"The Bitch Is Back" - Elton John

To Paul Haney & PopArchivist:

Regarding "Devil Went Down To Georgia", If you listen carefully on headphones, the 'sun-of-a-gun' lyric is what was ORIGINALLY recorded (and presumably intended 'cos it kinda rhymes with 'once' & Charlie Daniels is somewhat conservative and sings this generally in concerts).

The album version with the 'sonofabitch' lyric was presumably created to make the album sound "more rock" or to potentially appeal more to that audience. You can hear on headphones the punch-in of the new 'sonofabitch' line because either a different microphone was used or different room acoustics were present. (Possibly a suggestion from producer John Boylan).

I strictly assume this was the case based on the aural evidence...

Andy

So if someone even wanted to censor the song for play on modern radio in 2025 what would happen to make it FCC compliant. They wouldn't take the request at radio? How would it air on radio now without the B words? Custom edit at Iheart?

IIRC, there was no "clean" promo 45 for "Bad Blood." I do believe some stations did their own edits, but I ALWAYS heard the normal version on my local radio stations at the time. Elton pretty much broke the taboo on that word. Same situation would apply to "Rich Girl" by Hall & Oates in early 1977.

Edited by Paul Haney - 27 May 2025 at 3:53am

I posted the following earlier in this thread, re: The Bitch Is Back & Bad Blood:

Ah, the memories...I was 8 years-old when this song [The Bitch Is Back] was a hit. I had 2 older brothers who got me hooked on AT40 right around this time (which pretty much set me on my future career path). Mom & Dad would let us listen to the local Top 40 station in the car. When our parents heard us sing along with this song for the first time they shut off the radio and that was it for KDWB in the car!

Flash forward to the fall of 1975...Neil Sedaka sang the offending "B" word in "Bad Blood" (which just happened to feature Elton!)...Mom was a big Neil Sedaka fan from the early 1960's, so all of a sudden that word wasn't so bad after all and KDWB was once again allowed in the family Buick.

Edited by Paul Haney - 27 May 2025 at 6:25am

I don’t remember the Elton John song being played on local stations back then (in Milwaukee, I usually listened to WOKY), but maybe my Mom successfully shielded me from that song. Either that or I just didn’t care for it much. Still don’t.

I do remember “Bad Blood” very well because my Mom actually bought me the 45 when I asked for it, although I remember her acting a little, I guess I’ll say, “cautiously surprised”. Of course, Neil’s song made it to #1, and I too am not aware of any radio edits.

I’m not too familiar with the song, but Rod Stewart also had a Top 40 release with the “b” word in it (“Ain’t Love A B*tch”). I don’t know if I’ve heard that song since its heyday.