Music Trivia -> Songs That Are Banned -> W
Can you think of a song that was specifically banned by a radio station, tv station, or government?
"Waist Deep In The Big Muddy," Pete Seeger
After being invited by the Smother Brothers to perform this anti-Vietnam War anthem on their television show, in 1968, Pete Seeger is edited out of the program by the censors at CBS television.
Peter
"Walk Like An Egyptian," The Bangles
One of the 166 songs "blacklisted" by the Clear Channel Communications group following the September 11th attacks.
Ra'akone
"Wear My Ring Around Your Neck," Elvis Presley
In 1958, a Minneapolis based Catholic youth magazine, "Contacts", launches a campaign for "clean lyrics in pop songs." Songs they target include Presley's "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck" because it promotes going steady.
Peter
"Wet Dream," Max Romeo
banned by the BBC on 1969 Max claimed it was a song about his bedroom ceiling. The BBC weren’t having it either
weirdkid106
"Wham Bam, Thank You Ma'am," Dean Martin
Another song from 1951 that was banned by radio stations for fear it was suggestive.
Peter
"What Are We Fighting For," Country Joe and the Fish
The police actually came into Country Joe McDonald's dressing room and warned him not to lead the crowd into uttering the F-word.
Celeste
"White Christmas," Elvis Presley
In December 1957, Disc Jockey Al Priddy of KEX in Portland, Oregon is fired for violating the radio station's band against playing Elvis Presley's rendition of "White Christmas" (Elvis' first Christmas album in the target of many boycotts and bans due to the fact that Elvis doesn't really reflect, "Christian values"). 1957 is also the year that Ed Sullivan refused to show Elvis from the waist down to the "suggestiveness" of Elvis' hip or pelvis movements, and Elvis and the new music form of Rock 'n' Roll, in general, are the target of many Christian organization's bans and boycotts.
Peter
"White Rabbit," Jefferson Airplane
In 1998, the high school band at Fort Zumwalt North High School in St. Louis is forbidden from playing Jefferson Airplane's 1967 hit "White Rabbit" because of drug references in the song's lyrics, even though the band's version of the song is entirely instrumental.
Peter
"Whole production pre-1991," Sleepy Sleepers
Sleepy Sleepers was an enormously popular punk/hardcore band in Finland, whose lyrics were essentially anti-Soviet, anti-Communist and anti-estabilishment, considering nothing as taboo except pedophilia and sodomy. The whole band was in performance ban in the Finnish radio until 1991 and breakup of USSR. Needless to say, their gigs were extremely popular and their records sold gold.
Susanna Viljanen
"Woman Is The Nigger Of The World," John Lennon
In mid-April 1972, this John Lennon song is banned by radio stations across the U.S. The song still manages to reach #57 on Billboard Magazine's HOT 100 charts.
Peter
"Wouldn't It Be Nice," The Beach Boys
I've heard that lines like "You know its gonna make it that much better / When we can say goodnight and stay together" caused many radio stations to decline to play the song when it was new. The thought was that the lyrics were suggestive of a couple sharing a bed, with sex implied. Defenders have often pointed out how it is elsewhere indicated in the lyrics that the singer is thinking about a time when the couple are married, and that would mean that the sex envisioned is entirely within the bounds of wedlock and in no way "illicit".
Jane Farnsworth
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