Hooked on an edit

[firepoint525]

The second verse (the "******" verse) of "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straights was edited out when I last saw it on VH-1 classic. Interesting, because it was never edited during its heyday (except for length--it was quite long!). That's political correctness for you. Mark Knopfler changed the offending word to "queenie" for live performances of the song. Radio stations now "bleep" the "******" if they still play it at all! (I don't know why they can't switch to one of those live performances!)

And most of you on this board are probably not aware of it, but a more current song, "Rockstar" by Nickelback, has been edited so that all the drug references are taken out! This is fairly obvious, since some of it is recurring during the chorus! One station that I heard bleeped it so many times, I found myself wondering why they even played it at all if it was so offensive to them! :

 

[firepoint525]

let's recap Top X-Rated songs:

Sixty Minute Man-Dominos
Honey Love-Drifters
Jungle Fever- chakachas
My Ding-A Ling- Chuck Berry
Pillow Talk - Sylvia Robinson
Stay-A-While - Bells
Love To Love You Baby - Donna Summer
Roll With Me Henry - Etta James
Je T'Aime - Jane Birkin and Sergio Gainsborg
Work With Me Annie - Hank Ballard
Annie Had A baby - Hank Ballard
Good Rockin Tonight - Wynonnie Harris
Mighty Mighty Man - Roy Brown

"Lady Marmalade" by LaBelle has escaped scrutiny as far as I know, even when it was a current, even though a lot of us know "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi" is French for "Would you like to go to bed with me?"

Probably because most program directors never took French when they were in school! ;D They may have just assumed that it was unintelligible lyrics, like we all often did whenever we couldn't understand the words! ;D

 

[Silkie]

Don't forget good old Marvin Gaye, "Let's Get It On".

 

[deltas69]

not so much and edit as a blackball..former station manager would not let us play "yellow river" by christie in 1970..said it was about herion...the mgr..tall, thin, skinny tie, button down shirt, always gave the lost pet show by saying..."now from the dog gone dept'..yes we had a lost pet segment..just after the moment of meditation :-*..and just before swap and shop ..ahhh..those golden days of radio...riviting.. :

 

[Silkie]

Island Girl, by Elton John

 

[johnbasalla]

A couple of single releases after Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" was the even more direct "You Sure Love To Ball". I kid you not. Look it up. I heard it a few times on R&B stations. The singing wasn't very clear (probably on purpose!). It was a Top 20 R&B chart hit, but missed the Top 40 on Billboard's Hot 100. Too bad. I would have loved to hear how Casey Kasem would have dealt with that record on "American Top 40".

 

[radioman148]

A couple of single releases after Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" was the even more direct "You Sure Love To Ball". I kid you not. Look it up. I heard it a few times on R&B stations. The singing wasn't very clear (probably on purpose!). It was a Top 20 R&B chart hit, but missed the Top 40 on Billboard's Hot 100. Too bad. I would have loved to hear how Casey Kasem would have dealt with that record on "American Top 40".

Speaking of Marvin Gaye how about "Sexual Healing?"

 

[phantom444]

Island Girl, by Elton John

...or, The Bitch is Back. I remember a station that dumped that during AT40, as well as Cheech and Chong's Earache My Eye.

 

[hornet61]

Boy, Marvin Gaye is a one man X-Rated Discography......he also had a great song, entitled "Come Get to This".......he was the only one that got away with those titles, on the super Homogenized Motown Label...Probably because of his huge talent first, and secondly, the fact that he was married to Anna Gordy sister of Berry Gordy, that fact didnt hurt either. Outside of Marvin Gaye and the Temptations.....By design Motown was black music for a white audience, Gordy knew the money was in the cross-over trade both in record sales and touring gigs. Where as, Atlantic/Stax/Volt/Kent etc. was pure unadulterated Soul straight from the rural south and the urban Big Cities.

 

[Oldbones]

Outside of Marvin Gaye and the Temptations.....By design Motown was black music for a white audience,

I'd include Stevie Wonder too.

 

[Oldbones]

The second verse (the "******" verse) of "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straights was edited out when I last saw it on VH-1 classic. Interesting, because it was never edited during its heyday (except for length--it was quite long!). That's political correctness for you. Radio stations now "bleep" the "******" if they still play it at all!

The song is still a staple on most classic rock stations, I've only heard the unedited album version. Back in "the day" AORs played the LP version, most CHRs played the "clean" edit, which is what was on the promo single.

Don't know how true this is, because I am not old enough to remember, but I am told that stations flipped the 45 of "Ballad of John & Yoko" and played its B-side, "Old Brown Shoe" (a George Harrison song) instead. Back in those days, stations apparently still received commercial 45s, so they could do that, rather than the double-A-sided 45s that became common in the 70s.

Most promo 45s in 1969 were essentially white-label versions of the commercial single with some designation of the plug side. Indeed, around that time Capitol (distributor of Apple, the Beatles' label) didn't even do that, they'd just print "promotional copy not for sale" on the stock copy label except for the occasional single with a radio-only edit. Motown and some Columbia singles were about the only ones with double A sides.

As far as playing the flip side of "John & Yoko", I remember a handful of stations playing it in addition to BOJ&Y, but not as a substitute. I do recall hearing a couple stations that made custom edits...they sounded pretty amateurish. The station I worked at played the song intact (but not "Brown Shoe").

 

[firepoint525]

The song is still a staple on most classic rock stations, I've only heard the unedited album version. Back in "the day" AORs played the LP version, most CHRs played the "clean" edit, which is what was on the promo single.

The only edit I have ever heard was the single edit, which left the (now) offending verse intact, but was an edit for length. Only one "I want my MTV" by Sting at the very beginning, and an earlier fade. One CHR back in the day played it so that it began with the electric guitar intro, and clipped everything prior to that.

The edits for PC reasons didn't come until (many years) later!

 

[billyg]

Growing up in Oklahoma I remember KELi in Tulsa playing a edited of Hall & Oates "Rich Girl" that substituted "You're a rich girl" for "it's a b--ch" girl"..over and over it sounded almost like a KC & The Sunshine Band song.

And I used to have a cassette of WKY in Oklahoma City playing a sloppy edit on the Eagles "Life In the Fast Lane" when it was on the top forty. They edited out the lines "They were good in bed", "Faster Faster the lights are turning red", and "Haven't seen a God---m thing".

 

[oldies76]

Other X-rated ones: Charlie Daniel's "Devil Went Down to Georgia".

"I told you once, you son of a b____, I'm the best that's ever been."

or even Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue" "Cause I'm the son-of-a-b____ that named you Sue"

 

[SuperRadioFan]

Don't forget Charlie's "Uneasy Rider" also... Esp the long version

 

[hornet61]

Don't forget Charlie's "Uneasy Rider" also... Esp the long version

I have heard Uneasy Rider many times, unfortunately I'm not very good with lyrics, what did they edit, from It , I don't recall, thanks.

 

[swfl]

"Stepping and fetching like their heads were on fire and their a--es were catching". Radio stations just "beeped" out the A word.

 

[oldies76]

or this line from 1973's "Uneasy Rider"

"He's a friend of them long haired, hippy-type, pinko fa_s!"

Funny song!

 

[deltas69]

some years ago charlie started editing his own song in live shows.."the devil went down to georgia"..he doesn't say SOB..says sonofa gun..guess he's mellowed a tad ..if i remember right..the song shipped on 45 with SOB on one side and son of a gun on the flip....

 

[cspotrun]

Hornet, you can also add "My Ding-A-Ling by the great Chuck Berry as another song banned. And yes it was also WABC. Across the Hudson River in northern New Jersey, low-powered WWDJ was playing the song virtually every hour as it was #1 there for what seemed like eons. But then later that year, flipped to Gospel. So who knows?

We also can't assume lots of this kind of stuff occurred just in the past. Speaking of "Pillow Talk," I requested the song in the 90s on the local oldies station in Miami and remember the reply to this day - "I'm not going to play orgasms on the air."

And a few months ago I heard a PD in Birmingham Al edited the Eagles classic "Life in the Fast Lane." More market decisions I suppose.

IRONIC! that they're editing top-40 music from the 60's & 70's today- and down the hall at the RAP station they're playing "Eminem" and "Ludricus"..