The Velvet Forum

Alright, I don't know about the radio where you guys all live, but I was listening to a classic rock station the other day and Walk On the Wild Side came on, which was exciting cause I don't think I'd ever heard it on the radio before. Unfortunately, they cut out almost half the song, mutilating everything about it, splicing together different parts of the instrumental tracks, just total blasphemy. And some of the lyrics they left in were different, whether with computers or by Lou himself in an alternate version, I'm not sure. Something about dancing around in the hallway of a hotel, but it's hard to recall exactly. My dad tells me that when the song came out and was played to death on the radio, they never changed a single word or shortened anything. Are people somehow more offended by it now than they were back then? And anyone know what's up with this awful edited version? It seems ironic to play the song at all if you're not even open to hearing the "wildness" of it. I can just picture a bunch of embarassed disc jockeys feeling relieved that they can feel all nostalgic without having to hear the words.

Lou posted about the FCC saying it was obscene. http://www.loureed.com

He was angry.

Are you sure it's still on there? I looked hard and can't find it.

OBSENE??!!

How outrageous! The song is terribly tame, compared to so many things now. I've heard it on the radio here in No. California all of my life; our local classic-rock station IS editing some songs since the "obsenity" bullshit - they're cutting up Pink Floyd and Doors songs like crazy, FASCISM - this is like Nazi Germany, slow at first....

who notices???

Until...... they come for YOU.....

Thus far, however, "Take A Walk On The Wild Side" hasn't been cut up.

I noticed it on my local classic rock station a few months ago. Like you said, the version that I heard had the instrumental part filled into the parts that lou would usually sing.
I specifically remember the line "Even when she was giving head" cut out and the song went right into "She says hey babe".

Kind of unrelated but what stinks with Clear Channel is you have this one company sanitizing the music (on its own behalf most of the time, without intervention from the FCC) like this and therefore most of the airwaves in the country change as well. Anyone remember the rumors after 9/11 about the "Do Not Play" lists?

I remember I originally started going to the library to check out 'strange' books and music (I guess they don't consider Woody Guthrie dangerous) in order to get on the terrorist watch list. That's when I realized the library rocks and has great music as well as books. I naturally failed in any hope of checking out books on how to create a real Third Reich. Oh well.

Sorry, it was related yet unrelated.

The FCC is a horrible block on free speech. They must think that they set the moral code for the entire country.

Lou Reed compared them to squirrels. He said it's beneath him to be judged by such stupid and pious people. It was a good quote. Couldn't find his actual post though.