Well, I'm going to remove the offending apostrophe from my post here; because if I don't want it in my post, I don't have to have it. For that matter, I'm going to remove the apostrophe from the thread title - Mudcatters have control of their own posts, but Mudcat retains rights over thread titles.

I suppose I cringe a bit when I see the word "Fuck" on the Forum Menu - but I think it ought to be there if we are talking about a song with "fuck" in the song title. Similarly, I was offended by those who insisted on removing the word "Nigger" from threads discussing the well-known song, "Run Nigger Run." Still, I breathe a sigh of relief when nobody has posted to the thread for 24 hours and it drops off the Forum Menu.

I am far more offended myself when I see prudish euphemisms like F***
and N****
I also have to say that I really hate the "PG13" tag that has been added to some thread titles, even though I'm the one who suggested adding the PG13 to appease complaints.
I also don't like abbreviations that are not immediately understandable, like "OP."

The Original Poster says that "these songs have nothing to do with the folk tradition." By that, I think he means that the songs are not very old. But age is not the only thing that determines whether a song is a folk song; and sometimes songs enter the folk process at a very early age. I contend that bawdy songs are almost the only true, living folk songs that are alive and healthy today - they come from the people, and are changed by the people as time and conditions move along. In addition, such songs are able to escape the process of commercialization that has almost completely destroyed the folk process. I think it's highly unlikely that anyone is going to try to slap a copyright on "Fuck You Jane Fonda" or "Eat, Bite, Fuck, Suck."

Oh, I suppose people could also complain about our allowing threads like Barney and the many Chinaman song threads to continue - but these threads have gone on for years and have dozens of song variations posted to them. Distasteful or not, these songs are excellent examples of the folk process.

Most people who know me are aware that I go to church three to five times a week and that "fuck" is not an ordinary part of my vocabulary - but I refuse to replace the word with euphemisms when I need to use it. "Naughty words" do make me cringe a bit, but I am far more offended by euphemisms.

So, when you complain about the offensiveness of this or that, remember that other people are just as vehemently opposed to euphemisms. The solution? Feel free to control your own use of language, and give other people the freedom to control theirs.

Somebody above made a good point: if you euphemize the titles of songs, how are people going to be able to search for them? Do we need to have some sort of standardization of euphemisms, and then a key to understanding the Official Mudcat Euphemization Code?

If you don't like bawdy lyrics, I think you'll find that most of the lyrics are clean at:

• http://ingeb.org/
• http://contemplator.com/
• http://mysongbook.de/
• http://www.kididdles.com/.

If you really think that Mudcat needs to censor out bad language, I suggest you discuss the matter with Mudcat's owner, Max Spiegel, max@mudcat.org

Free, unrestricted, uncensored posting of lyrics has been our policy since Mudcat began on October 1, 1996, and it is one of our basic operating principles. It has also been the policy of the Digital Tradition Folk Song Database since it was established in 1988. Only Max Spiegel can change this policy for Mudcat, and only Dick Greenhaus can change the Digital Tradition policy.

-Joe Offer, Forum Moderator-
joe@mudcat.org