# Who Are You? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 5, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271 "2004-09-05T22:06:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PussyCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@PussyCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PussyCow)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/1 "2004-09-05T22:06:20Z")
So, in The Who’s song “Who Are You?” in the chorus Pete is singing: _Who are you? (background): who who who who Yah, tell me who are you (background): who who who who_ Then it sounds exactly like he says: _Who the fuck are you?_ But they play this on the radio. Also I cannot find any place that shows lyrics on their sites where it says this. But it sounds just like Pete says “fuck”. Can anyone tell me what he’s saying? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/2 "2004-09-05T22:13:33Z")
Um, that would be Roger Daltrey doing the lead vocals, hon. Aside from that, it’s been too long since I’ve heard the song to give you any useful information ---
**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/3 "2004-09-05T22:18:22Z")
> [@PussyCow](#): > > Can anyone tell me what he’s saying? Yeah, he’s saying ‘fuck’. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/4 "2004-09-05T22:19:11Z")
He is saying “who the fuck are you?” ---
**Author:** ![PussyCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@PussyCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PussyCow)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/5 "2004-09-05T22:19:40Z")
> [@](#): > > Um, that would be Roger Daltrey doing the lead vocals, hon. Oh, sorry. I’m not enough of a Who fan to distinguish they’re voices, but I remembered the video as Pete singing. I’m sure you’re right, though. ::sheepish grin:: ---
**Author:** ![PussyCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@PussyCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PussyCow)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/6 "2004-09-05T22:21:13Z")
> [@Santos L Halper](#): > > Yeah, he’s saying ‘fuck’. 🙂 For real? And they’re allowing that on the radio? How does that work? And thank you **Santos** and **RikWriter**. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/7 "2004-09-05T22:25:14Z")
I always thought it was “Who the fuck are you?”, too, but I assumed they edited it when they played it on the radio. In R.E.M.'s “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” right at the end after he sings “I never understood” instead of singing “the frequency” as he had through the rest of the song, Michael Stipe slips in “Don’t fuck with me”; that one got airplay, although it is a bit inaudible. ---
**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/8 "2004-09-05T22:44:24Z")
> [@PussyCow](#): > > For real? And they’re allowing that on the radio? How does that work? Since the whole Janet Jackson Superbowl flap broadcasters have gotten a lot more paranoid about stuff that might get them in trouble with the FCC. But _Who are you_ has been playing on the radio for decades, so I guess it’s kinda grandfathered in. 🙂 If a new song came out with the word fuck, it would probably get edited from the start. No doubt if the radio station got complaints they’d edit the word out. It also helps that if you’re not really listening for it it’s not too obvious. Although I noticed several months ago (not long after some radio stations were getting FCC fines for indecent material) that one of the local rock stations edited the word ‘bullshit’ out of Pink Floyd’s _Money_. This is a song that the station had been playing for the last thirty years and now, all of a sudden, the word’s too terrible for us to hear. :rolleyes: Eric ---
**Author:** ![PussyCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@PussyCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PussyCow)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/9 "2004-09-05T22:59:32Z")
I remember when the Ford/Osbourne song “Close Your Eyes” was playing on the radio back in the 80s that they edited out the word “forever”. ---
**Author:** ![pyrrthon1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2acd7d/32.png) [@pyrrthon1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pyrrthon1)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/10 "2004-09-05T23:24:42Z")
I seem to remember an “AM” version that expurgated the “fuck” part. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/11 "2004-09-05T23:43:43Z")
I remember hearing it on FM radio when it was a Top 40 hit in 1978, and the “Who the fuck are you?” was there, unedited. I thought “hmm!” at the time, but FM radio always seemed to have more leeway than AM. For years I had been hearing Pink Floyd’s _Money_ on FM radio with the lines, “Money, it’s a hit / Don’t give me that do-goody-good bullshit.” ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/12 "2004-09-05T23:51:16Z")
> [@pyrrthon1](#): > > I seem to remember an “AM” version that expurgated the “fuck” part. I read at the time that there was a special edit available to radio stations that had “who the **hell** are you” replacing the naughty line. I don’t believe I ever actually heard that version, though. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/13 "2004-09-06T00:10:53Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > For years I had been hearing Pink Floyd’s _Money_ on FM radio with the lines, “Money, it’s a hit / Don’t give me that do-goody-good bullshit.” I believe the version on the radio they snipped the end off that line to “do-goody-good-bull”. I think I have heard both versions of “Who Are You” on the radio though. I’d say the Stones get away with more sleaze in their lyrics than anyone else. But most of the Stone’s songs take several years of listening to figure out what Mick’s saying anyway. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/14 "2004-09-06T00:32:07Z")
Check out this site, forth paragraph down. [http://www.songfacts.com/detail.lasso?id=2394](http://www.songfacts.com/detail.lasso?id=2394) ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/15 "2004-09-06T00:33:44Z")
> [@ltfire](#): > > Check out this site, forth paragraph down. > > [http://www.songfacts.com/detail.lasso?id=2394](http://www.songfacts.com/detail.lasso?id=2394) That’s FOURTH, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/16 "2004-09-06T00:42:38Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > I believe the version on the radio they snipped the end off that line to “do-goody-good-bull”. I ocasionally heard that version too, but more often heard the unedited version. ---
**Author:** ![waits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df788c/32.png) [@waits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waits)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/17 "2004-09-06T03:40:51Z")
Yes, he says “fuck.” And Steve Miller says “shit” in “Jet Airliner” and Mick Jagger sings “You make a dead man cum” in the last line of “Start Me Up,” all heard on classic rock stations. But you can be sure that Microsoft didn’t use that last line when they licensed the song for their promotions about ten years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/18 "2004-09-06T03:44:12Z")
> [@waits](#): > > Yes, he says “fuck.” And Steve Miller says “shit” in “Jet Airliner” and Mick Jagger sings “You make a dead man cum” in the last line of “Start Me Up,” all heard on classic rock stations. And Lou Reed got in there years before any of these with the never-censored “giving head” reference in “Walk on the Wild Side.” ---
**Author:** ![todd33rpm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@todd33rpm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/todd33rpm)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/19 "2004-09-06T13:28:31Z")
Re “Walk On The Wild Side”: the single version omits the “giving head” verse. It times out almost a minute shorter, IIRC. Unfortunately, our classic-leaning AAA opts to play the short, edited version as a rule, so I hear the edited one practically every time it plays. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271/20 "2004-09-06T14:51:42Z")
When John Mellencamp’s _Play Guitar_ was in heavy rotation, Indy’s top radio station made a doctored tape with _shit_ played backwards. It came out, “Forget all about that macho _tish_, and learn how to play guitar.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-you/263271.md?page=2)