Top-40 hit lyrics of the past that would not be acceptable today

The weekend at the college
Didn’t turn out as you planned
The things that pass for knowledge
I can’t understand.

Calling someone a stupid idiot is no longer acceptable in today’s polite society. So leave me alone.

 

Are the Beatles Aerosmith? Are the Isleys Bull Moose Jackson?

There's your answer.

 

Evidently Brian May was/is offended by that because when he performs the song live, he changes it to "dude".

"some dude said, 'Rock & Rollers, you're all the same'".

 

And actually it wasn't even the Isleys who had the original version. It was the Top Notes.

 

It's still played all the time (as are a lot of songs mentioned here).

 

Walk On The Wild Side

 

You think she is singing about milkshakes?

 

Yep. How'd I forget that one!

 

True, but the Top Notes' version pretty much sucks.

The Isleys got what the song was about, and The Beatles (unpopular opinion here, but too bad) took it to another level entirely.

 

No argument really. It's okay but nothing special.

 

My favorite quote of the day!

 

The lines about fat girls in Digital Underground's Humpty Dance.
Pretty much every line in the Jack Jones hit, Wives and Lovers.
I even think they might even twist things to find something sexist in the Harry Belafonte's Man Smart, Women Smarter.

 

Just a reminder, this thread is intended for records/songs that were top-40s hits. (Technically, anything by Led Zep, The Beatles' "Run For Your Life", and Elvis's "Baby Let's Play House" all do not apply, even if those artists are very mainstream!)

 

There's literally breasts everywhere in the video. I'm surprised I'm having to explain this.

 

Ok T&A ... the point remains valid

I haven't seen the video...

 

Shame if it’s true.

That’s a song of hope from a time when broad-minded young people were trying to lead the way.

I guess that you’re referring to some of the colloquial terms that are used to refer to different racial and other groups, e.g. things that rhyme with pinky.

It’s sad that some people close to the media might try to find the song offensive because of that rather than seeing it as an early song espousing love and racial integration. Sheesh, the two lead singers were an American black singer and a British white singer. Well, actually, their skins were darker and lighter. (Underneath they were - and still are - the same gory colours that we all are. Yuk!)

Looking at the UK in 2019, we are now in a melting pot. There are lots of people of mixed race, and they’re all British, with British values, British accents and British humour. Love it!

The really funny thing, however, is that, like most Brits who aren’t descended from 20th century or 21st century immigrants, I’m also mixed race. To my knowledge I have Scottish and Dutch blood in me as a minimum.

All of us need to encourage people to look at the substance of something rather than just part of the surface.

 

Have to agree with that.

 

Maybe not Twist & Shout but on other occasions. But hey this is SHMF where The Beatles invented evry form of music that has evry been. (Except for Rap & Bro- Country because, well, they both suck) :>)

 

The short version....

 

Sounds like you should see it. Me too. Purely for educational reasons of course.

Hey I just checked it out. Yep it's & T song not an A song.
Unfortunately I found the video less than stimulating from an educational point of view.

 

Well it makes sense. It just seems like every song these days is about bootie, and shakin it....
That's why The lactation perspective hadn't even crossed my mind haha.

The point actually was .... I just find all these posts saying this song and that song wouldn't get played these days because there is a sexual lyric or connotation seem a little out there from most of the stuff I seem to hear.

 

Quoting Bullmoose Jackson.

EDIT: I see others caught this too!

 

Obvious? Knopfler is singing about a cabaret sect of gay men in Germany. Everything mentioned is pretty damn accurate fro my recollection of the times. In the current times, I think it's a little too easy, intellectually, to expand a sliver of paint into a broad brush stroke.

If you're offended, fair comment. Being a straight guy myself, I always took it to be a gay liberation song like YMCA or Macho Man.

All that said, little compares to the filth be pandered as lyrical accomplishment in a lot of rap and hip-hop. We seem to all enjoy our own poison.

 

Eddie Money Shakin’
Reached 63 on Billboard 100 and 9 on mainstream rock

we started drinkin’ wasn’t thinkin’ too straight

she was doin’ 80 and she slammed on the brakes

got so high we had to pull to the side

we did some shakin’ till the middle of the night

 

Not sure if it made the top 40, but “He Hit Me (And It Felt like a Kiss)” by the Crystals

Probably none of the songs about Bertha Butt would be allowed today or “If You Want To Be Happy” by Jimmy Soul either, and “Please Mr. Custer” would have a hard time getting airplay today.