Bowdlerise/Music: Difference between revisions

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** Likewise, the line "Roosters with a doodle and a cock do it" was changed to "Even little cuckoos in their clocks do it".

* The Drifters' "Under The Boardwalk" originally had the line "we'll be making love under the boardwalk" in the chorus, but radio stations objected, so it was changed to "we'll be falling in love." The Bowdlerized version has become the standard, although some oldies stations have started playing the original.

* Mocked in Desorden Público's song "El día que prohibieron la violencia y el sexo en la tele" ("The day where sex and violence were banned from TV"), which is [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|about what the title says]]. The result: all the programming is screwed, since everything Newscasts to [[Soap Opera|Soap Operas]] is damaged when not outright off air, people stops watching TV at all since there is nothing to watch; and to appeal to those yearning for the lost things producers use those media not affected by the ban, so now people "can hear [[Bang Bang BANG|gunshots]] and [[The Immodest Orgasm|moans]] on the radio".

* Mocked in Desorden Público's song "El día que prohibieron la violencia y el sexo en la tele" ("The day where sex and violence were banned from TV"), which is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|about what the title says]]. The result: all the programming is screwed, since everything Newscasts to [[Soap Opera|Soap Operas]] is damaged when not outright off air, people stops watching TV at all since there is nothing to watch; and to appeal to those yearning for the lost things producers use those media not affected by the ban, so now people "can hear [[Bang Bang BANG|gunshots]] and [[The Immodest Orgasm|moans]] on the radio".

* The single version of "My Name Is" by [[Eminem]] featured substantially rewritten lyrics. They're generally either just slightly toned down or so intentionally ridiculous that you can easily figure out the original content anyway ("I just drank a fifth of ''kool-aid'', dare me to drive?"), but a couple of lyrical substitutions are different enough for the real words to be a little surprising when you're used to the radio version. Even knowing his reputation, it can be kind of jarring to find out "If you see my dad, ask him if he's bought a porno mag and seen my ad" is actually "If you see my dad, tell him ''I slit his throat in this dream I had''".

** Another crazy censored line in 'My Name Is': 'Well, since age twelve, I've felt like a caged elf who stayed to himself in one space chasing his tail.'

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*** The difference could be interpreted in the edited version (which should have replaced "trunk" with [[Department of Redundancy Department|"car"]] instead of just blanking it) as Stan being tired and emotional and accidentally falling over the edge in their car, instead of shoving his pregnant girlfriend in the trunk whether he meant to drown her and the car and possibly himself or not (and was just trying to drive to meet Eminem).

*** That wouldn't work, other lines in the song outright state that he stuffed his girlfriend in the trunk.

* The version of [[~~Alice in Chains (Music)|~~Alice in Chains]]' "Man in the Box" played on MTV contains the altered line "buried in my ''spit''" (and later "shove my nose in spit"). Radio stations, which had actually been playing it uncensored previously, also switching to this version post-nipplegate. Thankfully, they've now started just cutting the word short rather than using the rather silly alternative.

* The version of [[Alice in Chains]]' "Man in the Box" played on MTV contains the altered line "buried in my ''spit''" (and later "shove my nose in spit"). Radio stations, which had actually been playing it uncensored previously, also switching to this version post-nipplegate. Thankfully, they've now started just cutting the word short rather than using the rather silly alternative.

** Presumably for the sake of the singers among us, ''[[Rock Band]] 2'' uses the version that replaces the instances of "shit" rather than removing them.

** And let's not forget the edit of "Heaven Beside You", which included the line "that's ''fracked'' up".

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{{quote| Braggin that you know, how the '''brothers''' feel cold, and the slums got so much soul}}

** The same edit changes the line "Kiss ass while you bitch" to "Kiss ''up'' while you ''snitch''".

** When [[System of a Down|Serj Tankian]] and [[~~Foo Fighters (Music)|~~Foo Fighters]] covered the song for an appearance on MTV's Video Music Awards in 2007, they had to use the same altered lyric.

** When [[System of a Down|Serj Tankian]] and [[Foo Fighters]] covered the song for an appearance on MTV's Video Music Awards in 2007, they had to use the same altered lyric.

* Speaking of Guitar Hero, when Activision released the [[Lighter and Softer]] "family friendly" spin-off ''Band Hero'', they unfortunately had to censor many of the songs. But, they would not only get called out for even putting in songs that require censoring to begin with, they also got bashed for their edits:

** "American Pie" does not want us to know what they were having with that rye.

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** Elvis Costello's ''Oliver's Army'' never censors the line "One more widow, one less white nigger", even on stations who ''will'' censor the N word in other songs.

* The Outhere Brothers -- "Boom Boom Boom" has two different sets of lyrics; the original which contain lots of sexual innuendo, and the bowdlerised radio version. I've occasionally heard the dirty version on after-hours radio shows.

** Compare it to "[[Intercourse ~~With~~ You|FYITA]]". Given that bowdlerization would cut about 90% of the song...

** Compare it to "[[Intercourse with You|FYITA]]". Given that bowdlerization would cut about 90% of the song...

* Some radio versions of The Bloodhound Gang's "The Bad Touch" have the words "sex", "pants", and "nuts" cut from the first verse, as well as removing "gettin' horny now" from the chorus.

** And in "Fire, Water, Burn", the word "fucker" is replaced with a [[Sound Effect Bleep|donkey's "hee haw" sound]].

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** And at least it's a lot more lyrical than the original's sloppy radio edit "kissin' my Benz"...

* "Toes" by [[Country Music]]'s [[Zac Brown Band]] was hit hard with this. The first line in the chorus get changed from "I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand..." to "...toes in the sand" and "ass in the lawnchair, toes in the clay" at the end of the song to "toes in the water, [[Department of Redundancy Department|toes in the clay]]" on the radio edit. The line "roll a big fat one" also had "fat one" silenced. Other edits just silence the occurences of "ass"; still others use "toes" for "ass" but leave in "fat one"; still ''other'' stations just play the song uncensored.

** Interestingly, the countdown show ''[[Bob ~~Kingsleys~~ Country Top 40 ~~(Radio)~~|Bob Kingsleys Country Top 40]]'' always played it completely uncensored when it was climbing the charts, but now censors it to "toes in the sand" whenever it's used for a retrospective.

** Interestingly, the countdown show ''[[Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40|Bob Kingsleys Country Top 40]]'' always played it completely uncensored when it was climbing the charts, but now censors it to "toes in the sand" whenever it's used for a retrospective.

* Jason Aldean's "Johnny Cash" has several edits as well. The album version has a spoken "screw you, man" in one verse; depending on the station, this was changed to "I'm outta here," silenced or played as-is. Some versions also delete "Hear that train a-comin', rollin' around the bend / The man in black gonna rock your ass again" at the end.

* Speaking of [[Johnny Cash]], "A Boy Named Sue" notoriously beeps "'cause I'm the son-of-a-bitch that named you Sue." At the end, he says "And if I ever have a boy, I think I'm gonna name him... [[Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion|Bill or George, any damn thing but Sue]]!" The "Damn" is just snipped out of the radio version.

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** Another weird one: "You're in the corner with your boys, you bet 'em five bucks / You'll get the girl that just walked in, but she thinks you suck" Taken from the radio edit of Pink's "U + Ur Hand".

*** According to [[The Other Wiki]], that last one was changed because of a [[Double Entendre]].

* And another totally baffling case of "so what was so suggestive about the original anyway?" in Jake Owen's "Eight Second Ride" changes the line "I said, climb on up, but honey, watch the cup that I'll be spitting my dip inside" to "...where I'll be spitting my dip tonight." There's absolutely no difference in meaning or possible suggestiveness, and this edit forces "tonight" to [[Rhyming ~~With~~ Itself|rhyme with itself]].

* And another totally baffling case of "so what was so suggestive about the original anyway?" in Jake Owen's "Eight Second Ride" changes the line "I said, climb on up, but honey, watch the cup that I'll be spitting my dip inside" to "...where I'll be spitting my dip tonight." There's absolutely no difference in meaning or possible suggestiveness, and this edit forces "tonight" to [[Rhyming with Itself|rhyme with itself]].

* Another oldie: "Big Bad John"'s climatcic line of "At the bottom of this mine lies one hell of a man" became "[[Department of Redundancy Department|one big,]] [[Captain Obvious|big man.]]"

* Even [[Weird Al Yankovic]], a man known for keeping his songs family-friendly, has fallen victim to this. When "The Saga Begins" played on Radio Disney, they had to change the line "hitting on the queen" to "talking to the queen". When he preformed "Couch Potato" on Nickelodeon, they didn't like the lyric "TiVo now thinks I'm gay", so his band members shouted "HEY!" over the "offending" word.

* Even [["Weird Al" Yankovic]], a man known for keeping his songs family-friendly, has fallen victim to this. When "The Saga Begins" played on Radio Disney, they had to change the line "hitting on the queen" to "talking to the queen". When he preformed "Couch Potato" on Nickelodeon, they didn't like the lyric "TiVo now thinks I'm gay", so his band members shouted "HEY!" over the "offending" word.

* When [[Jimmy Buffett]] plays "all ages" shows, his staple "Why Don't We Get Drunk (and Screw)" gets bowdlerised. Most noticeably the title line gets changed to "Why don't we get lunch in school?", though a number of other "family friendly" changes are made to the other lyrics as well.

* The lyrics of Akon's "I wanna fuck you" were changed to "I wanna love you" for radio and TV broadcasting. [[Sarcasm Mode|I have no idea why...]]

* When [[Da Vincis Notebook]] sang "Another Irish Drinking Song" in concert, a line about a Catholic priest who dropped dead "underneath the altar boy" was abandoned. Instead, they sang, "In respect to all our Catholic friends, we won't sing this line tonight."

* Radiohead's song, "Creep," has a radio edit in which the line, "I wish I was special/You're so fucking special" is replaced with "I wish I was special/You're so very special." This is retained in the Rock Band version of the song. In one acoustic version performed for a radio session, Thom Yorke lampshaded it by deliberately croaking out "very" in a very different tone of voice from the rest of the song everytime the line came up.

* [[~~Aerosmith (Music)|~~Aerosmith]]'s "Janie's Got A Gun" was subjected to this trope not once, but twice. The line "he jacked a little bitty baby" was originally "he raped a little bitty baby," but Steven Tyler changed it at the request of the record company. [[Sarcasm Mode|Which is a good thing, because the sexual abuse in the song is completely undetectable with that one little word taken out.]] (This also qualifies as [[Executive Meddling]].) As if that wasn't enough, some radio stations have been known to change the line "and put a bullet in his brain" to "and left him in the pouring rain." The phrase "[[Completely Missing the Point]]" comes to mind...

* [[Aerosmith]]'s "Janie's Got A Gun" was subjected to this trope not once, but twice. The line "he jacked a little bitty baby" was originally "he raped a little bitty baby," but Steven Tyler changed it at the request of the record company. [[Sarcasm Mode|Which is a good thing, because the sexual abuse in the song is completely undetectable with that one little word taken out.]] (This also qualifies as [[Executive Meddling]].) As if that wasn't enough, some radio stations have been known to change the line "and put a bullet in his brain" to "and left him in the pouring rain." The phrase "[[Completely Missing the Point]]" comes to mind...

* An example where the title was bowdlerized, but the song remained intact, involved [[Nirvana]]'s ''In Utero.'' Wal-Mart would not stock the CD until the cover art was changed (because [[Sarcasm Mode|medical drawings of the female body are so offensive]]) and the title of "Rape Me" was changed on the cover to "Waif Me." No attempt was made to censor the song itself.

* In [[The Doors]]' "Break On Through," the line "She gets high/She gets high/She gets high" became "She gets/She gets/She gets" in order to pass Top 40 radio muster. Morrison still managed to get [[Get Crap Past the Radar|some crap past the radar]] by singing "She gets/Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh" and mushing the last word until it sounds like "Aaaaaaaaaaaah". Meanwhile, the censors at ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]'' asked Jim Morrison to change "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" to "Girl, we couldn't get much better" in "Light My Fire," but Morrison, being Morrison, sang "higher" anyway.

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** Hilariously, the music video uses the second, bowdlerised line, but uses the video (and a back scrubber, and facial expressions) to imply the first. Apparently Amanda's known to roll her eyes when performing live and being made to use the bowdlerised version line.

* One band name that was bowdlerized was the Butthole Surfers. When they hit the Top 40 with "Pepper," many radio stations called them the "BH Surfers." Their name is even rendered as "B****h**** Surfers" on the clean version of the album ''Electriclarryland''.

* When [[~~Alice Cooper (Music)|~~Alice Cooper]] had a Top 40 hit with "Only Women Bleed," Casey Kasem introduced the song on ''American Top 40'' simply as "Only Women."

* When [[Alice Cooper]] had a Top 40 hit with "Only Women Bleed," Casey Kasem introduced the song on ''American Top 40'' simply as "Only Women."

** Well, the single ''was'' released under the title "Only Women," so the Bowdlerisation wasn't Kasem's doing so much as it was, presumably, [[Executive Meddling]]. (Unless it was Alice's idea, which is doubtful.)

* The radio version of Lyle Lovett's "If I Had a Boat" replaces the line "Kiss my ass/I bought a boat" with "Adios/I bought a boat".

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* [[Alan Jackson]]'s "I'll Try" opens with the line "Here we are, talkin' bout forever / Both know damn well it's not easy together". Even though it wasn't his first time swearing in song, the "damn" became a "too" on the radio edit.

* The 1979 [[David Bowie]] song "Boys Keep Swinging" has the lines "When you're a boy/Other boys check you out" in the first chorus. When Bowie performed the song on ''Saturday Night Live'' later that year, censors muted that second line, and the vocal remains muted on the Season 5 DVD release. At least he got to perform the song -- RCA chose [[wikipedia:Boys Keep Swinging|not to release it as a single in the U.S.]] (also counts as [[Values Dissonance]], as it was not subjected to this in the U.K.).

* [[Kidz Bop]] is a series of cover albums sung by little kids. The lyrics are changed to be more kid-friendly. An egregious example is the cover of [[Lady Gaga]]'s "Born This Way", which [[Get Back in ~~The~~ Closet|edits out all references to gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people]], making the song utterly meaningless.

* [[Kidz Bop]] is a series of cover albums sung by little kids. The lyrics are changed to be more kid-friendly. An egregious example is the cover of [[Lady Gaga]]'s "Born This Way", which [[Get Back in the Closet|edits out all references to gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people]], making the song utterly meaningless.

** Some of the edits actually make the songs sound dirtier than before, like "Wrap it up / Can't stop 'cause it feels like it's really close" (Wrap it up / Can't stop 'cause it feels like a overdose," from Cascada's "Evacuate The Dancefloor") or make no sense in the context of the song, like "And you out when you ain't got anyone" ("And you wild when you ain't got nothin' on / haha," from B.o.B. and [[Bruno Mars]]' "Nothin' On You").

* Bob Carlisle's album ''Butterfly Kisses (Shades of Grace)'' has a song called "It Is Well with My Soul" (not the hymn), that borrowed a few lines from a well-known [[James Brown]] song for the bridge. Problem: Carlisle's mostly Christian audience (at the time) likely wouldn't have appreciated the term "sex machine". So the lyric becomes: "Get up (get on up)/Stay on the scene/Aww, [[Lampshaded Double Entendre|you know what I mean]]."

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** The Jonas Brothers did the same thing to Busted's "What I Go to School For". The Jonas Brothers just have a crush on a girl, Busted was Hot For Teacher. Apparently, Disney doesn't like the idea that boys with a hot teacher might fight over who will "get the best view of her ass."

* You'd think that the song "Remember The Name" by Fort Minor would be a pretty hard song to preform live on ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' without bowdlerizing, given all the swears in the original version, but they manage to avert this trope [[Your Mileage May Vary|rather gracefully]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa-8BUOfI7g&feature=channel_video_title\] It also helps that they didn't have to censor the words "buzzed", "vodka", and "shot" like they did on the radio version.

* [[Britney Spears]] had a brush-in with this on "[[Censorship By Spelling|If U Seek Amy]]." Some radio stations just trimmed the "ek" from the chorus (rendering the infamous line as "All of the boys and all of the girls are beggin' to if you see Amy" <ref> Though the sentence would have made more sense -- and the cut would have been a lot smoother -- if the "if you" part was edited along with the "ek"</ref>) The "If U See Amy" version was also officially released as a radio edit. Some stations (including BBC Radio) went further, censored most of the line entirely, and just called it "Amy"

* [[Britney Spears]] had a brush-in with this on "[[Censorship by Spelling|If U Seek Amy]]." Some radio stations just trimmed the "ek" from the chorus (rendering the infamous line as "All of the boys and all of the girls are beggin' to if you see Amy" <ref> Though the sentence would have made more sense -- and the cut would have been a lot smoother -- if the "if you" part was edited along with the "ek"</ref>) The "If U See Amy" version was also officially released as a radio edit. Some stations (including BBC Radio) went further, censored most of the line entirely, and just called it "Amy"

* When [[Moby]] covered Mission Of Burma's "That's When I Reach For My Revolver", MTV had the policy of censoring all gun references in music videos, so the video version became "That's When I Realize It's Over".

* Even [[S Club 7]] has this happen to a few of their songs when they were performed on their TV shows. In "All in Love is Fair," the line "Get your ass on over here" is changed to "Get your act together" which is the line in a different part of the song. At another point, one of Bradley's raps is completely blanked out of "Do it 'Til We Drop." Any time they mentioned "making love" was cut as well ("Show me Your Colors" and "Summertime Feeling.") The fact that they made all these minor cuts, then let them perform "Hey, Kitty, Kitty" at all is especially baffling.

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* Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks" has all the gun references (mostly the words "bullet" and "gun") removed from radio edits and the rare times it appears on a music video channel.

* [[The Notorious B.I.G.]]'s "Gimme The Loot" includes a line about robbing a pregnant woman at gun point. Apparently, this was considered beyond the pale by either album producer Sean Combs or someone at the record label, because even the otherwise uncensored version of the song still censors that line. It's somewhat bizarre to listen to a song that's full of cursing and violence and realize you've just heard the word "pregnant" bleeped out. "Machine Gun Funk" also [[Sound Effect Bleep|Sound Effect Bleeps]] out the phrase "the blue suits" with police sirens for unknown reasons, though the line is so relatively innocuous that this might have even just been done [[Rule of Cool|because it sounded cool]].

* [[~~Nicki Minaj (Music)|~~Nicki Minaj]]'s "Superbass" is a victim of this. However, no two stations can seem to agree on what is and isn't profanity. If one hears the songs on enough different stations, they might as well have heard the uncensored version of the song.

* [[Nicki Minaj]]'s "Superbass" is a victim of this. However, no two stations can seem to agree on what is and isn't profanity. If one hears the songs on enough different stations, they might as well have heard the uncensored version of the song.

* In [[Toby Keith]]'s "Red Solo Cup", the line "And you, sir, do not have a pair of testicles / If you prefer drinkin' from glass" changes the word to "vegetables". The word "ass" is also censored in the next line, even though Toby notoriously said that word uncensored in "Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue" 10 years prior.

* Trace Adkins' "Rough & Ready" changes "'what are you lookin' at, asshole' smirk" to "'what are you lookin' at, pretty boy' smirk" and "That's a bitch, it makes me itch" to "It don't fit, it makes me itch" (in reference to a suit) on the radio edit.

* The band Kick Axe contributed two songs to ''[[Transformers ~~the~~ Movie]]'' - because executives deemed their band name inappropriate for young audiences, the soundtrack album credited them as Spectre General instead.

* The band Kick Axe contributed two songs to ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'' - because executives deemed their band name inappropriate for young audiences, the soundtrack album credited them as Spectre General instead.

* A radio edit for [[Panic At the Disco]]'s song "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" censored "god" but not "damn" from "goddamn" (a word frequently used in the song). In fact, the music video also lampshades the need to censor it by having Brendon Urie cover his mouth on "god".

* A radio edit for [[Panic! at the Disco]]'s song "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" censored "god" but not "damn" from "goddamn" (a word frequently used in the song). In fact, the music video also lampshades the need to censor it by having Brendon Urie cover his mouth on "god".

* [[Blake Shelton]]'s "Drink on It" changes "Man, he sounds like such a prick" to "Man, I'd like to bust his lip".

* The radio edit of ''[[Disturbed ~~(Music)~~|Down with the Sickness]]'' cuts out the whole "Every night I dream..." part because of implied child abuse and [[Cluster F-Bomb|massive use of the F-word]]. In ''[[Rock Band]]'' 2, the solo is left intact, but the lyrics are removed.

* The radio edit of ''[[Disturbed|Down with the Sickness]]'' cuts out the whole "Every night I dream..." part because of implied child abuse and [[Cluster F-Bomb|massive use of the F-word]]. In ''[[Rock Band]]'' 2, the solo is left intact, but the lyrics are removed.

* The radio edit of [[Rage Against the Machine]]'s ''Killing in the Name'' removes the entire "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!" part and immediately cuts to the end. The cover in ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' 2 simply changes the lyrics to "Now you're under control, I won't do what you tell me!" and "UNDER CONTROLLLLLLL!!!".

* After Lee Hazelwood threatened to sue them over their lyric changes, the only way [[~~Megadeth (Music)|~~Megadeth]] could include their cover of "These Boots" on subsequent releases of ''Killing is My Business... and Business is Good!'' was to censor every changed lyric, resulting in a remastered version with about half the words being bleeped out, which makes their version seem much filthier than it actually was.

* After Lee Hazelwood threatened to sue them over their lyric changes, the only way [[Megadeth]] could include their cover of "These Boots" on subsequent releases of ''Killing is My Business... and Business is Good!'' was to censor every changed lyric, resulting in a remastered version with about half the words being bleeped out, which makes their version seem much filthier than it actually was.

* NWOBHM band Tank have an odd subversion. The booklet in the 2005 reissue of ''Honour and Blood'' blatantly changes the lyrics of many of the songs to remove violent or controversial content. However, the actual audio remains unaltered aside from the remastering, leading to numerous situations where what the booklet says is clearly not what Algy is actually singing. While some of the changes may well be a case of the people making the booklet [[Critical Research Failure|trying to write out the lyrics by ear instead of looking them up]] and ending up with a [[Mondegreen]], others definitely seem to be deliberate, such as the removal of all references to Islam in "The War Drags Ever On" (which plays the "all Muslims are terrorists" card so hard that many people would be shocked to learn that it was written over a decade and a half before 9/11). For example, the lyrics for the first verse of the song are actually:

{{quote| A war is raging that we don't understand<br />