Monday, May 10, 2010

Toes in the Water...

I start this post with the caveat that I am not a prude when it comes to music. I have DMX, Ani DiFranco, AND Guns n’ Roses on my iPod, so don’t be quick to judge.

The other day I was driving along with the radio turned up loud, wind blowing in my hair, when I had to stop for a second and listen to what was coming out my stock speakers. The song was Rihanna’s Rude Boy. “Come here rude boy, boy can you get it up?” Catchy right? I thought so too, then I rolled up the windows and started listening to the song. “I like when you tell me kiss it here, I like when you tell me move it there, so giddy up, time to get it up” – Errr, get what ‘up’ exactly?? Okay, you don’t have to be Dr. Ruth to know what she is talking about and yet this song is playing on the radio, in the middle of the day, on what I consider a ‘family friendly’ radio station.

Yet two dials down, a song from one of my current favorite bands, The Zac Brown Band, is censored. “I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand, Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand” Yeah, that one. On the radio though, they don‘t play that, they play ‘toes in the water, toes in the sand’. Apparently the word ass is more offensive than the analogy of getting ‘it’ up!! You also don’t hear the full line “Gonna lay in the hot sun and roll a big fat one” I think you hear “Gonna lay in the hot sun and ___ _ ___ __ ___” Now why does that get cut out??? In the context of the lyric, he could be talking about a chicken caesar wrap or a burrito for all we know.

But evidently someone somewhere made a decision that the word ‘ass’ and lyric ‘roll a big fat one’ is more offensive to listeners, but the lyric “I like the way you touch me there, I like the way you pull my hair, Baby, if I don’t feel it I ain’t faking, no, no” is acceptable.

6 comments:

  1. Welcome to blog world! Perhaps "the ___ in the sand was cut out because someone had a certain "vision" and it may have been "bare" which causes all kinds of frowning on my end, yeah I'm pretty sure that is why they censored it - the sand getting to all all places it doesn't belong and all.
    C.E.

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  2. hahahahha!!!!!! I often wonder those very same things when listening to the radio!!!!

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  3. Never really thought of it that way. Good point! Now that the oldest starting to sing along I have realized a lot of songs leave questions in my head when heard out of the mouth of a 7 year old.

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  4. I am so happy, happy, happy to be able to read your blog

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  5. I have no idea how to comment other than under anonymous...but not hard to guess who I am LOL

    Ok so I haaaad to comment on this one! I had NEVER heard the song Rude Boy until it came on the radio and I go to turn the station and my 6 year old shouts from her booster seat "MY DON'T TURN IT! CRANK IT UP! THIS IS MY JAM!" ummm I decide I will "crank it up" and take a listen...and all of a sudden I realize BELLA knows EVERY SINGLE WORD! HMMMMMMMMMMMMM???

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  6. Hey, I am completely with you. I'm definitely not a prude when it comes to music either - I love anything that makes me want to dance but when your 9 year old son goes around singing.."You spin my head right round, right round when you go down.." (another violation of the mommy code) Ah, go down where? It just seems wrong.

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