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

[Baxlin]

On 10/06/2019 at 13:01, operative451 said:

.. 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

Edited September 22, 2019 by Baxlin

[Baxlin]

For some reason I couldn’t add to the quote in my post above, so here goes!

Joe Brown, commenting on this topic, claims to have advised Marty Wilde, instead of singing "Why must I be a teenager in love", to sing "Why CAN'T I be ...etc"

 

Edited September 22, 2019 by Baxlin

[Phil Starr]

29 minutes ago, mikel said:

Again, context. Shining a spotlight on our shameful, distant past is a good way to try and make sure it never happens again. Depends If you think the Stones were celebrating slavery or shaming the perpetrators. If art cant cover the past, and make people think, then where would that leave films like 12 Years a Slave? 

I agree context is all. Brown Sugar contains a few historical references, 'houseboy' and 'Tent Show' which indicate Jagger had more than  a passing knowledge of slavery. the gist of the song is that Brown Sugar tastes so good; better than white sugar perhaps? In context today that would be describing black people by their sexuality, black men are bigger and black women sexier. We'd quite rightly be in trouble if we said that at work or anywhere in public nowadays. It's one of those things we would think 'oh no grandad is going to say something racist, oh there he's said it'

FWIW I don't think he is a racist. I grew up in the same part of Kent/south London as he did a few years later and went to the Grammar School next to his. I doubt he knew any black people growing up and around the time he wrote this he was having affairs with a series of black women. I'm fairly confident he was just carried away with how sexy it all was and thought he was saying something positive about black women.

Brown Sugar was a great song, still fills the floor and takes me back to my youth but those lyrics are embarrassing in a modern context. I couldn't play Brown Sugar now it was different in the 70's. 

[NancyJohnson]

I actually recall the BBC getting all angsty about Statue of Liberty by XTC, what with it's lyrical content containing the words nearly naked and in my fantasy I sail beneath your skirt. 

When you think back to BBC radio in the mid-late '70s, many of the execs/producers/programmers who were controlling the nations listening habits were geriatric suit-wearing, pipe-smoking old farts so it's no wonder they were banning stuff and trying to uphold common sense and decency.  What what.  The were completely out of their depth; it would be like someone coming to me and asking me to throw together content for a show on New Zealand grime.

This was also the era of Mary Whitehouse and we all know what a piece of work she was.

Edited September 22, 2019 by NancyJohnson

[Hobbayne]

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

I actually recall the BBC getting all angsty about Statue of Liberty by XTC, what with it's lyrical content containing the words nearly naked and in my fantasy I sail beneath your skirt. 

When you think back to BBC radio in the mid-late '70s, many of the execs/producers/programmers who were controlling the nations listening habits were geriatric suit-wearing, pipe-smoking old farts so it's no wonder they were banning stuff and trying to uphold common sense and decency.  What what.  The were completely out of their depth; it would be like someone coming to me and asking me to throw together content for a show on New Zealand grime.

This was also the era of Mary Whitehouse and we all know what a piece of work she was.

They didnt even write it. Rita Coolidge did.

[leschirons]

Sex farm, Spinal Tap

How much more disgusting can it be?

None, none more disgusting.

[NancyJohnson]

3 hours ago, Hobbayne said:

They didnt even write it. Rita Coolidge did.

Wouldn't that have been a thing.

[SpondonBassed]

7 hours ago, mikel said:

Again, context. Shining a spotlight on our shameful, distant past is a good way to try and make sure it never happens again. Depends If you think the Stones were celebrating slavery or shaming the perpetrators. If art cant cover the past, and make people think, then where would that leave films like 12 Years a Slave? 

I have to agree strongly with this.

I was one of the kids who sat with family watching Black and White telly when there were three channels, all terrestrial.  I think it might even have been pre 625 broadcasts (405) and certainly before the BBC announced that they were going to turn the colour on for the first time.

We LOVED Rolf Harris and Jimmy Saville.  A lot of my generation have now got a foul taste on our palates post disclosure.

That is all.

Edited September 22, 2019 by SpondonBassed

[SpondonBassed]

5 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

This was also the era of Mary Whitehouse and we all know what a piece of work she was.

She of whom Pink Floyd wrote:

Quote

Hey you Whitehouse
Ha ha charade you are
You house proud town mouse
Ha ha charade you are
You're trying to keep our feelings off the street
You're nearly a real treat
All tight lips and cold feet
And do you feel abused
You got to stem the evil tide
And keep it all on the inside
Mary you're nearly a treat
Mary you're nearly a treat
But you're really a cry

At boarding school we had a resident nun who taught history and was in charge of the infirmary.  She was of a similar hard-faced puritan attitude.  She was very small but VERY scary.

She kept an entire boys-only secondary school in fear for their very souls.  Impressive in hindsight but I wouldn't want to live it again.

[taunton-hobbit]

And the first BBC colour tv show was ?

.......... The Black & White Minstrels ............

(you really couldn't make it up)

😎

[SpondonBassed]

3 minutes ago, taunton-hobbit said:

And the first BBC colour tv show was ?

.......... The Black & White Minstrels ............

(you really couldn't make it up)

😎

I saw that one as well.  1967.  What a year!  I recall bitter disappointment however.

In the weeks leading up to the first colour broadcast we had been getting regular announcements before and after my favourite programs of the time - Tomorrow's World, Star Trek and Mission Impossible.  I believed Aunty Beeb when her minions announced matter of factly that we would see next week's episodes in full and glorious colour.

They didn't tell this five year old that Dad would have to buy a colour telly!  Bar Stewards.  Heeheehee.

[skankdelvar]

10 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

This was also the era of Mary Whitehouse and we all know what a piece of work she was.

Mrs Whitehouse may have been the ultimate vexatious complainer and many if not most of her objections were petty in nature. But at a time when it was deeply fashionable to embrace unbridled cultural libertarianism she held certain opinions which would probably enjoy widespread support today.

Whitehouse was rabidly against violence on TV and in the theatre, believing it to be a negative influence. Pressure from Whitehouse and other campaigners consequently led to the 1984 Video Recordings Act which required the BBFC to certificate every feature film released on video. Prior to the act pre-recorded videos were not subject to certification, leading to the importation of a host of uncensored exploitation movies such as SS Experiment Camp, Cannibal Holocaust, I Spit on Your Grave and Snuff. 

Whitehouse believed that porn was bad for a number of reasons one of which was that it contributes to the objectification of women. Who'd disagree with that?

Formerly a teacher, Whitehouse deplored the early sexualisation of children and fervently opposed the activities of the Paedeophile Information Exchange. Her anti-child porn petition helped to bring about the 1978 Protection of Children Act which for the first time prohibited the possession and distribution of pornographic images of children.

On one occasion Whitehouse opined in a more general sense: 

"Television may teach self-interest rather than philanthropy, violence rather than gentleness, a disregard for human dignity rather than a respect for it. It may not always teach the truth but teach it does, and it is more than time that responsible people both within and outside the broadcasting professions said boldly what is so obvious in commonsense terms — we cannot understand what is happening in international, cultural, economic, political and social affairs without coming to grips with the way in which television influences virtually all our behavioural and thought processes".

Substitute 'The Media' or 'Twitter' for 'Television' and those words could have been written yesterday.

In the 40-odd years since Roger Waters wrote Pigs (Three different ones) and bloke-ily suggested that Whitehouse's stance was due to sexual frigidity popular opinion has shifted away from the 'Let it all hang out' approach characteristic of the free-wheeling sixties and seventies. Nowadays Mary Whitehouse casts a long shadow on contemporary phenomena such as Mumsnet, paedophilia, issues of civility and language, sexual exploitation in the media and the depiction of violence.

Yes, Whitehouse was an ocean-going pain in the ar5e and obsessed to a microscopic level about sex on TV. But time has a funny way of rehabilitating our bêtes noires of yesteryear.
 

Edited September 22, 2019 by skankdelvar

[Stub Mandrel]

The problem with sex on the TV, was that we always kept falling off.

[SpondonBassed]

55 minutes ago, skankdelvar said:

But time has a funny way of rehabilitating our bêtes noires of yesteryear.

There's hope for a Rolf Harris comeback yet.

[SpondonBassed]

24 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

The problem with sex on the TV, was that we always kept falling off.

You should've taken up tap dancing.  You'd only have had a short drop until you hit the wash basin.

[Count Bassy]

All this about racism and sex in songs, but we haven't mentioned any songs about murder? Eg:

I shot the sherrif

Foulsom prison Blues

Bad like Jesse James

Hey Joe

Ruby     (he didn't,  but he wanted to)

Delilah  (almost for got this one)

Bohemian Rhapsody

etc etc.

 

Surely even in todays "Snowflake" environment murder has still got to be still worse than sexism or racism?

[SpondonBassed]

29 minutes ago, Count Bassy said:

Surely even in todays "Snowflake" environment murder has still got to be still worse than sexism or racism?

Murder is the most PC of crimes it seems, Persephone.

[taunton-hobbit]

Then, of course, we can be mortally offended by Country Joe (Fixin' to die rag)

Bobby Darin (Mack the knife)

At this rate we'll be back to Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson strangling Sing little birdie......

😎

[NickD]

On ‎09‎/‎06‎/‎2019 at 13:40, oZZma said:

And who is supposed to be "offended" by "Relax", exactly? 

Mike Read mostly.

Which considering he wrote and released (to limited success, obviously) the 'UKIP Calypso', is a bit of a cheek!

[BreadBin]

48 minutes ago, NickD said:

Mike Read mostly.

Which considering he wrote and released (to limited success, obviously) the 'UKIP Calypso', is a bit of a cheek!

That's because, in Mr Read's world at least, it's ok to be a racist xenophobic bigot but not ok to be gay.

[jacko]

Surprised there's been no mention of Aerosmith's Walk this Way yet.   

""Walk This Way" is the title of Aerosmith's 1999 autobiography. In the book, Steven Tyler deconstructs the lyrics to this song. Here's the breakdown:

"Backstroke Lover" is our hero masturbating. His father catches him, and explains that he will someday experience the real thing. One day, he encounters the cheerleader along with "her sister and her cousin," and has a glorious sexual experience (Tyler cops to fantasies about two women at once, which is where this came from).

The "walk this way" line is the experienced girl showing the young man where to put his finger - showing him how to walk. Inspiration came from make-out parties where this kind of thing could happen.

Tyler points out that while the lyrics are sexually charged, it is the girl who is in control."

And then it was covered by Sugababes and Girls Aloud for comic relief.  i can't think of a less appropriate song for a bunch of teenage girls to be singing 

[lonestar]

1 hour ago, NickD said:

Mike Read mostly.

Which considering he wrote and released (to limited success, obviously) the 'UKIP Calypso', is a bit of a cheek!

I had to go to his house once back in the '80s when I worked for the Beeb. In his basement along with his extensive record collection was a signed framed gold disc from Frankie for relax

[NickD]

1 minute ago, lonestar said:

I had to go to his house once back in the '80s when I worked for the Beeb. In his basement along with his extensive record collection was a signed framed gold disc from Frankie for relax

They do say that getting a record banned is very lucrative....

I look forward to releasing our new single 'Doing the Queen up the 'arris, while the ghost of Princess Di tickles my plums with a phantom feather' next week.

[BreadBin]

7 minutes ago, NickD said:

They do say that getting a record banned is very lucrative....

I look forward to releasing our new single 'Doing the Queen up the 'arris, while the ghost of Princess Di tickles my plums with a phantom feather' next week.

Alice Cooper claimed he used to send Mary Whitehouse flowers as her dislike of him actually increased their exposure.

[SpondonBassed]

Love in an Elevator?

 

Going down...