Yesterday Once More

18 Mar 2015

Banned Songs

Hi Listeners,

Throughout history there have been songs that have upset or offended people. The BBC had a committee in the fifties and sixties called the Dance Music Policy Committee which was formed to censor music. There were several reasons to ban or censor a song – a) use of foul language b) explicit sexual content c) supposed drug references d) controversial political references e) religious references and later songs with ‘sickly sentimentality’. Sometimes songs were banned temporarily such as during the first Gulf War when the BBC banned 67 songs.

So this week we are going to have some fun playing songs that were once banned. Perhaps the most controversial song in our list is The Cure’s ‘Killing An Arab’ which drew condemnation although lead singer Robert Smith assured listeners it was not meant to be racist. Early songs such as LLoyd Price’s ‘Stagger Lee’ was banned because it depicted a murder and ‘Splish Splash’ by Bobby Darin because it presented so-called nudity. In Australia too ‘Snoopy And The Red Baron’ was beeped because of the word ‘bloody’ and the notorious Skyhooks had six of the tracks on their famous ‘Living In The Seventies’ album banned from air play for sexual and drug references. And there are many more.

So sit back and listen and ponder how things have changed.

Playlist