Why is it that some of the greatest musicians are not well known? Many of them became session musicians. A very few became famous later on their own. Carol Kaye played on more than ten thousand songs (!), many of which were huge hits by hugely famous people. On some of those tracks her contribution turned a mediocre song into a hit (e.g. the opening of Nancy Sinatra’s hit These Boots Are Made For Walking). She was a better bass player than many famous bassists. Hal Blaine has played on dozens of sessions and was a better drummer than many famous drummers. Larry Knechtel’s piano work on the Simon and Garfunkel mega-hit Bridge Over Troubled Water was so good they gave him a one-off Grammy for that recording. Merry Clayton out-sang Mick Jagger on the masterful Rolling Stones track Gimme Shelter recorded by the Stones in their prime.
An unknown session musician named Jimmy Page played on hundreds of UK recordings, then later became the lead guitarist and main composer in a band you might have heard of called Led Zeppelin. Session musicians Leon Russell and Glen Campbell later had great solo careers.
Then there was David Sanborn. He was one of about a dozen of the greatest session musicians. He played on hundreds of sessions by the greatest musicians in the field, including The Eagles, Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Santana, Cat Stevens, The Grateful Dead, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt and Miles Davis, among many others. One of his guests on his show Night Music was the great French jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and he and Ponty effortlessly improvised their way through a complicated work called Tender Memories that was composed of alternating measures in 4 / 4 and 6 / 4 time.
Though Young Americans is his most famous effort, this last example is, I think, his best work as a sideman. This is Leonard Cohen performing Tower of Song and at three different points in the song, Cohen on keyboards and Sanborn on sax do wonderful little bits of counterpoint that would put a smile on the face of J.S.Bach. These bits are at the 1 minute 9 second, 2 minute 32 second, and 4 minute 31 second marks but Sanborn can be heard throughout the song, particularly as Cohen exits at the end while the band keeps playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNPRpHkkGKM&ab_channel=RobertJ.Fuller
This translates as “My body, my choice’ and is used by Pakistani feminists during their annual Aurat March held every March 8 since 2018. Today (March 8) is International Women’s Day so this weekly post is one day early. This post is all about popular music but to start with, I note that one could do a lot of obvious non-musical things to honour International Women’s Day (though these are also things which one should be doing the year round) for example:
Work for universal access to abortions and contraception and other reproductive rights, no questions asked
Insist on effective disincentives to reduce domestic abuse
Be aware of and vocalize against rape culture
Celebrate the work of amazing women in various fields, much of which is presently trivialized or ignored completely. How many people have heard of Emmy Noether, Sofia Kovalevskaya or Lise Meitner?
Support any and all feminist efforts enthusiastically, particularly if one is male
One of my areas of interest is music and there are many musical women whose work gives me great pleasure as a listening musician. Traditionally women have had to face many barriers in the music business, particularly when it comes to management and recording production. Women have also been discouraged from instrumentation though they are quite capable of greatness, as the few that have broken through have demonstrated. How many brilliant female drummers can you name? Electric guitarists? Keyboardists? Women are supposed to be content to sing, and maybe play a bit of acoustic guitar or keyboard, when it comes to popular music. Here are ten amazing tracks by ten accomplished women:
FIONA APPLE – Across The Universe
This is one of the most unusual and interesting videos I have come across. The song itself is a beautiful gentle laid back cosmological song wonderfully delivered with great irony while everything happening visually is the complete opposite of what’s happening lyrically. The most horrendous violence in the video is perpetrated by young males over the wistfully delivered line “Nothing’s gonna change my world”. Make of this what you will. Notice too what happens at the 1 minute 22 second mark. The song was composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and was recorded by The Beatles on the last album they released (Let It Be). The lyrics also include the Sanskrit phrase “Jai guru deva” which means “Hail the Divine Teacher” so it sounds like the sort of song George Harrison would compose, but the song is primarily a Lennon song. Here is the video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmlnO1EwCT4&ab_channel=fionaappleVEVO .
TAYLOR SWIFT – The Man
This video was written and directed by Taylor Swift. You’ve probably heard of her. She released her first CD way back in 2006. The song talks about serious gender issues without being serious but also without being disrespectful. The actor who plays the main character, The Man, who is in disguise, will surprise you. Watch the video first. The identity of the actor playing The Man is noted at the end of this post for those of you who are not Swifties.
JUDY GARLAND and BARBRA STREISAND
Garland, whose voice was incredible particularly in her prime, was certainly one of the many victims of Hollywood misogyny back in the day. She was called fat and “little hunchback” by studio executives, and she became addicted to drugs as a teenager when she was pressured by the studios to take amphetamines to endure the long hours making films and barbiturates to sleep when she could. She died 12 days after her 47th birthday. Streisand’s life arc has been very different from Garland’s. Streisand has remained very much in control, and is a rare recipient of an Oscar (2 of them), Emmy (5 of them), Tony (1) and Grammy (10 of them), along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and four Peabody awards. She was also the first woman to write, produce, direct and star in a major motion picture – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zixqi6TQKNU&ab_channel=EdFitzgerald
TINA TURNER – River Deep, Mountain High
Known as the Queen of Rock and Roll, Turner rose to fame as part of the husband and wife duo Ike and Tina Turner, with her high energy stage performances. After suffering domestic violence for years, she fled with 36 cents in her pocket, and divorced Ike in 1978. Despite having to pay off debts for cancelled shows, and living on food stamps, she continued performing and became far more successful as a solo act than she ever was with Ike, going on to win several Grammies and selling millions of units. She was also an established actor. She was particularly successful in Europe and Australia. She eventually took up Swiss citizenship, happily relinquishing her American citizenship, and married a German music executive. She also converted to Nichiren Buddhism and continued to live in Europe until her death last year at age 83.
CELINE DION – All By Myself
Here is a master class on incredibly powerful and subtle singing by Canadian chanteuse CELINE DION demonstrating that often there are a lot of complicated things going on when a singer sings that the audience is completely unaware of. I’m not a fan of this musical genre but if you aren’t either at least watch from the 2 minute 50 second mark to the 4 minute 50 second mark – it sent chills up and down my spine. To make my point I need to use some musical terminology – Dion’s rendition incorporates a modal mixture using a common note (E flat), and an enharmonic double chromatic mediant modulation going from G major to C flat major (yes, C flat, not B). The pianist is the legendary David Foster. Dion’s life has been filled with tragedy (she grew up in poverty, lost her husband to cancer, and is now dealing with Stiff-Person Syndrome) but her accomplishments have been many. Here is the performance itself – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT2gVblzFvY&ab_channel=CelineDionVEVO and here is a 27 minute excellent explanation of what’s going on by Adam Neely (you don’t need to know much about music theory to follow this) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epqYft12nV4&t=18s&ab_channel=AdamNeely .
THE ROLLING STONES / MERRY CLAYTON – Gimme Shelter
One of the best Rolling Stones tracks from their prime years was Gimme Shelter. The song features session singer Merry Clayton who out-sings Mick Jagger on the track. Here is the track followed by a three minute recollection by Merry and Mick about the recording session. Clayton was born on Christmas day which is why she was named Merry. Clayton’s voice is prominent at 2 minutes 30 seconds, 3 minutes 30 seconds, and 3 minutes 55 seconds.
Atlas was born in Brussels to a British mother, and a father of Egyptian descent. She often sings in Arabic but also speaks French, English and Spanish. She is also an accomplished dancer. She was the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador at the United Nations Conference Against Racism, and is a vocal supporter of the progressive Zeitgeist Movement. Some of her recordings are wonderfully complex and intriguing musically (e.g. Hayati Inta) but here is a more accessible track:
GRACE SLICK – White Rabbit
Slick composed this song, recorded at the height of psychedelia in 1967. The song is about Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, a surrealistic literary classic popular back then, and the inspiration for other songs as well. Despite the bizarre elements in Alice in Wonderland, Carroll was a devout though somewhat iconoclastic religious mathematician teaching at Oxford, and a pioneer in the field of Symbolic Logic. Slick was one of the two most prominent female vocalists in the psychedelic era, the other being Janis Joplin. The guitarist on the far left (Paul Kantner) and the drummer (Spencer Dryden) are no longer with us. Here is the video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WANNqr-vcx0&ab_channel=dustasdu .
BEYONCE – Pretty Hurts
Everyone knows who Beyoncé Knowles is, how successful she has been first with Destiny’s Child and later on her own. She has a long list of awards, she has been phenomenally successful commercially, and she has broken new ground musically. She has also released a number of gender progressive songs, this one being the best one IMHO. Notice her impressive unaccompanied singing at the 1 minute 20 second mark (does she have perfect pitch?). The last fifteen seconds were unexpected – and it is priceless – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXXQLa-5n5w&ab_channel=Beyonc%C3%A9VEVO
ORIANTHI – Light It Up
Born Orianthi Panagaris, this Australian singer and songwriter is a phenomenal guitarist. Her technique is impressive and her creativity amazing. Her cover of the Jimi Hendrix track Voodoo Chile is, to my mind, better than the original, and I think the Hendrix recording is the best thing he did. She composed all the songs, and was the lead singer, on her debut album and played drums and guitar on most of the tracks. She also plays the piano. She has collaborated with many top names, including Michael Jackson. Traditionally women in the music industry have been aggressively encouraged to stick to singing but this selection demonstrates that women as instrumentalists are also incredibly good (note the solo starting at the 2 minute 28 second mark) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqOeugCxxVk&ab_channel=FrontiersMusicsrl .
SURPRISE BONUS
Some incredible playing here (and good singing), from Japanese bass virtuoso Juna Serita, delivering some great funk. The drummer is the incredible joyous Kawakami Mayumi (she goes by the stage name Mimi) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2CWirEskL8&ab_channel=JunaSerita .
The man in Taylor Swift’s video The Man is played by Taylor Swift herself.
I have heard it said that atheists are people who have read the Bible, and theists are people who have had the Bible read to them. Several atheist bloggers have talked about having strongly religious upbringings and after a careful examination of religious doctrine and sacred texts, and an acquisition of scientific and critical thinking, rejected their religion. Chumbawamba even released a song dealing with a situation much like this – CHUMBAWAMBA – We Don’t Go To God’s House Anymore – “Well driving on, I tasted sweet salvation / As we sung away the pulpit and the past”. The song references Damascus and Malatesta. On the road to Damascus, the capital of Syria, is where St. Paul was converted to Christianity as described in the Bible, in the Book of Acts, chapter 9, Verse 10. Enrico Malatesta (1853 – 1932) was an Italian anarchist and revolutionary socialist. Here is the track – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1JawSJJggE&ab_channel=p00k .
Are songs like this dangerous to the religious community? Should they be banned so that people won’t hear them and turn away from religion? Is turning away from religion necessarily bad?The principle of freedom of religion / freedom from religion is a good one but some extremist Christians think that freedom of religion means that Christians get to be in charge but non-Christians don’t. They want to be able to ban songs like this one. They also think that they can say anything horrible they like about Islam or Judaism or atheism and no one gets to criticize them. If they do get criticized they cry about having their freedom of religion suppressed. That’s not how freedom of religion works. Here are some examples of religiously controversial songs which Christian extremists have banned or probably would like to ban:
JUDAS – Lady Gaga – This was banned because it was said to be disrespectful of Christians. She was not allowed to perform the song in Lebanon.
THE BALLAD OF JOHN AND YOKO – The Beatles – The line “The way things are going, they’re going to crucify me” from this Beatles song got that song banned in some parts of the United States. Remember, too, that Lennon and the Beatles faced death threats and boycotts when Lennon said “The Beatles are more popular than Jesus” and American religious fanatics twisted that into Lennon supposedly saying that The Beatles were better than Jesus, something he never said. First, he was talking to a British journalist about British fans. Second, he said it with sadness, not as a boast. Third, when it was published in Britain everyone basically just ignored it. Fourth, given Beatles record sales, and attendance at Beatles concerts versus church attendance, Lennon was probably right. Finally, if a person follows a particular religion and a second person says something negative about that religion, what does it tell you about the first person if their first reaction is a death threat? It probably tells you that they’re pretty insecure about their religious beliefs. It may also tell you that they’re unstable and violent and need therapy and / or imprisonment, and their views on religion may not be particularly worthwhile.
Lil Nas X has released a pair of extremely religious songs, accompanied by two well done music videos, which have caused outrage in the American religious community. So much so that I devoted an entire post to those two songs (see above for the link).
GOD – John Lennon. This is another John Lennon song whose message can best be summed up by this line from its lyrics: “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.” In the song John basically tells Beatles fans to grow up and stop worshipping The Beatles. Unfortunately, that is a message that many Beatles fans to this day, 54 years later, can’t accept. The song, however, has Lennon saying that he also doesn’t believe in The Bible or Jesus (or Buddha, Mantra, Gita and so on) which some religious zealots didn’t like. Here’s the track – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCNkPpq1giU&ab_channel=JohnLennon-Topic
ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE – Monty Python – “For life is quite absurd / and Death’s the final word”. This is from the final scene, the crucifixion scene, of the film Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the best thing the Pythons ever did, IMHO. According to interviews, the Pythons started out to make a film mocking Jesus but discovered that he actually had some good things to say so they completely switched their focus and made a film about the followers of Jesus. The Jesus figure in the film is treated with respect. However, the film, brilliantly written and executed, is scathing in its sometimes subtle and humorous condemnation of hypocritical religious authorities, so it was banned all over the place by religious leaders, which basically proved the point of the film. In writing the film script the Pythons actually read various religious documents, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, which makes sense as five of the six Pythons are high achieving successful graduates from Oxford and Cambridge University. Some religious leaders condemned the film while openly admitting that they hadn’t seen it. Draw your own conclusions. At one point Python John Cleese publicly announced that he wished to thank all those who banned the film because that probably doubled the viewership and hence increased the money he and the other Pythons made from the film. The track – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M&ab_channel=Melonhead622
IMAGINE. John Lennon. Lennon was an atheist and his biggest post-Beatles hit was this song but in some places in the American south the song was banned because it infuriated various evangelical groups because of the following lines: “Imagine there’s no Heaven, it’s easy if you try / no Hell below us, above us only sky”.
There have also been all manner of either atheist, rationalist, humanist or even anti-theist songs. I described a few above off the top of my head but there are so many of them. Here is a link to a web site listing two hundred songs about atheism, secularism, skepticism and related matters – how many of these should be banned? Any of them? – https://www.michaelnugent.com/atheism/atheist-songs/
Here are a handful of songs from that site – should any of these be banned?
I THINK HE’S HIDING by Randy Newman – “Now I’ve heard it said, that our Big Boy’s dead / but I think He’s hiding”
OLD MAN by Randy Newman – “There won’t be no God to comfort you / You taught me not to believe that lie” (by the way, Newman turned eighty himself a few months ago)
DEAR GOD by XTC – “And all the people that you made in your own image see them fighting in the street / ‘Cause they can’t make opinions meet about God”
BIG SKY by The Kinks – “Big Sky feels sad when he sees the children scream and cry / But the Big Sky’s too big to let it get him down”
A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Tom Lehrer
A RATIONAL RESPONSE by Greydon Square
THE GOOD BOOK by Tim Minchin
NOTHING FAILS LIKE PRAYER by Dan Barker
THE ABSENCE OF GOD by Rilo Kiley
ANTISEMITISM
Since the advent of the Gaza-Israeli War on October 7, 2023, a lot of both antisemitism and Islamophobia have been emerging in terrifying ways. Does music play a part in all of this? Remember that one can condemn the actions of Israel as a political power without being antisemitic, but as soon as you condemn the actions of Israel as a JEWISH political power you have become antisemitic, and antisemitism kills innocent people. There are many Jews who condemn the actions of Israel.
The suppression of Judaism, and the many pogroms which meant death for many Jews, have been going on for centuries and its most horrific manifestation was the Holocaust. Should pro-Holocaust antisemitic lyrics be banned as hate speech? Do antisemitic lyrics incite violence towards Jews? Some recent examples of antisemitic lyrics:
Michael Jackson’s song THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT US contains the lyric: “Jew me, sue me, everybody do me / Kick me, Kike me, don’t you black or white me”. He later apologized and removed the offending words, but the American band Saliva and the European band Beast in Black both covered the song leaving the words in. The origins of the word ‘Kike’ are complicated ( see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kike ).
Jay-Z’s song STORY OF O.J. includes these lyrics: “You wanna know what’s more important than throwin’ away money at a strip club? Credit / You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICmI82aB1LA&ab_channel=PublicEnemyVEVO
Rapper Lupe Fiasco, in his 2016 song N.E.R.D., includes these words: “Artists getting robbed for their publishing by dirty Jewish execs who think that it’s alms for the covenant” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13BHVkQUX_s&ab_channel=Guti
As recently as 2022 the K-pop group EPEX released the song ANTHEM OF TEEN SPIRIT which uses the phrase “Crystal Night” which is a reference to the Nazi pogrom known as Kristallnacht and in the video accompanying the song the members of the group are dressed in Nazi style uniforms. Kristallnacht occurred on November 10, 1938, and overnight 267 synagogues and over 7000 Jewish businesses were destroyed, and 30 000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
The artist Payday Monsanto (Payze Duezz) released the song GOY BOY which includes the lyrics: “Prove to me the Holocaust ain’t a fraud / And I’ll give you a six million dollar reward”. Approximately six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.
David Irving is a Holocaust denier. A kippah is a brimless cloth cap traditionally worn by Jewish males. POTUS, of course, stands for President Of The United States. Take a listen to the following by rapper B.o.B., the song is Flatline, and note the lyrics on the screen at the 1 minute 35 second mark – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UONq1fYWYO0&ab_channel=RealHipHopLyrics .
White supremacist neo-Nazi death metal punk bands on the rise in Europe have come up with some pretty nasty antisemitic rhetoric of their own. Some of their songs are original, and some are hate-filled parodies of existing songs. Here are nine examples out of hundreds out there:
White Hot Takes – LAMPSHADE CASE – a parody of Green Day’s song Basketcase (When Karl-Otto Koch was commandant at the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp there were many stories about the sadism towards prisoners exhibited by his wife Ilse Koch. One often repeated story was that she had tattooed prisoners killed so that she could make lampshades out of their tattooed skin. It was later found that the stories could not be substantiated with evidence).
White American Youth – WHITE POWER
Morrakiu – IN THE JUNGLE – a parody of the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Evil Skins – ZYKLON ARMY (Zyklon B is the cyanide-based gas used in the extermination camps in Nazi Germany).
Hannah Pearl Davis – WHY CAN’T WE TALK ABOUT THE JEWS? (This song is dedicated to white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Fuentes is a well known Holocaust denier who has called for a holy war against the Jews, and he was also a dinner guest of Donald Trump.)
IronMensch – BOMBS OVER ISRAEL
White American Youth – AMERIKKKA FOR ME
Daimon – ESOTERIC HITLERISM
White Hot Takes – OVENS OF AUSCHWITZ (Auschwitz was a complex of over forty concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Poland. Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million were murdered. 960 000 of those were Jews. Many were killed in the crematoria).
ISLAMOPHOBIA
Islamophobia has been on the rise since the beginning of the recent Israel-Gaza War. Please take a look at the following lyrics:
Those who cast an evil eye on our religion (i.e. on Hinduism), we gun them down
India is for the Hindus, mullahs [Muslims] go to Pakistan
Why don’t you go and die! Make your mosque somewhere else, this place is for Ram
Leave India you tricksters
These are from a current genre of music in India known as Hindutva music which has recently become incredibly popular with millions of followers. It is Islamophobic music and it has facilitated actual physical violence perpetrated by Hindu gangs against the Muslim minority. The lyrics spread hate-filled misinformation about Islam. There is a rise in Hindu nationalism and right wing Hindu activists actively oppose what they call a ‘love jihad’, that is, they physically prevent Hindu women from having relationships or marrying Muslim men and the government ignores the Hindu nationalists, refusing to enforce laws which prohibit their Islamophobic behaviour.
Things are heating up. About a month ago Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened a new Hindu temple (Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir) in Ayodhya (the birthplace of Rama, a principal Hindu deity). Seven thousand politicians and celebrities from across India participated in festivities. But that temple was built on the Babri Masjid which was a mosque which right wing Hindu nationalists destroyed in 1992, killing 2000 Muslims in the process. Islamophobia kills. On the day of the opening of the new Hindu temple Muslims were advised not to wear clothing that identified them as Muslim, not to travel by car alone, not to travel by train, and so on. After permission was granted to build the new Hindu temple calls went out demanding that other mosques across India be destroyed. To make things more complicated the Babri Masjid, built back in 1528, was built on the site of a Hindu temple which had been destroyed by Muslims. The Hindutva ideology (India for Hindus not Muslims) is spreading, and Modi has an election coming up soon that he wants to win. Coincidence? Hindutva music is playing an incendiary role in this spread of hatred against the 200 000 000 Muslims in India.
White supremacist bands are often neo-Nazi Christian nationalists and their main non-Christian targets are Jewish people, but they are also Islamophobic. Two examples of Islamophobic white supremacist band tracks are Islam is Dead (from the band Cold Cry / Mogh) and Jihad (from the band The Kovenant). Seeds of Iblis have recorded several Islamophobic songs, including From Mecca to Johannam, Behind the Horns of Allah, Islamophobia, and Sura 9 (a sura is like a chapter in the Qur’an).
Frank Ocean’s song Bad Religion uses religion as a metaphor for unrequited love and some Muslims have said that the song’s lyrics are Islamophobic, for example: “He said ‘Allahu akbar’, I told him ‘Don’t curse me . . . If it brings me to my knees it’s a bad religion” (Allahu akbar means ‘God is most great’). When RM (real name: Kim Namjoon) of BTS recommended the song he was rebuked for being anti-Muslim but he is Muslim himself. You can decide for yourself – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9Fbnp4Kilk&ab_channel=Iambaldsowhat%3F
Fortunately there have also been songs critical of Islamophobic culture. The music album Philia released by the organization Artists Rise Against Islamophobia contains 20 tracks attempting to combat Islamophobia in a civilized way. The band Genocide has also released the song Islamophobia – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzUxpaLrJ9s&ab_channel=GenocideRap , and Lowkey released this softly sad defence against Islamophobic music, a song entitled Islamophobic Lullabies – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LN4dq8YnYk&ab_channel=GRMDaily
The Islamic culture has a smaller footprint in North America than it does in the Middle East. I also do not speak the languages which dominate that region. It would seem to me that there are probably many other Islamophobic songs that I, as a comfortable Canadian senior citizen, am unaware of.
In the one month period, from October 7, 2023 to November 7, 2023, the first month of the Gaza-Israeli War, there have been 1283 incidents of Islamophobia in the United States, an enormous increase over previous months, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations. One six year old child was savagely stabbed to death because he was a Muslim child. Christopher Hitchens has remarked that religion poisons everything. Was he correct?
As in previous posts, I have not censored any quoted lyrics or song titles. You have been warned.
There are songs (far too many) that are in your face sexist, some of which encourage the listener to behave violently toward women. They should all probably be banned. The songs that are subtle about their misogyny are harder to get people to condemn because some people miss their point, an easy thing to do. There are also homophobic songs that perhaps should be banned, as well as songs simply about the joy of sex. There is a wide variety to choose from.
However, there are pros and cons, nuance and uncertainties, when it come to the banning of music. These matters are discussed at some length in Part 1 of this series of posts.
SHEEZUS (Lily Allen)
The multi-talented Lily Allen intended to release this song as a single but her record company wouldn’t let her because it contains references to menstruation. It also references Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Lorde. Here is the track, delivered in Allen’s wonderful offhand way –
LYRIC CHANGES
When it comes to changing gender-related lyrics rather than banning them, in 1959 Judy Garland recorded the song FOR ME AND MY GAL and didn’t change any of the lyrics. Whether or not she should have is debatable. MAD ABOUT THE BOY was written by Noel Coward in 1932 and he was secretly gay at the time. Many women have recorded the song from Eartha Kitt to Marianne Faithfull. So have gay activists Adam Lambert in the US and Tom Robinson in the UK. Yul Brynner sang the song in drag in the film ‘The Magic Christian’. There are at least three other cases of songs originally intended for one gender recorded by the opposite gender with any requisite lyric changes made – I AM A MAN / MAID OF CONSTANT SORROW (Bob Dylan, Judy Collins), RESPECT (Otis Redding / Aretha Franklin) and DEVIL IN HIS / HER HEART (The Donays, The Beatles). I discussed these in more detail in my series on cover songs. Here is MAD ABOUT THE BOY performed by Adam Lambert, and two very accomplished dancers – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrat9qskTYU&ab_channel=BBCStrictlyComeDancing
ALICE’S RESTAURANT(Arlo Guthrie)
In this song Guthrie tells us that if you say “you can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant” to a psychiatrist at an induction centre you might not be inducted. Furthermore, “if two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them”. The story is disjointed, puerile and boring, but Guthrie probably didn’t need to use the word ‘faggot’ in that context. It’s hard to tell. In some places this track is very popular, but one would have to sit through a long rambling tale before coming to this line.
AMERICAN TRIANGLE(Elton John)
This is John’s song about the homophobic torture and killing of Matthew Shepherd (1976 – 1998), a young Wyoming man who was tortured and killed because he is gay. The murder led to legislation and the incident inspired a number of films, novels, plays, songs and other works. Elton John is himself gay and the song contains the line “God hates fags”. In the Nazi concentration camps a prisoner sent there simply because he was gay was forced to wear a pink triangle identifying him as gay. Perhaps the lyric to this song should not be changed, lest we forget.
MONEY FOR NOTHING(Dire Straits)
This song was a big hit for Dire Straits in the 1980’s, and the song’s clearly homophobic conservative narrator sings the following about a rock star: “See the little faggot with the earring and the make-up? / . . . That little faggot got his own jet airplane / That little faggot, he’s a millionaire”. Should the song be banned? In concert the band’s lead singer, Mark Knopfler, replaces the word ‘faggot’ with the word ‘queenie’. Here is the track (with a contribution from Sting), from the early days of music videos – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTP2RUD_cL0&ab_channel=DireStraitsVEVO
TONY(Patty Griffin)
Griffin used the word ‘faggot’ in her sympathetic song about a high school classmate of hers who committed suicide because of the harassment he endured as a gay boy. The line goes like this: “He looked in the mirror and saw / A little faggot staring back at him”.
TREES (McCaferty)
The indie rock band McCaferty uses the word ‘faggot’ sympathetically in their song ‘Trees’ about the struggles of Nick Hartkop (the band’s lead singer) in coming to terms with his sexuality.
SAME LOVE (Macklemore)
American rapper Macklemore used the word ‘faggot’ in the song SAME LOVE but he used it when describing how homophobic slurs were used in cyberbullying.
PHYSICAL (Olivia Newton-John)
Olivia Newton-John’s hit song Physical was initially banned by MTV because of the lines: “There’s nothing left to talk about unless it’s horizontally”. But it gets worse. The video accompanying the song has John singing in a gym surrounded by male body builders she finds physically attractive, but in the end two pairs of particularly good looking male body builders each walk off hand in hand ignoring her, much to her amusement. MTV wasn’t happy with that. Here’s the clip – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWz9VN40nCA&ab_channel=OliviaNewtonJohnVEVO .
ONE IN A MILLION (Guns ‘N’ Roses)
Guns ‘N’ Roses released this song with lyrics containing the word ‘faggot’ intentionally used in a negative way. The song’s composer, singer Axel Rose, refused to apologize for the lyric and he has also defended the song’s racism (using the N-word) and xenophobia. The band’s guitarist Slash hated the song.
PICTURE TO BURN (Taylor Swift)
Some people do / say inappropriate things inadvertently. Then when it’s pointed out to them they can either double down, rationalize or make excuses so that they don’t have to admit their transgression, or else they can admit what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Most people in the first group are what we call narcissists and bigots. The people in the second group are referred to as adults, i.e. mature and open to improvement. Beyoncé, much to her credit, demonstrated her maturity when she changed the lyrics in her song ‘Heated’. The Rolling Stones have never apologized for their racist and misogynistic lyrics. Axel Rose has never changed his homophobic, racist and xenophobic lyrics.
In the Taylor Swift track ‘Picture to Burn’ we hear the lyric: “So go and tell your friends that I’m obsessive and crazy / That’s fine, I’ll tell mine that you’re gay, by the way”. Later, realizing that she had used ‘gay’ as a derogatory term, she changed the line to “That’s fine, you won’t mind if I say ‘by the way’ “. All credit to Taylor Swift for doing that. If one isn’t a Swifty one might not realize that Taylor Swift released her first album almost two decades ago (in 2006). Here she is knocking them dead back in 2008 performing Picture to Burn – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OwNnBohin0&ab_channel=TaylorSwiftEvolution
FALL and RAP GOD (Eminem)
Eminem used ‘faggot’ perjoratively in his 2018 song FALL and when he received negative feedback he apologized and back-masked the word. In the music video accompanying the song the word ‘faggot’ is omitted completely. Eminem also used the word negatively in his 2013 song Rap God.
COCKSUCKER BLUES (The Rolling Stones)
At one point The Rolling Stones were legally obligated by their record company to come up with one more single, which was guaranteed to make a lot of money as the Stones were in their prime. However the Stones submitted a song that the company could never profit by because the song was so obscene that it could never be released. The song, COCKSUCKER BLUES, is quite graphic, but it is sympathetic toward the gay protagonist.
MISERY BUSINESS (Paramore)
The group Paramore used the word ‘whore’ in the lyric to this song but later regretted it and for awhile no longer performed the song in concert.
O CANADA
The original words of the Canadian national anthem, written by Robert Stanley Weir, included the line “True patriot love Thou dost in us command”. Over a century ago, during World War One, this line was changed to “True patriot love in all they sons command” as a way of encouraging men to join the army and fight during the war. However, in 2018, the gender bias in that line was addressed and the line was officially changed to “True patriot love in all of us command.”
I was very glad to see this change. About twenty-five years ago when I was teaching a Special Education class at a very challenging inner city school, whenever I sang this anthem I loudly sang these recently sanctioned words (“in all of us command”) and so did my kids (I told them they didn’t have to if they didn’t want to), and no one ever complained. Then when I took over the school’s Special Learning Centre I was also put in charge of the opening exercises over the school’s public address system. Every morning I started with a reading of some sort before the announcements. The readings I used included readings from Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, pagan, atheist and many other doctrinal sources, and I made sure that each source had the same number as every other source (e.g. the atheists received as many readings as the Christians). The school administration was fine with this, and no parent ever complained. We did have some Buddhist students who had been among the Vietnamese Boat People who fled Vietnam after the end of the Vietnam War. They thanked me for the Buddhist readings.
It is also important to note that the book from which I took the readings came from the Ministry of Education – i.e. this practice was government sanctioned, and other schools were doing the same thing. Twenty-five years ago. I only mention this because I live in a small city in Canada. There are places in the world where I’d probably be getting death threats for doing those readings now.
THREE MORE FROM THE ROLLING STONES
Their song UNDER MY THUMB contains these lines: “It’s down to me . . . The way she does just what she’s told . . . The way she talks when she’s spoken to . . . the change has come / she’s under my thumb”. The reason for challenging this old one recorded in 1965 is obvious. Their song MIDNIGHT RAMBLER romanticizes a violent rapist with these lines: “I’m called the hit-and-run raper in anger, the knife-sharpened tippie-toe . . . Well he’s pouncing like a proud black panther . . . I’ll stick my knife right down your throat, baby”. Finally, their song STRAY CAT BLUES encourages sex with an underage girl of fifteen.
Eminem – the song KILL YOU – with this lyric: “Blood, guts, guns, cuts / Knives, lives, wives, nuns, sluts / Bitch, I’mma kill you”
the band Cannibal Corpse – the song STRIPPED, RAPED AND STRANGLED
the band Combichrist – three songs: ENJOY THE ABUSE, SHUT UP AND SWALLOW, CHAINSAW ABORTION
SOMETHING SUBTLE HERE
Frank Loesser – BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE – This won an Oscar in 1949 as Best Original Song, but it is now banned in parts of the US and banned completely in Canada. The lyrics are creepy. Some would argue that this is more dangerous than the songs in the previous entry.
SONGS WHICH ARE JUST TOO SEXUAL FOR SOME
Rita Coolidge – SUPERSTAR which contains the line: “I can hardly wait to sleep with you again” (The Carpenters changed the line to “I can hardly wait to be with you again” when they recorded the song)
Lady Gaga – LOVE GAME
The Rolling Stones – SATISFACTION (banned on the American television show Shindig because of the line “Trying to make some girl”
Van Morrison – BROWN-EYED GIRL (banned in 1967 for the line “Making love in the green grass”)
Donna Summer – LOVE TO LOVE YOU, BABY (banned from many radio stations)
Britney Spears – IF U SEEK AMY. This was overlooked at first but then it was banned when somebody repeated the title several times quickly.
Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg – JE T’AIME . . . MOI NON PLUS (i.e. I Love You . . . Me Neither) was banned by radio stations in Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom for its sexual explicitness. As you watch this video keep in mind that Jane Birkin died less than a year ago (July 16, 2023) at the age of 76 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahHWxwajQL0&ab_channel=SamHudson
SCANDALOUS (Jimmy Boyd)
This is the final example – hang on to your hats. Back in 1952 a thirteen year old named Jimmy Boyd recorded this song and The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston banned the song from the radio as being too risqué. Within a week of its release it had sold two and a half million copies. Here is the song – watch this if you dare – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76K5UU0ihow&ab_channel=HeroesLegendsIcons . The joke of course is that the song’s narrator doesn’t realize that his father is impersonating Santa.
Imagine that an underage listener comes across the track HEROIN recorded by the highly successful charismatic Lou Reed and Velvet Underground with these lines in the lyric – “it makes me feel like a man when I put a spike into my vein . . . Heroin, it’s my wife and it’s my life”. If the listener then tries heroin and becomes addicted, is it the fault of the song? If you have done a responsible job as a parent, raised a child who is loved and feels secure, and who you can still communicate with in reasonable and non-judgmental ways, then chances are that child is not going to listen to what Lou Reed or anyone else says on a recording and ignore what is said by an understanding, reasonable parent who has lived with them all their lives, who respects them, who has their best interests at heart, and who loves them.
Drug addiction is generally caused not by songs but by the insecurity (economic and / or psychological) or anger that comes from having parents who neglect or abuse their kids (emotionally and / or physically), often leading to the desperate need of those kids to bow to peer pressure. Of course not all familial relationships are as great as those I have just described so one must still be careful. A drug song extolling the virtues and ignoring the dangers of illegal drug use might be just enough to lead to drug experimentation on the part of a neglected child who then becomes a victim through no fault of their own, a victim sometimes to the point of dying. In that case the song is just the final straw, however, not the sole or primary cause.
REEFER MAN
There is a long history of songs extolling the pleasures of the use of illegal drugs. In the 1930’s and 1940’s some of the popular songs were in fact drug songs which only a few people recognized as such because the songs used slang or suggestion, so no lyric changes were demanded. The highly-talented bandleader / singer / dancer Cab Calloway was the first African American to sell a million singles, and the first to have his own radio show. He also recorded songs with drug references using slang not widely known outside the musical community at the time. His song REEFER MAN from 1933 was about using marijuana (a reefer being a marijuana cigarette). His song KICKING THE GONG AROUND was about frequenting an opium den and the phrase ‘kicking the gong around’ was itself slang for using illegal drugs ( watch him carefully at the 1 minute 35 second mark – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnt6zCDO73M&ab_channel=SbrPL ).
GIMME A REEFER
The great blues singer Bessie Smith, nicknamed ‘Empress of the Blues’, at one point was the highest paid black entertainer in the United States. She also recorded the song GIMME A PIGFOOT in 1933 which contains the line ‘Gimme a reefer, and a gang of gin’.
Jazz musicians were known to use alcohol and illegal drugs from very early days. Many died young and drug use was often a contributing factor in their death. However many also abused alcohol as well (which was illegal during Prohibition) and suffered from heart attacks. Their bodies just gave up in many cases after years of miscellaneous abuse. Saxophonist Charlie Parker was addicted to heroin and died at the age of 34. Singer Billie Holiday used heroin and she died at the age of 44. Saxophonist Paul Desmond used cocaine, amphetamines and LSD and died at the age of 52. Trumpeter Chet Baker was addicted to heroin and he died at the age of 58. Saxophonist Sonny Stitt was a heroin user and he died at the age of 58 as well. But drug addiction is not necessarily a death sentence. Musical genius Louis Armstrong used cannabis almost daily and he made it to 69. Whether one survives hard drug use may also depend on an individual’s personality, or on circumstance (e.g. do they have loved ones supporting them when they quit their habit?). Trumpeter Miles Davis used heroin and made it to 65, saxophonist Gerry Mulligan used heroin and made it to 68, Drummer Art Blakey used heroin and made it to 71, trombonist J.J.Johnson used heroin and made it to 77.
In the rock era the ages at death from drug use dropped precipitously, many dying in their twenties. Janis Joplin died of a heroin overdose, Jimi Hendrix died of a barbiturate overdose, Amy Winehouse used heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine. All three died in their twenties. Keith Moon of The Who used amphetamines and ketamine, and died at the age of thirty-two. The Doors released the song Crystal Ship which was about many things, including crystal methamphetamine use. The lead singer, Jim Morrison, used LSD and heroin and he died at the age of 27. Here is Crystal Ship, which as far as I know was never banned – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imcHmSUVEvk&ab_channel=215Days .
Things started to get controversial in the early 1960’s when groups released drug songs disguised as safe songs so that they wouldn’t get banned from radio play which would significantly cut into their record sales. The song WALK RIGHT IN released by the Rooftop Singers back in 1962 was later perceived as a drug song because of these lines: “Walk right in, sit right down / Daddy let your mind roll on . . . Everybody’s talkin’ ‘bout a new way of walkin’ / Do you want to lose your mind?’ However, the song was co-written by Gus Cannon and recorded by Cannon’s Jug Stompers in 1929 so it may or may not have been a drug song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-qiC1jynmc&ab_channel=SmurfstoolsOldiesMusicTimeMachine .
EIGHT MILES HIGH was released by The Byrds in 1966 and when some perceived it as a possible drug song The Byrds denied that it was. Later, however, two of the song’s composers, Gene Clark and David Crosby, admitted that it was indeed inspired by illegal drug use. I CAN SEE FOR MILES was composed by Pete Townshend and was released by The Who in 1967. Some saw it as a drug song, others didn’t. It was not banned.
Once the counterculture kicked in bands began releasing songs encouraging illegal drug use openly and no one seemed to be particularly offended. There were many drug songs, and many rock stars getting arrested or dying from illegal drug use. Some famous drug recordings which were not banned and whose lyrics have remained intact:
LET’S GO GET STONED – first recorded by The Coasters in 1965, this was a big hit for Ray Charles in 1966 (he recorded it right after he came out of rehab to kick a 16 year old heroin habit), Joe Cocker did a famous rendition of the song in 1969 at Woodstock, and Big Mama Thornton also recorded the song in 1969. Here is a performance of the song by the Tedeschi Trucks Band with some nice vocals by the band’s lead singer / guitarist Susan Tedeschi – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4SI1h7bOmQ&ab_channel=TedeschiTrucksBand
four from The Beatles – LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS, SHE SAID SHE SAID, A DAY IN THE LIFE and WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS.
There have also been some anti-drug songs released by counterculture bands who began to see the down side of illegal drugs, for example: SISTER MORPHINE (The Rolling Stones – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCnx2kjk8T4&ab_channel=Fritzes007 ), THE PUSHER (Steppenwolf), and THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE (Neil Young). Young wrote this song when the guitarist in his backup band Crazy Horse, Danny Whitten, became heavily addicted to heroin. Not long after the song was released Whitten died of a drug overdose at age 29 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd3oqvnDKQk&ab_channel=neilyoungchannel
RAINY DAY WOMEN #12 AND 35
Bob Dylan uses a pun on the word ‘stoned’ as the basis of this song and of course the Rainy Day Women are the illegal drugs the narrator is using.
LIGHT MY FIRE
The Doors were invited to perform their big hit Light My Fire on The Ed Sullivan Show as long as they changed the lyric “Girl we couldn’t get much higher”, an obvious drug reference. The lead singer, Jim Morrison, promised to change the lyric, but the show was live so when Morrison performed the song without changing the line Sullivan was furious. However he couldn’t do anything about it except ban the group from future shows. But the Doors had just appeared on the show and thus gained the national exposure they sought, so they just laughed at the idea of never being invited back to the show. Here’s the clip – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKd6yarfkxA&ab_channel=Remasteredvideos .
THE SONG THAT WAS AND WASN’T A DRUG SONG
LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS, written and recorded by The Beatles, according to one of its two composers, John Lennon, was not a drug song but was inspired by a painting drawn by Lennon’s son Julian in nursery school. Such a painting by young Julian does in fact exist, and it was in fact an inspiration for the song. Lennon has also said that he loved the book Alice in Wonderland as a child and was trying to create a feeling of Wonderland in the song’s lyrics. However, years later the song’s other composer, Paul McCartney, said that it was in fact designed to simulate an LSD trip as well as being inspired by the painting. Note the initials of the main words in the song’s title.
THE DRUG SONG THAT WASN’T A DRUG SONG
PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON was a big hit for the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. However in the paranoiac eyes of United States Vice President Spiro Agnew the words ‘puff’ and ‘magic’ set off alarm bells and he got the song banned. It wasn’t a drug song.
A FINAL THOUGHT
There are also those who blame an individual’s violent behaviour on songs describing violence, so they want to ban violent songs, even songs that describe but also condemn violence. These critics want us to believe that years of upbringing can be erased in five minutes. A million people can listen to a song describing or even endorsing violence and if three of those people react by acting out violently the song gets blamed. What about the other 999 997 people who were exposed to the song as well and did not react violently? Violent people sometimes like violent songs but that’s because they are violent people. It’s not the songs that make them violent – make sure you have the arrow of causation pointed in the right direction. Some violent songs. Be careful –
they were emotionally neglected as children and find it hard to view others with empathy
they were the targets of violence or they witnessed violence growing up (e.g. spousal abuse) so that is the only way they know how to deal with the world
they are angry victims of racism, sexism or homophobia / transphobia
they grew up in poverty in a society where self-worth is equated with affluence
If we want people to respond non-violently to violent lyrics and images (and we want people to be able to reject songs praising hard drug use) perhaps we need to put all our efforts not into banning songs, but into:
reducing / abolishing poverty and economic inequity
making sure contraception and abortion access is available to women so that children are not born into poverty or dysfunctional families
getting serious about preventing or eliminating domestic abuse and sexual predation by coming down hard on the abusers so children witnessing the abuse don’t learn that violence is the way to deal with life
setting up non-violent conflict resolution programs in schools
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).
This is the first in a series of five posts on the banning of music. Future posts:
Part 2 – POLITICS
Part 3 – ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES
Part 4 – GENDER
Part 5 – RELIGION
These posts will include lyrics containing strong language so that we are all aware of exactly how vile some songs are.
Would you ban this song? –
What about this song?
The first song contains the n-word, the second one doesn’t. Which song is more offensive? I know which one I find more offensive and it’s not the first one.
Beyoncé, much to her credit, voluntarily changed the line “Spazzin’ on that ass” from her song HEATED when she discovered that it referred to people suffering from Spastic Cerebral Palsy. But if one thinks it’s acceptable to mock the disabled (I’m looking at you Trump) then one would be fine with Beyoncé leaving her lyrics unchanged. John Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote WOMAN IS THE NIGGER OF THE WORLD but before they recorded and released it they went to several African-American political activists first and said that if the activists objected John and Yoko would re-write the lyric leaving out the n-word. You can hate John and Yoko and / or their music all you like but give credit where credit is due. Here are a dozen thoughts about lyric banning to keep in mind as one works through these five posts:
On what grounds should a lyric be banned?
Can a hateful lyric, perhaps combined with other factors, provoke violence against people? There is a great deal of both antisemitism and Islamophobia violence going on presently (December 2023) surrounding the Gaza-Israeli War. What might happen if Taylor Swift were to release an anti-Israel or an anti-Hamas song tomorrow?
Who decides? A Nazi isn’t about to ban a song lyric praising the Holocaust.
Consider context. The 1939 song Ding, Dong, The Witch is Dead from The Wizard of Oz contains nothing intrinsically offensive (set aside its misogynist misrepresentation of witches for a moment) but when the song was sung relentlessly at street celebrations and a recording of the song made it to the Number Two position in the charts when former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died in 2013, it was banned by the BBC.
Consider time and place. In the 1960’s many songs advocating the use of illegal drugs, including cannabis, were banned. Today cannabis use is legal (I’m a Canadian).
Banning a lyric is an attempt to suppress its message but banning it calls attention to it, increasing the number of people who hear the song as people are curious about why the song was banned.
Therefore is it more effective to educate rather than ban, that is, point out the negative ramifications of harmful song lyrics, some of which might go unnoticed at first glance?
If someone is brought up in a healthy, diverse environment and they hear a racist song then they’ll denounce it, or ignore it, right? So is banning unnecessary?
Should racist songs be kept from minors rather than being universally banned? But there are some minors who could responsibly handle hearing racist lyrics, and some adults who are racist or prone to racism.
Offence varies with culture and demographic. Should we let someone from a racist or sexist culture or background decide which lyrics are offensive?
Banning lyrics often raises cries of suppression of free speech. How can we tell when those cries are justified?
Here is sheet music for the 1924 song THE BRIGHT FIERY CROSS by Alvia O. DeRee published in the US and glorifying the Ku Klux Klan – note the hooded figures gathered around the cross –
Any decision about how to use a racist term can only ethically be made by the group the racist term targets. Some African-American bands or singers include the n-word in their lyrics, e.g. DON’T CALL ME NIGGER, WHITEY (Sly and the Family Stone), LIVING IN THE CITY (Stevie Wonder), and ANTI-NIGGER MACHINE (Public Enemy). But there are other people who perceive this as a double standard. Such people may also display a sign reading ‘All Lives Matter’ in response to the Black Lives Matter movement thus missing the point completely. But things are not always simple. What if a songwriter creates a character in a song who is racist but the songwriter makes it clear that the character is someone to be condemned? If the songwriter has that character use the N-word is that acceptable if the songwriter is Caucasian? Some examples of songs which use the n-word in this way:
Randy Newman – Christmas in Capetown (linked to above)
At least there have also been songs which are anti-racist. One that comes to mind is Gordon Lightfoot’s BLACK DAY IN JULY. It was released soon after the 1967 race riots in Detroit which lasted five days. 43 people died, 467 were injured, there were about 7200 arrests and more than 2000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Lightfoot’s song was played quite a bit in Canada (Lightfoot is Canadian) but it was banned in the US. Here it is – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L07TKGjseyg&ab_channel=CrystalDawne . More than fifty years later George Floyd was murdered and Donald Trump called the Black Lives Matter movement a terror organization. Some examples of race-related lyric changes:
In 1955 Emmett Till, an African-American teenager visiting Mississippi, was alleged to have flirted with a white woman and as a result he was abducted, savagely tortured, and executed by white racists. At his funeral his mother insisted on an open casket so everyone could see how his face had been badly mutilated and his right eye had been dislodged from its socket. In 2013 African-American artists Future (Nayvadius Wilburn) and Lil Wayne (Dwayne Carter Jr.) released the song KARATE CHOP (REMIX) which contains these lines: “Bout to put rims on my skateboard wheels / Beat the pussy up like Emmett Till”. Later Lil Wayne apologized for trivializing a horrible event and changed the line. As far as I know, however, he was still fine with this use of the word ‘pussy’.
PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ, written by Irving Berlin in 1927, is about poor blacks in Harlem dressing up and parading up and down Lenox Avenue to mock the rich whites elsewhere in New York City showing off their wealth. The lyrics express approval and admiration for the creative way in which poor New York blacks are making fun of rich New York whites. In 1946 Berlin rewrote the lyrics so that they meant the opposite of what they originally meant. The amended song is about how great the wealthy white socialites are and how envious everyone should be of them. Here is Fred Astaire’s rendition of the updated version – Astaire, and all of the dancers behind him, are white – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKPMk5_gStk&ab_channel=fredl and here is Tommy Tune’s version using the original lyrics. Tune is white but all of the dancers behind him are black. By the way, the song, meant to be rhythmically interesting, is in 8 / 8 time but see if you can spot the 7 / 8 bars cleverly thrown in to throw off the listener even further – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-xmVjr570k&ab_channel=jsnwse
In the original version of African-American Chuck Berry’s hit JOHNNY B. GOODE Johnny is described as a “little coloured boy” but Berry, under pressure, changed that to “little country boy”.
In 2011 Lady Gaga released BORN THIS WAY containing the lyric “No matter black, white or beige, chola, or Orient made”. But ‘chola’ is a variation of ‘cholo’, a derogatory term for people of mixed blood heritage in Latin America. When Orville Pick recorded his version of the song he changed the line to “No matter black, white or beige, Asian or Latinx made”, with Lady Gaga’s approval.
The Guns N Roses song ONE IN A MILLION on the CD ‘Appetite For Destruction’ contains the N-word as well as the word ‘faggot’, used in hate-filled ways, and the lyrics are also xenophobic. The words were written by Axel Rose, and Slash, the band’s lead guitarist, tried to stop Axel from releasing the track because of the lyrics but Slash was unsuccessful (Slash’s mother is African-American). Axel Rose was damned and determined to release the track.
Then there have been the times when the lyrics remained unchanged when perhaps they should have been banned. Many openly racist songs have been deemed quite acceptable when they first appeared in early twentieth century America, for example:
N***** BOYS – by Eugene Engel
UNDERNEATH THE HARLEM MOON – by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel
NEVER TRUST A N***** WITH A GUN – by C.S. Livingston and J.G. Lewis
YOU’SE JUST A LITTLE N***** STILL YOUSE MINE ALL MINE – by Paul Dresser
THE BRIGHT FIERY CROSS – by Alvia O. DeRee
AN AWFUL WICKED N***** – by S.B. Alexander and Summit L. Hecht
DAR’LL BE A N***** MISSIN’ – by Lew Bloom
RUN, MISTER N***** – by Frank J. Kent and Henry E. Lower
DANGEROUS BLACK MAN – by Irving Jones
PICCANINNY’S TEARS by Cesare Celani
SAMBO’S HUNTING SONG by Richard Coerdeler
ALL COONS LOOK ALIKE TO ME by Ernest Hogan and Richard Morton
Stephen Foster’s song OH! SUSANNA has been covered by many people (e.g. James Taylor – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J63ZQqa-VCQ&ab_channel=GaryLarson ), however in the second verse there is a description of an industrial accident that “killed five hundred n****** ” by electrocution”. In the 1960’s, as a reaction to the Civil Rights Movement, Clifford Trahan, using the name Johnny Rebel, recorded songs full of the n-word, songs that voiced support for racial segregation, the Ku Klux Klan and the Confederacy. Here are the titles of some of Trahan’s recordings:
KAJUN KU KLUX KLAN
N*****, N*****
COON TOWN
WHO LIKES A N*****?
N*****-HATIN’ ME
SOME N****** NEVER DIE (THEY JUST SMELL THAT WAY)
MOVE THEM N****** NORTH
The German neo-Nazi band Landser covered Trahan’s song Coon Town under the title Kreuzberg in 1997. The word ‘Kreuz’ means ‘cross’ in German.
Uncle Dave Macon (1870 – 1952) was a popular country singer known as the Grandfather of Country Music. He was a banjo player, comedian, singer, songwriter, Vaudevillian and star of the Grand Old Opry. Two of the pallbearers at his funeral were Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe. Many of Macon’s songs were pretty uncontroversial, but he also released a song called RUN, N*****, RUN. David Allan Coe is a country singer born back in 1939 who has had a checkered career, including run-ins with the Internal Revenue Service over unpaid taxes. He has recorded many songs and one of them was titled N***** LOVER. Musical racism is not restricted to the United States either. The 1932 British song THE SUN HAS GOT HIS HAT ON by Noel Gay and Ralph Butler, Caucasian both, also uses the n-word.
The abduction of black Africans during the Slave Trade is trivialized and romanticized in the song BROWN SUGAR (by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards) released by The Rolling Stones with these lyrics: “Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields . . . Skydog slaver knows he’s doin’ all right / hear him whip the women just around midnight . . . Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good / Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxXV2UftL7Q&ab_channel=Sound%26Vision .
Finally, in the song SOME GIRLS, again released by The Rolling Stones and written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the band generalizes unflatteringly about French, Italian, American, Chinese and English ‘girls’, and Jagger sings: “Black girls just wanna get fucked all night, I just don’t have that much jam”. This song was released on the album Some Girls released in 1978. One would have thought that by then the Stones would have known better. Some people at the time noticed the racism but most people did not. It’s like reading old James Bond novels and being embarrassed that one didn’t notice the blatant racism when they first read the novels when they first came out. Then there is the antisemitism in old Ngaio Marsh novels, and Agatha Christie’s murder mystery ‘Ten Little Niggers’ whose title was changed to ‘Then There Were None’ for the American market. Don’t talk to me about the good old days.
The definition of a COVER VERSION – A particular recording of a song is later re-recorded by someone else, in such a way that the new recording brings something new to the meaning of the song or the feelings it invokes. This is a series of posts about striking cover versions of songs.
In this final post instead of talking about taking a song (lyrics plus music) and adding something new when covering it, the idea of taking just text and adding something new to it by adding music will be examined. The best example of this that I can think of is the dramatic work CARMINA BURANA. The text of this musical work is taken from a set of 254 poems and dramatic texts primarily from the 11th and 12th centuries written in Medieval Latin. In the twentieth century Carl Orff added music. Here is a well-known excerpt from Carmina Burana, a short section called O Fortuna: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzvZFnI7Vw8&ab_channel=RTSMuzi%C4%8Dkaprodukcija-Zvani%C4%8Dnikanal . Here is a second, rather unusual performance of the work – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJNp5UKRtbQ&ab_channel=unsereOEBB .
THE WOODLARK by Gerard Manley Hopkins was put to music by Sean O’Leary and recorded by Belinda Evans. HOPE IS A THING WITH FEATHERS by Emily Dickinson was put to music by the band Trailer Bride. OH, ARE YOU DIGGING MY GRAVE? by Thomas Hardy was put to music by Lewis Alpaugh, and THE RAVEN by Edgar Allen Poe was adapted and re-titled Mr. Raven as a rap song by MC Lars. Pablo Neruda’s poems, including SONNET 49, were translated into English, set to music and recorded by Luciana Souza.
RICHARD CORY by Edwin Arlington Robinson was put to music more than once, by Charles Naginski in 1940, by the band Them, and by John Woods Duke. There have also been several songs based on the poem. Perhaps the most famous adaptation was by Paul Simon, recorded by Simon and Garfunkel, but Simon changed the words while retaining the meaning – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vNSWoSWSog&ab_channel=BigChuckLyricVideo
Donovan’s 1971 album HMS Donovan features six poems which Donovan wrote music for. Those six works are as follows: ‘THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER’ and ‘JABBERWOCKY’ both from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Jane Taylor retitled ‘THE STAR’, ‘WYNKEN, BLYNKEN AND NOD’ by Eugene Field, ‘THINGS TO WEAR’ by Agnes Grozier Herbertson, and ‘THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT’ by Edward Lear. Here is Jabberwocky – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ-AGLyMVHM&ab_channel=falkom88
The poem Pequeno Vals Vienes’ (Little Viennese Waltz) was translated into English, and put to music and recorded by Leonard Cohen under the title ‘TAKE THIS WALTZ’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQm1OmLMNno&ab_channel=a1000kissesdeep . Irish band The Waterboys, put together an entire show, and album, of music composed to go with poems by William Butler Yeats. For example, they turned ‘THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE’ into a 12-bar blues song. Finally, conductor / composer Christopher Tin took the words to the LORD’S PRAYER, translated them into Sanskrit, and set them to music under the title Baba Yetu – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsINANZ6Riw&ab_channel=AlexBoye .
Sometimes a band or performer has a particular sound and someone else comes along and, either intentionally or accidentally, sound a lot like that earlier band or performer. It was as if they were creating a cover of a general sound rather than a specific song. Three examples:
When Badfinger, a band plagued by tragedy (two of its members committed suicide), were signed to the Beatles’ record company Apple, many perceived the band’s recordings to be very similar to Beatles recordings. Judge for yourself. Here is one of Badfinger’s first recordings and a major hit, COME AND GET IT (by Paul McCartney) from the Peter Sellers movie The Magic Christian also starring Ringo Starr – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tOnbeNAxdU&ab_channel=Beat-Club . When the Bee Gees arrived in the UK from Australia in 1967 few people knew who they were. When they immediately released the track NEW YORK MINING DISASTER 1941 there were some reports that the Bee Gees were really The Beatles recording incognito because of their similar styles at that time. What do you think? – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48j8UdBwDS8&ab_channel=Beat-Club . In 1973 progressive Canadian rock band Klaatu’s first album sounded so much like The Beatles at that time that the music media began calling them The Canadian Beatles. Here is their track SUB ROSA SUBWAY – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRKVNRHw8ss&ab_channel=NedNickerson2010
Perhaps Marilyn Monroe’s greatest moment came with her performance of DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Consider how throughout her career Monroe was objectified as the stereotypical Dumb Blonde when she was in reality very street smart, and, by the way, according to Sir Laurence Olivier himself, Monroe was also a great film actor. Also, consider the meanings of the lyrics. Some would describe the song’s protagonist as an unabashed gold digger. However in a world in which almost all of the world’s wealth is controlled by men, and when opportunities for employment and advancement for women are severely limited, a woman’s economic survival usually depended on snaring a man with money. In Monroe’s day this was the same world as the one that the female characters of Jane Austen’s greatest work, Pride and Prejudice, lived in. Not a lot of progress in 150 years. Consider the title of the song and the title of the film it’s taken from. This is a feminist clip – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw7ii6IxNS8&ab_channel=DanteBentura . Now notice how Madonna adroitly covers the same conceptual territory both visually and musically rather than covering the actual song, in this clip of MATERIAL GIRL – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p-lDYPR2P8&ab_channel=Madonna .
Finally there’s the rather bizarre case of John Fogerty, the leader of the country rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival. He was sued for sounding like himself. Let me explain. In 1985 Fogerty released an album which contained the song ‘THE OLD MAN DOWN THE ROAD’ and he was sued for plagarism by his former record company which had released Fogerty’s earlier song ‘RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE’ when he was with Creedence Clearwater Revival. The claim was that John Fogerty on the former song sounded too much like John Fogerty on the latter song. The record company lost the lawsuit.
The definition of a COVER VERSION – A particular recording of a song is later re-recorded by someone else, in such a way that the new recording brings something new to the meaning of the song or the feelings it invokes. This is a series of posts about striking cover versions of songs.
In this post a variety of songs which are closely related to the concept of cover versions will be discussed.
PARODIES
A parody is usually done to make fun of a song, perhaps to highlight negative about the song. This can be done with gentle humour by someone who actually likes the original song and is just having a bit of fun. It could, instead, be done by someone who is highly critical of the original song. Weird Al Yankovich, by all accounts, is a genuinely nice guy who just likes taking the mickey out of people, but he also obtains permission first from anyone whose song he intends to parody. Here is a highly popular song from early in Michael Jackson’s adult career – BEAT IT – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRdxUFDoQe0&ab_channel=michaeljacksonVEVO . Here is EAT IT, a parody by Weird Al Yankovic of Beat It – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI&ab_channel=alyankovicVEVO
GENDER SWITCH
In some cases a song’s lyrics are written from the point of view of a particular gender but a new recording of the song is done by someone of a different gender who changes the lyric’s pronouns accordingly. Given the enormous gender-based power differential that still exists in today’s world, a particular lyric is likely to carry a very different meaning when delivered by one gender than it is being delivered by another. The traditional American folk song MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW has been recorded by Rod Stewart – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdjaA752Cg0&ab_channel=RodStewart-Topic . Judy Collins also recorded the song but she changed it to MAID OF CONSTANT SORROW – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zp8xUAO7Hs&ab_channel=swedishbaffe
In 1965 Otis Redding composed and recorded the song RESPECT from his male perspective – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvC9V_lBnDQ&ab_channel=pieroangelo2 . Then in 1967 Aretha Franklin changed the lyrics slightly and recorded the song from a female perspective and it became a feminist anthem probably because, given the power imbalance, demanding (not begging for) respect is a hell of a lot harder for a woman to do than for a man to do (it was even harder in 1967) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF-gQP91iIE&ab_channel=MrsMattMurphy . Way back in 1952 African-American Big Mama Thornton recorded the song HOUND DOG (by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller) and not many people noticed – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmpwvxW0gW0&ab_channel=RocknRoll then in 1956 Elvis Presley recorded the song and it was a big hit. This seems to be another case of a white singer covering a song released earlier by a black singer and making a fortune. Also, a woman calling a man a hound dog is more dangerous than a man calling a woman a hound dog – note the legendary guitarist Scotty Moore in Presley’s backup band here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzQ8GDBA8Is&ab_channel=jorgeollie .
Finally, the Donays was an American so-called Girl Group who had a hit with the Richard Drapkin song DEVIL IN HIS HEART – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmLJ-p5adV8&ab_channel=TheDonays-Topic . Way back in 1963 (over sixty years ago!) The Beatles recorded this same song but reversed the gender of the villain of the piece. They changed the lyrics slightly and called it DEVIL IN HER HEART reinforcing that old misogynist trope of woman as evil seductress. This is also a rare case of lead guitarist George Harrison taking lead vocals even though it wasn’t one of his own songs (in almost all of the Beatles cover recordings John or Paul took lead vocals) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGe-jfFrxCk&ab_channel=TheBeatles-Topic .
In a variation of this idea, in the mid-1930’s in Germany male artists often sang the female lyrics to popular songs. These were called cross cover versions. This practice faded rapidly, however, as soon as the Nazis decided that such a practice was decadent.
FROM TIME TO TIME
Here are three unusual cases in which particular song or piece of music is originally written and recorded with a particular time signature and when it is covered a different time signature is used which can create a new unsettled or exotic feeling.
SWEET GEORGIA BROWN (by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard) is heard here played by Benny Goodman in its original 4/4 time. Goodman is in his seventies here, and that’s the great Teddy Wilson on piano at the age of 68 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jE2g055zRA&ab_channel=SwingCla . Just for good measure, here is another cover version in 4/4 time by Brother Bones and his Shadows (released in 1949) which was used for years as the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters, as seen in this ancient clip featuring the great Meadowlark Lemon – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDLvbnoGA6M&ab_channel=tubengagements . Here is a much more sophisticated version by Dave Brubeck alternating between 7/4 time and 4/4 time. The excellent drummer is Dan Brubeck, Dave’s son, the cellist is his son Matthew, the bassist is his son Chris – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA7ebL6Cuf8&ab_channel=LovelyDiscipline .
Sometimes a song is resuscitated and covered later as part of another song, for example FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH (by Stephen Stills). The original version by Buffalo Springfield has Stephen Stills on guitar and a very young Neil Young (released 1967) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRV5LoOMyBk&ab_channel=sweetlikez . 32 years later we have a version by Public Enemy in 1999 weaving in and out of their song HE GOT GAME. Notice a much older Stephen Stills at 6 seconds in, at 47 seconds, and later at the 2 minute 18 second mark, and notice too the “man with a gun over there” at the 1 minute 42 second mark – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FmPskTljo0&ab_channel=PublicEnemyVEVO
The Police recorded the song EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE in 1983 (sometimes referred to as I’ll Be Watching You). The song is about a stalker but some people took it as a love song, which is awfully creepy. Here is the striking video from the early days of music videos, full of subtle lighting effects, with Sting on stand-up bass – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOGaugKpzs&ab_channel=ThePoliceVEVO . In 1997 acclaimed rapper Notorious B.I.G. was murdered at the age of twenty-four. In response his friend P.Diddy released the song I’LL BE MISSING YOU singing with Faith Evans, the former wife of Notorious B.I.G., a song with words about the murder but with the same melody as the Police song, doing so with the good wishes of The Police. In fact here is a stirring live performance of the track with P.Diddy, Faith Evans and Sting – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0nL7weZrp8&ab_channel=4dd7y5stars .
In 1975 Led Zeppelin released what I think is their best track, a song called ‘KASHMIR’. Then a full thirty-nine years later the 2014 terrible remake of Godzilla was released but the film’s soundtrack at least features P.Diddy performing a rap on top of that original Led Zeppelin track, with Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin sneaking into the background of the accompanying dramatic music video.
The definition of a COVER VERSION – A particular recording of a song is later re-recorded by someone else, in such a way that the new recording brings something new to the meaning of the song or the feelings it invokes. This is a series of posts about striking cover versions of songs.
ME AND BOBBY McGEE (by Kris Kristofferson). Kris Kristofersson was a country / folk singer, helicopter pilot, and brilliant enough academic to become a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He wrote this song in the 1960’s and Canadian Gordon Lightfoot recorded this version of the song in 1970 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8O0GgcenVU&ab_channel=anippygirl . The most famous cover of the song is this one, recorded a year later, by American Janis Joplin, backed by the Canadian group The Full Tilt Boogie Band. Joplin recorded this shortly before she died at the age of twenty-seven – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7CtqwyxHM0&ab_channel=magghina95
HOTEL CALIFORNIA (by Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Don Felder). The Eagles original version of Hotel California is excellent but very well known so I’m not going to link to it. Here instead are two live covers which are singularly different from the original. One is by the leader / founder of The Eagles, Don Henley, done in Mexican style with a great trombone arrangement and excellent percussion from Rob Ladd – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38-V0g0vl0Q&ab_channel=%E6%88%91%E8%A6%81%E5%A5%BD%E5%A5%BD%E5%AD%A6%E4%B9%A0 . The second cover is by a much later version of The Eagles and it features some top notch acoustic guitar playing. Glenn Frey is to the immediate left of the singer Don Henley. Frey died in 2016 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlmMFAA3Ako&ab_channel=BernardBryanLansang .
YA RAYAH (i.e. The Traveller) (by Dahmane El Harrachi). Here is the best known version of this song performed by the great Algerian actor and activist Rachid Taha, who had a huge international hit with this song. Please note the unusual ten beat rhythm pattern, and the impressive oud playing by the great multi-instrumentalist Nabil Khalidi – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H38Ir7dCnns&ab_channel=M.Hassan . Here is a later version of the song performed by three musical legends – Rachid Taha himself again, Algerian Rai singer Khaled Hadj Ibrahim, and French singer and actor Faudel Belloua – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cur39MJDWX4&ab_channel=DeepFreeze11
GOD ONLY KNOWS (by Brian Wilson). This track was originally released by The Beach Boys in 1966 and here they are performing the song in that same year – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpd4jzKA4SA&ab_channel=MikeAdams . 48 years later BBC Music released this version of the song performed by a long list of famous people, including Beach Boy Brian Wilson himself (at 58 seconds, and again at the very end). The complete list of participants contains 29 names (there is a complete list in the Comments section – see the 25th comment down) including Elton John, Chris Martin (Coldplay), Kylie Minogue, Stevie Wonder, Jools Holland, Brian May (Queen), One Direction, and Dave Grohl (Nirvana / Foo Fighters) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqLTe8h0-jo&ab_channel=BBCMusic
WOODEN SHIPS (by David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Paul Kantner). When I was a kid people were building fallout shelters and at school we were taught what to do in case of a nuclear war. Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union, banged his shoe on his desk at the United Nations declaring to the United States “We will bury you” (in Russian). As a teenager I watched President John F. Kennedy appear on live television during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 telling Khrushchev to remove all Soviet nuclear weapons from Cuba or else. Or else what? Many thought there was a good chance that a nuclear war was about to start and I noticed that my family lived in London halfway between Detroit and the power station complex at Niagara Falls, two prime targets. Here is a song about the aftermath of a nuclear war recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in 1968 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q3j-i7GLr0&ab_channel=Ly1212 . Here is the same song recorded by Jefferson Airplane (one of the co-writers of the song, Paul Kantner, was a member of Jefferson Airplane), released a year later – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIccZsURyLc&ab_channel=JeffersonJukebox .
EVERYBODY KNOWS (by Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson). In 2018 some political observers deemed this to be the theme song of the Trump administration. Here is Cohen performing the song in 2008 with the wonderful Webb sisters, plus Sharon Robinson (who co-composed this song) as backing singers. Javier Mas also delivers a great solo on acoustic guitar. Please listen carefully to the words – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu8u9ZbCJgQ&ab_channel=LeonardCohenVEVO . Here is quite a different version by Concrete Blonde – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=367C7L5A4BQ&ab_channel=ConcreteBlonde-Topic
THE WEIGHT (by Robbie Robertson). Here is the original version recorded by The Band (Robbie Robertson is the lead guitarist) along with The Staple Singers. It was their biggest hit, it is unusual musically in that in the chorus, in 4/4 time, there’s a bar in 2/4 stuck on the end. It’s also true that about 99% of all songs end on the tonic note of the scale of the key the piece is written in, but that’s not true here. This clip was recorded on the occasion of The Band’s final concert before disBANDing – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-w9OclUnns&ab_channel=GreatOldiesDJ . Here is a much more recent version performed by Robbie Robertson and Ringo Starr, joined electronically by musicians on five continents – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph1GU1qQ1zQ&ab_channel=PlayingForChange . Robertson died a few months ago at the age of eighty.
99 LUFTBALLOONS (music by Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, German lyrics by Carlo Karges and English lyrics by Kevin McAlea). The German band Nena’s lead singer was also named Nena (sort of like the bands Santana, and Manfred Mann). The band Nena had a huge international hit in 1983 with 99 Luftballoons in German. The song’s music video was banned in the US from play on MTV, however. The lyrics were not obscene, no one was wearing revealing clothes. It was an anti-war song but that wasn’t the reason. The reason given was that in one shot the lead singer’s armpit hair was briefly visible. Draw your own conclusions. Here are Nena performing the song in 2018 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO5lfJ9dhs&ab_channel=NENA . The German title means 99 Air Balloons but it is translated as 99 Red Balloons. The lyrics tell the story of how 99 balloons aloft along the Iron Curtain between East and West Germany are mistaken for missiles. One thing leads to another, to years of war and finally a nuclear conflagration which destroys both sides – with no victor. This was first released during the Cold War, before the fall of the Soviet Union, a time when Reagan was president and global nuclear war was still a real possibility. Here are Nena covering their own song, this time in English – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiwgOWo7mDc&ab_channel=NENA .
THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD (by David Bowie). This was originally recorded by David Bowie – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3MX-rUtS6M&ab_channel=DavidBowie . Here is an unplugged Nirvana performance covering this song, a session viewed now as one of Nirvana’s best performances. Sadly, Cobain was only twenty-seven when he committed suicide – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fregObNcHC8&ab_channel=NirvanaVEVO . This song has nothing to do with one of my favourite science fiction stories, Bernie the Faust by William Tenn, published in 1963, about a man who accidentally sold the world.
SILENT NIGHT / STILLE NACHT, HEILIGE NACHT (by Franz Gruber and Joseph Mohr). This Austrian Christmas carol, composed in 1818, has since been translated into over 300 languages, and been covered hundreds of times. Here is an unusual rendition recorded in the town square of Steyr in Austria sung, of course, in German, on the two hundredth anniversary of the writing of the song. By the looks of it the entire town turned out to sing – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BS9ohD1R5g&ab_channel=RTVRegionalfernsehenv=1uHNygqhBCs&ab_channel=SineadOConnorVEVO . Here is a very different version recorded by Simon and Garfunkel in 1966. Most of the references are still well known today except perhaps Lenny Bruce. He was the first of the great subversive comic geniuses and he died at age 42 of a heroin overdose. He was penniless when he died having spent all his money on legal fees having been repeatedly arrested for his iconoclastic performances – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNyqlx0–i0&ab_channel=DowneyStudios
This set of covers began with Sinead O’Connor and so lets ends with her as well with one last cover. All her life O’Connor tried to find peace, in more than one religion; I wonder if she was ever able to find it. Her voice is incomparable once again here, sung a cappella (very difficult to do and stay in tune) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGDCKrSgYwY&ab_channel=PureSinead .
Surprise final bonus cover. This is one of my favourite covers so I’m adding it here as a last minute afterthought. The best track laid down by Jimi Hendrix, IMHO, wasn’t All Along the Watchtower or Purple Haze. It was Voodoo Chile, written by Hendrix. But then decades after Hendrix died a newcomer from Australia, Orianthi, came along, and when she covered the song she played it better than Hendrix himself. Here is the Hendrix version live in 1970 which was the year he died – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFfnlYbFEiE&ab_channel=JimiHendrixVEVO , and here is Orianthi (a shorter but a better version) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK6tcgsKgps&ab_channel=SilentDarkDrummer .
Here is a list of other unusual and excellent covers worth listening to:
LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS by The Beatles, and later covered by Elton John (with John Lennon)
BLUE SUEDE SHOES by rockabilly star Carl Perkins, and covered later by Elvis Presley
TAKE FIVE by The Dave Brubeck Quartet (the first jazz recording to sell over a million copies) and later covered by Pakistan’s Sachal Studios Orchestra
MY FAVOURITE THINGS by Julie Andrews and later covered in ground-breaking style by John Coltrane
JET SONG by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and later recorded also by Oscar Peterson
GRAVY WALTZ recorded by its composer Steve Allen and covered later by Makoto Ozone
I GOT RHYTHM by George Gershwin and later covered by Hiromi Uehara with breath-taking technique.
MACK THE KNIFE sung by the multi-talented but short-lived Bobby Darin and sung later by Louis Armstrong
LAZY RIVER originally recorded with great harmonies by the Mills Brothers and later interpreted brilliantly by Louis Armstrong
LOVE IS STRANGE originally recorded in 1956 by the guitar duo Mickey and Sylvia, with some excellent guitar work, later covered by The Everly Brothers with their intricate harmonies. The song was co-written by Bo Diddley himself.
I’d recommend covers by Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish but they are amazing talents who write or co-write almost all their own songs.
According to The Kidd 