There are some songs I've heard that radio stations censor....


"Heart Of Glass" by Blondie (They cut the "buttocks" verse)

"Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits (They cut the "alternate lifestyle" verse)

Hey, you know what? They also censor the Doors' "Light My Fire", so there are no references to "getting high". As if that's gonna stop those folks that want to!

Also, here's a more obvious one. The "F-word" is cut out of my local rock station's airing of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer". OK, I suppose I can understand that one.

Actually, radio stations will do that for *any* song that has any "offensive" language. Makes sense, I guess. I recall a whole chunk of Staind's "It's Been Awhile" being cut for that very reason.

I can't think of any more right now. Others, anyone?

The weirdest case of censorship I can think of occurs in the video for Green Jello/Jelly's "Three Little Pigs". In the uncensored version of the song is a line about "ganja smoking". When MTV ran the video, the reference to "ganja smoking" is omitted. Trouble is the video itself shows a some potleaf art and a couple of characters who are clearly smoking joints.

"Music is forever." - Paul Simon

Ed Sullivan had the Rolling Stones censor "Let's Spend the Night Together". The lyrics, as sung on his show were "Let's spend some time together".

The only version I've ever heard of Johnny Cash's A Boy Named Sue, even on a greatest hits CD, bleeps the B-word in the line where Sue's father calls himself "the son of a b---- that named you 'Sue'." You fill in the blank.

The local classic rock station in town for awhile played some newer songs that they didn't censore. I don't remember if it was even during the afternoon or just later after a certain time at night but I don't think they play those songs anymore, anyway. However, they'll play Money For Nothing and Start Me Up uncensored.

This thread got me to wondering just how many songs made it into regular airplay before (if ever) someone finally caught on and realized, "Hey! That's a sexual reference! And that's a slang term for a body part!"

I once heard a radio version of "The roof is on fire" that had the "burn mother ******" replaced with some kind of bizarre noise, maybe that was an actual 2nd recording because it didn't sound like a bleep.

I've noticed that T-Pain's "I'm In Love With a Stripper" also exists in a version called "I'm In Love With a Dancer".

Local H's "High Fiving MF" exists in a version in which the "MF" part is replaced with various sound bites and sound effects.

Steve Miller's "Jet Airliner" originally had a line about "funky sh*t going down in the city". The AM versioin is "funky kicks..."

In Dallas, when KDGE, the Edge, first debuted in the late '80s, they played a song called "88 Lines About 44 Women" by the Nails. Uncut. I was impressed that they got by with it. Several times.

Of course, I think Pink Floyd's "Money" is regularly played uncut. ("Don't give me that do goody-good bullsh*t.")

Incidentally, I've heard many a time the uncensored, "pain in the ass" version of Blondie's "Heart of Glass". Even back in the Seventies when it was first released.

"Music is forever." - Paul Simon

MarkN thats wierd the version I have on his greatest hits and the four disc set I borrowed from the library all leave the line intact. Also the charlie daniels devil went to georgia has the line intact on it too (at the end he says SOB)

The local Highland county station plays the cut versions (son of a gun vs SOB) but in the evenings the cincy stations will sometimes play the uncuts while the dayton station has yet to do AFAIK as I've not heard it

The Knack's "Good Girls Don't" existed in two different version. The album version has the line "Wishing you could get inside her pants". The one most frequently played on the radio back then changed the line to "Wishing she was giving you half a chance."

"Music is forever." - Paul Simon

As early as in 1949, producer Milt Gabler had to redub, in hiw own voice, Louis Jordan's line in his and Lady Day's duet 'My Sweet Hunk of Trash.' Actually, it was pretty clever, just changing one syllable, making 'How come, Baby?' out of 'F*ck 'em, baby.' Both versions are floating around today.

There are earlier uses of the f-word on record, but they were never released (in the day) to be censored.

The Doors "Break on Through" also has the word high censored from it, it was not restored until recent remastered editions of the debut album.

I also remember listening to the Police's "Synchronicity II" on the radio in the early eighties, and the word "crotch" was bleeped out.

I've heard both the censored and uncensored versions of the country song "The Devil Went to Georgia"

Banning a country song was so stoopid. They should have banned the whole bloody genre.

Steve Miller's "Jet Airliner" originally had a line about "funky sh*t going down in the city". The AM versioin is "funky kicks..."

Of course, I think Pink Floyd's "Money" is regularly played uncut. ("Don't give me that do goody-good bullsh*t.")

Both uncensored versions are thankfully played on the local classic station, KFM, here and as far as I can remember always were, even in the mornings and afternoons.

In Dallas, the rock stations the Eagle (which died in 2004) and the Bone would play uncensored stuff all the time. Such as:

Guns 'n Roses "Mr. Brownstone"
Korn "Freak on a Leash" (the Edge censored the f-word but the Eagle didn't)
Staind "Mudshovel" (the album version was censored but the live version wasn't)
Alice in Chains "Man in the Box" (come to think of it I only ever heard the censored version in the video)

Whoopsie! I of course meant "Break On Through (To The Other Side)" as the one Doors song that is usually censored on classic rock stations, with the "She Get's High" reference blanked out, or sometimes, justr the word "high". Dumb, huh?

It was censored on album releases also until recent years, Andre.

They even performed it "censored," only singing "she gets" (at least on the recordings I've heard)

I'm thinking that a good related category for this topic would be Songs that should have been censored, but somehow managed to slip by (due to subtelty on the part of the artist) and get released uncensored. Famous censored album covers are also a good topic (or have we discussed those already somewhere on this board? I can't remember.)