Recommendations: Censorship In Music

[Liam]

Might be interesting to note that George Formby's "When I'm Cleaning Windows" was censored by the BBC as early as 1940.

Source:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4701758.stm

A well-known Lancashire comedian of the time was George Formby, who famously played the ukulele. He was extremely popular and even performed privately for the Royal Family.

Anything more harmless than his jokes and songs would be difficult to imagine. His best-known song was the ballad "When I'm Cleaning Windows." One day Formby was told that his windows weren't clean enough for the BBC.

Smut had been spotted in the lyrics and he was banned from singing the song on radio. His formidable wife, Beryl, took up the cudgels on his behalf and eventually "When I'm Cleaning Windows" was deemed pure enough for public consumption and restored to the Formby canon.

Apparently the lines that caused the trouble ran:

"The blushing bride she looks divine,

The bridegroom he is doing fine,

I'd rather have his job than mine,

When I'm cleaning windows."

Freedom of speech and expression have been back in the headlines. Some Muslims are upset because of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad printed in the Danish press last September and recently reprinted elsewhere in the European press.

Meanwhile civil libertarians are disturbed by the British government's attempts to make some intemperate religious statements illegal. I've reads articles and letters saying we're in danger of losing our traditional freedom of speech.

Haha, cheers Keith, that'll do nicely.

[sirdavinator]

The Berzerker's video for Reality was banned from MTV for showing pictures of autopsy...fucking gruesome. Yeah, logical reason for it to be banned. Another video of theirs 'Forever' was also banned becuase of epilepsy-inducing imagery...

Right, that's all I have.

Edited April 15, 2006 by sirdavinator