> Rene wrote:
>
> "Although censorship was rampant & one of
Sydney's 2 Top 40 stations
was
> run by the Catholic church the line about "giving
head" was never
> censored because no-one in Australia knew what the
expression meant at
> that time, at least not before "Walk on the Wild
Side" came out."
>
> Tha same must have gone for US radio, as that line
was played, but
> "colored girls" was deleted.
>
Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly used to call his
backing band
"The Coloured Girls" (borrowed from the Reed song). He had to
change the name to "The Messengers" when he tried to crack
the US market. I prefer the original but I can fully
understand why the change had to be made - the irony would've
gotten lost in the transition to the US & what would've
been left would have come across as a racial slur. (I recall
TV footage of a couple of decades ago when Muhamed Ali
(excuse the spelling) was being interviewed by one of
Australia's leading TV personalities/comedians. His famous
catchphrase, at the time, was "I like the boy". When he said
this to Ali, Ali nearly blew his top & came very close to
knocking poor old Bert Newton's block off. He, like most
Australians still, had no idea how offensive the term "boy"
is to Afro-Americans.It has absolutely none of those
connotations here but Ali thought he was being racially
denigrated & it took a lot to calm him down. The irony
here is that Newton, who can be wickedly funny but with his
moon-face & hair transplant is a kind of cuddly icon for
Australia's housewives, is renowned as one of the nicest guys
in (Aussie) showbiz & the least likely person to
denigrate someone like Ali, of whom he was a great admirer.
Ali is highly thought of out here both for his sports
achievements -and Aussies take sport VERY seriously - &
as a man of conscience & integrity who has done a lot for
his people.
Rene
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