Songs for Swinging Censors

There were chuckles when the PMRC delivered the titles of its filthy 15 back in the mid-80s. Some of the tunes were by utterly obscure artists, and others weren’t overly provocative at all. But rock has had its hips thrusting and tongue cursing from the early days. Since Little Richard declared that Miss Molly sure "likes to ball," the music has found ways to express mankind’s baser instincts and political opinions - and of course it’s gotten into hot water for doing so. We present our own overview of records that made parents, priests and politicians hot under the collar.

1. Ray Peterson - "Tell Laura I Love Her" (1960)
Tommy and Laura were lovers in this infamous hit, but when Tommy ended up mangled in a stock car crash, many radio stations pulled the so-called "Death Disk" from their play lists.
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2. The Kingsmen - "Louie, Louie" (1963)
The dirty old man of filthy records, everyone and the FBI assumed that because they had no idea what this Portland, Ore., gang was singing about, it just had to be rude.
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3. The Byrds - "Eight Miles High" (1966)
Although Roger McGuinn said this trippy raga rock classic was really about a simple airplane flight, his levitation may have been assisted by something other than a big old jet airliner.
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4. Janis Ian - "Society’s Child (Baby I’ve Been Thinking)" (1967)
Fifteen-year-old Ian went for the jugular on this provocative hit, but many radio stations found its subject matter of an interracial relationship and racism too hot to handle.
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5. The Rolling Stones - "Let's Spend the Night Together" (1967)
Rock’s most outrageous band were no match for showbiz vet Ed Sullivan, who demanded they change their wonderfully lascivious lyric to "Let’s spend some time together" on his TV show.
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6. The Velvet Underground & Nico - "Heroin" (1967)
VU’s label held up the release of their debut album for nine months while they squabbled with the band over lyrics like Lou Reed’s claim on "Heroin" that the brown stuff made him feel like "Jesus’ son."
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> Go to Banned Song Collection page 2