Long ago, LRMole sez: "My motto would be ENFORCED HUMMING OF ALL POTENTIALLY OFFENSIVE LYRICS."

I vaguely remember a Martin Mull song on that subject, where most of the song was hummed. The only line I remember clearly is: "Whips and chains, mmhmm, Great Danes, mmhmm, mmhmm, mmhmm."

There's also a wonderful Lou and Peter Berryman song, "A Chat with Your Mother", on the subject of the f-word.

I'm with BillD (Jan 7 '01) on the subject of censorship of lyrics. I'm frustrated by "cleaned-up" versions of old songs that have lost the flavor of the original, especially songs with derogatory terms that are now obsolete. A sensitively phrased introduction/warning about the history of the lyric should be sufficient in most contexts. For especially offensive songs in especially emotionally charged situations, I'd say the song should not be sung at all, rather than altered, since the meaning is likely to come across anyway.

We should not "clean up" history for individuals or groups who judge it to be "bad"; instead we should use it as an object lesson (those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it... whose quote is that?). We're already struggling to educate young people who don't know the Holocaust ever happened.