They banned relax but kept playing......

[Shaggy]

There are so many, really

Radio 2 favourite "Hotel California" (Eagles) is supposed to be about heroin addiction, and "House of the Rising Sun" is famously risque, about a brothel (lyrics tamed down for the Animals version)

[Skinnyman]

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside”

The original is bad enough but the Tom Jones, Cerys Whotsername version is somehow even creepier.

 

[bazzbass]

12 hours ago, casapete said:

Ditto ‘Young girl’ by Gary Puckett and The Union Gap , but a bit more creepy. 

I listened to the lyrics just the other day, dirty old man.

Beneath your perfume and your make-up
You're just a baby in disguise
And though you know that it's wrong to be
Alone with me
That come on look is in your eyes

[PaulWarning]

32 minutes ago, bazzbass said:

I listened to the lyrics just the other day, dirty old man.

Beneath your perfume and your make-up
You're just a baby in disguise
And though you know that it's wrong to be
Alone with me
That come on look is in your eyes

Ah, but he resists her advances, but you do wonder what sort of mind (or experience) comes up with lyrics like that

[EliasMooseblaster]

13 hours ago, keeponehandloose said:

It was the BBC being morally offended on our behalf...back in the day they they thought that they were the barometer of good taste.

This would be the same corporation that banned The Who's My Generation back in 1965, because they were worried it would incite young people to riot.

 

(I'm sure over on Guitarchat, they'll be suggesting it was banned because of the bass solos...)

[chris_b]

The FBI spent a couple of years trying to decipher the lyrics of Louie Louie by the Kingsmen, because they thought they could contain "hidden obscene meaning". They were never able to work out what the words were and the case was dropped!!

Looking back, it's hard to understand how much the "establishment" hated the differences between them and their children's culture in the 1960's.

[operative451]

"You're 16, you're beautiful, and you're mine".

Ew.

I guess a lot of it is that now we're more 'woke' and post-saville, stuff that was 'ok at the time' is now creepy AF... Not to mention those sings were sung by maybe late teen/20somethings and now the original singers are like, 90, and still singing the same songs...

As it was the anniversary of Rik Mayall's death the other day, i have to contribute:

"Gonna lock her up in a trunk!"

"I still feel that locking girls up in trunks is politically unsound!"

 

[Cosmo Valdemar]

21 hours ago, casapete said:

On a slightly different tack, not sure how ‘Little Children’ ( Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas ), ‘Clare’ ( Gilbert O’Sullivan ‘) or ‘Save all your kisses for me’ ( Brotherhood of Man’) would be viewed in these perhaps less innocent times?

Nothing sinister about Billy J, I don't think. Well, not in the song anyway.

[casapete]

19 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

Nothing sinister about Billy J, I don't think. Well, not in the song anyway.

I didn't mean he/it was sinister, just pointing out that the song and /or title probably wouldn't be well received in these sad times in which we live, however innocent they were originally.

[chris_b]

1 hour ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

Nothing sinister about Billy J, I don't think. Well, not in the song anyway.

Just don't let him get a glimpse of your drinks cabinet!!

[Stub Mandrel]

23 hours ago, casapete said:

Ditto ‘Young girl’ by Gary Puckett and The Union Gap , but a bit more creepy. 

Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen...

[Stub Mandrel]

8 hours ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

Nothing sinister about Billy J, I don't think. Well, not in the song anyway.

And of course marrying your 13 year old cousin like Jerry lee Lewis was perfectly normal in the 50s...

[Cosmo Valdemar]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

And of course marrying your 13 year old cousin like Jerry lee Lewis was perfectly normal in the 50s...

I don't understand the connection... 

[Stub Mandrel]

18 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

I don't understand the connection... 

'Little Children'?

[Kirky]

Under My Thumb is much more offensive than Brown Sugar.  

Wasn't Rumble (an instrumental) banned too?

[Paul S]

The 'one hit wonder' band Stretch had an excellent track on their album Elastique called 'Navy Blues' which is an undisguised song about an adult man lusting after a schoolgirl.  The vocal has been double-tracked with a kind of breathless, dirty phone call effect (especially at the end) so I am guessing it was a swipe at paedos* (especially in the context of 'Why Did You Do it' being an angry song directed at Mick Fleetwood - the reason the band got together iirc).  But even though I think it is an exceptionally fine song (bass tone to die for and superb guitar solo) I do feel slightly uncomfortable listening to it.  Mind you it is so obscure I don't suppose many people would have heard it anyway  

 

*yes, I know, paedos don't always talk like that.  Be a bit of a giveaway if they did.

Edited June 11, 2019 by Paul S

[chris_b]

26 minutes ago, Paul S said:

. . . .  'Why Did You Do it' being an angry song directed at Mick Fleetwood - the reason the band got together iirc

They were already a band and were booked to do a US tour with Mick Fleetwood. FM had broken up and contracts had been signed so they were going to be Fleetwood Mac! The band had flown to NY and were waiting for Mick to turn up for rehearsals, when he backed out. The management still put them out on tour with another drummer. It didn't go well with the audiences!!

I occasionally play with Stretch's drummer at the time. The guy who was left at home, then sensibly refused to do the tour when MF left them in the lurch.

Back to banned songs. . . . . . .

[PaulWarning]

always thought that the Boomtown Rats Mary of the 4th form a bit ify

[Doctor J]

11 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

And of course marrying your 13 year old cousin like Jerry lee Lewis was perfectly normal in the 50s...

That was one of his lesser crimes, incredibly enough.

[operative451]

#blatantselfplug

And they won't play this on the radio either:

Help help i'm being censored!!

[chris_b]

11 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

And of course marrying your 13 year old cousin like Jerry lee Lewis was perfectly normal in the 50s...

Well.. . . . apparently it was legal in Memphis but not normal, as the US press coverage indicates.

[Bleat]

11 minutes ago, operative451 said:

#blatantselfplug

And they won't play this on the radio either:

Help help i'm being censored!!

Thanks I can't unhear that now ! ….and shouldn't it be a #blatantselfbuttplug 🤪

[Old Man Riva]

As I recall, the BBC banning Relax was instigated by DJ Mike Reed, who, upon playing the single, got an earful of the lyric, and stopped playing it half-way through, chirruping loudly about it being the start of the decline of civilisation as we know it - I may have over-egged that last bit, but it’s not far off.

 

[mikel]

Because a song, in the past or current, touches on a subject is no indication the songwriter was or is an avid proponent of that subject or issue. Few songs, books or films would exist if so called taboo subjects had to be completely avoided. Look at "Sweet home Alabama" taking a pop at Neil Young because he took a swipe at racist people in the Southern states back in the day in his song "Southern Man". I like the song Sweet Home but I dont agree with the sentiments re Mr Young. He flagged up something nasty in the history of the USA but  LS felt they had to defend their "People" regardless.

[Nicko]

Not  offensive, but the innuendo in Pull Up To The Bumper by Grace Jones is pretty thinly disguised.