The Smiley Smile Message Board

i need some info about censorship/free speech about the Beatles.

I already have:
Lennon and the FBI (70s)
the Butcher Cover
the Jesus comment
the erased cigarette from Capitol boxed set Vol. 2


can you think of anything else?

THANK YOU, MUCH APPRECIATED

by the way, who was holding the cigarette in the original picture of the capitol boxset vol. 2? i thought it was Ringo; why edit it out?

How about the BBC's not playing "A Day In The Life" due to the "I'd love to turn you on" lyric being seen as a drug reference?

Or Spiro Agnew's speech about "With A Little Help From My Friends" being a direct solicitation of youth to do drugs?

nice, nice; thank you!

Ringo's cigarette was removed from the Capitol box set cover, yes.  But Paul is a two time offender: once, for the re-release of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in 1984, and again in 2003 for a poster of the album Abbey Road.

The Beatles notoriously puffed like smokestacks..  It is a wonder that it wasn't more prominent in posed photos than it was.

The Two Virgins cover, shipped in a paper bag and banned all over the place.

"The Ballad Of John & Yoko" - many US radio stations edited the word "Christ" out of the song before they'd play it. (Some stations re-edited the word back in backwards, so as not to inturrupt the meter/flow of the song.)

Beatle records were illegal in communist countries.

I think "I Am The Walrus" was also banned by the BBC for the "you let your knickers down" line.

John's "erotic lithographs" were seized by the cops as pornography when they went on display.

Yeah, I remember when McCartney played Red Square, there was stuff on the telly or in papers about Beatle records during the Soviet era. 

This, from BBC news web site -

"Mr Putin, who was a KGB agent when the Fab Four topped the charts around the world, admitted to his guest that The Beatles had been "a breath of fresh air" during Soviet times.

He said Beatles music "was considered propaganda of an alien ideology".

Mr Putin said that while Beatles' music was not banned by the Communist regime, "the fact that you were not allowed to play in Red Square in the 1980s says a lot.""

I recall there were first hand accounts in the media from folk who were teenagers then, talking about their experiences and impressions on hearing the records.  This is just my remembrances, as I'm not really a Beatle 'buff' with it to hand, but presumably the articles etc are still out there and findable.

The shot on the front of Capitol Albums Volume 2 had already been censored in 1995 for the sleeve of "Real love" except Ringo's fingers were still intact. (Looks like the clan in "Help!" got those fingers after all).

Fiendish thingie!

Didn't the BBC ban Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds aswell due to the LSD thing?

I don't think so, the BBC did a special preview show for "Pepper" before it came out, with Kenny Everett hosting and the Fabs introducing the tracks as they were premiered, and "Lucy" was aired that night. I'm pretty sure it was just "A Day In The Life" they banned.

Watch the anthology DVD and they have a press conference in Tokyo where some complain that the Budokan Hall should not be used for Rock Music but rather religious purposes...

The Manila incident...

Paul admitting to taking LSD

what's the manila incident that you refer to?

The Beatles performed in Manila (Phillipines) in 1966. On their one off day, they were invited to meet with Mrs. Marcos (of a million shoes fame). They turned down the invitation politely, or so they thought, because they were exhausted and wanted to stay in the hotel...but the Phillipine press saw it as a snub and they took it as an affront to Mrs. Marcos - so the Beatles and entourage had to get out in fear for their lives - they had no help from any guards and were spit on and had lots of trouble getting to the plane, then the plane was held back as Epstein and Mal Evans had some issues with income taxes. They were just getting their balls busted.
The plane finally took off but later, the Beatles and crew said it was their most fearful experience.

that's what i thought!  ;D