Olivers' Army's Been Got At.....

[10ClarionSt]

........by the "woke" brigade. I heard it on the "Gold" radio station this morning. They've removed the part where he sings "only takes one itchy trigger, one more widow one less white nig ger"

Quite some time ago on here I said that somebody would do that. And they have! Some people should just stay in bed - permanent! Have a listen to the full version, but somebody still doesn 't like the word nig ger. hey ho!

[Hopkirk]

Oh come on. That word is quite rightly unacceptable these days.

How can you possibly complain if it is removed?

[AuntPollyGrey]

I'm about as least 'woke' as you can get but I find that offensive.

[10ClarionSt]

Give over! I say give over! Twas a hit record; a song, that's all. I say a song!! I asked the question about this, as I said, quite some time ago and users were horrified at the prospect of any PC action with this song. Times change as more and more people are "conditioned" by the media and tinterweb into becoming touchy, sensitive, woke and easily offended about nothing. Hey ho!

[Prudie]

What is so ridiculous is certain people of colour use that word all the time to describe each other in both music and conversation.

[10ClarionSt]

I know Prudie. I used to work with lots of West Indians and others. Quite an experience that was! They used that word all the time. Seems to me that only white people don't like it. People are offended these days by everything. I say everything! :o)

[Ellipsis]

Mainstream radio station chooses not to play the N word version of a song on a Sunday morning. Hardly news.

Lots of songs have "clean" versions for mainstream play. CeeLo Green, "Forget You", for example, is the clean version of "F*** you". Simple choice on a mainstream channel during the day: don't play the song at all, or play the clean version ...

[Sunk]

You never hear ‘White noise, by Stiff Little Fingers on the radio anymore :-(

https://www.letssingit.com/stiff-little-fingers-lyrics-white-noise-jq5v78r

It makes it difficult to have a conversation about racial slurs if just the mention of them gets censored. When Declan McManus wrote about ‘White Nig gers’ he was not meaning to offend black people.

[royfromaus]

Well, he wouldn't be as he was referring to Catholics.

[andy-hughes]

Prudie - // What is so ridiculous is certain people of colour use that word all the time to describe each other in both music and conversation. //

The entire thrust about black people using the term to each other is that they take back the offensive epithet from bigoted white people, and own it themselves, thus removing its power.

As a contestant on Big Brother found out, trying to use the word in an effort to be 'matey' with a person of colour is not seen as acceptable - she was out of the house within hours.

[andy-hughes]

The censorship of the song has been in action for a number of years now.

It's ironic that the point being made by Costello is the similarity in the ignorant views of religious bigots and racists is eaxctly the same.

To simply seize on the word and censor it is, as in so many cases of wokeism, to find a knee-jerk reaction and miss the context, which of course is the point, when you are a lyricist as intelligent and socially aware as Elvis Costello was then, and is now.

No-one, especially Mr Costello is suggesting that the word is pleasant to hear - and that is entirely the point his song is making.

That of course is entirely missed by people who understand superficial offence, but have no inkling of wider meaning and appropriate social comment.

How ironic, that in order to be woke, you have absolutely to be as superficial, narrow-minded, and incapable of grasping nuances, as the people you supposedly oppose, and your knee-jerk facsist censorship is every bit as damaging and destructive of understanding and tolerence.

[Peter Pedant]

erm this isnt news

coca cola was changed to cherry cola on top of the slops ( oops I have changed its name to a more woke version) - thirty of forty years ago

and didnt 99 luft balloons get changed back into German because the english one was unacceptable ( or they couldnt get a one syllable sub)

and Dance Leenda 1967
the chorus - ballai Leenda Ballai come sai

( hmm does ballare have one el or two in Italian)

because the english translation - Dance Leenda dance as you know how
is so jerky

[Sunk]

The ‘Oliver’s Army’ of the title were the British troops patrolling Belfast in the 1970. Oliver Cromwell having invaded Ireland in 1649. And other lyric comment on colonialism. The subject matter of the song made it controversial when it was released.

So it is a tad ironic that the power of the song is slightly dulled by clumsy editing.

[mushroom25]

// and didnt 99 luft balloons get changed back into German because the english one was unacceptable //

just not very closely translated. try this......

[ichkeria]

Most people never cottoned on to the meaning at the time!
It had a nice choon and that was all that mattered.
They certainly would never have played “Any King’s Shilling” from Spike.
I agree with Ellipsis: there’s no way the m-word is going to air on prime time . It’s simple offensive regardless of the intention. Some words are like that
I’d like to think it would still be played when a more discerning audience was around

[ichkeria]

The SLF one is a classic: it’s the Alf Garnet syndrome in part: who’s going to think it’s serious.
But as I said before, regardless if the intention, which in the SLF and Elvis Costello versions is plain, there are some words which are simply tabu per se. That’s been the case for a long time

[Sunk]

They are just a bunch of cheap lousy faggots.

[Ellipsis]

I'm sure my post above won't be removed. After all, we're not woke here, are we?

[follyfancier]

I still use that word when I want Dark Brown,
it was the colour of my first school uniform and that,s what it was called

[Ken4155]

I recall the first time i heard James Blunt's 'You're Beautiful' on local radio. Unfortunately for the presenter, he played the original version where James sings, "I was effing high' which, for radio consumption, had been changed to "I was flying high'.