Songs that escape the censors?

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: banjoman
Date: 24 Jul 09 - 07:18 AM

I have an LP recorded years ago by Debbie McClatchy and the song I like most is entitled "You were only fucking while I was making love"

Its actually a good song with a thought provoking message about peoples attitudes to sex.
I sang it a few times until the prudes in our local folk club gave me an ultimatum - either tthat song oes or you go - I chose the former
Pete

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Jul 09 - 01:23 AM

Desmond Decker and the Aces' "Israelites," a radio hit in the 60s, contained the line "My wife and my kids, they fuck off and leave me." Because of Desmond's Jamaican(?) accent it came out "My wife and my kids, they fahkafanda leave me" and nobody in radioland semeed to know what he was singing. (I'm not sure I spelled Desmond's last name correctly.)

Nah, it's "pack up and leave me". Besides, that would make no sense because Jamaicans for sure would understand it -- DD wouldn't have sang curse words back in those days.

On the other hand, there are LOADS of new Jamaican songs today that get American public broadcast despite very very slack lyrics.


On another note, I found myself in Shimla once (in the Himalayas, in India) in a very "modern" coffeeshop. The music being played was some rap that kept chanting "s*ck my d*ck" over and over. No one seemed to mind (understand), but I was having trouble enjoying my coffee. I finally asked the barista, "Do you know what they're saying? " Blank look. So I translated it for him! The exact same thing happened to me in a Chinese restaurant in another Indian city. I literally could not eat because they were piping in an obscene rap. For some reason, Chinese (but Indian-run) restaurants in India make it a point to play only Western pop music, never Indian music and never (gasp) Chinese music.

A valuable lesson: don't blast songs in languages you don't understand, no matter how exotic and touchy-feely-multicultural the sound may make you feel. Basically it's the same rule that applies to tattoos :-0

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Joe_F
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 08:39 PM

I heard The man who comes to our house on the radio as early as 1960. It leaves little to the imagination.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Micca
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 04:04 PM

Maby the BBc or their censor wasnt as up to date with his euphemisms as he should be? here is a clicky to the song Canyon

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Micca
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 03:48 PM

One of the contenders for the British entry for the Eurovision song contest a few years ago, and therefor broadcast on National (BBC)TV at tea time on a Sunday was ( I kid you not) ( I am not sure if it was the Title or just contained the line)......
" Yodelling in the Canyon of Love"

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 01:42 PM

Not a song, but apropos:
Fred Allen, in one of his sketches had a character exclaim: "Oh, feg your dill." The station wouldn't let him use it. So he changed it to "Oh, dill your feg". Which was accepted. You figure.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: DMcG
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 09:48 AM

One of my favourites is a song from the war years, called "The Deepest Shelter in Town". The woman concerned starts with an intro that is almost spoken:

Don't run away, mister,
Oh, stay and play, mister.
Don't worry if you hear the sirens sound
Though I'm not a lady of the highest virtue
I wouldn't dream of letting anything hurt you.
And so before you go
I think you ought to know:

(Sung)
I've got a cosy flat,
There's a space for your hat,
I'll wear a pink chiffon negligee gown
And do I know my stuff
But if that's not enough
I've got the deepest shelter in town.

---

And so on.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: GUEST,Huey Wanders
Date: 23 Jul 09 - 09:40 AM

"Fahkafanda!" Love it!

Cat Stevens' "Mona Bone Jakon" (also the title of the album) is about his penis:

I've got a mona bone jakon
And it won't be lonely for long

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 13 May 06 - 09:24 PM

Yes I think the censors should fahkafanda leave things alone!

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Cool Beans
Date: 13 May 06 - 10:28 AM

Desmond Decker and the Aces' "Israelites," a radio hit in the 60s, contained the line "My wife and my kids, they fuck off and leave me." Because of Desmond's Jamaican(?) accent it came out "My wife and my kids, they fahkafanda leave me" and nobody in radioland semeed to know what he was singing. (I'm not sure I spelled Desmond's last name correctly.)

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: jaze
Date: 13 May 06 - 09:40 AM

Didn't Leonard Cohen have a line in a song that said "giving me head on the unmade bed"-but I don't think it was ever played on AM radio.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 13 May 06 - 09:10 AM

Uncle DaveO:

Presumably MGoH is mishearing the second word as a reference to the female pudenda.

Like the young man at the golf club who met one of his ex-teachers, with the following conversation:

Young Man: "I didn't know you played here"
Teacher: "Yes, I'm a 'country member'"
Young man: "I do!"

CHEERS
Nigel

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 18 Apr 06 - 06:53 PM

McGrath of H. cited the following:

My country tis of thee

I don't git it! Please explain how this song could be interpreted as even arguably censorable.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: GUEST,Sandy Andina
Date: 18 Apr 06 - 01:46 AM

What about "My Ding-a-Ling" by Chuck Berry?
Or Paul McCartney & Wings' "High, High, High" where he sings "get you ready for my body gun." Sheesh, those songs were on AM radio!

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 01:15 PM

Please don't forget Cole Porter's "Let's Do It". It's a classic.
Also, Cole's "Let's Misbehave" and "Love For Sale".

Burl Ive's version of the "Foggy Foggy Dew".

"Black Snake Moan" done by various blues artists.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 06:18 AM

Kaleea:
Is it true that "Making Whoopee" is Ted Danson's favourite song?

Nigel

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: GUEST,Sonja
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 10:23 PM

Foolestroupe, I could swear I just posted a reply to your Q but I can't figure out where that post ended up!   ????

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 09:47 PM

Sorry, but that cultural reference passes right over my head.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: GUEST,Sonja
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 09:37 PM

How about any of the songs about a guy being someone's "salty dog?"

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: melodeonboy
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 07:40 PM

Almost anything by Hartman's Heartbreakers (Western Swing, 1930s/40s, I think).

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Tootler
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 06:33 PM

There's a line in the Beatles song "Day Tripper" which goes

"She's a big teaser, she took me halfway there"

We thought back then that they actually sang

"She's a prick teaser ..."

One of my friends always used to put it on juke box to see if they did and we could never make up our minds. :-)

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 12:29 AM

"wanna see elbows and backs,
wanna see everybody from behind!

ooo, I'm workin' for da ma-a-an"

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Franz S.
Date: 15 Apr 06 - 10:57 AM

As Tom Lehrer said back in 1965 or thereabouts,

"When correctly viewed,
Everything is lewd."

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Teribus
Date: 15 Apr 06 - 06:47 AM

MGOH,

I'd forgotten that one:

Come aw ye Tramps and Hawker lads and gaitherers o blaw

The way Luke Kelly sang it it sounded hellishly like

Come aw ye Tramps and Hawker lads and gie yer arse a blaw

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 14 Apr 06 - 10:17 PM

Jackson Browne's Rosie
As the drummer walks off with a grouppie that the sound man was making a play for, he's laments to himself;

But Rosie you're all right -- you wear my ring
When you hold me tight -- Rosie that's my thing
When you turn out the light -- I've got to hand it to me
Looks like it's me and you again tonight Rosie

Rosie is but one of the 5 sisters.

Barry

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Apr 06 - 09:12 PM

Is there any other way McGrath?

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Apr 06 - 06:15 PM

"It's all in the mind"

Yes we have no Bananas

I've got a loverly bunch of coconuts

Blowing in the Wind

My country tis of thee

Come all ye tramps and hawkers

Trere's no end to it when you tune your attention that way...

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Jim McLean
Date: 14 Apr 06 - 05:59 PM

Les in Chorleton,
I remeber Ronnie Drew saying that if The Ginger Bread Man had been published in Irish there'd be a rush to learn the language. I was their (The Dubliners) roadie at the time.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 14 Apr 06 - 05:53 PM

Back in the 40s a whole lot of prominent songs had titles or lines which could be interpreted baudily:

For example:

To spend one night with you
In our old rendezvous,
And reminisce with you,
That's my desire!

or

We ought to do this more often
Just what we're doin' tonight.

Being then a totally naive teenager, I completely missed both of those me by, by the way.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: The Shambles
Date: 14 Apr 06 - 07:50 AM

And there are also artists names which escape.

Jelly Roll Morton?

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: iamjohnne
Date: 13 Apr 06 - 11:13 PM

What about Mississippi John Hurt?

He got a stick of candy 9 inch long
Sells if fast as a hog can chew corn
Candy man, Candy man.

His stick of candy don't melt away
Just gets better so the ladies say.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Genie
Date: 13 Apr 06 - 10:06 PM

Going way back to around 1910, Chauncey Alcott got away with "Someday for my sake, she may let me take the bloom from my Wild Irish Rose."   Amazingly risqué for the Victorian era, eh?

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 11:54 PM

"The Lemon Song"

Nobody's gonna squeeze MY lemon - ouch!

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: frogprince
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 10:57 PM

"Way down deep inside you, I'm gonna give you my love..."

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 06:37 PM

"Kaleea
Were there even censors back then?"

Do some research on "The Hayes Office" for movie censorship in USA.

BTW, there was a 30's movies about the evils of Maryjane that had totaly frontal female nudity.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 05:59 PM

"Yummy yummy yummy, I've got love in my tummy"?

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 05:20 PM

As Sigmund Freud is supposed to have said "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: The Shambles
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 02:04 PM

The words of Walking The Dog are more than a little problematic but it was a big hit record and played a lot on the BBC.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: GUEST,saulgoldie
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 01:48 PM

One of my alltime faves is from PPM's "I Dig Rock and Roll Music"

"And if I really say it,
The radio won't play it,
Unless I lay it
Between the lines."!

Not exactly what I think is being asked for, but a nice "got one over on 'em" methinks. Wonder how many DJs figured it out.

I am not sure if it has seen airplay, but the song "Steggie" is pretty right out there:

"He put in his steggie so plump and fat (wooo),
Then he pulled it out like a half-drowned rat
(And you know very well what I mean-o"

Indeed we do.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: mandoleer
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 01:31 PM

On the other hand, there are songs that fall foul of censors even though (because?) they are incomprehensible (and actually innocent). Like Louie Louie and Woolly Bully. But reverting to the topic, how did Cab Calloway get away with the continual drug references in his songs? And I've got a pre 1920 78 of Casey Jones, in which Casey's widow tells the kids 'now don't you pine, You got another pappy on the Cunard Line' (the whole song is performed in a particularly joyous style). References to adultery and illegitimacy were not common in 'pop' songs of the time. And then again, there was Marie Lloyd somehow getting away with changing 'She sits among the cabbages and peas' to 'She sits among the cabbages and leeks' after an objection...

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Kaleea
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 12:45 PM

What about "Makin Whoopee" by Gus Kahn & Walter Donaldson? One of my all time favorite songs because of the comic affectations of Eddie Cantor. (although, if I had been the wife who was wronged, he would have been incapable of makin whoopee after I found out about it!)

You'd better keep her
You'll find it cheaper
than Makin' Whoopee.

The Musical was written maybe in '28, I think Eddie Cantor recorded it in '29. The movie ('30?) was in color(!), the big production numbers had the Goldwyn Girls wearing something sheer resembling a dress, shoes, & not much else. The lyrics as well as the costumes would seem to be rather racy for the times. Were there even censors back then? Maybe not.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Windsinger
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 12:16 PM

Purple,

Not familiar with the Blondie reference, but this had to be almost a decade earlier:

How about (more or less) the entire Lou Reed song "Walk on the Wild Side"? :P   Got extensive radio play in '72, despite overt referances to oral sex, transsexuality and drugs.

Woohoo.

Slán,

~Fionn

www.geocities.com/children_of_lir

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Bert
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 11:59 AM

In Wanted Man, Johnny Cash sang "Went the wrong way in Juarez with Juanita on my lap"

It was live (well one minute delay for the censors) on British Television and the censors completely missed it.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: GUEST,me
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 09:53 AM

How 'bout "Sixty Minute Man" from 'way back in the 'fifties?

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: GUEST,Micca
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 06:20 AM

One of the proposed British entries for the Eurovision song contest (that was sung in full on Sunday afternoon teatime television on BBC1) which caused me to fall of the sofa laughing (was, and I kid you not) "Yodelling in the Canyon of Love" a phrase that was repeated frequently through the song, It should have won.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 06:19 AM

Yes shambles "four of fish & finger pie" ie Fish & chips 4 times & a frig.
There's a Chip shop in Penny lane where the staff got tire of having this quoted at them a long time ago.
What you said Scrump.
Q) How do they know the girl in "Jaws had dandruff?
A)She left her Head & Shoulders on the Beach.
Guest DG You are mainly correct but the Foul mouthed Fab was actually Paul.John uses this splendid Anglo-Saxon verb in Revolution 9.
BTW The reason the drums are silent during the 1st verse of "Hey Jude" is because Ringo wass taking a toilet break at the time.
Pure serendipity.

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: GUEST,DG
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 04:52 AM

Also, John Lennon shouts the F-word about 3 minutes into Hey Jude, apparently because he messed up the chords.
For some reason it was never picked up and if you listen closely to the song you can hear it... I read that the Beatles knew it was there all along.

I've just looked on wikipedia and it happens at 2.58 - have a listen!

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Scrump
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 04:40 AM

From: The Shambles - PM

Was it not Fish and Finger Pie?
------------------------------
"Four of fish and finger pie" are the lyrics.

Cheers

Scrump

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: Scrump
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 04:38 AM

From: Purple Foxx - PM
Also there was a Blondie song (Picture this?)which contained the line "I'll give you some head.And a shoulder to cry on"
That song got enormous amounts of air play.
--------------

It wasn't Picture This, but (IIRC) You look good in blue. The words were "I'll give you some head and shoulders to cry on" and it's rumoured they were paid to sing this by a well-known brand of shampoo ;-)

Sorry this is non-folk, but just responding to the point above.

Cheers

Scrump

Subject: RE: Songs that escape the censors?
From: The Shambles
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 04:22 AM

Was it not Fish and Finger Pie?