Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Just ... just don't play the damn song, OK?

Was flipping through radio stations and I stopped on one playing "What It's Like" by Everlast. I kinda dig the song; I especially like the second verse, which talks about a girl who got pregnant, the guy left her, and she goes to get an abortion. The key bit goes like this:

Then she heads for the clinic
And she gets some static walking through the door.
They call her a killer and they call her a sinner and they call her a whore.
God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in her shoes
Cause then you really might know what it's like to have to choose.

So I'm sitting in my car and I hear, "They call her a killer and they call her a sinner and they call her a ..." and then I hear a comedy sound, sort of a big boing.

Really?

I mean, I can understand censorship and not wanting to harm the delicate sensibilities of your listeners by having them hear the word "whore." But let's review:

1. The song is ABOUT people calling this woman nasty things. It isn't a gratuitous gangsta use here.
2. If you're gonna edit it out, you could either silence the vocal track or cover it up with a bleep, but a cartoon boing? That's disrespectful.

As it happens, that's the fourth act of censorship in this station's version of the song -- and each one is equally cartoony. There's got to be at least two more -- I turned off the radio before we got to the other expletives.

Look -- Mick Jagger going strangely silent once in a Rolling Stones song doesn't take a whole lot away from the song, but six uses of a cartoon boing really kills the social commentary here. If you can't play it the way it was intended, just don't play the song. You're insulting everyone by treating it like this.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I love that song, and hate that they use the comedic "Fill ins" for the "Unacceptable" words. I didn't know whore was unacceptable!

Elen said...

Oh foor goodness sakes! Whore is not a rude word plus you know context!