(no subject)

[den]

Apparently there was some sort of football game on today.

Comments

Re: They invited the Rolling Stones to play...

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Re: They invited the Rolling Stones to play...

[klishnor.livejournal.com]

are you kidding?

Perfectly serious.

back in the day, when the Rolling Stones were on the old Ed Sullivan TV show, their big hit song at the time was "Let's Spend The Night Together" - but for purposes of TV, they had to change that lyric to "Let's Spend Some Time Together", all through the song!

Firstly, that was back in the 1960's, I would have hoped that USAians would have grown up slightly in the 40 years since then.[1]

Secondly, the Stones were never considered to be that underground/alternative/revolutionary over here (except by the Colonel Bogey types who write letters to The Times complaining about anything that's remotely different from they way they were when they were young: around 200 years ago from the way they act). They weren't the "clean-cut, decent" types like Cliff, or even The Beatles, but there were a lot of groups out there who made the Stones look like a choir, and considering what some American singers have recorded since I don't think anything the Stones may have recorded comes close.

[1] OK, I'm known for optimism.

Re: They invited the Rolling Stones to play...

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Re: They invited the Rolling Stones to play...

[klishnor.livejournal.com]

broadcast TV has to adhere to certain standards of "decency", as set by the Federal Communications Commission (as does broadcast radio). in addition, each network, each individual station, and each series applies their own standards of "decency"; there have been cases where, say, a fundamentalist-owned TV station refused to air an episode of a popular series when it dealt favorably with homosexuality.

We have a "standard" over here, but most stations (including the BBC) like to push it as far out of shape as they can. I'd like to see ANY station in the USA show the second or third series of Little Britain. One of the more normal characters has the catchphrase "I'm the only gay in the village"

in the 1950s and 1960s, the standards were pretty strict. if an actress, and/or the character she played, was pregnant, the changes in her figure had to be concealed - this led to both creative costume design, and some amusing scenes where the woman was standing behind a potted palm, or had her back to the camera, or otherwise wasn't completely visible, for an entire episode. and they couldn't use the word "pregnant" - she was "expecting"!

I'm old enough to have heard about the "I Love Lucy" fun and games when Lucy became pregnant. Whilst I was never a fan of the show (or her), I do appreciate her stand.

anyway, this is why the venerable Ed Sullivan Show would only shoot Elvis Presley from the waist up, because the sight of his hips swaying in time to the beat ("Elvis the Pelvis") was considered too lascivious for family viewing... likewise, the change in the Rolling Stones' lyrics. (you'd never have seen a band like the Sex Pistols on Ed Sullivan!)

Pity. No Rap artists either I take it.

the industry has been pushing the limits of this concept since the beginning, and things have gotten slowly less stupid. but the Super Bowl is subject to an awful lot of scrutiny, because it's one of the most-viewed programs on TV. and it's assumed that children are watching. hence, the kerfuffle over Janet Jackson's nipple (the US is notoriously irrational about nudity), and the censorship of the Stones' lyrics (as one sports report described it, "a synonym for 'rooster'").

So there are signs of improvement then. Good.

Re: They invited the Rolling Stones to play...

[acelightning.livejournal.com]