Audio Skills and Censorship

[Bruce B]

In '64 The Rolling Stones came out with a hit song, Satisfaction.

Some lyrics, specifically these: "and I'm trying to make some girl pregnant" caught my attention with some shock. I was used to censored songs, I wondered how the Stones could get away with it.

In order to get through censors, you might want to write a song titled Puff The Magic Dragon and let inference say what it means. And a good dose of plausible denial-ability for self protection which supports the position that Puff is not what your dirty mind thinks it is.

I shared these Satisfaction lyrics with friends and without exception, no one could hear the word pregnant.

Maybe the whole world has an audio hearing block which I don't have. How can people not hear the lyrics?

Today we have our computers and lyric-sissies publishing lyrics. So far, without exception, I find these lyrics being published:

"and I'm trying to make some girl"

rather than what the actual lyrics say which is

"and I'm trying to make some girl pregnant"

Almost half a century later and they're prudish? Ears still can not or will not hear the word pregnant. Go figure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a7cHPy04s8 start at 2:40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhNm3WI8myM start at 2:48
live performance were he muffles the pregnant word, but sings it all the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a7cHPy04s8 start at 2:38
lyrics to guide you through the song, but the word pregnant was omitted from the on screen lyrics, yet exists in the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz_WqVSDofg start at 2:40 - this seems to be an original UK release


Anyone interested can check it out for themselves.

~

[darkcity]

There's definitely some words there. It doesn't sound like 'pregnant' to me.

'they tell me...' is a possibility as suggested by-
http://www.amiright.com/misheard/artist ... ones.shtml

[Dave_G]

I always thought it went:

I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no

When I'm drivin' in my car
And that man comes on the radio
He's tellin' me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what I say

I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no

When I'm watchin' my TV
And that man comes on to tell me
How white my shirts can be
But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarrettes as me
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what I say

I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no girl reaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no

When I'm ridin' round the world
And I'm doin' this and I'm signing that
And I'm tryin' to make some girl
Who tells me baby better come back later next week
'Cause you see I'm on losing streak
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what I say

I can't get no, I can't get no
I can't get no satisfaction
No satisfaction, no satisfaction, no satisfaction

Interestingly on all the lyric sites, I could'nt find one that completes the line:
And I'm tryin' to make some girl
So perhaps it was left out of the official lyrics so as not to upset the
"powers that be" and was added at live performances.

I couldn't hear the word pregnant on the links you provided but very
interesting none the less and a great song.

What I did notice though (on your 2nd Youtube link) , is it sounds like
something other then the words "When I'm ridin' round the world
And I'm doin' this and I'm signing that " are being sung/mumbled.
Could just be my hearing or that they just forgot the original lyrics
due to a drug and or alcohol induced stupor.

There are lots of songs with hidden meanings and the more famous ones
being puff the magic dragon and of course Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

[Bruce B]

Am I the only one in the whole world? It has always felt that way.

I just did an internet search and got one hit where others validate the word pregnant in the song.

• The original lyric was "trying to make some girl, pregnant." The censors forced the removal of the word "pregnant".
  -jim
  
  I was a freshman in college when this was first released. A bunch of us used to hang out in this pizza place in downtown Brooklyn and listen to music on the juke. One of our group had the rest of us convinced that Mick was singing "I'm trying to make some girl pregnant" I don't remember exactly when I found out the real lyrics, but it seems kind of funny now!
  -jerry

Here is the link, then do a page search for the word pregnant.

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=449

For nostalgia sake, in '64, my sound system was the AM Radio in any car I had access to. And no, I didn't afford the 9V batteries for a small transistor radio.

Also, I'm convinced that many of our forum membership include people who lived through the sixties. This means to imply we are 'cool'. The downside for me is wondering if too many of us were partying so much or doing war things we don't have a contiguous memory of it.

~

[Dave_G]

....wondering if too many of us were partying so much or doing war things we don't have a contiguous memory of it.

Nicely put.

[sickgut]

....wondering if too many of us were partying so much or doing war things we don't have a contiguous memory of it.

Nicely put.

yay, lets make pregnancy forbidden and kill off the human race.
Eminem can rap about all this drug, violence and sex stuff but its not censored

[linuxbear]

Sometimes we mishear lyrics too There is a line from a Credence Clearwater Revival song that a lot of folks did not get right, the lyric goes:

Don't go around tonight,
Well, it's bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon on the rise.

What many heard was; "There's a bathroom on the right"