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What is the first example of using the word/verb "fuck" in a pop/rock song?

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i need to know.

is it "rocks off" by the stones? ("fucking feed"...).must be something earlier...

― emekars (emekars), Monday, 21 August 2006 18:04 (nineteen years ago)

The end of 'Day In The Life' spun backwards.

― Scourage (Haberdager), Monday, 21 August 2006 18:09 (nineteen years ago)

It might be Al Stewart's "Love Chronicles" (1969).

http://www.alstewart.com/lyrics/lovechronicles.htm

― Dan Heilman (The Deacon), Monday, 21 August 2006 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

Probably something by that wag Kim Fowley, actually.

― Scourage (Haberdager), Monday, 21 August 2006 18:15 (nineteen years ago)

Somebody probably did it within about a week after recording technology was invented, and of course there are all kinds of "underground" records with dirty lyrics.

But for a mainstream pop-rock record where the word was part of the lyric and not just an interjection (see: MC5)...you'd think there was one before '69, but I don't know what it would be.

― Dan Heilman (The Deacon), Monday, 21 August 2006 18:22 (nineteen years ago)

Well, that Copulatin' Blues comp has 78s from the 1930s where people are saying fuck. But in the rock vein, Fugs, maybe?

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 21 August 2006 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

"It might be Al Stewart's "Love Chronicles" (1969)."

according to allmusic:
"That track was also quite controversial for its day in its use of the word "f*cking" at one point in the lyrics"
so yeah, it might be.thanks

― emekars (emekars), Monday, 21 August 2006 18:39 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, man. At the record store I used to work at, we couldn't keep the Copulation Compilation in the store. It was out of print and we'd sell it for $19.99

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Monday, 21 August 2006 18:41 (nineteen years ago)

if i remember correctly, the Clover's 1954 song "Rotten Cocksucker's Ball" has a few f words.

― sublime frequency (sublime frequency), Monday, 21 August 2006 19:04 (nineteen years ago)

Pink Floyd's "Candy and a Currant Bun" is pre-1969.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 21 August 2006 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

You'd have to define what constitutes a "pop" song, because Lucille Bogan's "Shave 'em Dry" from the 30s would certainly qualify:

"Now if fuckin' was the thing, that would take me to heaven,
I'd be fuckin' in the studio, till the clock strike eleven"

And that's one of the tamer verses.

― Jim M (jmcgaw), Monday, 21 August 2006 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

Does The Doors' "The End" count? Morrison said it clearly in concert, but not so much on record.

― Jim M (jmcgaw), Monday, 21 August 2006 19:38 (nineteen years ago)

If you bought the mono version of The Doors, he sure did.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Monday, 21 August 2006 22:26 (nineteen years ago)

I thought the only people to hear that were John Densmore's parents:

On the Doors' "The End," does Jim Morrison say "Mother, I want to fuck you"?

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 21 August 2006 23:10 (nineteen years ago)

It's all going to depend on where pop/rock starts, there are medieval folk songs with the word.

― Cressida Breem (neruokruokruokne?), Monday, 21 August 2006 23:23 (nineteen years ago)

The Kingsmen's drummer shouts it halfway offmike on "Louie Louie." Right before the second verse.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 21 August 2006 23:37 (nineteen years ago)

Could be, but hell there's only two intelligable words in the whole song and their both Louie.

― jim wentworth (wench), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 03:13 (nineteen years ago)

Cressida: "there are medieval folk songs with the word."

Just out of interest, can you cite any?

― Rombald (rombald), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 05:32 (nineteen years ago)

folderol.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 08:14 (nineteen years ago)

I was thinking that it must be the Fugs but I can't think of a instance, but surely! Then there's the Mothers of Invention's "Mother People" ("Shut your fuckin' mouth about the length of my hair...") but that doesn't count because the Great Revolutionary Zappa chickened out (or did what his record compay told him to do) and snipped that line out and reversed it or some such...

― dud Hab 'C' dEva (Dada), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 09:19 (nineteen years ago)

The first instance was "I Saw Her Standing There".

Paul does indeed say "One..Two..Three..Fuck" at the beginning.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 10:36 (nineteen years ago)

Cressida: "there are medieval folk songs with the word."

Just out of interest, can you cite any?

Well, there's "A Brisk Young Lad he Courted Me, and We Fucked"

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 11:10 (nineteen years ago)

i always thought that it was the kinks' "apeman": "i look through the window but i can't see the skies / the air pollution is a-fuckin' up my eyes." but i guess that they were beaten to the punch!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 16:42 (nineteen years ago)

HEY JUDE, people.

― pisces (piscesx), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 16:49 (nineteen years ago)

"Candy and A Currant Bun" is 1967, and unlike all these other joke nominations in which the "fuck" is not clear or the status of "pop/rock" song is arguable - this was both a pop single AND the "fuck" is prominently on display.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 17:12 (nineteen years ago)

"i always thought that it was the kinks' "apeman": "i look through the window but i can't see the skies / the air pollution is a-fuckin' up my eyes." but i guess that they were beaten to the punch!"

is that a-fuckin' or a-foggin'?

― hank (hank s), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 17:15 (nineteen years ago)

is that a-fuckin' or a-foggin'?

That's for you to decide, which I imagine is what RDD intended

As for "Candy and a Currant Bun", where's the "fuck" in that? I've never heard it.

― dud Hab 'C' dEva (Dada), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 17:20 (nineteen years ago)

... so it's not exactly clear is it!

― dud Hab 'C' dEva (Dada), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 17:21 (nineteen years ago)

well you must not be paying attention cuz its clear as day at the end of the first verse:

Oh my, girl sitting in the sun
Go buy, candy and a currant bun
I like, to see you run
Like that......
Oooh, don't talk to me
Please just fuck with me
Please you know I'm feeling frail
It's true, sun shining very bright
It's you, who I'm gonna love tonight
Ice cream, taste good in the afternoon
Ice cream, taste good if you eat it soon
Oooh, don't touch me child
Please you know you drive me wild
Please you know I'm feeling frail
Don't try another cat
Don't go where other you must know why
Very very very frail
Oh my, girl sitting in the sun
Go buy, candy and a currant bun
I like, to see you run
Like that......

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 17:25 (nineteen years ago)

I'll have to go and listen to it 'cos i've heard that song hundreds of times and never noticed that

― dud Hab 'C' dEva (Dada), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 17:27 (nineteen years ago)

"I Saw Her Standing There"? Nah, you're hearing things. The profanity in "Hey Jude" and "Louie Louie" -- if it's there -- is the result of an unplanned interjection during the session. And "Apeman" is from 1970.

For this discussion -- as I understand it, the first legitimately released pop/rock song to include the word as part of its published lyrics -- I think the Floyd tune takes it.

― Dan Heilman (The Deacon), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 17:30 (nineteen years ago)

Shakey's OTmuthafukkinM!

― edde (edde), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 17:39 (nineteen years ago)

"That's for you to decide, which I imagine is what RDD intended"

this obfuscation tendency is also evident in the "chitty dining room" he staggers through in "Berkeley Mews"...

― hank (hank s), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 17:47 (nineteen years ago)

"Candy and A Currant Bun" is 1967, and unlike all these other joke nominations in which the "fuck" is not clear or the status of "pop/rock" song is arguable - this was both a pop single AND the "fuck" is prominently on display.
-- Shakey Mo Collier

B-b-but the record company forced 'em to change the title from "Let's Roll Another One"! How the hell can they have expected "fuck with me" to get past the censors?! (I've seen the lyric quoted as "WALK with me" but that's not what I hear.)

― M. Agony Von Bontee (M. Agony Von Bontee), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 18:48 (nineteen years ago)

I admit its a headscratcher. However, rationales for censorship rarely makes sense.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 18:52 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, but at least they usually don't-make-sense in a PREDICTABLE fashion! That's just weird.

Also: Didn't James Brown write about some little old lady positioned close to the "Live At The Apollo" microphones audibly yelling "motherfucker" or some such?

― M. Agony Von Bontee (M. Agony Von Bontee), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 19:18 (nineteen years ago)

"Candy and A Currant Bun" is 1967, and unlike all these other joke nominations in which the "fuck" is not clear or the status of "pop/rock" song is arguable - this was both a pop single AND the "fuck" is prominently on display.
-- Shakey Mo Collier


another reason why Syd Barrett was ahead of it's time...

― emekars (emekars), Tuesday, 22 August 2006 20:13 (nineteen years ago)

First instance (I know of) in a country song (and Smokey says it several times): Smokey Wood and the Modern Mountaineers, "Everybody's Truckin'," 1937.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 01:57 (nineteen years ago)

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/03/smut_mp3s.html

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 23 August 2006 02:43 (nineteen years ago)

"Candy and A Currant Bun" is 1967, and unlike all these other joke nominations in which the "fuck" is not clear or the status of "pop/rock" song is arguable - this was both a pop single AND the "fuck" is prominently on display.

OK, I listened to "Candy and A Currant Bun" last night and Syd doesn't sound say "fuck" as such, and certainly not clearly, what it actually sounds like he is singing is "fock" - and, no, not even poshos from Cambridge pronounce "fuck" as "fock". I imagine Syd was playing a little game here, you expect him to say "walk",
because it rhymes with "talk" and makes lyrical sense, and which is indeed how I always heard it... I can't quite work out if Syd just says "fock" or whether there are two voices superimposed, one saying "walk" and one saying "fuck" - I hope it's the latter!

― dud Hab 'C' dEva (Dada), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 08:06 (nineteen years ago)

yeah there is something weird about the pronunciation that makes it stand out from the rest of the line (similar to the overdubbed "drive me wild" aside) - could be two voices on top of each other, that's an interesting suggestion. However, I know I'm not def. not the first to spot this, as its in most lyrical transcriptions of the song, and I remember it referenced in someone's Syd obit recently as well (possibly Momus'? can't remember, will try to find some more discussion of this...)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

"It might be Al Stewart's "Love Chronicles" (1969)."
according to allmusic:
"That track was also quite controversial for its day in its use of the word "f*cking" at one point in the lyrics"
so yeah, it might be.thanks

-- emekars

Don't know if it was the VERY first overall usage of 'fuck' - it depends on whether Zappa's "Uncle Meat" or Jeff Airplane's "Volunteers" or "Kick Out The Jams" were released earlier or later in '69. But I think this was the very first appearance of 'fuck' in its explicitly SEXUAL context - "Let's fuck" as opposed to "Fuck you!" or whatever.

― Monty Von Byonga (Monty Von Byonga), Friday, 25 August 2006 07:16 (nineteen years ago)

Sorry to be pedantic, but the JA song with "fuck" was "We Can Be Together," not "Volunteers." "In order to survive, we steal / Cheat, lie, forge, fuck, hide, and deal / . . . Up against the wall, motherfucker . . ."

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 25 August 2006 18:23 (nineteen years ago)


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