiness that contributes to the general homophobia quota. Who needs it?

[MannyL]

*Originally posted by pepperlandgirl *
**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?
**

I love that song but usually when it comes on the radio I change stations because it is butchered so badly. Thankfully Q104.3FM in New York City plays the song in the full unedited version.

[pepperlandgirl]

Apparently so. I don’t see ANYTHING nice about it.

            I love the song, most of it, but ultimately, in this case, I appreciate not having to hear one more slur on the
            airwaves. And IMHO if revisionist surgery is going to be peformed on a song, it seems a lot cleaner to nix the
            verse than to slap a static/dub-over/lame substitution/fig leaf Band-Aid over that one word. Witness the
            ghastliness of "Brown-Eyed Girl." Does anyone know Mark Knopfler's opinion? I once saw concert footage
            where he substituted "queenie" for the British audience's benefit, but I have no grasp on whether this term
            shares the negative connotation of its American cousin. 

I don’t agree.
It’s not a “nice” lyric. And taken out of context, it’s even worse. However it’s also not that serious, and shouldn’t be taken seriously. The entire song is one giant joke, and like someone else previously pointed out, the person talking in the song is “working man”, not the enlightened, loving people from the SD community. I also don’t think any malice was meant, or Dire Straits meant that verse to be anymore offensive than the rest of the song could be considered.

[bunnymom]

Maybe I’m crazy (can’t rule it out, ya know…) but I don’t get it.

A person listens to a song. Person likes the tune, but dislikes a word or phrase contained in same song. Person demands the song be REWRITTEN in order to please him???
Huh?
What if I said that I really like the 1812 Overture, but I find the cannon blasts offensive? Should the whole world have to do without the cannon blasts from that moment on simply because I make a big stink about them?
Why do people think that they have to change it? Why not just listen to something else?

I just don’t get it.

[Salieri2]

…I also don’t think any malice was meant, or Dire Straits meant that verse to be anymore offensive than the rest of the song could be considered.

pepperlandgirl, I don’t think Dire Straits INTENDED any offense at all, and I don’t believe there’s any deep agenda here whatsoever–please don’t decide I’m up in arms [no pun intended, heh heh]over “Money for Nothing” when there are a lot more important things to wring my panties over. I’m not [up in arms OR wringing panties]. While I don’t believe I generally scream “Censor!! Oh, my virgin ears!” over every non-PC phrase out there, I do appreciate the “faggot”-ectomy in this case, and thinking it over, I think it’s because derogatory terms for gays are still so widely accepted in mainstream slang. Ever hear a kid say, deprecatingly, “that’s so gay”? or read about a teen beating up another one because he was jokingly referred to as a homosexual? I don’t think our society is at the point yet where we can afford to ignore how we use language casually.

As this thread has already shown, we can all find and enjoy uncut, uncensored versions of our favorite tunes–we have a choice, thank God & the Bill of Rights, and we can listen to whatever we want. Application of editing like this seems arbitrarily or locally applied; it’s not a global suppression of all twitchy material, so why panic or freak out?

The danger of offensive language, as with any artistic content that watchdogs bark over, is that of passive acceptance and assimilation. The idea is not that, seeing a woman being beaten up on TV, I’ll actively say to myself, “Hey! That’s cool!” and go take a club to the next woman I see–it is more that if I see enough of this unchallenged, on some level I will begin to treat it as, if not normal, then not unusual. Using offensive language casually or carelessly brings it that much closer to normal expression, and that’s where it becomes a real problem. In this case, the censorship of “Brown-Eyed Girl” and “Money For Nothing” has led to a really intelligent discussion about meanings. Discussion sabotages brainwashing. Isn’t that a benefit? Ultimately, the version the most people want to hear will be played the most. Democracy in action.

If I sound like I’m ranting, I really don’t mean it–this is a disagreement, not a fight. And I regret the hijack, and I’m tired as hell, so I’m going to bed. But I think the words we choose are important, or should be, whether in art or entertainment or conversation, because that’s all part of life, and I like to see meaning in it. Night all.

[tomndebb]

Gee, 27 posts and no one has mentioned the PC expurgation in the Stones’ Satisfaction?