WHEN CENSORSHIP RULED THE EARTH!
March 21, 2009
Who knew that one day you’d be able to see Britney Spears naked and Justin Timberlake’s “Dick In A Box” just by turning on your TV! In this anything goes kind of world, it’s hard to believe there was a time when Censorship Ruled The Earth!
“In the early 60’s, I went out with a few Iranian girls who actually told me that they were brought up to tell people what they wanted to hear, then go out and do the exact opposite. One of these girls, Jamela, was the beautiful daughter of a deposed general, who was exiled to the United States along with the Shah of Iran. I admit it was exciting to wonder who was following us on our dates, her father’s bodyguards…or the Secret Service! All of this danger, brought us closer together, and she revealed many aspects of her culture I never knew about. She told me that Iranian men showed no quarter to their enemy and were fierce warriors because they weren’t afraid of dying!
It was only when she told me that she feared for my safety, did I take our cultural differences seriously! We continued to see each other secretly, however, which led me to co-write my first hit song with Ben Raleigh, “(Meet Me At) Midnight Mary” (Raleigh/ Wayne). When I produced the record with Joey Powers, we tried to get away with saying she was having a baby a baby out of wedlock, but were warned that radio would never play it!”
We’ve all seen the clips of Mick Jagger on the Ed Sullivan Show singing “Let’s Spend The Night Together”, forced by the the producers to change the lyric to, “Let’s Spend Some Time Together” in order to get by the network censors. I didn’t realize that this was a common practice, and then my friend producer Jerry Ross (“Sunny”, “98.6”, Keep The Ball Rolling”), told me this story…
“With Two super hits under their belt, “Apple, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie”, and “Keep The Ball Rolling”, Jay and The Techniques were invited to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. This was a dream come true…hit records…concert tours…and now the Ed Sullivan Show! During rehearsal….sound check/ lighting etc, the band really was in a great frame of mind…..This was a dream come….HIT Records… Concert and tours…and now The Ed Sullivan show,,, spirits were high until the executive producer of the TV Show ( Ed Sullivan’s’ son-in law) Bob Precht pulls us aside and gives us the good news and the bad news…The good news….we are happy to have you on tonight’s show…the bad news….you can’t sing “Keep the Ball Rolling” because the lyrics in the 2nd verse (‘all or nothin’ at all”) are too suggestive)……….So….we put our creative heads together and decided to repeat the 1st verse twice….problem solved !!!!!!! As Ed Sullivan might put it, “It was a REALLY BIG SHOW!! (Ross laughs and corrects himself) I mean, It was a REALLY BIG SHOE!
COMING NEXT WEEK…TOMMY JAMES AND THE STORY BEHIND, “I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW”
For Part One of the series, “F#@K MUSIC CENSORSHIP! https://artiewayne.wordpress.com/2009/03/14/fk-music-censorship/
For Jerry Ross http://phillyoldies.com
For “The Best of Jay and the Techniques Newest CD with 28 original tracks just released by RPM UK http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=%22the+best+of+jay+%26+the+techniques%22&x=15&y=17
Copyright 2009 by Artie Wayne https://artiewayne.wordpress.com/about-artie-wayne/
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March 21, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Ed Sullivan was noted for the quality of his show, at least in part because you got live performances. Part of me wonders if this was at least partially to allow him to change parts of an act’s performmance to suit his whim, but part of the point is that if, say, Dick Clark had raised the same objection, he’d be screwed.
March 22, 2009 at 8:37 am
Sensored