Thursday Music: June 6th???

2 thoughts on “Thursday Music: June 6th???”

1. Street Fighting Man was one of my favorite Stones’ tunes from the late ’60s. And I distinctly remember the controversy surrounding it’s release in the summer of 1968 (from Wikipedia):

   Released as Beggars Banquet’s lead single on 31 August 1968 in the US, “Street Fighting Man” was popular on release but was kept out of the Top 40 (reaching number 48) of the US charts in response to many radio stations refusal to play the song based on what were perceived as subversive lyrics.[12] This attitude would be reinforced as the song was released within a week of the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.[6]

   Because of the 1968 National Demographic Convention and the possibility of the song inciting further violence, Chicago radio stations refused to play the song. This was much to the delight of Mick, who stated: “I’m rather pleased to hear they have banned (the song). The last time they banned one of our records in America, it sold a million.[13] Mick said he was told they thought the record was subversive, to which he snapped: “Of course it’s subversive! It’s stupid to think you can start a revolution with a record. I wish you could.”[13]

   Keith weighed into the debate when he said that the fact a couple of radio stations in Chicago banned the record “just goes to show how paranoid they are”. At the same time they were still requested to do live appearances and Keith said: “If you really want us to cause trouble, we could do a few stage appearances. We are more subversive when we go on stage.”[13]

   1. It kind of explains why this is the one Rolling Stones song that RAtM covered… 🙂

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