Off Topic Saints Not606 Music Thread

Ian Dury biopic on 4 this his son's latest.

 

I'm still a fan of Shatner's version...but then again I'm strange

 

So the BBC in its wisdom, and being addicted to all things politically correct, have decided to play an edited version of Fairytale of New York this year. This is absolute madness and completely over the top, even for that bunch of hopeless idiots. What gives these small minded people to do things like this? Here is the original version just because it's how it should be played, and the TOTP video, from a time when the BBC seemed quite normal .....

 

Brings back the time when that awful broadcaster, Mike Read, objected to playing Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax."

Going further back in time, they didn't play "I am the Walrus," "Day in the Life," "Je t'aime," "The Winkers' Song."

 

“Wet Dream” by Max Romeo went to no. 1 but was never played on the BBC, and was always referred to as “a record by Max Romeo”.

It was only about a bloke trying to fix his roof during a tropical storm...

 

Hasn’t this been in place for a couple of years?

 

Chilcs told me that he performs the full uncensored version at Xmas...

 

I guess if people have been called faggot as an insulting term for being gay, then it probably does offend to hear it over and over every Christmas because the continued usage affirms the idea that its an insult, and therefore being gay is something that deserves insult...i can't really judge as I'm hetero so although I'm aware the word is being used as an insult, it doesn't refer to me.
I don't think we should edit the historical record of everything that is now considered inappropriate, but it seems a small thing to bleep or miss out a word that is so obviously used to insult LGBT people today.
I don't know any gay people who are triggered by hearing the song in full, but that might simply be that they don't tell me they are.
I love the song, but I don't think I'll enjoy it less if I hear it with one word missing.
As you've proved Kaito, the version in full is freely available so those that have to hear the full version can if they want. Personally I think the whole outrage about muting an offensive insult when it's played on a public broadcast is a bit strange but then again I don't really get people sometimes

It's my favourite Christmas song, and I don't think that will change if I hear the edited version on the radio. I never listen to Radio 1 anyway, so I doubt I'll hear it very often.

 

I've always thought that it is there because it rhymes with maggot and never thought that she was calling him gay.

 

You're probably spot on there, but I suppose it doesn't really matter why it was put in the lyrics, just the fact that it is in there is enough to make people question it.
Faggot is a bundle of sticks, a meaty ball of deliciousness and a troublesome old woman in some usage, but when it's used as an insult, it's almost exclusively used to insult gay or effeminate men.
I'm not campaigning to get the word removed, I just understand how it can be seen as a pretty discriminatory insult.
It's a weird old world, and as a smoker I've smoked plenty of fags. What I didn't realise was even that was an insult, because "real men" smoked cigars back in the day, whereas women (and effeminate men) smoked cigarettes.
It's a bloody minefield really

 

The first time I ever heard the word was in one of my favourite films, Midnight Cowboy when Dustin Hoffman calls Jon Voight it because of his cowboy outfit.
I think it's used ironically in American Idiot by Green Day. It will be interesting if the BBC censor these also.
The word "queer" has been reclaimed by the LGBT community and has lost its impact now as well as "queen".

Edit: I've just thought of a Joe Jackson song too.

 

You're too old for Radio 1, while most of Radio 2 sucks, save Walker and Gambaccini. The only BBC músic program I would bother with these days is Paul Miller's soul.music program.on BBC Radixford.

 

Many years ago my brother went to stay with a mate of his from school who had moved for work to Toronto. A party was held for my brother in the apartment, and at some point in the evening he announced he was just popping out on the roof for a fag. This caused a range of reactions, from puzzlement to hilarity, until the confusion was explained.

 

Reminds me of that english nanny who was on trial for the alleged murder of a child in her care when she said she "just popped him on the bed"..."popped" being a Mafia term for a hit!

 

Fairytale of New York has nothing to do with any perceived gay slur. The term 'faggot' is intended as an insult but it's used in the context of Kirsty MacColl calling Shane MacGowan a waste of space and a low down drunken bum (maggot and faggot). Each of them dreams of the promise of a better life in New York but they had met the reality of hard times. Insults fly around but towards the end of the song there is the gentleness in the final verse. The BBC has succeeded in confusing the lyrics and coming up with a pathetic reason to edit a song. How is it that a man and woman singing insults to each other can be confused with a gay insult? Typical of where this (oh, I am so offended) society is these days and the stupidity of tampering with a genuinely creative piece of music.

 

If Shane MacGowan doesn't have a problem with the bleep out so be it.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/...-faggot-reference-in-christmas-song-1.3723622

 

I appreciate that it's not actually used in the song as a gay insult, just because of context, but I can't think of any insults where faggot is used when it's not directed at someone who is gay.
I'm not criticising your defence of the word in the song, just trying to explain why it can be seen as quite clearly offensive to someone who is gay.
Nuance and context escape most people these days, so it's easy to see how continued use of the word can be seen to be confirming and legitimising its use as a gay slur.
Still a great song, even with faggot removed, probably a shame that not much else insulting rhymes with maggot

 

There was a character in Shakespeare’s Richard II called Bagot. He wasn’t very nice.

 

I’m with you there. I genuinely never got the outrage from eeny meeny miny moe because as a child I was taught to use this word that when I look back doesn’t exist of “Nikker”

Only in the last few years gave I realised what word I was substituting.

I’m happy to hear the new version of this Xmas anthem, though I really don’t think offence was meant in the original, though I can see now how it causes it.

 

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