Songs edited for broadcast
I am intrigued by the phenomenon of songs edited for broadcast, especially by the inconsistent application of rules. My examples might best be addressed in a bulleted form:
- Everlast’s What It’s Like discusses at one point the abuse leveled by protesters at a young woman seeking an abortion. In the line “They call her a killer, they call her a sinner, and they call her a whore,” (only) the word “whore” is deleted.
- A fascinating example for me is Disturbed’s Voices. In the following passage the italicized words are deleted on MTV X:
Wake up, are you alive?
Will you listen to me?
I’m gonna talk about some freaky shit now
Someone is gonna die
When you listen to me
Let the living die, Let the living die
Yes, only the one “die” is omitted. I figure that that particular omission is post-Columbine paranoia: “Someone is going to die when they listen to him? Isn’t he encouraging school shootings?” The reasoning is sketchy but perhaps tenable. So why in the world would they allow the following to remain in the song?
Can’t you imagine how good going through this will make you feel
I promise, no one will ever know
There will be no chance of you getting caught
They never loved you anyway
So come on, be a man
And do what you are compelled to do
- This is one that has annoyed me for a long time. There is a fantastic Candlebox song entitled You that discusses the lyricist’s sadness at the effect of drugs on the world around him. In the following passage, radio stations play a version that completely omits the section in bold. This, in my opinion, ruins the point of the entire song:
Come around town
Steal another dime
Take another line
Won’t you feel it blanket your soul
Out of mind
Come around town
Steal another dime
Do another crime
Won’t you get it higher and higher
Roll through timeCome around town
Steal another dime
Don’t you push your drugs in my face
Yes, I’m feeling
Feeling fine
Don’t you push your drugs in my face
Or I’m gonna put you in your place
Fuck you
I don’t want it no moreAnd it’s mine
Said this pain in my heart is all mine
Yes, it’s mine all alone
- There is the phenomenon of not deleting lyrics that the censors don’t hear (or expect the audience not to understand.) Predictably, this has happened more than once with Pearl Jam. Yes, in Jeremy Ed clearly says “Seemed a harmless little fuck,” and this is duly deleted. But less-than-perfectly-clear expletives in other songs remain intact: Given To Fly’s “But first he was stripped, and then he was stabbed by faceless men / Well fuckers, he still stands” remains in the broadcast version; Once, discussing how a mother’s abuse has turned her child into a serial killer and rapist, retains the lyric “You think I’ve got my eyes closed but I’ve been looking at you the whole fucking time”; and Not For You keeps “This is not for you. (x3) / Oh, never was for you / Fuck you / This is not for you”
- One of the most interesting is the following. Kid Rock in Batwitdaba, obviously talking about heroin use, says “And it don’t even matter if your veins are punctured.” Godsmack in Voodoo, obviously talking about heroin use, say “I’m not the one who’s so far away / When I feel the snakebite enter my veins.” Godsmack keep their drug reference, Kid Rock loses his.
- When radio stations first began playing Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know, they deleted the predictable word in “Are you thinking of me when you fuck her?” Only after the song had been on for six months or so did I hear them also deleting “go down on you” in “Would she go down on you in a theater?”
Are these choices the prerogative of the record companies or are they explicitly enforced through FCC regulations? I do not know; please write me if you do.
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