I have never heard that edit. Seriously, why? That has to be a local thing.
We talked about this in a previous thread on radio edits, but Everlast made that version of the song on purpose. The creative edits were used to make the song sound better on the radio instead of just blanking the offensive words. And yes, he purposely edited a few words that didn’t need it to make the song more interesting. And I have to admit, I heard the unedited version on the radio a few weeks ago and it doesn’t feel like the same song at all. Personally, I thought the unedited version sounded terrible.
That’s a remarkably silly statement to make. Unless retarded is being used as a slur against a particular individual or group of people, it’s not an offensive term. If I say that I’m acting “retarded” unless someone is REALLY reaching for something to be offended about (in which case they could probably expend the same energy they’d need for that outrage and use to make certain their legislators are approving more funding for the developmentally disabled) then I’m disparaging myself and no one else.
Oddly, the same who are offended by the word “retarded” would freely use “crazy” or “stupid” to describe the actions of the mentally ill or someone with learning disabilities. Go figure.
I don’t think it’s silly at all, and in fact it’s germane to this thread, seeing how the Black Eyed Peas bowdlerized their first really big radio hit, “Let’s Get It Started,” from the original album cut “Let’s Get Retarded.”
“Retarded” as a term for “developmentally disabled” is falling off the back of the euphemism treadmill. “Retarded” as a colloquialism for “stupid” is offensive.
I’ve been wondering about this lately because I hear “shit” a lot on the radio in songs. Perhaps it depends on the type of station, but I don’t know. Some play it, some don’t. As as an example, there’s a popular Alice in Chains song that some times plays as “shit,” sometimes “spit,” and other times I’ve heard the word edited out completely. Their songs tend to play on modern rock, lighter alternative, and harder mainstream rock stations, both independent and “Clear Channel.” I wonder if that matters.
One of my favorite bands, The National, just released a “radio-friendly” remixed single, and I can’t get my head around it. The song, “I Need My Girl,” was already a very very soft song. They somehow made it even lighter/softer sounding and replaced the line “lost your shit” with “lost yourself,” and it just sounds very weird to me. Maybe they are going for “adult contemporary” airplay, which i didn’t think was that lucrative anyway.
This song’s edit was my first thought when I saw this thread. So** Justin_Bailey** I’m in DFW and I hear this all. the. damn. bloody. (!) time. Concur that it’s an awkward edit and could only have been made by a non-musician.
A version of this is what might be called “self-censored” songs; songs that the writer uses a clever (YMMV) word structure to say-but-not-really-say the ‘dirty’ word. The equivalent of a character telling another to “get on his ass and go”, when in fact there is a donkey nearby. Usually found in 70s or 60s music.
Examples:
Harry Chapin’s WOL*D has the verse with:
There’s a tire around my gut
From sittin’ on my
But it’s never gonna go away
With a slight bass note after “my” to keep the meter.
How clever! He didn’t say “butt”. But, (he he) he did! OK, it can be played on the radio.
Huey Lewis, The Heart of Rock n Roll:
When they play their music, that hard rock music
They like it with a lot of flash
But it’s still that same old back beat rhythm
That really kicks 'em in the…
Ooh! Can’t say ‘ass’ (even if it doesn’t rhyme). But the listener can go full Bevis: “heh heh he almost said ass! Cool!”
I think this is really ‘lame’. It comes across as grade school juvenile.
In the 80s R&R stations used to play “Who the fuck are you?” and “funky shit” all the time. We’ve gone backwards.
I heard that version. They even edited out words like “drugs” and “dead.” The song was almost totally incomprehensible, and I sat there wondering why the station was even bothering to play it.
There’s a line in the film Tropic of Thunder where Robert Downey Jr. ( in blackface makeup no less) tells Ben Stiller’s character that he lost the his shot at the Oscar because he went full “retard.” That’s probably one of the funniest lines in the films and it’s not disparaging of anyone other than Ben Stiller’s character.
The BlackEyed Peas “bowdlerized” their song because it wouldn’t have received airplay had they not. If you go to clubs around the world, the radio safe version isn’t what’s being played and you can buy CDs with the original lyrics in them. Apparently not that many people were/are offended.
While I don’t use “retard” or “retarded” in my daily speech and I can see where it would be a slur if it were directed towards individuals who were indeed developmentally disabled (itself a euphemism) I don’t see it as a particularly offensive term.
That’s kind of my point. All the songs we’re talking about here were self-censored in the hopes of getting airplay.
Maybe we just bring very different perspectives and sets of life experiences to the table here. I think of “retard” as equally offensive, if not more so, when used as a general insult. I think of calling someone a “retard” for saying or doing something stupid as roughly equivalent to calling a feminine or physically weak man a “fag” - factually wrong, based in outdated assumptions, and offensive. It isn’t a term in use with most people I know.
Snoop Doggy Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” has the line “Rollin’ down the street smoking endo, sippin’ on gin and juice”. The radio edit replaced “endo” with an “inhaling” sound effect.
Can’t have old Snoop getting high while he’s driving drunk, eh?
I remember this incident on the BBC in the afternoon on a Sunday. Me and my room mate at university just looked at each other and pissed ourselves laughing.
It isn’t just the US that does this - the UK have some over protective radio stations as well. I can vouch from experience.
For example, on recent songs that I have been listening to, Capital FM tend to play everything properly, unless there is actual swearing involved. Kiss FM, and to a point Radio 1, tend to censor out anything and everything.
Here’s an example of some censoring, including name censoring:
Capital FM refer to that song as its original name, “Sex”.
Kiss FM rename it to “Let’s Talk”…
The Big Top 40 Chart Show rename it to “Amsterdam”… what ?!
Another song that had this censoring was “S&M” by Rihanna (WARNING: NOT WORKPLACE SAFE):
This was played out in full on Capital FM. Radio 1, however, censored petty things like “sex”, “chains” and “whips”, and even renamed the song to “Come On”.
Also, the NOW edit of Lukas Graham - “7 Years” edits out references to “smoking herb” and “drinking burning liquor” - yet Capital play this in full!
Ever since a station was prosecuted and fined for airing George Carlin’s 7 Dirty Words, media has been reluctant to challenge the Supreme Court. Lacking deep pockets; wanting to make money, not promote enlightenment; and “quivering with courage,” [sup]*[/sup] they tend to take the safe path.
Walt Kelly’s term for a newspaper that censored his strip because a cartoon steer looked too much like LBJ.
