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Music Trivia -> Songs That Are Banned -> S
Can you think of a song that was specifically banned by a radio station, tv station, or government?
Entries Beginning with S
"S&M," Rihanna
Heavily edited for daytime airplay on BBC Radio 1, replacing references to "chains" and "whips" with appropriate sound effects and removing the repeated "S, S, S, S, M, M, M" chorus. To top it all off, the song was referred to as "Come On". It was played completely uncensored on commercial stations, the lyrics being mildly titillating at best.
Horatio
"Sanctified Pussy," Marvin Gaye
The title of Marvin Gaye's song "Sanctified Pussy" is changed to "Sanctified Lady" for a 1985 posthumous album release, "Dream Of A Lifetime".
Peter
"Sanctuary (single)," Iron Maiden
The original cover art showed the band's mascot, Eddie, attacking Margaret Thatcher. The artwork was quickly edited to have Thatcher's eyes censored by a black bar, by request of record label, EMI.
GlamRockNinjaLord
"Scooby Snacks," Fun Lovin Criminals
Banned for drug reference (Salt Lake City and ?) after radio air play for several months.
Bridgette
"Scream & Shout," Will.i.am
On the radio, the lyric "You're gonna turn the s*** up" (spoken by Britney Spears) is altered to "You're gonna tuh-turn it up." Additionally, some stations have the "b***h" in "You are now, now rockin' with Will.i.am and Britney, b***h" either reversed, or replaced with an echo of "Britney."
Jonathan S.
"Seek & Destroy," Metallica
A Program director for a radio station made a completley unofficial list of songs that may offend/remind people of 9/11. However this list was leeked out as being an official company policy, which was not true.
Optimus Lime
"Sex (I'm A...)," Berlin
From Pleasure Victim (1982). Its racy lyrics resulted in its ban by several radio stations when it first came out as a single.
Joey F.
"Sex Dwarf," Soft Cell
Soft Cell generated some controversy in Britain, mainly due to the scandal involved with the "Sex Dwarf" promotional film. The original version of the music video featured Almond and Ball in a bloody butcher shop surrounded by chainsaws, nude actors, and dwarves. However, the film was confiscated by police and censored before it was even released. As a tongue-in-cheek substitute, a re-filmed "Sex Dwarf" appeared in Non-Stop Exotic Video Show featuring Almond dressed in a tuxedo, directing a symphony orchestra of dwarves. *From Wikipedia
34532
"Sexy Bitch," Akon
Poorly censored on the radio. They tried to make it sexy chick but I sounded like sexy chic
Joe
"Shadows Of The Night," Pat Benatar
It's not the song really that was banned (not that I know of anyway) but the music video for it. The video for this song from the 80s was and is banned in Germany (it's never been played on German tv to this day). It was banned because of the storyline for the video. Which wasthought up by some record executive at Pat Benatar's record company at the time. It's a black and white video and it takes place during World War II and it features American soldiers and German Nazis. With swastikas and everything. It's an OK video (no real violence or anything), but I think it's kind of dumb and boring since the WWII storyline doesn't really pertain to the song at all. The lyrics have nothing to do with and never reference anything having to do with Word War II. I've also heard because of this, and the fact that she felt the video didn't fit her image (it was called a "costume" video) Pat Benatar wasn't very happy with it. And she never again let her record company tell her how one of her videos was going to be done. It was banned by the German government because of the Nazi imagery. The German government (and I dont' blame them) doesn't like anything in the entertainment media that would appear to advocate or promote Nazism or Hitler or any of his ideas. The same thing happened with an episode from Star Trek TOS. For those of you who don't know, that means the original show with Captain Kirk and company. When the show went into reruns around the world, the episode PatternsOf Force was banned in Gemany. It's never been shown there. The episode concernsthe crew of the Enterprise going to a planet with a Nazi worldwide government. It's a pretty dumb episode. Mostly because of the really lame acting. They tried to be humorous with it, but then there's nothing funny about Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
Edward
"Shame and Scandal in the Family," Shawn Elliott
This faux calypso broke out as a hit in Detroit but its racy lyrics prevented radio stations from giving the song nationwide exposure.
Jack Ortizano
"Shaving Cream," Benny Bell
This song generated controversy and was refused airplay in some instances because of the use of the words "shaving cream" as a stand in for the expletive used to to refer to feces. Each verse was designed so that the expected final word would be the vulgar word but the non-vulgar replacement was used instead.
Arthur Bahl
"She Bop," Cyndy Lauper
Made it to the bottom of the PMRC's Filthy Fifteen list because of its frank references to masturbation.
Celeste
"She Was Hot," Rolling Stones
In early 1984 this single was released but MTV banned its video. Maybe because it showed a woman on top of a TV set and animated fire is "issuing" from her mouth and butt. MTV later did play the video, however. I saw it in 1986.
I'm Stoned
"She's So Cold," Rolling Stones
The radio stations around Columbus played the original album version which has the line "She's so gorgeous, so G.D. gorgeous so". However, I was in a hardware store with my mom ( I was very young then) and the PA system was airing Casey Kasem's Top 40. When this song was being played an edited version was aired. The G.D. word was replaced by "go-go-".
1980 Visionary
"Short People," Randy Newman
Banned from the radio in Maryland. Some people... so humorless.
Aninnymouse
"Shout At The Devil (Album)," Motley Crue
The original first wave release vinyl cover of this album had a big pentagram on it. People complained and all subsequent re-issues of the vinyl featured a plain black cover with only the band name and album title. The CD release has pictures of the band members replacing the plain black cover.
GlamRockNinjaLord
"The Silly Song," Disney's Snow White And The Seven Dwarves
One of the verses, sung by one of the [long bearded] dwarfs, was removed for being too taboo, says Disney, the company that made the 1930s film- "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". The verse of the song goes like this: " When I was born, I had no clothes, I didn't even have a nightie./ So, I wrapped my whiskers around my legs, and used the for a didy."
TRthedude
"Six Months In A Leaky Boat," Split Enz
After the song was released, Argentina's government invaded and seized the Falkland Islands from Britain. The BBC banned the song because they felt its message would be contrary to the Royal Navy's mission of steaming to the islands and taking them back. It took the Royal Navy many extra months to reach the islands, because they were secretly replenishing armaments from the US Navy. The British succeeding in retaking the Falklands. When Latin American government leaders found out about the secret aid from the US Reagan government, they were so pissed that they withdrew their overt support for the Reagan government's war against Nicaragua. The US Congress had banned US funding for the war against Nicaragua, so Reagan's government set up an illegal funding source by selling US weapons to the Islamic fundamentalist Iranian government. The slush fund was used to fly weapons to Reagan's insurgents, known as the Contras. Eventually one of the aircraft crashed enroute and the whole sad caper was revealed. Ollie North turned the ensuing hearings in Congress into a militarist circus and leveraged his fame as far as getting a right wing radio show for himself. Ollie North was found guilty as charged, but his conviction was reversed on the kind of evidentially technicalities the right wingers normally howl about. God save the Queen!
Tom
"Six, Six, Six," DeGarmo & Key
In 1985, Christian rock band DeGarmo & Key see their video for this song banned by MTV (the first time a music video is banned by MTV) because their music video is too violent.
Peter
"Smack My Bitch Up," The Prodigy
Just when you thought the Prodigy had their controversial moment with Firestarter, out they come with a song that apparently promotes violence against women (although they say it's about doing things intensely, such as going for extreme manic energy onstage). When I saw the video for the first time, I didn't see anything explicit about it until the guy went to the strip club. Maybe I'm just unobservant.
Ned Riley
"Smack My Bitch Up," Prodigy
Techno band Prodigy find their new single, "Smack My Bitch Up" results in their CD, "The Fat Of The Land" being pulled from K-Mart and Wal-Mart shelves. The album had been out for almost six months, in 1997, before the single was released. Chain stores that had banned the record had themselves more than 150,000 copies of the record without receiving a single customer complaint.
Peter
"Smell The Glove (Album)," Spinal Tap
The original album cover was deemed extremely sexist, so, the band opted for an all-black cover, devoid of anything, including the band name and album title. In the words of bandleader Nigel Tufnel: "It's like, how much more black can you get? The answer is none. None more black."
GlamRockNinjaLord
"So What?," The Anti-Nowhere League
Had extremely obscene lyrics. Not only banned, but seized by the Obscene Publications Squad.
dxman
"Society's Child," Janis Ian
This song about interracial dating was widely banned because the subject was considered extremely offensive to many in 1967 (and still is today, to a much lesser extent). I've heard that a disc jockey in Louisiana was shot for playing it.
Jeffrey
"Soldier, Sandy, Pretty Little Girl," Harvey Andrews
It's possible that "Soldier..." was banned because it was about Northern Ireland, "Sandy" because it's about American soldiers killing American citizens, and "Pretty Little Girl" about a teacher losing his job for comforting a girl by putting his arm around her shoulder. Then again, it's possible that all three songs - and all his other songs - were de facto banned for being (shock, gasp!) brummagem folk music.
Helen Margaret Rees
"Something's Gotta Give," All Time Low
All Time Low shows many violent scenes of a flesh eating zombie in this video, and he is killed at the end. MTV will still show this video, but in the cleanest way possible. But again, no music channels minded violence in Taylor Swift & Kendrick Lamar's "Bad Blood"!
ILoveMusic
"Sorted For E's And Wizz," Pulp
Banned by the BBC in 1997 because of it's references to rave drugs (despite the fact that they are mentioned in a negative context). The band also drew flack for an insert in the single, which featured instructions on how to make a paper wallet to store drugs in. The single still managed to hit #2 in the UK .
Ryan
"Spasticus Autisticus," Ian Dury
Banned in 1981, the International Year of Disabled People, even though it was written to be a positive message for those with disabilities; Ian Dury had suffered from polio himself.
dxman
"Stagger Lee," Lloyd Price
In the spring of 1959, wanting to secure an appearance on "American Bandstand", singer Price agrees to re-cut the lyrics to his #1 hit "Stagger Lee" and self-edits the song, removing all references to violence.
Peter
"Stan," Eminem
On VEVO, the lines "shut up b****" and "screaming in the trunk" are both removed from the video and blanked out. In the clean version (on itunes) only "in the trunk" is censored
Randy R
"Star Star," Rolling Stones
In 1973, this Rolling Stones single from the "Goat's Head Soup" album, was banned from airplay on the BBC because it contained the word "Star-fucker" in the chorus. It's not just sung once, but the word is repeated a dozen times.
Peter
"Start Me Up," The Rolling Stones
Just this week, I heard a version that was altered from "you make a dead man come" to "you make a dead man cry."
Bob
"Status Quo," In the Army Now
Banned by the BBC during the Gulf War
Evan
"Strangers Like Me," Cassandra Grandstaff
The video was removed from MTV in 2001 due to showing Grandstaff throwing her cat into the lake.
StayInTheYard
"Street Fighting Man," Rolling Stones
Fearing this Rolling Stones' song would incite violence during the National Democratic Convention in September 1968, Chicago radio stations refuse to play the song. During the ban, the single sets all-time sales records in the Chicago area.
Peter
"Such A Night," Johnny Ray
In 1954, the BBC bans this Johnny Ray song after listeners complain about its "suggestiveness."
Peter
"Sugar Walls," Sheena Easton
"American Bandstand" producers refuse to let Sheena Easton perform her #3 hit song, "Sugar Walls" (written by Prince), because it has been targeted by the PMRC (Tipper Gore's led group, the Parents Music Resource Center).
Peter
"Suicide Solution," Ozzy Osbourne
Not a direct ban, but because of the aforementioned events surrounding the tune, much of Ozzy's music was pulled from rotation from several radio stations during the time period, 1985 to 1987. In 1985, the parents of John McCullom sue Ozzy Osbourne, claiming that this song "aided, or advised, or encouraged" their son to commit suicide. In 1987, the judge in the case decides that overt lyrics are protected speech and that the evidence is insufficient to connect the song to the suicide.
Peter
"Sunshowers," M.I.A.
Banned by MTV for the line "like PLO I don't surrendo." Here, PLO is referring to the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
dxman
"Sweet Cherry Wine," Tommy James and the Shondells
This song was on the no play list on Armed Forces AFRTS stations due to the lyrics "We aint gonna fight, only God has the right to decide who's to live and to die". In a military-only redo, the line is altered slightly to appease the generals and admirals of the time.
Ron Adams
"Sweet Home Alabama ," Lynyrd Skynyrd
Not banned per se, but during the piano riff at the end of the song, someone shouts an almost unintelligible line and ends it with "G**d*mn!" Some radio stations have opted to remove the swear.
Bob
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