Rock Dinosaurs Get Flack for Fuck

The uptight christian group (Parents Television Council, or PTC) fond of complaining to the FCC about everything from cartoon butts to 4-lettered expletives has waged war on ABC and The Who via a complaint to the FCC. The band's Live 8 performance the classic song "Who Are You", which contains the lyrics who the fuck are you, was broadcast on ABC unedited. This tune is the unofficial freebie in the world of radio; every classic rock station nowadays unabashedly airs the unedited version of "Who Are You", multiple fucks intact.

Fuck resurfaced a few months ago, but the FCC has been alarmingly quiet about indecency lately (probably because the commission chases its tail on the issue).

Comments

[Colin]

Don't forget Pink Floyd's 'Money' and its 'bullshit', which is the other freebie I can think of at the moment ...

[frank]

You can ask the FCC to deny the indcency complaint at SpeakSpeak.org. They fight back against the Parents Television Council idiots.

[Rick Ele]

I was wondering how urban/top 40 stations were getting away with programming that new Black Eyed Peas song? You can barely hear the "n" in "Phunk" ("Don't Phunk With My Heart").

[Scott]

And don't forget Sarah McLachlan's "Building a Mystery" which got loads of uncensored play before anyone realized she was saying "beautiful fucked up man" in the middle of it, because her voice just sounds so sweet and all, you wouldn't guess it's what she's saying there.

[mark]

I remember when Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" was big. I don't remember any of the radio stations near me censoring the line "harmless little fuck".

[Tim]

Re: "Jeremy" -
WDVE and WXDX Pittsburgh used to play a version where the vocal track dropped out and it sounded like Eddie just trailed off, "Seemed a harmless little..."
I was amazed when I bought the CD and heard the real thing for the first time.
Of course, the same stations played "Who Are You" uncensored.