Sneaking cuss words onto the radio

[Famous Mortimer]

Andre 3000 saying "don't want to meet your mama, just want to make you come-ah".

And K7's "Come Baby Come". I remember seeing an interview with them once where they were asked what the "come" referred to, one of the band said "like come over to your house", and the rest of the band just laughing their asses off.

[a duncandisorderly]

And K7's "Come Baby Come". I remember seeing an interview with them once where they were asked what the "come" referred to, one of the band said "like come over to your house", and the rest of the band just laughing their asses off.

FGTH on radio one in october 1982... I still have a cassette of it; they did 'relax', 'two tribes' & another song for a BBC session, fully six months before getting the horn treatment, & even longer before mike "hey- I know what you're up to!" read spotted the spaff noise right after 'come' & decided enough was enough.

but it's not really a 'cuss' word is it?

[buzby]

during its original chart run, the unfortunate bruno brookes played the wrong version of RATM's "killing in the name of" on the sunday evening chart show, & took a full six iterations of the "fuck you I won't do what you tell me" before he yanked the fader.

they'd have us believe it was an accident.

they'd have us believe it was an accident pt 2.

same song was put back into the charts by a facebook campaign a few years back, & that wag nicky campbell, still seething from losing radio-5 to sports & news, decides (like they all do at 5-live) to prove he knows music.
he arranges a live 2-way with RATM, at that moment just finishing an evening's "rehearsals" in a studio in LA. it's just before 9am in the UK when campbell introduces the band, promising us & his paymasters that he has the band's sworn promise- we won't hear the offending line. I can almost see campbell grinning.
this time it's five times before the profuse apologies.

Both covered in the previous thread linked to by Captain Z and myself. The 1993 Top 40 Chart incident didn't get faded, it was played right to the end (16 Fuck Yous and a Motherfucker). As mentioned below, Brookes and the producer were recording a trail at the time and weren't listening to the monitor mix.

It didn't even get faded down, it got played to the end because he was busy recording a trail while it went out. Here's the audio:

https://youtu.be/WNKtG--3O1E?t=79

(Starts at 1 min 19 seconds in, there's a load of pointless text-to-speech padding before it)

In the 5 Live incident, it got pulled after 4 Fuck Yous. However, they had been lulled into a false sense of security by La Rocha omitting the first 8 Fuck Yous from the build-up to the crescendo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_195cxAVxmg

[a duncandisorderly]

Both covered in the previous thread linked to by Captain Z and myself.

cheers- didn't spot the previous linkage. I'm not here all day.

they had been lulled into a false sense of security....

right. that was campbell's story at the time. like I say, there are a lot of frustrated DJs at 5-live, & it's as annoying as fuck when they start playing random bits of music when you've specifically gone to that station for an escape from over-compressed bellends bleating over a shitty ableton patchwork of other people's work. today they dropped a bit of "I am the god of hell-fire" for some reason, & then couldn't remember who it was by. "screaming jay hawkins!" yells one of them, proudly. fuck off.

anyway, cheers again.

[buzby]

FGTH on radio one in october 1982... I still have a cassette of it; they did 'relax', 'two tribes' & another song for a BBC session, fully six months before getting the horn treatment, & even longer before mike "hey- I know what you're up to!" read spotted the spaff noise right after 'come' & decided enough was enough.

FGTH did 3 sessions for Radio 1. There were 2 Peel sessions -  the first was recorded on 24/11/82, broadcast on 04/12/82 and featured Two Tribes, The World Is My Oyster, Krisco Kisses and Disneyland. The second was a year later (after they became involved with Horn), recorded on 03/12/83, broadcast on 19/12/83 and featured Junk Funk (Get On Down), The Other Side Of Midnight, The Power Of Love and a cover of Get It On.

Shortly after the first Peel Session they recorded a session for Kid Jensen's early evening show, broadcast on 24/02/83 that featured Relax and Welcome To The Pleasuredome. This was the week after they appeared performing Relax at The State on The Tube that brought them to the attention of Horn.

[PaulTMA]

There is now, because I've heard it in the car. It literally just carves the section with the word "bullshit" out, so it sounds like a skipping CD. I don't remember an edited version back in the day, but that was 23 years ago now and I've listened to Older about a million times since then so it's probably been subconsciously removed from my memory.

There is an edited version of the Summer Mix that has the 'bullshit' excised, which was issued as the radio promo in the US. There was also a radio edit of the album version issued as the radio promo in the UK, but it's not on youtube.
<coughs>

I mention it as I only ever remember hearing it 'bullshit' present, sweary and correct.  He sings it kind of softly so didn't realise what he was singing until watching TOTP with subtitles.

[a duncandisorderly]

FGTH did 3 sessions for Radio 1. There were 2 Peel sessions -  the first was recorded on 24/11/82, broadcast on 04/12/82 and featured Two Tribes, The World Is My Oyster, Krisco Kisses and Disneyland....

odd. it was definitely october 1982, & the show definitely featured 'relax'. it may have been an actual record, rather than a session. it was also whatever the saturday afternoon show was on R1 back then, not jensen or peel. richard skinner.... I'll have to dig the cassette out for the exact date, but I know I'd been at college maybe a month, & didn't yet have my little microcassette boombox thing, so I was using an old mono radio-cassette.

spooked now- went looking for a picture of the aiwa cs-m1, pink, like mine (they also did them in grey or black) & found this- it's got my name on it, but it's not my one.



oh. found this. this is good.

http://vibracobra23.blogspot.com/

[Bennett Brauer]

Happiness by Ken Dodd.

Obligatory Ken Dodd reference.

Did you think I meant 'Te-arse'?

[Jockice]

Obligatory Sussudio reference.

Obligatory Temptation by Wet Wet Wet reference.

[Jockice]

And obligatory Captain Sensible reference.

[Head Gardener]

I was pushing my luck 20 years ago and it never stopped me - the first occasion was for mixing some light jazz with Derek & Clives' You Cunt sketch
and that was a bit cheeky I admit, but this letter was for mixing in tracks by The Happy Hooker from her album Xaviera! 



real name redacted to protect the guilty, ie me

[bgmnts]

Tenacious D's Tribute had a bit where it said mother fucker in the middle of some garbled scatting.

[buzby]

And obligatory Captain Sensible reference.

<QI Siren>

[buzby]

odd. it was definitely october 1982, & the show definitely featured 'relax'. it may have been an actual record, rather than a session. it was also whatever the saturday afternoon show was on R1 back then, not jensen or peel. richard skinner.... I'll have to dig the cassette out for the exact date, but I know I'd been at college maybe a month, & didn't yet have my little microcassette boombox thing, so I was using an old mono radio-cassette.

In October 1982 Arista were interested in signing them and gave them £1500 to record demos of Two Tribes and Relax. and record a video (they hired a video camera to record their gig at the Hope & Anchor). Arista ultimately decided not to sign them. There's a website that says they were interviewed and the Arista demos were played on Radio 1 between October and the first Peel session by someone called Steve Blackwell, but I don't remember that name and can't find any trace of him being a DJ at Radio 1 and it's not mentioned in any of the band's accounts of the period, so I'd treat that as <citation needed> (much like the Wiki article that says the first Peel Session was broadcast in October 82, contrary to all other sources including Peel's own archive).

[Bently Sheds]

Andre 3000 saying "don't want to meet your mama, just want to make you come-ah".

The version that Radio 2 plays has 'make you come-ah" blanked out.

[SteveDave]

I remember seeing "Is There Any Love In Your Heart?" by Leonard Kravitz on my MTV in the mid-90s and the line "Babe you say I'm the only one, but you're fucking all my friends" was intact. It was a different time.

[Artie Fufkin]

Chumbawumba - 'Pissing the night away'. Does that count as cussing?

[Phil_A]

Chumbawumba - 'Pissing the night away'. Does that count as cussing?

There's also "Piss on, piss on, piss on it" in Beetlebum, which Albarn sometimes changes when he sings it live to "Come on it" as if there were any doubt that bodily fluids were involved.

[Better Midlands]

FGTH did 3 sessions for Radio 1. There were 2 Peel sessions -  the first was recorded on 24/11/82, broadcast on 04/12/82 and featured Two Tribes, The World Is My Oyster, Krisco Kisses and Disneyland. The second was a year later (after they became involved with Horn), recorded on 03/12/83, broadcast on 19/12/83 and featured Junk Funk (Get On Down), The Other Side Of Midnight, The Power Of Love and a cover of Get It On.

Shortly after the first Peel Session they recorded a session for Kid Jensen's early evening show, broadcast on 24/02/83 that featured Relax and Welcome To The Pleasuredome. This was the week after they appeared performing Relax at The State on The Tube that brought them to the attention of Horn.

Krisco Kisses is pretty near the knuckle (pun intended) when you realise that Crisco was homosexual's choice of lubricant BITD


Take it to the top
My love, let's take it to the top
With a fist way past the rest
Take it to the top
You fit me like a glove
My love, you fit me like a glove
Give my friend, my be-bop
Take it to the top, my love
Krisco kisses, kisses
Never misses, misses
Krisco kisses, kisses
You can take it, take it, up, up and up



https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crisco-Ass-Fisting-Lube-454ml/dp/B013L2CZD8

[Satchmo Distel]

Radio 1 were quite happy to play "She Bop" by Cindi Lauper, about female masturbation, during the same period that 'Relax' was banned.

https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/16864/

IIRC the ban on 'Relax' was lifted in the summer of 84 when it climbed back up to #2 behind 'Two Tribes'. Can anyone confirm that?

[DrGreggles]

IIRC the ban on 'Relax' was lifted in the summer of 84 when it climbed back up to #2 behind 'Two Tribes'. Can anyone confirm that?

Not sure when the ban was lifted, but wasn't the resurgence of Relax and longevity of Two Tribes down to ZTT releasing multiple 12" remixes of both with the same bar code as the respective 7" versions?

[kngen]

When I first moved to Sydney in the mid 90s, I'd been told I should listen to Triple J as that was the 'indie station' . I turned it on, and it was halfway through some pleasingly noisy, but unfamiliar, racket, then the DJ said: 'That was Carter USM with Commerical FUCKING Suicide.' She really spat out the 'fucking' in the title. This was around lunchtime, and I thought: 'Christ, these Aussies don't fuck about!'


Turns out it was some sort of protest against the station management. Think one of the DJs might have got into trouble for playing Bodycount's Cop Killer or an NWA track or something. Ironically, I don't think there's any actual swearing in the Carter song. That period was the beginning of the end for Triple J, however, and within a few years it was just an anodyne college-rock/landfill-indie station. A shame as I heard some great stuff (The Saints, Radio Birdman, The Eastern Dark) on there when it was good.

[buzby]

Radio 1 were quite happy to play "She Bop" by Cindi Lauper, about female masturbation, during the same period that 'Relax' was banned.

https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/16864/

IIRC the ban on 'Relax' was lifted in the summer of 84 when it climbed back up to #2 behind 'Two Tribes'. Can anyone confirm that?

Relax rose back up the charts at the end of June on the back of Two Tribes going straight in at Number 1. The BBC ban wasn't lifted until later in the year, December IIRC (it was still banned at least until after Richard Skinner took over the chart rundown from Simon Bates at the beginning of August), which allowed them to perform it on the Christmas TOTP episode. Mike Read was parodied (by Chris Barrie) in the intro to the 12" mix of Power Of Love, released at the start of December.

Not sure when the ban was lifted, but wasn't the resurgence of Relax and longevity of Two Tribes down to ZTT releasing multiple 12" remixes of both with the same bar code as the respective 7" versions?

None of the versions had barcodes (check the sleeves on discogs) as it was before tills with scanners had become commonplace. Sales were recorded based on catalogue number. In Relax's case, there was only one 7" single (ZTAS 1) and 3 12" singles (the 16-minute Sex Mix, 8-minute Sex Mix Edit and the US Edit). All the 12" singles shared the same catalogue number (12 ZTAS 1), but this was OK as it was before the restrictions came in on the number of chart eligible versions of a single.

Two Tribes had more versions (Annihilation, Carnage and Hibakusha), but the 12" singles used different catalogue numbers - 12 ZTAS 3 for the Annihilation version, XZTAS 3 for the Carnage version, and  XZIP 1 for the limited-edition Hibakusha mix.

[wosl]

China Crisis' Hanna Hanna features the line "In a city all full of fucking sharks", but checking their Wiki discography, it only reached 44 in the Singles Chart, so probably only got the odd airing on the Peter Powell and Janis Long shows at best.  (The album version of the title track of Working With Fire And Steel also contains a 'fuck[ed]', but for the single version, they subbed in the word 'stuck'.)

[Famous Mortimer]

In October 1982 Arista were interested in signing them and gave them £1500 to record demos of Two Tribes and Relax. and record a video (they hired a video camera to record their gig at the Hope & Anchor). Arista ultimately decided not to sign them. There's a website that says they were interviewed and the Arista demos were played on Radio 1 between October and the first Peel session by someone called Steve Blackwell, but I don't remember that name and can't find any trace of him being a DJ at Radio 1 and it's not mentioned in any of the band's accounts of the period, so I'd treat that as <citation needed> (much like the Wiki article that says the first Peel Session was broadcast in October 82, contrary to all other sources including Peel's own archive).

I kinda wish I had a wrong FGTH fact just to make you dig into your apparently inexhaustible encyclopedia of early 80s trivia.

[a duncandisorderly]

In October 1982 Arista were interested in signing them and gave them £1500 to record demos of Two Tribes and Relax. and record a video (they hired a video camera to record their gig at the Hope & Anchor). Arista ultimately decided not to sign them. There's a website that says they were interviewed and the Arista demos were played on Radio 1 between October and the first Peel session by someone called Steve Blackwell, but I don't remember that name and can't find any trace of him being a DJ at Radio 1 and it's not mentioned in any of the band's accounts of the period, so I'd treat that as <citation needed> (much like the Wiki article that says the first Peel Session was broadcast in October 82, contrary to all other sources including Peel's own archive).

steve blackwell.... well, it was the saturday afternoon show, which I thought was skinner's programme by then. it was he I wrote to a few weeks later (early 1983) when he was congratulating some post-punk outfit on doing the first post-punk hendrix cover (so I told him about the cure doing 'foxey lady' some years prior.)

anyway, that's the broadcast I have on an old TDK D90 ("citation needed" my arse!) & as soon as I unearth the tape I will bang it up on soundcloud with a picture of its inlay card. october 1982 was just before I bought the little aiwa thing there, & so I recorded it on my superscope 320 off a mono (ferguson) radio-cassette's radio section. I used the rest of that latter as a practise amp.
apologies to all the non-FGTH fans for the rambling. I used to work with horn's brother ken on that soap in liverpool, from 1984-89.

[edit] it IS this version of the audio on my R1 recording, with the chunk of the 'eraserhead' song in the middle:

https://youtu.be/OVJMMT9nXRI?t=10