OT RANT: What ever happened to single (clean) & album (dirty words) ver of songs?

[Blue Jinn]

OT RANT: What ever happened to single (clean) & album (dirty words) ver of songs?

This just bugs me to no end, to hear on the radio:

"I really (quiet)d it up this time"
"This is (quiet)ng awesome."

Steve Miller had funky kicks on the radio and funky shit on the album (and occasionally on FM radio...)
Charlie Daniels had a Son of a gun and a son of a bitch
I'm pretty sure even Stiff Little Fingers got sussed all on the single (they also told us you can't say crap on the radio.)


I mean is it really that hard? You could have mucked it up on the radio. It's also really distracting. I had some cd I bought in the middle east, that had so many drop outs like that I got fed up and tossed it in the trash.

I mean ?(FM) I mean what the hell (AM)

 

[The Ghost of FM]

There's always been a disparity between what free speech is verses what the FCC thinks it is.

In Canada, you can swear on the radio and on TV and it will largely go unedited. But some stations claim to be family friendly and set their own language laws.

As for records, I don't think I've ever bought one that had the words bleeped out?

Cheers!

 

[jpmorris]

As for records, I don't think I've ever bought one that had the words bleeped out?
Cheers!

'Living on the Ceiling' by Blancmange. The album version contains the words "Up and down, I'm up the wall, I'm up the bloody tree"
The single mix sings this as "I'm up the cuckoo tree" instead. It's something I've noticed occasionally but not often.

 

[Blue Jinn]

'Living on the Ceiling' by Blancmange. The album version contains the words "Up and down, I'm up the wall, I'm up the bloody tree"
The single mix sings this as "I'm up the cuckoo tree" instead. It's something I've noticed occasionally but not often.

Maybe this is more common in the USA, so why can't Mumford and Sons, have "mucked it up" on the radio? What record company asshole decided it was OK to just have a moment of vocal dead air instead of a substitute word to satisfy the FCC?

I doubt it is some artistic self mutilation as free speech protest.

And while were on the subject (it's my rant) that Alanis Morrisette Thank U video. OK, I get the casting off material things, re-birth, etc, of being naked. And then you blur out part of yourself. I can understand if she was worried about her pubic area becoming the focus and all the immature tee hee hee's overpowering the point of the video. She could have used folded hands or even strategically placed objects like they used to do in the 60s. (Made fun of in the first Austin Powers...) The self-censorship IMO really undermines the statement. (AFAIK there is no uncensored version.)

 

[Johnny Nowhere]

Regarding the release of two different versions, I would attribute this to either a severely restricted budget via the label, or the fact that the artist doesn't want to play to the wants of a segment of society who dictates the release of such a version, yet will not contribute to the cost, i.e. purchase the product. In other words, it simply isn't cost effective.

I once worked in what was referred to as a 'record store'. Towards the end of the era, casette and CD singles were being manufactured, offering both 'dirty' and 'clean' versions. I was the singles purchaser and I can assure you that for every clean version we'd sell, ten dirty versions were bought.

 

[jpmorris]

Regarding the release of two different versions, I would attribute this to either a severely restricted budget via the label, or the fact that the artist doesn't want to play to the wants of a segment of society who dictates the release of such a version, yet will not contribute to the cost, i.e. purchase the product. In other words, it simply isn't cost effective.

Well, at one time in the UK, the BBC were extremely sensitive to things and would ban a single for any reason, sensible or not. Until the early 1970s this was a big problem because they had an effective monopoly (hence the offshore 'pirate' radio stations of the 60s).
Blancmange's single I cited earlier was from about 1984 and it's likely that the label insisted on a 'clean' version so that the single would get airplay on BBC stations.
An interesting side-effect of this was that some of the more daring labels would put an uncensored song on the B-side so you occasionally had crappy throwaway things soaring up the chart because everyone was buying it for the B-side.

 

[Blue Jinn]

Regarding the release of two different versions, I would attribute this to either a severely restricted budget via the label, or the fact that the artist doesn't want to play to the wants of a segment of society who dictates the release of such a version, yet will not contribute to the cost, i.e. purchase the product. In other words, it simply isn't cost effective.

I once worked in what was referred to as a 'record store'. Towards the end of the era, casette and CD singles were being manufactured, offering both 'dirty' and 'clean' versions. I was the singles purchaser and I can assure you that for every clean version we'd sell, ten dirty versions were bought.

But somewhere along the line, somebody had to somehow edit out the naughty words. You hear a dead space on the radio. Who does that? If taking the time to record an alternate vocal bit (and in the digital era how hard to sing kicks instead of shit?) and release that as "the single" for airplay? There's already an alternate version, (I suppose there could be some algorithm that looks for the 7 dirty words, and a very sensitive EQ that blurs it out -- I'll admit my ignorance there) but it just sounds ridiculous to have that break in the vocal. Scrambling it would sound better than dead space.

it's likely that the label insisted on a 'clean' version so that the single would get airplay on BBC stations.
An interesting side-effect of this was that some of the more daring labels would put an uncensored song on the B-side so you occasionally had crappy throwaway things soaring up the chart because everyone was buying it for the B-side.

I remember this kind of thing too, or sometimes the 3 min single version on side A and the 6 min "album version" or "dance mix" on side B

 

[Johnny Nowhere]

HAHAHAHA! I suddenly get this vision of some poor DJ working the dump button as if he were playing a hi-hat. That would be too much freaking work, though. I don't know how the deletes are accomplished since it appears that every country has different requirements. I'll admit the dead space does the song no justice however.

 

[stevieb]

I noticed back in the 60's and 70's that Janis Joplin and The Who both got away with dropping F bombs on their recordings ("Hey, hey, hey, fuckin' McGee" and "Who the fuck are you?" but now, "Who Are You?" has been edited to repeat "I really wanna know" a bit too often, now. AFAIK, Janis still gets away with it. I thought it was funny they pulled it off (I am sure others did, too) but with digital, words can be more clearly heard, so this is probably a side-effect.

Personally, I think the censorship should not happen, but who the fuck cares what I think? FWIW, i agree with the OP.

 

[Illsidgus]

I remember listening to RTL radio in the early 90's when they constantly played Smokie's live version of "Living Next Door to Alice", where the audience would shout out "Alice, Alice, who the fuck is Alice." Apparently Luxembourg didn't have any problem with dirty versions of songs.