Way back when, many new recording artists were introduced to America via The Ed Sullivan Show. Almost everyone has at least seen footage of the Beatles first appearance on the show. An estimated 73 million viewers tuned into to see what was considered the beginning of the British invasion. However, several other artists had a bit of controversy, specifically centered around their song lyrics.
For example, all-American rock legend Buddy Holly was scheduled to sing his hit single, "Oh, Boy!". Seems innocent enough by today's standards. But back then, the lyrics were deemed too raucous by Sullivan, so he asked Holly to use another another song.
Along the same lines, The Doors were asked to change the lyrics in their song "Light My Fire". Instead of the line "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" (which was viewed a reference to drug use), the band was asked to use "Girl, we couldn't get much better". Although The Doors initially agreed, lead singer Jim Morrison sang the original lyrics on live TV. This angered Ed Sullivan enough to never invite The Doors back on his show.
The Rolling Stones were also asked to change the lyrics to "Let's Spend The Night Together". During their performance, Mick Jagger obliged by singing "Let's Spend Some Time Together". However, to show his reluctance, Jagger noticeably rolled his eyes every time he sang the chorus.
With the emergence of rap music, particularly of the "gangsta" category, and anti-establishment rock bands, lyrics continued to get more and more flagrant. It's not uncommon to hear a seemingly innocent ballad laced with emphatic F-bombs. One of my all-time favorite albums, "Appetite For Destruction" by Guns & Roses was probably the first CD I purchased with blatant profanity. As crazy as it sounds, with as much raw attitude as the record has, it's hard to imagine it without the occasional F-bombs.
Although almost all profanity is edited or "beeped" out during radio play, every now and then, a song seems to get a pass. The one that immediately comes to mind is The Who's "Who Are You". Several times during the song, Roger Daultry can clearly be heard singing "Who the f*ck are you?" Amazingly, this lyric always gets played on the air.
And even though the words themselves are not considered profane, the Rolling Stones get away with the suggestive lyric "You make a dead man come" in their song "Start Me Up". Hmmm, I wonder what they mean by this.....
And there are always the bands who push the envelope to the limit. For instance, the gansta rap group NWA released a song called "F*ck Tha Police". Although their name is controversial in itself (the WA stands for "with attitude", take a wild guess what the "N" stands for), they received heavy criticism for the song which centered around police brutality and racial profiling. It also called out black police officers for "abandoning their race". Police around the country obviously weren't big fans of the band, In fact, police refused to provide security for the band while it was touring. Singing about "bitches and ho's" is one thing, but pissing off the police is never a good idea.
Rapper Ice-T, with his band Body Count, similarly found himself in hot water when he released "Cop Killer", a song about a guy who goes around shooting "dirty cops".
More recently, a bonehead who calls himself Soulja Boy released a song called "Let's Be Real" in which he says "f*ck the FBI and f*ck all the Army troops". I wonder if this idiot has any idea why album sales are down...
Is the abundance of profanity in today's popular music just another form of expressionism? Or is it merely an attempt to for bands to draw attention to themselves? Are f-bombs now as essential as the E-chord in today's music? One thing's for sure, we've definitely taken a detour from Mayberry.....
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