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Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ?
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Subject: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Murray MacLeod Date: 30 Jun 00 - 06:55 AM Tomorrow afternoon I will be guesting on the Folk program on WLRN , South Florida. Among the songs I intend to perform is "A Bottle of the Best", a paean to the merits of Scotch whisky. (It's in the Digitrad, btw). One line goes "And it's also bloody dear, but what the hell". Now, is this likely to cause offence to an American radio audience, even if they are folk enthusiasts? I have been told before that saying "bloody" in America is a more heinous offence than saying "fuck" so should I change the line to "And it's also rather dear ......." ? Expert advice eagerly awaited Murray |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Kim C Date: 30 Jun 00 - 09:46 AM Murray --- you can hear anything and everything on American radio today so I wouldn't worry about it. KFC |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: SINSULL Date: 30 Jun 00 - 09:47 AM You were told wrong. At least I never heard anyone offended by it. Wait! I do remember a nun circa 1950 saying that it actually was a slang contraction of Blessed Virgin Mary and should never be used by anyone. I am quite sure she is dead now. So go for it. SS |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: alison Date: 30 Jun 00 - 09:59 AM the Clancy's have been singing "Isn't it grand to be bloody well dead" for decades to American folkies..... I wouldn't be too worried about it
slainte alison |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Mbo Date: 30 Jun 00 - 10:10 AM You bloody well can say it! In America is not more offensive than saying "darn" or "blasted". Keep up the bloody good work! --Mbo |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Jon Freeman Date: 30 Jun 00 - 10:18 AM I have sung "Isn't it Grand Boys" on Hearme a few times and it seems to be enjoyed by Americans present. The only problem I have with the song is that when I sing it, the rest of the people have a tendency to start typing "boody this, bloody that" and I daren't look at the screen while I sing it as I am danger of bursting out laughing mid song. Jon |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Mbo Date: 30 Jun 00 - 10:22 AM And you do a bloody good job, I might add, Jon! --Mbo |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: SINSULL Date: 30 Jun 00 - 10:38 AM Sister Blister is rolling in her grave!!! Say 5 Our Fathers and 5 Hail Marys or she'll be at you with the ruler. |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: MMario Date: 30 Jun 00 - 10:40 AM You can sing bloody if you want to, but most people would probably washup first. (sorry - couldn't help myself) |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Jacob B Date: 30 Jun 00 - 11:15 AM If singing "And it's also bloody dear, but what the hell" gets you in trouble, it will be because of the word "hell", not because of the word "bloody". |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: NH Dave Date: 30 Jun 00 - 11:18 AM Bloody in the US has no more perjorative meaning than knickers or many other bits of British slang/swearing. The meaning hasn't made it across yet, amd probably won't. Sin out proudly. Dave |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: katlaughing Date: 30 Jun 00 - 11:23 AM I don't know who told you "bloody" was more offensive than "fuck" in America...it would be quite the opposite. In fact, growing up here, I never heard of bloody being a very bad swear word at all until when I was an adult and someone from the UK told me it was considered very much of an offensive swear word "across the pond." BBC-America runs programs, in the US, which have "bloody" interspersed in the dialogue throughout. Jon, you did a fantastic job of singing that and we did type a bunch of bloody, eh? Good thing you've disciplined yourself well....we could've lost you altogether to laughter last night!**BG** kat |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: GUEST,Barry Finn Date: 30 Jun 00 - 11:27 AM Hi Murray, aside from the above comments, with your voice you can sing whatever you want however you want. Have a nice summer. Barry |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Big Mick Date: 30 Jun 00 - 12:03 PM Murray, I am an American performer and I sing songs with the word bloody in them all the time. I also use it in jokes. You should have no problem whatever. Now if you used it every other word in the interview, maybe someone would complain. But I am not sure if even that would happen. Go for it, and I am sure you will have no problem. Wish I could hear the show. All the best, Big Mick |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: MAG (inactive) Date: 30 Jun 00 - 12:25 PM Since it has come up, can any friends across the pond explain just why "bloody" is so offensive in Britain? I know it is, Brits find it very offensive, but over here we DON'T know why ... and, given some of our discussions, I doubt the discussion -- whatever it is -- will be taboo here. |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Whistle Stop Date: 30 Jun 00 - 12:26 PM Another American adding my voice to the consensus -- no problem singing/saying "bloody" on the airwaves in this country. [What was that song that was on the radio several years ago -- "right, right, bloody well right, you've got a bloody right to say?"] We don't really know what it means anyway; and most just consider it to be another weird English slang term (like knickers, bollocks, etc.) that we Americans are too smart to use ourselves. For good old-fashioned swearing, "fuck" is hard to beat -- it's multi-purpose, only one syllable, sounds right either as a casual aside or an emphatic pronouncement, and can be combined with other terms for even greater impact. As for "bloody," I heard somewhere that this originated back in Henry VIII's time, when all things Catholic were suddenly out of favor in Britain. My understanding is that it's short for "by our lady," which was a common expression before then, but was too overtly papist for the newly Protestant kingdom. Is there any truth to this? |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Morticia Date: 30 Jun 00 - 12:42 PM bloody isn't considered offensive here ( U.K) either...in fact, I'd be hard pressed to find any words not used in everyday conversation and on the street by most people now. I'm rather nostalgic for the time when people used to swear and then say 'ooops' or 'sorry' or whatever, it may have been hypocritical but it at least recognised that offense might have been caused......heavens, any minute now I'm going to break into ' In my day...'. |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: GUEST,Chris Dunn Date: 30 Jun 00 - 12:58 PM Catch a Billy Connolly performance, and I think you won't have any problems with mentioning the word bloody on your show. Hope it goes well for you. |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Jon Freeman Date: 30 Jun 00 - 01:05 PM When I visited my mother in Norfolk (UK) a few months ago, she commented on(but was not offended by) the amount of "bloodies" I was using. It seems that it has become so much a part of my everyday language that there are times when I don't even realise I am doing it. Jon |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Gary T Date: 30 Jun 00 - 01:06 PM I'd never heard the explanation Whistle Stop offered, but I had heard that it was a reference to menstruation, which would make it vulgar and possibly offensive, but not profane. Any truth to that notion? |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: MMario Date: 30 Jun 00 - 01:23 PM All I know is that my grandmother was shunned for months when living in a British sector overseas (This was in the '20s)because my mother (aged 5 at the time) referred to a squashed mosquito as a "bloody bug". |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Sourdough Date: 30 Jun 00 - 01:23 PM Fascinating. I thought I knew the origin of "bloody" but before I ran off at the digits, I decided to take a look in the old Oxford Unabridged. As usual, I learned more than I expected. To quote the OED whose explanation seems a bit quaint: "The origin is not quite certain; but there is good reason to think that it was at first a reference to the habits of the 'bloods' or aristocratic rowdies of the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th c. The phrase 'bloody drunk' was apparently = 'as drunk as a blood' (cf. 'as drunk as a lord'); thence it was extended to kindred expressions, and at length to others; probably, in later times, its associations with bloodshed and murder (cf. a bloody battle, a bloody butcher) have recommended it to the rough classes as a word that appeals to their imagination. We may compare the prevalent craving for impressive or graphic intensives, seen in the use of jolly, awfully, terribly, devilish, deuced, damned, ripping, rattling, thumping, stunning, thundering, etc. There is no ground for the notion that 'bloody', offensive as from associations it now is to ears polite, contains any profane allusion or has connexion with the oath ''s blood!' " Sourdough
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Áine Date: 30 Jun 00 - 01:33 PM Here is the "definitive" definition of "bloody" from the Oxford English Dictionary:
When used as an adjective:
When used as an adverb: |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Whistle Stop Date: 30 Jun 00 - 02:02 PM Another myth shattered by the scholars from Oxford! Too bad -- wrong though it may have been, I liked my explanation better. |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 30 Jun 00 - 08:15 PM What do they bloody know?
I note in Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: Bloody Bill, The. Better known as the Act of the Sizx Articles (31 Henry VIII, c14), it made denial of transubstantiation a heresy punishable by death.
Like most (not quite all) taboo words it's weakened very significantly in the last generation in England. At one timne it counted as quite strong, God know's why - in fact the replacement word "Blooming" was coined. Like Heck for Hell, and Goldarn for Goddamn (did anyone evwery say that or was it just coined for storiues about cowboys?)
Oddly enough "bleeding" was not seen as quite as strong. There's no logic to this kind of thing. Which is what makes it all quite fun. A language where all the taboo words have become routine would in my view lack something. "If the salt should lose its savour..." There was a thread about this kind of thing recently |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Lucius Date: 01 Jul 00 - 04:37 PM Darn, I had a word on the tip of my fingers that has a similar dual meaning on either side of the puddle, but I'll be buggered if I can remember what it was. Lucius (writting from the New World) |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: wildlone Date: 01 Jul 00 - 05:07 PM I know I have posted this somwhere before but here goes Bloody or 's blood is short for God's Blood And damn or darn is again short for God's damnation. Oaths that took the Lords name in vain were in the time of Catholisism in the uk punished as a heresy and when the Protestant religion took over it was punished as a civil crime. some of the punishment was rather extreme including having your tounge bored through with a hot iron. dave a sad re-enactor |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Áine Date: 01 Jul 00 - 05:23 PM Dear wildalone, A charming wee myth on the origin of the word, but ballocks. -- Áine |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 01 Jul 00 - 05:46 PM That's an intereting spelling there. More logical really. For some odd reason "balls" is considered ruder, I once tried to convince a teacher that it was just an abbreviation for "balderdash" he'd heard me saying, but it didn't convince him. |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Áine Date: 01 Jul 00 - 05:57 PM As far as I can tell from my gleaning of the OED, it's ballocks when you're using the noun, and bollix when you're using the verb. -- Áine |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 01 Jul 00 - 08:00 PM Here's a dictionary of slang as used in various parts of what is colloquially referred to as the UK.
I'd put more faith in this than the OED on this kind of thing. But the real reasons I put the link in is because I though people might enjoy browsing it. Ballocks is fine by me - so long as it's pronounced with a short o in the first syllable. (ie not to rhyme with Warlocks and forelocks.) Talking (more or less) of which, I always think it was sad that the Bolick Brothers felt they had to use the professional name The Blue Sky Boys, no doubt because they rightly anticipated a tricky time if they stuck with their own family name. |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 01 Jul 00 - 08:03 PM There was supposed to be this link about The Blue Sky Boys in that last post. I hope it works this time. |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Áine Date: 01 Jul 00 - 08:17 PM That's a great little dictionary you've found there, Kevin! As the sheep farmer said to the cattle farmer: "Naw, I can't use Ole Shep for a cow dog. The bloody little bugger bollixed the job when he started biting the ballocks off the bullocks." -- Áine |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: MAG (inactive) Date: 01 Jul 00 - 09:37 PM Thank you, one and all, for a very enlightening discussion. |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: rangeroger Date: 01 Jul 00 - 10:06 PM When I first moved to London as a teenager in 1959,I was enthralled with the word "bloody". Of course I used it as much as I could.The song "Battle of New Orleans" had just come out and the British version omitted the word from the lyrics.Being American teenagers, we had the US version on 45 and would play it loudy out the window for all to hear. Do I hear someone asking about "Ugly Americans"? We probably were. rr |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Murray MacLeod Date: 02 Jul 00 - 12:22 PM Well, thank you one and all for your opinions and enlightenmentl As a result of your reassurances I did in fact sing "bloody" loud and proud and have not so far experienced any backlash from the moral majority of South Florida. Quite the opposite in fact, I am pleased to report that as a result of the broadcast, I have been invited to appear at the Folk Festival which will be held on Hialeah Racecourse in Miami on Aug 13th. Bloody good show, eh what ? Murray |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Jon Freeman Date: 02 Jul 00 - 12:49 PM I'm bloody pleased to hear it worked out so well. Jon |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Áine Date: 02 Jul 00 - 01:18 PM Bloody great news, Murray! I'm sure that you'll have a jolly good time, and it was awfully kind of you to share such terribly good news with us. Although having a folk festival at a racetrack sounds quite devilish, I'm sure it will be a damned good ripping show. Deuced if I know though, how you'll be able to manage a thumping performance in such a space, but I'm sure that everything will go off in a rattling good manner. I'm sure your own performance will be simply stunning and will result in thundering great applause! Well done! -- Áine |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Murray MacLeod Date: 02 Jul 00 - 01:24 PM Thanks awfully, Jon, and Aine, simply spiffing to hear from you, old beans. Pip-pip. Murray |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Gary T Date: 02 Jul 00 - 01:26 PM Hey, quit hogging all the adverbs and adjectives, Áine--save a few for the rest of us! (VBG) |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Rollo Date: 02 Jul 00 - 02:43 PM I got into serious trouble because of this little word "bloody" once... We met some english girl guides during an international scout meeting, and tried to impress them with some old german "youth movement" songs, very romantic stuff containing a lot of nature and very masculine loonies tramping around with nothing more than their backpacks and a guitar, mixed with old folk songs about knights and villains and lonesome castles... Well, but when I tried to explain what one special song was about, I used this word "bloody", meaning "causing a lot of blood"... just in this moment the girl guides' leader came along, and overhearing my statement she gave me some VERY serious looks, radiating "BAD LANGUAGE!!!" like a teacher in the subway. And I didn't even realize what was going on, till theese english girls started do giggle and explained it to me. Result of this misunderstanding: I never got a second chance to sing some folks songs with them. To sad... |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Gary T Date: 02 Jul 00 - 06:34 PM That's a shame, Rollo. Now my question is, what word do these folks whose noses get out of joint over "bloody" use when they want to describe something that's covered with blood? |
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Subject: RE: Can I sing 'bloody' on American radio ? From: Noreen Date: 02 Jul 00 - 07:12 PM bloodstained? Noreen |
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