How Grace Slick became the first person to say the F-word on American TV
The name Grace Slick doesn’t exactly ignite conformist connotations. In fact, Slick gained a reputation of youthful rebellion as a pivotal figure of the counterculture movement, whose unrepentant nature made her a quintessential icon of the era. Even when television seemed to up the ante on shunning live profanities, Slick shattered the glass ceiling with her devil-may-care edge.
During the peak of her tenure, the Jefferson Airplane singer raked up a rebellious streak that would earn her a legion of loyal fans. Expressing profanities and expletives on television, like use of the word ‘fuck’, was understandably one of the most taboo actions you could take at the time. However, figures of the counterculture movement and later the rock ‘n’ roll influx would become significant challengers of this standard.
For instance, the first time the word was uttered live on British television occurred when theatre critic Kenneth Tynan used the word fuck as a synonym for sex, which earned immediate backlash and called for broadcasting networks to ban profanities of any nature. Some viewers were so offended they even wrote to the Queen, telling her that Tynan “ought to have his bottom smacked.”
Swearing on television might have lost its shock factor since the seemingly regressive nature of 1960s broadcasting, but when Slick introduced such behaviour to American audiences towards the end of the decade in 1969, the day after Woodstock, it seemed as though the network made every effort to make sure the recording went out with all necessary bleeping to avoid a public outcry.
At the time, Slick was appearing on The Dick Cavett Show to perform Jefferson Airplane’s ‘We Can Be Together’. In true Slick fashion, she got up and sang the song, complete with all its expletives, including the infamous line: “Up against the wall, motherfuckers!” According to some reports, Slick had asked Cavett whether she could perform the song without censoring the words, and he told her to play it however she wanted, knowing that he would have to take the burden if it backfired.
This show was particularly significant as not only did it follow the seminal Woodstock festival, but it also involved acts like Joni Mitchell, David Crosby, and Stephen Stills. In fact, due to the fact that many festival goers attended Cavett’s show directly after the festival, the episode is often dubbed “the Woodstock show”, with many still boasting the mud and smells of the days that came before.
This might have been the first instance of the word ‘fuck’ being sung on American television, but the fumes of rebellion reigned supreme, with some of the most iconic counterculture icons carrying on the party long after the final notes played at Woodstock. To top it all off, Slick’s mischievous nature was as endearing as ever.
