BANNED AID – a guide to the banning of songs – Part 2 -POLITICS

Previous posts:

• Part 1 – Racism – Part 1 – Racism – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2024/01/13/banned-aid-a-guide-to-the-banning-of-music-racism/
• Extra post – Bitch I’m back like J.Christ –
• https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2024/01/20/banned-aid-bitch-im-back-like-j-christ/

Future posts:

• Part 3 – Illegal Substances
• Part 4 – Gender
• Part 5 – Religion

There have been many political songs over the years. Here is a link to a particularly comprehensive site that provides a great deal of information about thousands of political songs, in many languages. It began as an anti-war site but has greatly expanded into other political areas – https://www.antiwarsongs.org/argomenti.php?lang=en .

1. The song WHAT IT’S LIKE by Everlast was criticized for including the word ‘whore’ in its lyrics but the song’s words describe a sympathetic character being unfairly called a whore. This is a thoughtful, powerful song about systemic economic inequities – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMYz5SteBBY&ab_channel=EverlastMusic .

2. From 1932, during The Great Depression, came BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME by Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney. The Republican Party tried unsuccessfully to get the song banned, calling it anti-capitalist. Thirty-six years later The Doors released the song FIVE TO ONE with these lyrics about violent insurrection but no one tried to ban it: “No one here gets out alive . . . The old get old and the young get stronger . . . They got the guns but we got the numbers . . . Your ballroom days are over”. Here is an excellent cover of Brother Can You Spare a Dime by George Michael – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_cZjgThPks&ab_channel=davidsebile

3. Presently China is using Sina Weibo (the Chinese version of the Internet) alongside Baidu (Google), Baidu Baike (Wikipedia), Alibaba (Amazon) and Tencent (Facebook / Netflix) along with a social credit system to construct a capitalist authoritarian state like no other (some people see democracy and capitalism as being inextricably intertwined when capitalism is actually anti-democratic). The Chinese government has also been developing AI technology for almost a decade now. When you combine all that with the Chinese surveillance system called Skynet (is it just a coincidence that this is also the name of the evil cybernetic system in the Terminator films?) and you have something rather ominous. Hobbes described this development with uncanny prescience in 1651 in his celebrated magnum opus Leviathan (a benevolent dictator is better than no dictator at all). Just as the United States has never been a democracy, neither Russia nor China has ever been a communist state no matter what they say (Marx is rolling over in his grave).

This clip below is a rendition of THE INTERNATIONALE led by several highly celebrated Chinese entertainers (the piano player, Liu Huan, in his prime, was as famous as Michael Jackson was in the US). It begins slowly but it builds dramatically and watch the emotional response of the audience, similar to the emotional response of most people (particularly Americans) to their national anthem. Of course, like so many anthems, the words of The Internationale promise the opposite of what the Chinese government is delivering. Note the legendary Cui Jian at the 29 second mark, the rock singer who single-handedly and subversively turned China from a collectivist society into an individualist society with his song ‘Nothing To My Name’ in 1989 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQFxUdzT-m0&ab_channel=race_to_the_bottom ).

Arturo Toscanini conducted a rendition of The Internationale in 1944 as part of the film ‘Hymn of the Nations’ but during the McCarthy Era the song was deleted from copies of the film when it was shown in the US.

4. TAKE THE POWER BACK, released by Rage Against The Machine, was not allowed to be played at schools because it was found to break Arizona state law which stated that schools cannot advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of people as individuals. Several Arizona secondary school teachers responded by adopting the song as part of their history curriculum. That response, however, was repressed when a School Superintendent issued a notice of non-compliance to the school system.

5. DING, DONG, THE WITCH IS DEAD is a song written in 1939 by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg for the famous film The Wizard of Oz. In the film it celebrates the death of the Wicked Witch of the East when Dorothy’s house is dropped on her by a cyclone. In 2013 when authoritarian Conservative former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died many of her victims and their supporters celebrated her death with street parties. Her funeral procession took place under incredibly tight security which cost the British taxpayer over three million pounds. She was truly hated across Britain. In many cases that hatred took the form of people singing the song Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead. The song was even released as a single at the time and it was so popular it reached the Number 2 spot in the charts in England and made it to Number 1 in Scotland. In response the BBC banned the song. Here is the song with clips from the Wizard of Oz – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ySJtn6oCUA&ab_channel=cozyhollow .

6. In 1977 Queen Elizabeth II was celebrating 25 years as Queen and there were celebrations in her honour across Britain. On Jubilee Day, the culmination of the excitement, The Sex Pistols decided to perform their song GOD SAVE THE QUEEN while sailing down the Thames; the first line of the song is “God save the Queen, the fascist regime”. Despite the monarchists enjoying the day there were so many people in Britain experiencing anger and frustration as they navigated hard times and unemployment that the Sex Pistols’ recording of God Save the Queen reached Number One in the charts. Some radio stations were banned from playing the song. Here is a clip of this nautical performance and the disruption at the end when the band members are arrested – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-38GX2YQig&ab_channel=SexPistolsVEVO .

7. The song WE CAN BE TOGETHER by Jefferson Airplane contains the following lines about fomenting revolution: “In order to survive we steal cheat lie forge fuck hide and deal . . . We are forces of chaos and anarchy . . . Up against the wall, motherfucker . . . Tear down the walls”. The group performed the song unaltered on American television, on The Dick Cavett Show, however when the CD was released, their record company made a lyric change on the accompanying lyric sheet printing the word ‘fred’ in place of both ‘fuck’ and ‘motherfucker’. The printed lyrics were banned but the lyrics as sung were not.

8. BUTTERFLY BOYS. In 1974 the symphonic rock band Procol Harum was most unhappy about the way they were being treated by their record company, so when they recorded the album ‘Exotic Birds and Fruit’ that year, one of the tracks was called Butterfly Boys with lyrics such as: “They say we haven’t got a choice / refuse to recognize our voice / yet they enjoy commissions from the proceeds of the joke”. Much later two of the higher-ups at their record company, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis, suddenly realized what the song was really about. Their record company was Chrysalis Records (hence the butterfly reference) and Wright and Ellis were the butterfly boys. Wright and Ellis insisted Procol Harum re-record the song and change the title and lyric to ‘government boys’ but the band refused. Here’s the track (nice guitar solo at the 3 minute mark): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNk72AE4khM&ab_channel=DavidRequena

9. Then there was the case of a song that was censored though no one knows why. The song LOUIE LOUIE was composed in 1955 by Richard Berry, based on the Afro-Cuban song El Loco Cha Cha recorded by René Touzet. The Kingsmen had a hit with the song in 1963 and that’s when things went crazy. As music journalist James Marshall wrote, “All you need to make a great rock ‘n’ roll record are the chords to ‘Louie, Louie’ and a bad attitude.” The FBI investigated The Kingsmen over reports that the lyrics were obscene. They weren’t. Some also thought the song was about championing Communism. Besides the singer in the group could never remember the lyrics anyway so he usually just sort of mumbled random words in performance. Radio stations across the US banned the recording but after a 31 month investigation the FBI came up with nothing and the case was dropped. In 2005 an American marching band was not allowed to play the song so it had a surge in popularity again. To date there have been over 2000 cover recordings of the song by some estimates, and it was the last Number One hit in America before Beatlemania hit the US. When will the censors ever learn – banning a song often draws attention to that song that otherwise might have been ignored or quickly forgotten. The original recording was done in two takes at a cost of less than $50 so The Kingsmen must have profited enormously from the song’s success. Here’s the song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfRZNNyQoF0&ab_channel=SmurfstoolsOldiesMusicTimeMachine .

10. The Kinks got into trouble when they released the song LOLA because the lyrics reference Coca-Cola so it broke the laws against naming commercial brands in song lyrics. I also wonder whether Coca-Cola was not happy with inclusion in a song that was awfully controversial back in 1970 (it was about a transvestite). In order to avoid trouble Ray Davies, in the U.S. at the time, flew all the way back to the U.K. just to record the lyrics to the song again changing “Coca-Cola” to “cherry cola”. Here’s a clip from 1971 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP0X0CRMZLU&ab_channel=thevisitor .

11. Less than a month ago Les McCann died (on December 29, 2023). He was eighty-eight, and an accomplished painter and photographer, but what he did best was play piano and sing (world music, soul, funk, jazz). Like most African Americans in the mid-twentieth century, McCann was very successful in Europe and Africa and treated with greater respect there than in the US. In 1969 McCann co-wrote (with Eddie Harris) and recorded one of the more subtle protest songs, COMPARED TO WHAT performed live in Montreux, Switzerland. It was a big hit, and was released on the highly influential record ‘Swiss Movement’. The song has been covered more than 250 times. McCann was a very intelligent player, but his work is far more accessible than the technical complexities of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. The lyrics of this song are particularly important. For example:

• this was four years before abortion became federal law in the US, and we get these lines: “Unreal values, crass distortion / unwed mothers need abortion”
• this was at the height of the Vietnam War and we get these lines: “The President he’s got his war, folks don’t know just what it’s for / Nobody gives us rhyme or reason, have one doubt and they call it treason”.

Perhaps the best part of the recording is the music. It sounds effortless but it’s difficult. There are great solos by Eddie Harris on tenor sax and Benny Bailey on trumpet. Notice, by the way, how in the first thirty seconds McCann is playing and is simultaneously looking around and directing the other musicians. There’s something else that impresses me even more, though. Most compositions are written in a particular key and they stay in that key till the end. In some cases the piece changes keys at some point but often returns to the original key. This process is called modulation so the vast majority of songs don’t modulate at all or only modulate twice. The track Penny Lane by The Beatles is unusual because it modulates six times. The track ‘Compared to What’ modulates eighteen times! Eighteen! Changing keys rapidly is like code switching and requires considerable cognitive discipline. After all that, here is the track from 55 years ago – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCDMQqDUtv4&ab_channel=riksurly .

FINALLY, THE FAB FOUR –

Many contrasted the safe Beatles (acceptable to parents) with the subversive Rolling Stones (unacceptable to parents) but it was never as simple as that. The Beatles drank alcohol, took illegal drugs, swore with the best of them, and cheated on their girlfriends (in Lennon’s case his wife) while their manager created a lovable Fab Four moptop image for the press and their fans.

The Beatles released drug songs which were banned in various places (e.g. A DAY IN THE LIFE; WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS; LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS). As early as 1964 when they released their first feature film, A Hard Day’s Night, Lennon slips in a coy reference to hard drug use most viewers missed. Then in the song REVOLUTION Lennon advocates violent revolution. He had been trying to learn the intricacies of Marxist Dialectical Materialism from Tariq Ali.

After The Beatles broke up Paul McCartney’s pro-Irish song GIVE IRELAND BACK TO THE IRISH was banned in the UK and his song HI, HI, HI was banned for sexually suggestive lyrics. As a solo artist many of John Lennon’s songs were political, and some were banned. Lennon’s WORKING CLASS HERO was banned, perhaps because of its politics, or its use of the word “fucking” twice – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve-mANenpC4&ab_channel=JohnLennonMusic .

Other highly political songs from Lennon which some might like to have seen banned: POWER TO THE PEOPLE, BORN IN A PRISON, LUCK OF THE IRISH, SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY (about the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972), ATTICA STATE, and ANGELA (in praise of Angela Davis, who was a member of both the Black Panther Party and the Communist Party of the United States). Angela Davis is the only person to have had a song written and recorded by both The Rolling Stones and a Beatle (the Stones’ song Sweet Black Angel is also about Angela Davis).