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Lyric censorship - KLIF Dallas

DavidEduardo

Moderator/Administrator
Staff member
In 1967, Gordon McLendon was was running for Governor of Texas in 1967, one of his key campaign platforms to curry favor with the conservative voters in the state was to "clean up the dirty song lyrics in this country", and as a result, he pulled a bunch of stuff from his top 40 stations KILT, KLIF, KTSA, and KELP. The reasons are what would be almost humorous by today's standards were it not for the use of some rather unacceptable terms contained in it... so I thought I would run OCR on an internal KLIF memo and post it for all to see...

Toi Btll Stewart
co Al Lurie, Ken Dowe
From Hal Martln

July 7, 1967
Following is a list of the songs KLIF has rejected with reasons for same, since the clean-up music policy was Instituted.

1. 'When I was .Young - Erle Burton - A line Implies sexual relations between the races.
2. .Respect - Aretha Franklin - Has the line "Bock It to me" In the context.
3. "whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum - Contains a line mentioning "Vestlal Virgins"
4. Society's Chid - Janis Ian (This weeks #14 song ln the nation), ls the story of a whlte girl's love for a negro boy and how It could never be, because society frowns upon lt.
5. Sock It To Me - .Mitch .Ryder - Includes the phrase "Sock It to me", which has been interpreted as suggestive to sexual relations.
6. ·Harry Rag - Kings - Rejected on the title for obvious raeasons
7. Heaven & Hell - The Easy Beats - Rejected. .because of title.
8. Lets Live fora Today. - Grass Roots - First recording rejected because lt Implied a desire for sexual relatlons.
NOTE: The company wanted. air play In thls market and the dlsk was recut and ls being redlstrlbuted with cleaned up lyrics.
9. White Rabbitt - Jefferson Airplane - Rejected because lt lmplles the use of drugs.
10 • Lets Spend the Night Together - Rolling Stones - Rejected because lmplles premarital sex relatlons. - · .
11. Step Out of Your Mind - American Breed - Rejected because lt lmplles the use of mind expanding drugs.
12. Omaha - Moby Grape - Inatructs young people to try sexual intercourse.
13. euphoria euphoria .Rejected because mention of mind expandlng drugs
14.. Doctor Do Good - Electric Prunes Mentions pills.
15. Black Sheep - Sam the Sham - Could be Interpreted to have racial undertones.
16. Llke You Do - Back Seat - Implies premarital sex relations.
17. Morning Glory Days - Artist Unknown (Record never received)
Rejected on the basis of the title because "Morning Glory" seeds can be used as a mind expanding drug. '
18. She's Rather Be wtth Me - Turtles - Rejected, accepted and then rejected again because of the line "Some girls like to handle everything they see".
19. A Thousand Shadows - Seeds '- Rejected because of connotatlon of the use of mind expanding drugs '
The, above lyrics have been recelved by KLIF Radio Station as of July, 7, 1967 and rejected on the afore-mentioned reasons.

Hal Martin
 
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In 1967, Gordon McLendon was was running for Governor of Texas in 1967, one of his key campaign platforms to curry favor with the conservative voters in the state was to "clean up the dirty song lyrics in this country", and as a result, he pulled a bunch of stuff from his top 40 stations KILT, KLIF, KTSA, and KELP. The reasons are what would be almost humorous by today's standards were it not for the use of some rather unacceptable terms contained in it... so I thought I would run OCR on an internal KLIF memo and post it for all to see...

Toi Btll Stewart
co Al Lurie, Ken Dowe
From Hal Martln

July 7, 1967
Following is a list of the songs KLIF has rejected with reasons for same, since the clean-up music policy was Instituted.

1. 'When I was .Young - Erle Burton - A line Implies sexual relations between the races.
2. .Respect - Aretha Franklin - Has the line "Bock It to me" In the context.
3. "whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum - Contains a line mentioning "Vestlal Virgins"
4. Society's Chid - Janis Ian (This weeks #14 song ln the nation), ls the story of a whlte girl's love for a negro boy and how It could never be, because society frowns upon lt.
5. Sock It To Me - .Mitch .Ryder - Includes the phrase "Sock It to me", which has been interpreted as suggestive to sexual relations.
6. ·Harry Rag - Kings - Rejected on the title for obvious raeasons
7. Heaven & Hell - The Easy Beats - Rejected. .because of title.
8. Lets Live fora Today. - Grass Roots - First recording rejected because lt Implied a desire for sexual relatlons.
NOTE: The company wanted. air play In thls market and the dlsk was recut and ls being redlstrlbuted with cleaned up lyrics.
9. White Rabbitt - Jefferson Airplane - Rejected because lt lmplles the use of drugs.
10 • Lets Spend the Night Together - Rolling Stones - Rejected because lmplles premarital sex relatlons. - · .
11. Step Out of Your Mind - American Breed - Rejected because lt lmplles the use of mind expanding drugs.
12. Omaha - Moby Grape - Inatructs young people to try sexual intercourse.
13. euphoria euphoria .Rejected because mention of mind expandlng drugs
14.. Doctor Do Good - Electric Prunes Mentions pills.
15. Black Sheep - Sam the Sham - Could be Interpreted to have racial undertones.
16. Llke You Do - Back Seat - Implies premarital sex relations.
17. Morning Glory Days - Artist Unknown (Record never received)
Rejected on the basis of the title because "Morning Glory" seeds can be used as a mind expanding drug. '
18. She's Rather Be wtth Me - Turtles - Rejected, accepted and then rejected again because of the line "Some girls like to handle everything they see".
19. A Thousand Shadows - Seeds '- Rejected because of connotatlon of the use of mind expanding drugs '
The, above lyrics have been recelved by KLIF Radio Station as of July, 7, 1967 and rejected on the afore-mentioned reasons.

Hal Martin
OK, I know nine of those and they don't seem to have destroyed my life. Of course, I can't speak for the other ten. :) Does anyone recognize more than nine?
 
Harry Rag was by the Kinks, not Kings--and it's British rhyming slang for what they call a cigarette...also seen as a derogatory term for homosexuals. I don't know if Harry Rag was released as a single, prob not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcn4mr-OUVw

"Harry Rag, do anything just to get a Harry Rag...Ah, Tom's old ma is a dying lass, soon they'll reckon she'll be pushing up the grass, and her bones might take and her skin might sag, but still she's got the strength to have a harry rag."

Same word was used by the band in A Well Respected Man: "And he loves his f--s the best..."
 
OK, I know nine of those and they don't seem to have destroyed my life. Of course, I can't speak for the other ten. :) Does anyone recognize more than nine?
So many typos in there, it is hard to say for sure. Who was Erle Burton? Should that have been Eric Burdon? And was "White Rabbitt" any relation to Eddie Rabbitt?
 
So many typos in there, it is hard to say for sure. Who was Erle Burton? Should that have been Eric Burdon? And was "White Rabbitt" any relation to Eddie Rabbitt?

Why do you always have to make everything a negative?

I specifically stated that this was a very old document that I OCRed to post. I cleaned it up a little for formatting, and it's perfectly understandable as is.

I thought the document, which is a very rare and exceptional example of lyric censorship from the 60's, merited posting. I did not think I would get a visit from the spelling police. I should have kept the item to myself.
 
Why do you always have to make everything a negative?
I specifically stated that this was a very old document that I OCRed to post. I cleaned it up a little for formatting, and it's perfectly understandable as is.
I thought the document, which is a very rare and exceptional example of lyric censorship from the 60's, merited posting. I did not think I would get a visit from the spelling police. I should have kept the item to myself.
Geez, who peed in your Cheerios this morning? My point was that some of these were so far off that I questioned whether or not these were real titles. "Record never received" raises a red flag with me. They "banned" something that they never even received, much less heard? And with a line like "bock it to me," it is obvious that they did not know that to which they were referring. My criticisms are legit, and stand as posted.
 
Geez, who peed in your Cheerios this morning? My point was that some of these were so far off that I questioned whether or not these were real titles. "Record never received" raises a red flag with me. They "banned" something that they never even received, much less heard? And with a line like "bock it to me," it is obvious that they did not know that to which they were referring. My criticisms are legit, and stand as posted.

The errors come from trying to OCR a very aged, deteriorated original. I'm sure that if we saw the original 47 years ago, we would have seen everything clearly. I could have edited it character by character, but I did not think anyone would be so nit-picky. As I said, it is perfectly understandable and the point was to show how deep the censorship of lyrics extended at the time. While McLendon was running for office, and that caused him to be overly strict, the memo reflects the prevailing attitudes of the times.

As an example, I even considered not spinning "Let's Spend the Night Together" by the stones back then due to lyric content in the title... and my station was in a 100% Spanish speaking country where English speakers were not very common (I did not have a single English speaker on my staff, even).

As to the "record never received" it is possible that the promoter played a preview copy for the PD prior to the release of the single. That was a common practice for many decades. Even today we get 96kbs snippets of new releases sometimes... intended to whet our appetites for the song when it does come out. Or we get to listen to the song on the phone...
 
The errors come from trying to OCR a very aged, deteriorated original. I'm sure that if we saw the original 47 years ago, we would have seen everything clearly. I could have edited it character by character, but I did not think anyone would be so nit-picky. As I said, it is perfectly understandable and the point was to show how deep the censorship of lyrics extended at the time. While McLendon was running for office, and that caused him to be overly strict, the memo reflects the prevailing attitudes of the times.
I took a look at youtube, and while I did not find a title like that by "Erle Burton," I DID find one by Eric Burdon and the Animals. It was different enough that I thought that there might actually have been an "Erle Burton," but apparently not.

By the way, now you know how it feels for us when you hijack OUR threads.
As an example, I even considered not spinning "Let's Spend the Night Together" by the stones back then due to lyric content in the title... and my station was in a 100% Spanish speaking country where English speakers were not very common (I did not have a single English speaker on my staff, even).

As to the "record never received" it is possible that the promoter played a preview copy for the PD prior to the release of the single. That was a common practice for many decades. Even today we get 96kbs snippets of new releases sometimes... intended to whet our appetites for the song when it does come out. Or we get to listen to the song on the phone...
More than half of the songs on his "hit list" never actually became hits, so apparently it was much ado about nothing.
 
I took a look at youtube, and while I did not find a title like that by "Erle Burton," I DID find one by Eric Burdon and the Animals. It was different enough that I thought that there might actually have been an "Erle Burton," but apparently not.

You are nitpicking. I tried to post a machine read version of a very interesting document about music censorship in the late 60's and you complain about the quality of the copy. You'd probably throw away new finds of Dead Sea scrolls because they use the "wrong" version of Aramaic with odd spellings of words.

I find your criticisms so offensive that I have seriously considered canceling my account on this board and using radioinsight.com only. I came upon a very rare and entirely credible internal KLIF memo about music censorship and you throw rocks at the spelling (for which the original document and ABBYY Fine Reader are alone responsible). WTF.

By the way, now you know how it feels for us when you hijack OUR threads.More than half of the songs on his "hit list" never actually became hits, so apparently it was much ado about nothing.

The memo reflected attitudes of the time in the context of the music selection policies of stations. The fact that some did not become hits is irrelevant... this document gives insight on why some new releases never did get played, perhaps a reason for them not becoming hits.

Be certain that if I come across other relevant old documents, I definitely will not post them here. I should not be attacked and accused of lying (you said the document was not credible because KLIF said it never got the release single) when a really interesting document is posted... a document from one of the 3 or 4 most important CHR's in the country.

This snit of yours is not the hijacking of a thread. It's a criticism of a valid, interesting historical document because it's hard to read. That's just idiotic.
 
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Geez, calm down, David. I know the difference between a typo and an outright misspelling. I assumed that you posted the original internal memo, warts and all. I would say that it is fairly safe to assume that the author of that memo was probably from the Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin generation, and probably had no idea who or what he was referring to, in most of these cases. I furthermore know that they did not have computers back then, thus could not easily correct typos. White-out (as I remember from my own typing class in high school) was a bitch.

I still remember Dean Martin's snide comment about a "hair-pulling" incident between Mick Jagger and the other Rolling Stones.

Oftentimes, controversial songs become hits BECAUSE of the controversy, but that evidently was NOT the case with the titles here, most of which I had never heard of. I listened to the Eric Burdon title on youtube, then realized that I did not miss much there.

By the way, I am on radio insight as well, so good luck "getting away from me" by posting just there.
 
I know the difference between a typo and an outright misspelling. I assumed that you posted the original internal memo, warts and all.

That was a false assumption, since I stated that I did OCR on the very aged original, and it did not process very well. Still, I posted it thinking that most people would be very aware that Erie Burton was Eric Burden and so on.

I would say that it is fairly safe to assume that the author of that memo was probably from the Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin generation, and probably had no idea who or what he was referring to, in most of these cases.

You don't know who Hal Martin is? Maybe you know his later career as Michael Spears? He's one of the best contemporary programmers of the 60's and 70's and he made a successful transition to Urban part way through his career, leading KKDA to many years of market leadership. Do a search on "Michael Spears" +radio and look at the two part tribute to him that allaccess did upon his death about a decade ago. How often is a person considered so significant that they get a two part obituary?

I trust you know who Bill Stewart and Ken Dowe were? And anyone who knows Dallas radio history knows Al Lurie, KLIF's legendary manager. All of these people were the idols we hoped to meet when we went to see KLIF when, as PDs, we flew into Dallas to do jingles at CRC, Jam, Pams, TM, Gwinsound and others. We would have kissed their ring, too, if they had one.

I furthermore know that they did not have computers back then, thus could not easily correct typos. White-out (as I remember from my own typing class in high school) was a bitch.

There are no typos I can find in the original. It was done by Hal's secretary, and has the standard writer/secretary notation at the bottom. The extreme age of the document, which probably was photocopied and faxed before I got it caused the errors. If you knew KLIF, you know they were perfectionists.

Oftentimes, controversial songs become hits BECAUSE of the controversy, but that evidently was NOT the case with the titles here, most of which I had never heard of. I listened to the Eric Burdon title on youtube, then realized that I did not miss much there.

I was chatting with another programmer about the memo a few days ago when I first got it, and he said, "I can imagine a record duck leaving the triangle building and running to a pay phone to call New York to say, 'KLIF won't touch it' and praying he would not be fired on the spot". That is why this memo is so significant... songs could live or die based on KLIF decisions as KLIF went on songs fairly early, while other big stations like WLS and WABC did not. KLIF was the station programmers across the lower Midwest and rocky mountain west looked for guidance.

By the way, I am on radio insight as well, so good luck "getting away from me" by posting just there.

It's more strictly moderated.
 
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Okay, going to try this again, David.

A childhood friend of mine once had a 45 of "We Can Work It Out" by the Beagles. No, that was NOT a typo; it was an apparent (cheap!) attempt to fool (probably) kids into thinking that it actually was the Beatles, WITHOUT overstepping the whole "copyright infringement" issue. So yes, it happens. He picked it up at a yard sale, so at least he probably did not pay much for it. And it was on some label that I had never heard of.

Someone here corrected "Kings" to "Kinks" and you did not get bent out of shape over that one. I suspect that it is a personality issue on your part.

I ain't afraid of "strict moderation." You planning to report me or something? This thread would already be dead without me. Your guys use that argument; why not me, as well?

By the way, Dallas ain't the center of the universe, *cough*Zippo*cough* and I am not from there, and I am not old enough to remember what anyone in radio was doing in 1967.
 
Someone here corrected "Kings" to "Kinks" and you did not get bent out of shape over that one. I suspect that it is a personality issue on your part.

But you attempted to invalidate the document based on OCR mis-reads, despite my caveat to that effect. You even hinted that the document might not be real because "the station never got the single". You are casting aspersions on a real document based on a lack of understanding of how record promotion was done back then.

By the way, Dallas ain't the center of the universe, *cough*Zippo*cough* and I am not from there, and I am not old enough to remember what anyone in radio was doing in 1967.

Then don't make comments about KLIF and its practices without first finding out if it was a significant station or not. And don't call Hal Martin a know-nothing about Top 40 without similarly researching who he was.

Dallas was, in many senses, the center of the Top 40 universe and Gordon McLendon was the guy who managed the celestial mechanics. While Storz is credited with creating and nurturing the format, he never got beyond a few medium markets like Kansas City, Minneapolis and Miami. McLendon took Top 40 and created major market monsters like KLIF and KILT and ratcheted up the availability of the format and its acceptance by advertisers. At the center of all this was KLIF, a station that went on new music aggressively and was followed by hundreds of Top 40 stations across middle America and much of the Southwest. As I look back at it, it is likely provable that KLIF made or helped make more hits than stations like WABC and WLS did (besides being in the format much earlier).

There is a very good web page about the Dallas and Fort Worth markets at http://www.dfwradioarchives.info/. You might read some of the KLIF material, as there are things they did in the 50's and 60's that can be applied today!
 
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All this kerfuffle! I've been to websites where documents have been scanned in using OCR, and have had to try hard to guess what the original text really said. It's a mechanical failure, not some grand conspiracy, probably not even the result of a stenographer weaned on Sinatra. Just this past Saturday, the guy who owns the used-vinyl shop here showed me a copy of a top 40 survey from the 60's, typeset and printed to be given away in record shops by one of the local stations. The Number 1 hit? The Buckinghams - Kind Of A GAG! Lighten up, youse guys, these things just happen.

To Firepoint: As for the Beagles, there actually was an album and singles by a studio group by that name; connected with the soundtrack of a Saturday morning cartoon show, "The Beagles," which was the last series made by Total Television Productions (the Underdog folks.) It aired on CBS and the records came out on Columbia. They did not cover "We Can Work It Out" or any other actual Beatles songs as far as I know though, so the record your pal had was something else.
 
But you attempted to invalidate the document based on OCR mis-reads, despite my caveat to that effect. You even hinted that the document might not be real because "the station never got the single". You are casting aspersions on a real document based on a lack of understanding of how record promotion was done back then.
I did nothing of the sort. I actually COUNTERED with an example of a knock-off that was NOT a typo, and you totally ignored it. Checkmate!
Then don't make comments about KLIF and its practices without first finding out if it was a significant station or not. And don't call Hal Martin a know-nothing about Top 40 without similarly researching who he was.
Dallas was, in many senses, the center of the Top 40 universe and Gordon McLendon was the guy who managed the celestial mechanics. While Storz is credited with creating and nurturing the format, he never got beyond a few medium markets like Kansas City, Minneapolis and Miami. McLendon took Top 40 and created major market monsters like KLIF and KILT and ratcheted up the availability of the format and its acceptance by advertisers. At the center of all this was KLIF, a station that went on new music aggressively and was followed by hundreds of Top 40 stations across middle America and much of the Southwest. As I look back at it, it is likely provable that KLIF made or helped make more hits than stations like WABC and WLS did (besides being in the format much earlier).
There is a very good web page about the Dallas and Fort Worth markets at http://www.dfwradioarchives.info/. You might read some of the KLIF material, as there are things they did in the 50's and 60's that can be applied today!
You really don't get it, do you? I don't give a damn what anyone in Dallas was doing 50 years ago. You said it yourself; '60s music is a "geezer demo." Those are your words from an earlier thread. Those guys that you mention are (were?) old enough to be my grandparents. To quote Hank, Jr., "this ain't Dallas." If I ever go to Dallas, I am going to check out Dealey Plaza and Southfork, but I have no real interest in checking out what anyone in radio was doing back then.
 
You really don't get it, do you? I don't give a damn what anyone in Dallas was doing 50 years ago. You said it yourself; '60s music is a "geezer demo." Those are your words from an earlier thread. Those guys that you mention are (were?) old enough to be my grandparents. To quote Hank, Jr., "this ain't Dallas." If I ever go to Dallas, I am going to check out Dealey Plaza and Southfork, but I have no real interest in checking out what anyone in radio was doing back then.

What you entirely missed is the change in attitudes towards music and lyrics over this 5 decade period.

And, as the oft-mentioned Santayana quote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Oh, and Dallas, McLendon and KLIF are very significant as they very substantially defined music radio formats and direction even to the current era. Examining the cause and effect of their programming policies can reveal why the approach both worked then and how it needs to change in today's environment.

You are looking at the tree and failing to see you are in a forest.
 
What you entirely missed is the change in attitudes towards music and lyrics over this 5 decade period.
No, I didn't. I got that loud and clear. But again, well over half of the titles that you posted in that memo are what you yourself would call "stiffs." A handful of groups that recorded those "stiffs" had other tunes that became hits, but not these. Whether or not a couple of guys in Dallas sat in a "bored room" and killed off these songs is a matter of debate. I listened to the Eric Burdon title on youtube, and it is just basically junk.
And, as the oft-mentioned Santayana quote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Oh, and Dallas, McLendon and KLIF are very significant as they very substantially defined music radio formats and direction even to the current era. Examining the cause and effect of their programming policies can reveal why the approach both worked then and how it needs to change in today's environment.
I am more interested in what happened in Phoenix with Guy Zapolean (sp) at KZZP (I think those are the correct calls) out in Phoenix back in the late '80s. He revived about half a dozen "stiffs" from earlier in the '80s, and made them actual hits the second time around. (Although it could be argued that some of them didn't deserve a second chance, and that Zapolean over-reached on a couple of them.) I'm sure that the guys in Dallas were pulling their hair out over Zapolean playing "stiffs" and probably didn't like it that decisions were being made (on what became hits) in places OTHER than Dallas. By the way, I have never even been to Phoenix.

I wish your guys in Dallas had been able to kill off some of Madonna's so-called "music," then and only then would they have been heroes in my book.
You are looking at the tree and failing to see you are in a forest.
Bob Seger had the song "Get Out of Denver," well in your case, we should modify it to "get out of Dallas." If that station's calls had been KLIT, they would have been aiming for a call-letter change for obvious reasons. :rolleyes:

Zippo may be the latest Dallas guy headed for oblivion if he isn't careful.
 
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If that station's calls had been KLIT, they would have been aiming for a call-letter change for obvious reasons.

There was a KLIT, for many years, in LA. It was always referred to as K-lite and written as K-LIT and, other than from snarky radio insiders, never got any criticism.
 
David, I hope you know that I have been "pulling your chain" for most of this thread. You don't usually post a lot of stuff with typos, so when you did, naturally I assumed that you had posted your memo exactly as written. Doing otherwise would have been an editorial judgement. I know nothing about scanning outside documents onto this site, so when I have material of that nature to post, I usually post a link to another site. I know that this site frowns upon posting entire documents here, probably for copyright infringement reasons, and will usually come back to edit something, instead opting to replace with a link to an outside site. They have done that with material that I have posted here before.

The only "blast from the past" that I looked up was Gordon McLendon, and even that was only because my political side (which hardly ever comes out on this site) piqued my curiosity. I saw similarities between him and George Flinn, radio and TV exec from Memphis who made a run for Congress from the 8th district of Tennessee (basically northwest TN) a couple of election cycles ago. That was an open seat at the time, and Flinn and two others ran for the GOP nomination, and a now-former state senator for the Dem nomination. I am from that district originally, but since I no longer live there, had to view that race as an outsider. From what I saw, none of them really deserved to win. Flinn didn't even get the nomination, despite spending a small fortune of his own money, so his political career, at least so far, has not been any more successful than McLendon's was. Undoubtedly, Flinn did not actually already live in that district, so probably had to establish residency before he could ever run. One of the more humorous criticisms of him that I was able to find was that he owned a radio station playing rap and hip hop. To which he of course responded that he had stations programming other formats as well.
 
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