Songs that didn't cause any controversy when they originally came out, but would probably do so if released today

1) Open up the Doghouse (Two Cats are Coming in), a duet by Dean Martin & Nat "King" Cole. Here's the lyrics:

(Both) Open up the doghouse
(Both) Open up the doghouse
(Both) Rover Rover move it over two cats are coming in

(D) Nat you look like a man with a story (N) I sure have!
(N) I told my wife we oughta save money
(N) That's the way it's gotta be (D) Oh gotta gotta be that way!
(N) She cancelled all the charge
accounts gave all the gold to me
(D) Well I can't see what you did wrong
(D) Why was your woman so upset?
(N) Well I put the money on a horse and he hasn't showed up yet

(Both) Open up the doghouse
(Both) Open up the doghouse
(Both) Rover Rover move it over two cats are coming in

(N) Well Dean what's your problem? (D) Here it is:
(D) I gave my wife a beautiful fur coat (N) You did?
(D) Told her it was genuine mink (N) Rich man!
(D) I took her out to show it off
(D) Then we stopped in for a drink (N) Oh, cocktails!
(N) Well I know your wife was really thrilled
(N) How come you two had a spat?
(D) It's easy to see it started to rain the coat got wet
(D) And mink just don't smell like that (N) Timber!

(Both) Open up the doghouse
(Both) Open up the doghouse
(Both) Rover Rover move it over two cats are coming in

(D) Let's hear it Nat (N) You know what you know what though
(D) What?
(N) There's just one way to handle a woman
(N) Dean we just got to treat 'em rough (D) Got to slap 'em
(N) That's right (D) We got to show 'em who wears the pants
(D) Cut out that sisssy sissy stuff
(N) Now it ain't no use to take abuse
(N) Whenever they are cranky or cross
(Both) Let's put the women in their place and
we'll show them who's the boss

Open up the doghouse
Two cats are coming in

2) I can't find the lyrics to Take Inventory by the Isley Borthers from 1969, but it has a similar message: treat your woman rough and show her who's the boss, so that she'll know her place. And that song doesn't even the humour of the Dino & Nat tune as a redeeming quality.

3. I just don't know about all this calling a woman a hound dog.

Wasn't the tune originally sang by a female singer though?

Yeah, but insulting any human being is wrong.

Did they not cause controversy when they originally came out?

I reckon they did.

4. "Juicy"

This was a big hit at the turn of the last century for Bert Williams who was one of the first major black singing stars on Broadway, who also co-wrote it with is partner George Walker. Can't see many people lining up to record it now.

https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/23232/149.088.000.webimage.JPEG?sequence=9

"Oliver's Army"

https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/8266/141.120.003.webimage.JPEG?sequence=3

.. the follow-up to the same writer's "My coon is a lobster"

What's controversial about "Juicy"?

time to get paid / blow up like the oh wait

Ah, okay.

"Clair" by Gilbert O'Sullivan.

Maybe instead of just listing song titles people could also explain what's controversial about them?

No, get off your lazy, complacent arse and find out for yourself.

There are a billion old-time songs that fit the mold. One of them is “Run, Nigger, Run," recorded in 1927 by the Skillet Lickers.

"Black Messiah" by the Kinks...("don't want no black messiah, to come and set the world on fire"...)

I find it hilarious that Kate Smith, who sang pretty much the definitive version of "God Bless America," also sang "That's Why Darkies Were Born."

There are a billion old-time songs that fit the mold. One of them is “Run, Nigger, Run," recorded in 1927 by the Skillet Lickers.

In the bench of my grandma's piano, we found sheet music for "That's Why Darkies Were Born":

"Going to heaven on a Mule" wd probably take some beating? Al Jolson number from a '34 musical, which was accompanied by probably the most offensive blackface minstrel routine ever filmed. Even taken outside of that context, the opening line of the song is "ever since I was a little picaninny..." Eh, terrible. As mentioned by someone upthread, there was a lot of it about back then. I really love '30's musicals, but you got to tread pretty carefully, racist caricaturing was pretty popular in popular music back then.

In the bench of my grandma's piano, we found sheet music for "That's Why Darkies Were Born"
Is that the same song as "Underneath the Harlem Moon," covered by Randy Newman (can't listen since I'm at work)?

I doubt Lou Reed's "I Wanna Be Black" would go unchallenged today.

Indian Giver.

Here's the clip that Pash is talking about.

There WAS controversy over racist old-time songs at the time, esp. in the African-American press. And Bert Williams' relationship to these songs was extremely complicated, fwiw.

"Black Messiah" by the Kinks...("don't want no black messiah, to come and set the world on fire"...)

I'm not familiar with this tune, but did they mean "black" as in the racial sense?

They did, and it gets worse:

"Everybody talking about racial equality
You hear everybody talking about equal rights
But white's white, black's black and that's that
And thats the way you should leave it."

Ray Charles, "Understanding"

Understanding is the best thing in the world,
Between a boy and a girl
Boy and girl and even a woman or a man,
It's always better when you really understand

You know understanding is a mighty powerful thing,
Thats why it makes me so sad
When I see my friends wandering aroung thru the world,
Never knowing the meaning of the word
Understanding, so in the next few minutes, I'm gonna
Try to explain just exactly what it means
Now wait a minute, listen, for instance, you take me
And my old lady, we gotta good thing goin
Because I know If I dont work and pay the rent and the
Bills and buy her fine pretty clothes to wear well,
There are fifteen other guys just waitin round the
Corner, and I dont care how much that woman loves me,
She's gonna go out and find herself one of them who
Will and thats why I believe that

Understanding is the best thing in the world,
Between a boy and a girl
Boy and girl and even a woman or a man,
It's always better when you really understand

Now listen I dont want you to think that this is a
One sided affair, no no
Because my old lady also understands that a man must
Have respect
What I mean is, if she must play around dont let me
Catch her, because what I dont see can't hurt me, you
Understand? but on the other hand, If I should ever
Catch her I'm not gonna talk about-a
And call her a bunch of bad names like you all might
No no mh
What I'm gonna do, I'm gonna go down-town to the
Hardware store and buy myself a double blade axe,
Come back, square off, and believe her soul's gonna
Belong to the good lord
Because her head's gonna belong to me, and I
Guarantee she'll know what I mean when I'll say

Understanding is the best thing in the world,
Between a boy and a girl
Boy and girl and even a woman or a man,
It's always better when you really understand

Easy to miss that bit about the axe.

Are those lyrics for real?!

"Walk Like An Egyptian" maybe?

Jeez, Ray Charles, chill out! That's a twist ending typical of the musical era, but usually it's something like "No but wait, I'm the one who loves you, see?" or "But that guy who you wrote the letter wasn't actually him, it was me! ha!", not "I am going to cut your head off with an axe and THEN you'll understand, motherfucker, see?"

those Ray Charles lyrics are kind of awesome in a total batshit way

i can't imagine someone getting away with a track called 'good morning little schoolgirl' or 'you're 13, you're beautiful and you're mine' these days

Isn't it "you're 16"?

This far and no mention of...

http://www.rollingstonesnet.com/images/BrownSugar_UK_Maxi.jpg

On the other hand tho, I guess "Star Star" wouldn't be controversial at all today.

Isn't it "you're 16"?

― Black Seinfeld (HI DERE), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 10:45 (17 minutes ago) [IP: 65.204.55.228] Bookmark

http://www.coldchisel.com.au/images/cover_13.gif

on the paedo tip: Young girl by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.

and "Francine" by ZZ Top ("Francine just turned 13/She's my angelic teenage queen")

That Cold Chisel thing is an obvious reference to what I was talking about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_Sixteen

Luke the Drifter - "The Funeral"

I think there's a thread about that one.

no doubt! xpost

also on the 16 year old tip, 'into the night'

Brown Sugar didn't cause any controversy when it originally came out? uh waht

Hank Williams is........LUKE THE DRIFTER

Well Depeche Mode did "Little 16" and "Question of Time" without too much of a stir not all that long ago (or was there one? I dont recall one).

I find "Run For Your Life" really hard to listen to and it's sort of depressing to me that it wasn't controversial when it came out.

"I'd rather see you dead, little girl
Than to be with another man
You better keep your head, little girl
Or you won't know where I am

You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand little girl
Catch you with another man
That's the end, little girl"

I've never heard about "Brown Sugar" being controversial (it even went to #1!), or at least as much as "Star Star" or the title track to Some Girls.

Most of those 50s and 60s hits about underage girls were about the fact that they were underage, which made them not so controversial and probably wouldn't have been today either.

Anyway, reminds me of a hilarous song by Norwegian boyband parody Boyzvoice:

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I find "Run For Your Life" really hard to listen to and it's sort of depressing to me that it wasn't controversial when it came out.

^^yeah i honestly had never heard a lot of beatles albums until a few years ago, just had like compilations and stuff, but that song really creeped me out when i heard it, seemed very unlike that band too.... weird.

Swear to God, that Ray Charles song came up on shuffle this a.m. before I saw the thread.

I thought it was typical "be true to your woman"-type sentiment until the axe part popped up out of nowhere.

The "underage girl" songs are perfect examples because the whole thing wasn't really a big deal until fairly recently, no?

I mean, today, if a song like "Les Succettes" was given to an 18 year old to sing, and promoted as a song for little girls, people would be lynched.

I meant "Les Sucettes"

Wasn't "Black Messiah" controversial at the time, though?

No, get off your lazy, complacent arse and find out for yourself.

MC keeping the spirit of No List November alive in the '08

don' forget the video for Sucettes:

I remember someone on youtube commenting re:this video that "Now I know what teen boys in 60s France jerked off to."

The english lyrics (Which I've just seen for the first time)

Les Sucettes

Annie loves lollypops
Anise lollypops
Anise lollypops
Annie's
Give her kisses
A taste like anni-
Se while the barley sugar
Perfumed with anise
Sinks in Annie's throat
She's in paradise

For a few pennies
Annie
Gets her lollypops
Anise
They're the color of her big eyes
The color of happy days
Annie loves lollypops
Anise lollypops
Annise lollypops
Annie's
Give her kisses
A taste like lic-
Orice when the last thing on her tongue
Is the little stick
She runs as fast as she can
She goes back to the drugstore

Annie loves lollypops
Annise lollypops
Annise lollupops
Annie's
Give her kisses
A taste like anni-
Se while the barley sugar
Perfumed with Annise
Sinks in Annie's throat
She's in paradise

(From Christgau's Consumer Guide review: Dismaying: "Black Messiah"--Enoch Powell would be proud.)

I somehow try to live in denial since I love "A Rock and Roll Fantasy" so much.

xpost Well, that could just be about candy...

(Oh wait, just noticed the "give her kisses" thing.)

Lots of gratuitously violent old things like that Ray Charles song around - "Honey Hush" comes to mind.

Well you keep on jabberin', talkin' 'bout this and that
Well you keep on jabberin', talkin' 'bout this and that
Don't make me nervous, I'm holdin' a baseball bat

And more dully misogynistic things than you could possibly count, often in songs that really rock otherwise, like "I'll Be Doggone":

Well every woman should try to be
Whatever her man wants her to be

Mind you, I doubt this would be like "BAN MARVIN GAYE!!!" if it came out today - see also "all these rappers just rap about 'bitches' and 'hos.'" We're actually incredibly inured to this stuff.

(Yeah, was gonna say.)

If a lot of this stuff was released today, it would be so commercially marginalized that I doubt there would be much controversy. The only people buying the stuff would already know what they're getting into.

jack jones - "wives and lovers"

Hey, little girl,
Comb your hair, fix your make-up.
Soon he will open the door.
Don't think because
There's a ring on your finger,
You needn't try any more

For wives should always be lovers, too.
Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you.
I'm warning you.

Day after day,
There are girls at the office,
And men will always be men.
Don't send him off
With your hair still in curlers.
You may not see him again.

For wives should always be lovers, too.
Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you.
He's almost here.

Hey, little girl
Better wear something pretty,
something you'd wear to go to the city.
And dim all the lights,
Pour the wine, start the music.
Time to get ready for love.

Oh, time to get ready,
Time to get ready,
Time to get ready
For love.

wikipedia sez: "Today, the lyrics are considered chauvinist and predatory, but this song was some kind of anthem for the urban male of the Kennedy Era. The imagery of the song seemed to had come out from the pages of the Playboy Magazine of the early sixties." ooooookay

http://o.aolcdn.com/feedgallery/music/i/i/insane_clown_posse/03-insane-clown-posse-082407.jpg

I'd rather cut that neck in half
I'd rather choke out that bitch-ass
I'd rather chop and never stop
Because you fucked my homies

"Run for your life" was the one song John Lennon totally disowned, for 1) being a total nick off a line from "Baby let's play house" Elvis, and also 2) being written to order at the last minute, and it was on the album and out before he realised that actually it was 3) crap.

Well Depeche Mode did "Little 16"

Little 15, you mean? Which, whatever the hell it's about (mother and daughter, I've always thought), is a long way from a perv-fest. Using the word "fifteen" in a song != causing offence ;)

and "Question of Time" without too much of a stir not all that long ago (or was there one? I dont recall one)

More pervy, admittedly, but I assume the self-loathing/male-loathing is the get-out here.

Either way: comparing those two to some of the choicer examples in this thread, you can see why there wasn't a peep about them.

It's like how "Just 13" The Lurkers got banned, even though it's not a perv track.

Stranglehold by UK Subs - "only 13 but oh so sweet"

Charlie Harper was about 35 when they released that.

We haven't quite gotten there yet, but I have the impression that a lot of overtly misogynist lyrics in 70s rock and 90s hip-hop will seem extremely controversial in 20 years time.

Xpost
"Run for Your Life" is one of the best things the Beatles ever did, IMO. Lennon was known to be crazy jealous, and he told you so in this song. So what? I don't believe he ever carried out on his threat — he was just talking shit. It may sound a bit startling even today, but I'd rather hear something honest than the typical "be true to me, girl" crap. Marshall Mathers has been making a good living working out his violent misogyny and homophobia in song, and for that many label him a genius.
There are tons of great songs out there with sexist/misogynistic overtones that don't claim to be ironic or a parody. Digging a classic murder ballad like "Knoxville Girl" doesn't mean I have to like the narrator.
And then there's Aaron Neville's great "Over You":

There'll be some slow walkin'
Gonna be some sad talkin'
There'll be some flowers bringin'
Gonna be some sad singin'
Over you, i say over you
Over you, pretty baby
If i ever hear you say we're through

There'll be some long black limousines
People peepin' from their window screens
Parade of cars with their headlights on
All of that will be goin' on
Over you, i said over you
Over you, pretty baby
If i ever hear you say we're through

There'll be a hole about six feet deep
For you baby to take your sleep
Into a pine box an' down you'll go
Where you will stay where it's free of snow
Over you, i said over you
Over you, pretty baby
If i ever hear you say we're through

All your folks will be dressed in black
Ride a long black cadillac
Yeah, baby they'll be puttin' you away
The funeral home'll have the business that day
Over you, i said over you
Over you, pretty baby
If i ever hear you say we're through

Say i want to slay you baby, whoa now
Over you, pretty baby
If i ever hear you say we're through

Say you'll never leave me
I say you'll never leave me
Say i'm gonna get rid of you , baby
If i ever hear you say we're through

Whoa, i love you
No tellin' what i'd do
That's why baby
I want to do all these things to you

from Sesame Street, as sung by my old buddy Bert:

I held your hand
And told you that
I loved you
You turned around and
Walked right out the door
Seems like holding your hand
Was not enough
So I want to do something more

Oh I want to hold your ear baby
Wanna hold it near baby
Wanna hold your ear
Until you hear that
I love you

And I want to hold your eyes baby
Lovely shape and size baby
Want to hold your eyes
So you'll see and realize that
I love you

I wanna hold your nose
I wanna hold your toes
I won't let you breathe or eat
Until you know the truth
I love you

Oh I wanna hold your hair baby
Show you that I care baby
And it's only fair to tell you
What I intend to do
I'm going to keep what I hold dear
Your nose
Your eyes
Your tooth
Your ears
And I'm gonna hold them 'till
You say you love me tooo!

Joe Tex, "I Gotcha." A date rape caught on wax.

I think some things have the potential to be more controversial [in terms of numbers of people who are outraged by the content] today just because it's the internet-age and word can spread faster about what used to be underground or regional "shocking" artists.

fuck your dad

Peggy Lee -- "Manana" and all of those other cutesy-poo "ethnic" numbers from the '40s and '50s.

Holy shit, that Joe Tex song is indeed quite disturbing!

"Turn Back The Clock" by Johnny Hates Jazz is a rather uncontroversial nostalgic song about longing back to youth that doesn't sound particularly controversial today either, but I have an impression the video wouldn't have looked quite like this if made today:

"But officer, I was only attempting to relive my childhood."

I can't imagine anyone writing a song like the Kinks' Art Lover these days - a song about a celibate paedophile congratulating himself on being a voyeur rather than actually abusing somebody. But that's a brilliant, sensitive song whereas Black Messiah is just repugnant. And it came out AFTER Eric Clapton's Enoch Powell comments inspired Rock Against Racism, which is just mind-boggling.

I think that may partly be the case with those older songs about underage girls too. I mean "Young Girl" isn't a message of love for an underage girl, rather it is about hating one self for having that kind of thoughts about a girl who isn't old enough. "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" is like "Now that you are finally old enough I can finally tell you how I feel about you".

I guess ABBA's "Does Your Mother Know" would still pass today, as it shows the man clearly rejecting the young girl who tries to hit on him.

Geir, these may be defences against statutory rape charges but they're not defences against profound creepiness.

Except for that ABBA one, maybe not.

Pat Boone, "Speedy Gonzalez":

"And pack some mud on the wall!"

Here's another Joe Tex example: "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)". Fatphobia certainly hasn't disappeared since 1976 (just read the Youtube comments on this video), but I can't imagine anyone writing a popular tune anymore whose sole subject is how awful it is when fat women want to dance with you...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56tBm7nJ1QM

Did Little Richard's "Good Golly Miss Molly" cause a stir with the "you sure like the ball" lyric? I mean, 1956 for crying out loud!

No end to stuff from the '50s, I would guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4qnO5PN7-A