Pre-1980 Recordings With Curse Words That Were Commercially Released
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Philzone Refugee
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I was recently reading about Public Enemy's record "Fight The Power" and Chuck D referenced the 1974 Isley Brothers' different song of the same title as the first time he heard a curse word on a record. Nowadays, it seems unremarkable, but there once was a time when it wasn't very common. These are some examples I could think of from before 1980. I know Richard Pryor has a lot too, but didn't list them. Are there other examples you can think of?
Jefferson Airplane "Volunteers" (1969) "Up against the wall motherfucker"
Country Joe & The Fish "The F-I-S-H Cheer" (1970) "What's that spell? FUCK!", recorded live at Woodstock, 1969, first performed in 1968
The Rolling Stones "Sweet Virginia" (1971) "Got to scrape the shit right off your shoes"
George Carlin "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" (1972) "cocksucker, cunt, fuck, motherfucker, piss, shit, tits"
Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen "Everybody's Doin' It" (1973) "Truckin, fuckin', everybody's doin' it now". This is a cover of a song first recorded in 1937 by The Modern Mountaineers featuring Smoky Wood:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LFcHD8XsCEc
The Isley Brothers "Fight The Power (Parts 1 & 2)" (1974) "all this bullshit going down"
Funkadelic "Get Off Your Ass And Jam" (1975) "Shit! Goddamn! Get off your ass and jam".
Bob Dylan "Hurricane" (1976)
"Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down"
The Sex Pistols "Bodies" (1977) "Fuck this and fuck that. Fuck it all and fuck the fucking brat."
Steve Miller Band "Jet Airliner" (1977) "All this funky shit going down in the city". Originally written and recorded in 1973 by Paul Pena in 1973 for his "New River Train" album, which Albert Grossman prevented him from releasing until 2000.
J.J. Cale "Cocaine" (1977) "Shit don't lie, shit don't lie, shit don't lie...cocaine". Clapton sang it as "she don't lie" and it's listed that way in all the online lyric references, but if you listen to J.J.'s original version from his "Troubadour" LP, it's pretty clear:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KWmD_HcOcfU
The Who "Who Are You" (1978) "Aw, who the fuck are you?"
The Rolling Stones "Some Girls" (1978)
"White girls they're pretty funny
Sometimes they drive me mad
Black girls just wanna get fucked all night
I just don't have that much jam"
Pink Floyd "The Trial" (1979) "You little shit you're in it now. I hope they throw away the key."
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The Who "Dr. Jimmy": Her
The Who "Dr. Jimmy" (1973): Her fella's going to kill me? Oh, fucking will he?
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John Lennon "Working Class
John Lennon "Working Class Hero" (1970): And you think you’re so clever and classless and free/but you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.
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"Show biz kids making movies
"Show biz kids making movies of themselves, you know they don't give a fuck about anybody else"
Steely Dan, "Show Biz Kids" (1973)
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Wharf Rat is only on a live
Wharf Rat is only on a live record, but it counts, right?
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MC5 - Kick Out The Jams
MC5 - Kick Out The Jams
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"We cheat lie forge fuck hide
"We cheat lie forge fuck hide and deal" - also from Volunteers.
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Starfucker, by the Stones,
Starfucker, by the Stones, Goat's Head Soup (1973)
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By itself, "damn" isn't much
By itself, "damn" isn't much of a curse word, but "Goddamn" kind of elevates it to blasphemy, so add "Uncle John's Band" (1970) to the list.
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Nice work, team. Live
Nice work, team. Live versions count, stage banter counts, as long as it was commercially released before 1980.
Janis Joplin with The Full Tilt Boogie Band "Ball and Chain" (1972) "as we learned on the train, tomorrow never happens. It's all the same fucking day, man."
This version was recorded July 4, 1970 in Calgary on the Festival Express Tour and released as part of the 1972 2 LP collection "Janis Joplin In Concert"
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David Peel & The Lower East
David Peel & The Lower East Side
Up against thw wall...
probably the whole discography
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Ted Nugent "Wang Dang Sweet
Ted Nugent "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang" (1978) "Anybody wants to get mellow can turn around and get the fuck out of here."
This is from the spoken word intro to the version on "Double Live Gonzo", recorded live at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium, July, 1977.
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Harry Nilsson "You're Breakin
Harry Nilsson "You're Breakin' My Heart" (1972): You're tearing it apart, so fuck you.
I love that Janis rap in the Festival Express "Ball and Chain".
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Probably one of the most
Probably one of the most commonly played on the radio is Pink Floyd's "Money"
Money, it's a hit
Don't give me that do goody good bullshit...
I think they didnt start bleeping out "bullshit" when played on the radio until the past 5 years or so, which I never understood.
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I think GD was first to
I think GD was first to commercially release a recording with "Fuck/Fucker" on Wharf Rat....too bad 'SkullFuck' was nixxed in lieu of that 'Grateful Dead' album (...or was it called 'Skull & Roses'?)
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The original nasty rapper,
The original nasty rapper, Blowfly, had some albums released in the 1970s that had lyrics that were downright nasty and pornographic, with such hits as Cum and Eat it Out, Pass the Pussy Around, and Keep This Old Pussy Cumming:
Although commercially released, don't think it got much airplay.
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If I'm not mistaken
If I'm not mistaken Volunteers was released before Skull and Roses so JA would have beaten the Dead on cursing
im too lazy to look up release dates
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While there were earlier
While there were earlier songs with cuss words and cuss words that were a lot cussier, I would imagine the most popular song released that contained cuss words (originally bleeped though) is Johnny Cash's hit cover of Shel Silverstein's My Name is Sue.
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David Allen Coe's "Nothing
David Allen Coe's "Nothing Sacred" album from 1978 had some dirty language. You couldn't get it in stores and it was instead sold by mail order via ads in the back of Easyriders magazine.
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John Hartford at the Philly
John Hartford at the Philly Folk Festival in 1970...
Smoke, Shit and Fuck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbWWT9q7PYA
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Ha! The ads in the back of
Ha! The ads in the back of Easy Riders magazine were notable and oft-times more colorful than those in High times too.
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Yes, I noted JA's Volunteers
Yes, I noted JA's Volunteers 1969 release in my OP.
The 1937 Modern Mountaineers track I posted a link to has them all beat by a country mile.
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Let's not forget Mickey Hart
Let's not forget Mickey Hart's hit single...Teacher
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP6P8-3Blsg