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Thread: Songs that have been banned !

  1. #26


    From Wiki:

    Rupert Holmes has cited the country song "Sixteen Tons" (a song about the hard life of a coal miner) and the 1959 film adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play Suddenly, Last Summer (which also contains allusions to cannibalism) as inspirations for "Timothy." He decided to combine the themes of those two works into a ballad of three miners trapped by a cave-in, sung in the first person from the perspective of one of the miners. By the time they're rescued, only two of them remain. Although the fate of the missing man, Timothy, is never explicitly revealed, it is strongly implied by the fact that the two survivors, once hungry and with no access to food, show no sign of hunger when they're rescued. Indeed, the singer's "stomach was full as it could be". To make the song appealing to listeners, Holmes disguised the borderline-gruesome lyrics to a degree by juxtaposing them against a light, bouncy melody with heavy emphasis on brass and string accompaniment.

    Although not an official member of the band, Holmes did play piano on this song in addition to writing it.

    "Timothy" attracted little attention when it was first released, in large part because Scepter Records did not promote the record. Soon, however, it became popular among young listeners who were able to deduce Timothy's fate from the lyrics. Only as the song became more frequently requested did radio stations begin to take note of the song and its unsettling subject matter. Then, just as Holmes and the Buoys had expected, the song started getting banned.

    Under normal circumstances, a radio ban would be considered the "kiss of death" for a single's prospects on the Billboard music charts, which at that time were based heavily on radio airplay. Yet "Timothy" had already attracted such a great following that as some radio stations banned the song, competing stations would pick it up to meet the demand. As a result, instead of dropping off as expected, the song continued slowly moving up the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Once they realized they had a hit record on their hands, Scepter Records executives tried to claim that Timothy was really a mule, not a person, in order to get radio stations that had banned the song to reconsider. When asked about this claim, however, Holmes refused to play along with the Scepter executives. Even so, "Timothy" kept climbing the chart, finally peaking at #17. Holmes' entrepreneurial approach to songwriting had worked better than he, the Buoys, or Scepter Records ever expected. To appease the stations that banned the song, Scepter created two promotional singles with the original version on the A-sides and one of two differently edited versions on the B-sides. One edit revises the lyric "My stomach was full as it could be" to "Both of us fine as we could be". The second version includes the "stomach" lyric but bleeps out the word "hell" in the second verse. The record labels (in black and white for promotional issues) indicate these versions under the song title as "Revised Lyric" (SDR-12275) and "Edited, Bleeped Out" (SDJ-12275), respectively. There is no known version of the song with both edits in the same mix.

    In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode featuring Monster A Go-Go, Crow and Servo are discussing Rupert Holmes's Piña Colada Song, and Joel Robinson asserts that, as a pop songwriter, Rupert Holmes always wrote about contemporary popular trends. The robots retort by citing "Timothy" ("That was about cannibalism. When was that popular?"), but Joel assures the robots that it is a "well-known fact that Timothy was a duck."

    From Songfacts:

    Holmes: "At the time, I was working on an arrangement of '16 Tons,' the Tennessee Ernie Ford hit from the '50s, for an artist named Andy Kim. While I was working on the arrangement, there was a cooking show on the TV in the kitchen. It was called The Galloping Gourmet with Graham Kerr. It's on in the background and I'm singing the lyrics to '16 Tons,' playing it to a kind of vamp sort of like 'Proud Mary,' and I sing 'Some people say a man is made out of mud, a coal man's made out of muscle and blood. Muscle and blood and skin and bones, a mind that's weak and a back that's...' and I think, you know, that almost sounds like a recipe - muscle and blood and skin and bones, bake in a moderate oven for 2 hours, top with Miracle Whip. I had seen the movie Suddenly Last Summer about a week earlier on TV, and it had a revelation about cannibalism in it, and I thought, If it's good enough for Tennessee Williams, it's good enough for The Buoys. So I thought, Cannibalism during a mining disaster, that'll get banned. It's not like I'm really telling people to go out and eat someone, this is just this dark, horrible thing that happened in this story. So I write this lyric: 'Timothy, Timothy, where on Earth did you go?' It's about three boys who are trapped in a mine with water but no food for maybe a week. When they're pulled free, they don't remember what happened, but they know they're not hungry. One of them is missing, and that's Timothy. We record this on the weekend and I don't think about it again."

    When this was released, some little radio stations played it and kids would hear it and figure out what it was about. They would call and request the song, and the radio stations, surprised by the phone response, would then listen to the song to find out what it was about. Says Holmes: "They played the song originally because it had a nice rhythm, kind of like a Creedence Clearwater Revival feel. It was catchy enough, but then they'd hear what the song was about and say 'We can't be playing this, it's about cannibalism!' and they'd pull the song off the air. The kids would call in and say 'Why'd you pull the song off the air,' and they'd say, 'Because it's disgusting, you shouldn't be listening to stuff like that.' Well, all you have to do is tell a teenage kid that he shouldn't be listening to something because it's disgusting and vile and loathsome, and he'll demand it. So the record, unlike "Pina Colada," which vaulted up the charts, went up like one or two digits every week. It was on the charts forever. Stations were playing it, kids were clamoring for it, it would move up the charts, then the station would pull it, the kids would clamor more and some other station would go on it to satisfy that demand. It just kept going up the charts."

    Holmes: "Scepter Records in the beginning did not even know it was on their label. The promotion men for Scepter Records, who were trying to break a Beverly Bremers single, would say, 'We couldn't get it on that station, they went with this stupid song called Timothy.' Finally, someone said, 'You idiot, it's on our label.' Now they have a problem, because now they're getting up towards the top 20, and they know there are some big stations that are simply not going to play this record. WABC-AM, the biggest station at the time, they never played it. Scepter Records started a rumor that Timothy was a mule to try to get the taint of cannibalism out of the picture and try to make it a Top-10 record. Someone called me and said, 'Was Timothy a mule? You wrote it.' And I said 'No, what can I tell you, they ate him.'

    Holmes: "Whenever people talk about Timothy, I always say, 'Where did you come from?' Because that always lets me know. If they were from Florida, it was big there, if they were from Pennsylvania, very big. Texas, they know it. But if you're from New York you've never heard of it." (Thanks to Rupert Holmes for speaking with us about this song. To learn more about Rupert, check out rupertholmes.com.)

    That's probably more info than needed but what the hell. It's more info on a obscure song that no one you will ever meet, ever, will know about. Could be good for winning some bar bets, maybe, but I don't know what else all that useless info is good for. Can't really blame me for this one as you did ask for banned songs.

  2. #27
    Member Oreb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    Certain performers you won't hear on the radio now due to their own personal misdeeds. But whether they are 'banned', I can't really say.
    True enough: although I don't like the idea of any song or singer being 'banned' I can't say I'd warm to any DJ who thought playing some Gary Glitter, for example, would be classy.

    Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?

  3. #28
    MC5- Kick Out the Jams. The band was forced to release a sanitized version, and the album (of which I have the real first release with original music and text) had to change its text. "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!" my ass.
    I'm not lazy. I just work so fast I'm always done.

  4. #29
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Jacques Brel's Les F.... (meaning Flamingants >> flemish extremists)... Last thing he recorded (the rockiest of his songs too), on his last album (called Brel, but AKA Les Marquises)

    It was his testimony to how much he loathed them , depainting them as mean and petty hicks...

    The Flemish majoority imposed a ban on their own radio and menaced the french side of the country not to play it either... Which they more or less obliged, but dissecting the words of the song in cultural shows all over the airwaves.
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  5. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oreb View Post
    True enough: although I don't like the idea of any song or singer being 'banned' I can't say I'd warm to any DJ who thought playing some Gary Glitter, for example, would be classy.
    That's the extreme example- his career is like a part of the 1970s that never ever happened in the UK. A few 'in context of the 70s' broadcasts aside, his records have been dodged by broadcasters for years.

    A recent one is Rolf Harris, a story I expect you will have encountered in your country as well. I can remember only a few years ago hearing Harris and The Beatles doing a BBC version of 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport' on some broadcast or other. I suspect that's something that will never see the light of day again.

  6. #31
    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by davis View Post
    I don't know if songs get banned here, but some have been edited to replace 'bad' words with acceptable words.
    Like the "I am your battle priest" version of Marillion's "Market Square Heroes"?


    Quote Originally Posted by rcarlberg View Post
    "Cop Killer" was forced to be removed from Body Count's album.
    And now Ice T plays a cop on TV.
    Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.

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  7. #32
    Ramses had to change the title 'War', with war sounds for the US relesease of their debut with 'Noise' (the same song, with different lyrics and traffic noises).

  8. #33
    Member BobM's Avatar
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    There were lots of albums in the 80's that had to have stickered warnings about adult content. And of course the radio stations couldn't play anything that didn;t meet censorship standards, like Jimmy Buffets "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw". But I don;t really know what being "banned" means? Banned from where ?
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  9. #34
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    Grace Jones had the unusual distinction of having a single in the US Top 10 that was not only banned from radio airplay, but the announcers were not even allowed to say the title:

    "Bullshit".

  10. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by Rufus View Post
    Don't know about any outside of the UK but these were once banned by the BBC...

    Relax-Frankie Goes to Hollywood
    God Save the Queen-Sex Pistols
    Lola-The Kinks
    We don't need this fascist groove thang-Heaven 17
    Give Ireland back to the Irish-Wings
    Relax and Fascist Groove Thing weren't banned as such, prize twat DJ Mike Read refused to play them on grounds that the former was rude and the latter was an attack on the Conservative government.

    Anything by Judge Dread was automatically banned by the BBC. ISTR they wouldn't even mention the titles on the chart run-down.

  11. #36
    Quote Originally Posted by Halmyre View Post
    Anything by Judge Dread was automatically banned by the BBC. ISTR they wouldn't even mention the titles on the chart run-down.
    Yeah, forgot about those Judge Dread songs which were 'sexually' themed in the context of famous nursery rythmes. I think I bought everyone up until Big 8 or something.

    The BEEB have also 'banned' many promo vids from our TV sets over the years which I think included FGTH's Relax & Two Tribes. From memory I also think they banned George Michael's I Want Your Sex vid!!! Probably loads more if anybody can think of any???

  12. #37
    Quote Originally Posted by Progatron View Post
    And now Ice T plays a cop on TV.
    Actually, back in the early 90's, Ice T played a cop in a movie called Colors.

  13. #38
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    I think songs by neo-nazi bands are forbidden in Germany.

    There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zeuhlmate View Post
    There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another.
    FZ

    ?
    The problem is, most of those love songs are silly.

  15. #40
    Quote Originally Posted by bob_32_116 View Post
    The problem is, most of those love songs are silly.
    There's more than enough of those in the world.

  16. #41
    Member Oreb's Avatar
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    What's wrong with that?

    I'd like to know.

    Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?

  17. #42
    Member Oreb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    A recent one is Rolf Harris, a story I expect you will have encountered in your country as well. I can remember only a few years ago hearing Harris and The Beatles doing a BBC version of 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport' on some broadcast or other. I suspect that's something that will never see the light of day again.
    Indeed - I expect we've heard the last of Jake the Peg and the Two Little Boys.

    Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?

  18. #43
    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Progatron View Post
    And now Ice T plays a cop on TV.
    Just goes to show, most music is all about posing. "I don't actually promote any of the ideas in my songs, they're just songs, you know."

  19. #44
    Quote Originally Posted by bob_32_116 View Post
    Grace Jones had the unusual distinction of having a single in the US Top 10 that was not only banned from radio airplay, but the announcers were not even allowed to say the title:

    "Bullshit".
    When did this ever happen? Grace Jones doesn’t even have a single entitled “Bullshit.” And she never had a top 10 hit in the States, her highest charting single being “I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect For You)” which peaked at #69.
    Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Progbear View Post
    When did this ever happen? Grace Jones doesn’t even have a single entitled “Bullshit.” And she never had a top 10 hit in the States, her highest charting single being “I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect For You)” which peaked at #69.
    Perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me. It may have been the album that was top 10.

    Anyway, she does have a song called "Bullshit".

  21. #46
    Quote Originally Posted by Rufus View Post
    Yeah, forgot about those Judge Dread songs which were 'sexually' themed in the context of famous nursery rythmes. I think I bought everyone up until Big 8 or something.
    It didn't help that later songs were called things like "Y Viva Suspenders" (for the benefit of our American cousins, nothing to do with holding up your trousers (or pants)) and "Up With The Cock" (nothing to do about being woken in the morning by the crowing of a farmyard bird).

  22. #47
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    Does banning make any sense in countries with free speach?

  23. #48
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    Quote Originally Posted by Adrian View Post
    I always get a chuckle out of our local classic rock station. They drop the vocal for the bad words in songs like "Jet Airliner," "Money," and "Show Biz Kids," but they'll play "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" complete with the F-bomb.
    and they had Mick saying 'humped' on 'Some Girls'. What did radio do with that 'Little Lion Man' song by Mumford and Sons? Did they keep "fucked ' intact since it's not a sexual reference?

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    Quote Originally Posted by davis View Post
    What did radio do with that 'Little Lion Man' song by Mumford and Sons? Did they keep "fucked ' intact since it's not a sexual reference?
    Thanks for reminding me of that song. I had blissfully forgotten it.
    Answering your question, I think some stations here edited out the word in such a way that it was obvious what it was - others didn't bother.

  25. #50
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    ^ sorry about that. I liked it the first couple of times I heard it. I can't stand it now.

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