Jamie Burgert

02/13/2014
Instructor: Bill Hogan
Essay 1: Music and Censorship
Psychedelic Musicians Censored Despite their Creative Efforts
Today it is easy, far too easy, to stumble upon a popular radio station
that is full of music that clearly advocates drug use. Popular music stations
are constantly demonstrating that although drug use is still very much
frowned upon; music advocating drug use has lost its taboo altogether. That
was not the case half a century ago; when psychedelic music first emerged
into mainstream. Artists back then were faced with the challenge of making
music in a way that allowed them to sing about the drug induced
experiences they wanted to express, while dodging censorship that
prevented their songs from reaching their audiences. This forced psychedelic
bands to push their creative boundaries, but no matter how hard they tried,
they still faced a barrage of censorship in many forms. This was because the
BBC, FCC, and countless radio stations have made the assertion that
censorship of psychedelic rock during the sixties and early seventies (now
known as the psychedelic era) was necessary to protect the public from drug
laden subject matter (Fong-Torres). The BBC banned more than just a few
psychedelic songs, and in their justification they usually blamed the songs

lightly veiled drug references. Many American radio stations never even
played psychedelic rock to begin with because the program directors saw
playing drug related songs as a risky move. A large amount of radio stations
that actively played highly requested psychedelic songs stopped after the
Federal Communications Commission sent radio stations executives a public
notice encouraging them to not play songs that may have hidden drug
references. Because of artists creative methods of dodging censorship,
psychedelic music prevailed and has become the prevalent theme of the late
sixties and early seventies. I strongly believe that psychedelic rock bands
earned their place on radio stations, but were wrongfully censored an
incalculable amount of times.
Throughout the mid to late 60s the BBC banned a handful of
psychedelic rock songs due to lightly veiled drug references. This was
troubling because censors had full control in determining the subject matter
of incredibly abstract songs. The BBCs claims pertaining to the hidden drug
references in many of the banned psychedelic songs rested upon the
assumption that the general public would interpret them in the same way
BBC officials had. Some of the most notable songs that the BBC had banned
were songs by the Beatles that had reached the tops of music charts in other
parts of the world. According to an article on by rock journalist Bryan
Wawzenek on ultimateclassicrock.com entitled Top 10 Censored Rock Songs,
the list of banned hits included "Come Together, "A Day in the Life," and
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". What I find interesting about many of these
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songs is that, in my opinion, none of the lyrics give the slightest hint of drug
use. For example,

I personally had listened to each of these songs many times throughout my

years as a teenager and I never had a clue that they were about drugs.
Furthermore, if no one had ever told me that drug use was the hidden
subject matter of these songs, I doubt I would have ever come to that
conclusion. After questioning people who grew up amidst the psychedelic
culture, I found that I was not alone in my ignorance of the hidden drug
references in the rock songs of the late sixties.
Although the majority of radio stations do not have records of songs
they have censored during the psychedelic era, it is the general consensus of
my parents, aunts, and uncles who were all young adults during the late
sixties, that psychedelic songs were not commonly broadcasted on radio
stations during the day. When I questioned my mother weather she felt that
broadcasters censorship of songs like White Rabbit, Eight Miles High,
My Friend Jack, Stoned, and A Day in the Life were ever appropriate.
Her response confirmed my own theory: I never thought so since none of
those songs encouraged people to do drugs. For the most part, the only
people that really knew about the drug references were people who had

already done drugs. It wasnt anything like todays music: singers were more
careful about what they said.
They were indeed careful about what they said. Even Jefferson
Airplanes White Rabbit, which, in my observations, has the most obvious
drug references of any song produced in the psychedelic era, cleverly
disguises them in a vivid allusion to Lewis Carrols book The adventures of
Alice in Wonderland. Songwriter, Grace Slick, used this tool throughout her
entire song so that, at first glance, these lyrics would appear to retell one of
the most well-known childrens books of all time. As an illusion, the following
is an excerpt from her song:
When the men on the chessboard get up
And tell you where to go
And youve just had some kind of mushroom
And Your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice, I think shell know (Beeferman)
Obviously, the lines And youve just had some kind of mushroom and your
mind is moving low is about psilocybin magic mushrooms. However, it
also refers to Alice eating parts of a mushroom to make herself shrink and
grow so that she is able to fit within the miniature wonderland. What is
suprising about the lack of censorship surrounding this song is that Slick
openly claimed that she wrote
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These harmless songs even faced censorship by the FCC; an agency

funded by a government and society that prides itself on its legal right to
freedom of speech as stated in the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights. The
FCC believed that better censorship of drug related music was imperative; so
on March 5th 1971 when they issued a public notice entitled Licensee
Responsibility to Review Records Before Their Broadcast to radio stations
across the country. According to the FCC, the document was meant to remind
licensees that it was their responsibility to review songs and be aware of
their hidden meaning before they broadcasted them. (FCC 409) Within the
public notice FFC commissioner Robert E. Lee very clearly advocates
censorship of drug related songs.
I sincerely hope that the action of the Commission today in releasing a
Public Notice with respect to Licensee Responsibility to Review Records
Before Their Broadcast will discourage, if not eliminate the playing of records
which tend to promote and/ or glorify the use of illegal drugs. (FCC 410)
In making this comment, Lee urges radio stations to deprive
songwriters of their right to freedom of speech. Unfortunately, many radio
stations did just that. Radio stations all over the country immediately pulled
highly requested songs off the air. Some of the more popular songs radio
stations had banned included Monkey Man, Eight Miles High, I Am A
Walrus, Let It Bleed, Comin Into Los Angeles, and Small Circle Of

Friends. (Fong-Torres) None of which had even remotely clear drug

references!
After observing the immediate damaging effect the FCCs public notice
had, American rock journalist Ben Fong-Torres openly criticized the FCC in an
article he wrote for Rolling Stone magazine. In his article Fong-Torres explains
that radio stations were Interpreting the Commissions indirectly-worded
notice as a warning. He gives several specific examples of radio stations
were banning songs that may be interpreted as drug related. He also writes
about how program director, Steve Leon, was fired from his fathers
Philadelphia based broadcasting station for playing verboten songs in
response to the FCCs public notice. Throughout the article Fong-Torres
includes quotes from the diverse viewpoints of program director Jeff Kaye,
lawyer Tracy Westen, and songwriter Tom Shipley. Westen; a lawyer who
specializes in broadcast censorship, endorses Fong-Torres claims against the
FCC in his statement.
This is an insidious and underhanded form of censorship, because the
FCC has not had the guts to come out and say what they really mean. They
are trying to scare private stations into doing the censorship themselves and
avoid the rap. (Fong-Torres)
I concur with both Fong-Torres and Westen, because these stations
executives had always been aware that it was their responsibility to be fully
aware of the content they were making available to the public and they had
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been reviewing and broadcasting these songs prior to the FCCs public
notice.

What made this form of censorship problematic is that it is was always

dependent on the censors view point. People often read whatever they
wanted into a song weather It was there or not.