O/T REO Speedwagon - Tough Guys

eriejwg wrote: I know it was never released as a single, and the album version is explicit, but has anyone ever come across a clean version, even a custom edit, that is a clean version of Tough Guys by REO Speedwagon?

MTV/VH1 Classic played it unedited. Depending on your market, the "S word"
wasn't exactly a dealbreaker, and playing songs unedited often gave rock
stations credibility(one station played NIN's "Closer" unedited").



So, I would say that there probably wasn't an edited version made, as it was
strictly confined to AOR radio as an album cut.

I think it's a couple of things causing stations to play language edits on AOR.

1) I'm in the buckle of the Bible belt, so if if you're playing all the "heathen" rockers, you better play squeaky clean lyrics.

2) People seem more trigger-happy about complaining to the FCC than they were 50 years ago... and nobody wants a fine if they can help it.

3) Many large broadcast corporations pool their music libraries for their stations across the country, and if a rock song might end up on a station targeted at a more sensitive demo, might as well put in the censored copy for everybody to play and avoid the risk of error.

I've heard stations here play songs unedited, then edited, then go back to unedited. It can depend on who's in charge locally, or who's in charge nationally.

I'd also like to add that it started 20 years ago this coming February, when the
"Wardrobe Malfunction" occurred at the Super Bowl. The government cracked
on what they perceived to be "indecent" programming, and Bush signed a bill
in 2006 that hiked FCC fines.



By late 2004, I began hearing "Money" and "Jet Airliner" in edited forms, and
"The Bitch Is Back" disappeared for a time.

radiofan16 wrote: I'd also like to add that it started 20 years ago this coming February, when the "Wardrobe Malfunction" occurred at the Super Bowl. The government cracked on what they perceived to be "indecent" programming, and Bush signed a bill in 2006 that hiked FCC fines. By late 2004, I began hearing "Money" and "Jet Airliner" in edited forms, and "The Bitch Is Back" disappeared for a time.

Yeah, it all seemed to have started about then. Oddly, most classic rock stations seem to play the unedited version of "Money For Nothing"
still.

I wonder if another factor here is simply that rock isn't considered cool or edgy anymore. Plenty of obscenities in rap music.

A few years ago, my local oldies station went so far as to censor songs where the lyrics weren't really dirty, but could
possibly be misheard as such! This included "Legs" by ZZ Top ("Sure I got to have her" which sounds like "S**t I got to
have her") and "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd where they bleeped out the very ending lyrics of "Montgomery's got
the answer" which I guess could sound like "G** Damn"?!? They have since come to their senses and gone back to airing
them as is.