Paul Simon - Kodachrome

I've always been curious about the so-called 'censored' version of this song that edited 'crap' out.

If anyone is aware, does the lyric then become "all I learned in high school?"

John and MPH711, I wonder if these "censored" versions were actually individual "in-house edits", done by the Top 40 stations themselves? Because in 1973, I distinctly remember hearing on my local AM Top 40 station, a "beep", similar to the one heard on Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue", overlayed where the word "crap" was sung, during the opening line of "Kodachrome". This differs from the "music fill" that MPH711 heard. Another reason for my "possible-in-house-edit" thought is this: I own two different promo 45 copies of this song, and both sides of both copies leave the word "crap" totally intact. Perhaps Gary Mack, or another DJ who was spinnin' the hits on Top 40 radio in 1973, could provide addition insight to us with their personal recollections.

I heard an "all I learned in high school" edit on KDWB, and thought that it drew even more attention to the edit because it totally disrupted the rhythm of the song.

It would have been less obtrusive to cut and splice in the c-word backwards, although listeners would have then wondered why they hadn't ever studied parc in high school.

I was doing weekends at a small-market station (probably would be considered Hot AC today) in the summer of '73. We played the song unedited with few if any complaints. Like others, I've never seen an actual record company edit of this. Indeed, the only station I recall hearing an edit on was WBZ (and their automated Top 40 FM) in Boston...it was a clumsy splice that, as Yah Shure noted did nothing but draw attention to the fact that the song had been edited.

As far as I know all the edits were home made. TM Century Stereo Rock which was a reel to reel automation service used on many FM stations replaced the word crap rather effectively with a piece of music from later in the song. Whomever made that edit had some incredible ears, you could tell that the word was missing but it sounded like it was just mixed out. Other stations tried to use music from the song's intro to replace the word and that didn't sound very natural at all. I finally figured out where TM Century got that piece of music to make the edit but it wasn't obvious. Like I said, their editor had great ears.

Edited by Bill Cahill