# Why was "Come Together" not banned by the BBC? (or was it?)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-come-together-not-banned-by-the-bbc-or-was-it/927145
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** music
**Created:** [December 3, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-come-together-not-banned-by-the-bbc-or-was-it/927145 "2020-12-03T20:03:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-come-together-not-banned-by-the-bbc-or-was-it/927145/1 "2020-12-03T20:03:43Z")
A famous and crazy story about the Kinks’ “Lola” is the fact that Ray Davis had to make a roundtrip from New York to London and back to redub the word “Coca-Cola” with"Cherry Cola" in order to please the BBC that didn’t want to promote a trademarked company in their programs. Now “Lola” was released in June 1970. The Beatles’ “Come Together” had been released as a double A side with “Something” only mere 8 months earlier, with the line “He shoot Coca-Cola” intact. Why wasn’t that an issue with the BBC?
---
### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2020, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-come-together-not-banned-by-the-bbc-or-was-it/927145/2 "2020-12-03T21:12:51Z")
Says [here](https://www.gigwise.com/photos/104379/the-best-13-songs-that-were-banned-by-the-bbc) that _‘Come Together’ was apparently a step too far. The lyrics, which contained, “he shoot Coca-Cola” was seen as advertising and was thus banned by the BBC._
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2020, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-come-together-not-banned-by-the-bbc-or-was-it/927145/3 "2020-12-03T21:23:37Z")
Ah thanks, that’s interesting, and I wouldn’t have thought. It became a hit nonetheless, but then the Beatles had a different standing than the Kinks (above all others, that is). It surprises me though that the Kinks hadn’t learned from the banning of “Come Together”, and I can’t imagine they didn’t know about it, given how interconnected the British pop scene was at that time.
---
### Author:  [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2020, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-come-together-not-banned-by-the-bbc-or-was-it/927145/4 "2020-12-04T19:57:16Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> “…he shoot Coca-Cola” was seen as advertising and was thus banned by the BBC.
Idle thought - were the Beatles half expecting this to draw a ban, hence the decision to release it on a double A side (so the other side could be used for radio play)?
Also, I wonder if Ray Davies even considered that, in 1970’s England, the record company would say _ah, yes, a song about a transvestite - let’s make that the next single_. Maybe Ray just never saw that there could possibly be a problem? (Though perhaps that’s just moving responsibility one step up (or down) the food chain.)
j
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-come-together-not-banned-by-the-bbc-or-was-it/927145/5 "2020-12-04T20:29:56Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#):
>
> Also, I wonder if Ray Davies even considered that, in 1970’s England, the record company would say _ah, yes, a song about a transvestite - let’s make that the next single_ . Maybe Ray just never saw that there could possibly be a problem? (Though perhaps that’s just moving responsibility one step up (or down) the food chain.)
That’s an interesting question: According to [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lola_(song)):
> [@](#):
>
> Despite the chart success “Lola” would achieve, its fellow _Lola vs. Powerman_ track “Powerman” was initially considered to be the first single from the album.[[11]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lola_(song)#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHinman2004140-11) However, “Lola”, which Ray Davies later claimed was an attempt to write a hit, was eventually decided on as the debut single release.[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lola_(song)#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHasted2011-5)
So the initial plan was to release “Powerman” as the leading single for the album, but we don’t know if the label or the band turned that to “Lola” (of course, the final decision must have been with the company. A band at the mercy of the industry was the central theme of the album).
---
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2020, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-come-together-not-banned-by-the-bbc-or-was-it/927145/6 "2020-12-04T20:53:21Z")
Interesting that Davies said “Lola” was an attempt to write a hit. _Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround_ was a rock opera, and “Lola” is a cut that’s exactly where the band in the narrative gets a hit single.
---
### Author:  [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2020, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-come-together-not-banned-by-the-bbc-or-was-it/927145/7 "2020-12-04T21:50:37Z")
This story just gets weirder - so Ray claims that, in 1970 England, his attempt to write a hit led to a song about an encounter with a transvestite, which would inevitably be banned, and so should never have been released - but it was - and then it was banned, but because of the Coca Cola thing instead - but it was still a hit…
j
---
### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2020, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-come-together-not-banned-by-the-bbc-or-was-it/927145/8 "2020-12-04T22:21:20Z")
According to an interview in the (NY) Times, it was banned but they quickly made a version with cherry cola which was not banned. Now homosexuality was illegal in England at this time, and I doubt that the narrator went back to Lola’s to look at her frocks, so Davies seemed rather amused that the BBC didn’t seem to get what was going on in the song.
He also said that the inspiration was when a member of the band took a lady back to the hotel, and discovered that she had stubble in the morning.
---
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2020, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-come-together-not-banned-by-the-bbc-or-was-it/927145/9 "2020-12-05T00:47:53Z")
I suspect it got through because of the ambiguity of the lyrics.
> I’m glad I’m a man
> And so is Lola
Which can be construed as either
“Lola is a man”
or
“Lola is glad I’m a man.”