Some people went on spin cycle over the use of the word "Christ" in the Beatles 1969 hit Ballad of John And Yoko.

I just played the Ballad of John and Yoko on Sunday in surround sound. Changing the mix is interesting for well worn tracks tho this one gets less exposure than many other Beatles hits.

The Stones were forced by Ed S. to sing Lets Spend Some Time together. Jim Morrison did not listen to Ed when he asked the Doors to censor the line "girl we couldn't get much higher." After that they were permanently banned from the really big shew.

I vaguely remembered Don't Do It and was trying to find it on Monkees records without success a few months ago. Now I know why I could not find it. I just googled it as I could not remember the exact name of the song until I saw this article. The song was a Micky Dolenz solo effort recorded in 1965 and re-released after the Monkees success in 1967. I do believe it was played here.

Last edited by Fitz (October 27, 2026 9:56 am)

I remember when record companies used to send out "sanitized" 45s with the offensive words removed, designed specifically for radio play. Do they still do this anymore? Do they even have to?

bmaudioworks wrote:

Former radio music director here... AC/Hot AC and classic hits. The F-word, S-word and N-word are definite no-nos in my books. "Bitch" is mostly accepted these days, thanks in part to Elton John, as well as '90s one-hit wonder Meredith Brooks, and Britney Spears.

As for content in general, the first song that comes to mind for me is "The Bad Touch" by The Bloodhound Gang. Sexual innuendos from start to finish, and a controversial video to boot. In 2000, the year that the song was released in North America, Belleville's "Mix 97" nearly landed in hot water with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council after a listener complaint regarding the track. But the CBSC ruled that the Quinte Broadcasting station did not violate any CBSC/CAB codes, despite the lyrics being considered inappropriate for young children.

Also from 2000, I think of the Dr. Dre & Eminem collab "Forgot About Dre", and one line in particular. When MuchMusic broadcast the video, obviously the N-word and F-word were blanked out, but they also blanked out the words trees ("smoke trees") and blow ("blow me") uttered by Dre. In Eminem's part of the track, there is a line where he says "with a can full of gas and a handful of matches"; Much blanked out pretty much that entire line, and it sounded like this - "with a c............. and a h.............. and still weren't found out." However, when 103.5 aired the song, only the F-word and N-word were blanked out; everything else was intact, and believe it or not, the word "motherf---ers" in the chorus was not blanked out on that station.

Also for me, bitch, shit, and ass would be exceptable.
But absolutely no f word, no n word, no p word a slur for east indians/southasians, and no jew hate or ethnic hate in any songs.
Retard is ok depending on the context, I'm disabled so I don't get offended by that word, context matters with that one.

I remember playing Rough Trade "Highschool Confidential" on my show in the 80's and having to use the "who's the principal, is he blank (screwing) with her?" version, so tame and ridiculous.

These days it can feel like there's no envelope left to push.