Music Censorship

Wal-mart wanting artist to change the lyrics on their cds, and selling censored cds.

The resent Evanescence cd that a family bought for their daughter :?: at Wal-mart and they were listing to the live tracks and Amy Lee was cussing :shock: :roll: . They took it back to the store and wanted a refund, then went to the news about the cd. This happened last December I think.

Also the first Tool album cover was censored at some stores. That's a strange one.

Speaking of album covers being changed, remember Blind Faith?

Not sure whats happened to the Wal-Marts around here. They must be more liberal :D Nothing like hearing your 8 year old son reading the title to the album "Crunk Juice" :shock:. Now, I dont know what a CJ is.. but it dont sound good. hehe

Jim

Elton John's "the bee-eye-tee-see-aitch is back" was bleeped on most US stations in the 70's, I believe - that's 93 bleeps per play, man. Can't be much song left to hear.

A :-)

I seem to remember something about John Lennon's Cold Turkey
being banned as a Pro drug song. Now if you ask me that is true irony.

dylan decided not to play ed sullivan after being told not to play "talking john birch society blues"

Thank you all, you've been extremely helpful. Now I'll see what I can clear up in the thread...

Cold Turkey was a "Suicide song" according to the PMRC

Hmm, I thought there was more to clear up. Guess not. There is some interesting stuff. If you can ever get a copy, read Parental Advisory: Music Cenorship in America by Eric Nuzum. It's informative and hilarious. Nuzum is incredibly sarcastic towards Tipper Gore and the whole PMRC movement.

Speaking of album covers being changed, remember Blind Faith?

Was this actually changed in some way? Also, the fact that the girl was topless didn't seem such a big deal, as there were other examples of that. For me, it was more that she looked about 14 years old, and I could never decide whether she represented innocence, or the whole thing was just a little skeevy.

Just to see the other side of the coin, the Germans don't understand the obscenities in the English language. Consequently, we get everything in it's original glory - about which I have very mixed feelings.
My daughter used to be in the choir at school and the choirmaster was very proud of his English (sadly, it was nowhere near as good as he thought). He actually had a group of 14 year old girls singing Bobby Brown by Frank Zappa!!
I don't know whether either version made it to the US, but there used to be a British group called Smokey, who had a hit with a song called "Alice". Some time later, they released a different version that had the line "Alice, Alice, who the f*** is Alice?" added. I'm never quite sure how to react when I see 10 and 12 year olds singing along (the song is very popular at beer fests and you may rightly ask what 10 year olds are doing at beer fests - but that's Bavaria for you).

He actually had a group of 14 year old girls singing Bobby Brown by Frank Zappa!!

Unbelievable -- didn't actually get to performance with this, did he?

He actually had a group of 14 year old girls singing Bobby Brown by Frank Zappa!!

Unbelievable -- didn't actually get to performance with this, did he?

Yes, he did.

Elton John's "the bee-eye-tee-see-aitch is back" was bleeped on most US stations in the 70's, I believe - that's 93 bleeps per play, man. Can't be much song left to hear.

A :-)

I think the most bleeps I ever heard in one song was when people were up in arms about the fact that "Blame Canada" was a top 10 or something. The DJ said, "Well it could be worse," and then proceeded to play the beginning Terrence and Phillip's "Uncle Fucker" song. That was pretty fucking funny.

It was something like this:

Shut your fucking face uncle fucker
You're a cock sucking ass licking uncle fucker
You're an uncle fucker yes it's true
Nobody fucks uncles quite like you.

Was this actually changed in some way? Also, the fact that the girl was topless didn't seem such a big deal, as there were other examples of that.
Yeah, it was a big deal at the time. Promo copies stirred up a storm of protest, so the US marketer, Atco, decided to ditch the art and go with a cover of the band.

The first release was supposed to be the Polydor #583059 - the naked girl cover. The US Atco release #33-304 actually came out about three weeks earlier, though... so the 'revised' artwork had an official release date before th official release of the original!

Atco came out with a third version soon after, #33-304A, which had a gatefold insert with lyrics (the first release had the lyrics on the back cover, with no gatefold)

There's also several - at least five - different CD releases. They sound different, and some have extra tracks that may or may not be Blind Faith (most reviewers think they're early cuts from a Rick Grech solo album that was never released). Sound quality varies.

The first one I saw in the stores was the one with the band photo cover... but when I went back and bought it about a week later (in my fading recollection), I got the girl with the airplane, so both were actually distributed here.

Not sure whats happened to the Wal-Marts around here. They must be more liberal :D Nothing like hearing your 8 year old son reading the title to the album "Crunk Juice" :shock:. Now, I dont know what a CJ is.. but it dont sound good. hehe

Jim

I think they sell Crunk Juice as an energy drink like Red Bull and it is sponsored by the rapper who has that crunk cd. Gotta love Walmart, they sell guns and ammo but not pregnant Barbie. They're just looking out for the kids.

There was a pretty big stink over the cover of the "Sticky Fingers" album cover and there was another stones album that they actually had to change the cover art for- original art was of a gas station toilet scrawled with graffitti, was either the album before or after sticky fingers I think