Gagging (on) the Munchkins

[steepholm]

Of course, it went to number one. Anyone who actually remembers the '80s could have predicted that.

In 1984, a year that has some weight in the annals of censorship, the BBC banned the song "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood from its airwaves, largely because the Radio 1 DJ Mike Read found it offensive. Of course, it immediately went to Number 1 as well, having been languishing in the thirties prior to that - just as the Sex Pistols' banned song "God Save the Queen" had done seven years earlier at the time of the silver jubilee. You'd think they'd learn.

Oddly enough, I remember hearing that same Mike Read shortly afterwards playing the Beatles' "Come Together" with every sign of approbation - even though (to quote Ian Dury) a seasoned-up hyena could not have been obscener. But I suppose the Beatles' dirty jokes were by that time as far beyond reproach as Shakespeare's.

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

As I've noted, I consider this the cleverest political protest of all time. Besides, "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" is a good song.

Now, "Relax" - that song I found immensely offensive. Not for the lyrics, which I can't remember and never could make out most of, but for the music. Of all the irritating Tuneless Wonders that have infested the airwaves, that was perhaps the all-time worst.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I was (and am) fundamentally out of sympathy with most of the pop music of the early '80s. I don't remember that one being notably worse than the rest, but I'm happy to defer to your judgement on that one.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

It was about that time, after too many songs like that, that I stopped listening to pop radio, which I actually had been doing for about three years for the only time in my life. I liked songs like "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

That was a perfectly decent pop song, though I'd never have bought it. I do remember buying the first Big Country album around that time, though, and U2's War, which both sound very portentous now (and did then, but then I didn't mind it). I remember hating the New Romantics with a passion - the Human League especially - but I'm not sure why. The synthesizers had something to do with it, but on the other hand I did like Eurythmics, so who knows?

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Big Country. Now that you mention the name, I remember them. Didn't they have a hit that began with bagpipes? It sounded really good for about ten seconds, and then devolved into pop sludge. There were a lot of songs like that around then: punk numbers that began with ten seconds of acoustic guitar, that sort of thing, perhaps to fool people like me into listening.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

That's right - they were a Scottish band, and made much of it. Think of the Bay City Rollers plus musical ability - though it's true they were only fitfully able to drag clear of the undertow of formulaic poppiness.