What was the first song to include the word “fuck”?
In 1938, American jazz pianist Eddy Duchin was enjoying a fair amount of success in the pop music world when, suddenly, a surprising message made its way to him. His latest single, a rendition of the standard ‘Ol’ Man Moses’, has been banned in the UK for using the word “fuck” in its lyrics. Louis Armstrong had written ‘Ol’ Man Moses’, and the lyrics had been publicly published, so how did Duchin get away with letting loose on record?
Well, first off, it wasn’t Duchin himself who said the offending words. That would be singer Patricia Norman, who was recording with Eddy Duchin and his Orchestra at the time. Their rendition of ‘Ol’ Man Moses’ has a call-and-response section similar to Armstrong’s that goes like this: “(We found out) He kicked the bucket / (We found out) Where’s the man? Buck, buck, bucket”.
On the first go-around, Norman clearly articulates the word “bucket”. It wasn’t uncommon for “bucket” to be used as a cheeky substitute for the phrase “fuck it”, but Norman really leans into it on the second time the call-and-response section comes in. It still seems fairly obvious that Norman is singing “bucket” instead of the offending phrase, but her high-pitched vocal swing that almost sounds like she’s imitating a chicken seems purposefully pushing at the boundaries.
Various forms of the word “fuck” had been in usage since at least the 15th century, but it was only once the 20th century got into full swing that the word became the benchmark for offensive language. Early copies of D.H. Lawrence’s 1928 novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover were heavily censored to remove the word. The Dominoes had made direct allusions to the act of fornicating in the 1951 song ‘Sixty Minute Man’, but no actual expletive was involved.
Perhaps the most infamous case of trying to find hidden profanities in music came from The Kingsmen’s 1963 hit single ‘Louie, Louie’. With a slurred lead vocal from singer Jack Ely, nearly every word on the recording is indecipherable, and a rumour that the words were purposefully obscured to hide offensive language got so pervasive that the FBI even opened an investigation into the lyrics. The results came back inconclusive… even though drummer Lynn Easton clearly yells “fuck” around the 55-second mark.
By the late 1960s, as popular culture had become less cloistered, the F-word began to creep into music more extensively. The Beatles even snuck a “fucking hell” into the mix of ‘Hey Jude’ in 1968. But two controversies solidified the acceptability of “fuck” for good. One came from the hard-scrabble city of Detroit, while the other was America’s peace and love capital, San Francisco.
When MC5 vocalist Rob Tyner introduced the band’s rave-up classic ‘Kick Out The Jams’ to the Grande Ballroom on Halloween Night, 1968, he gave it some extra fire. Just before the band jumped into the song, Tyner directed the audience: “Right now, it’s time to kick out the jams, motherfuckers”. When this version of the song appeared on the band’s 1969 debut LP, Elektra Record requested that the band record a new intro that went “Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters”.
The censored version of Kick Out The Jams was available to buy at record stores… but only by special request. Detroit retail chain Hudson’s refused to stock the album and alter boycotted all Elektra recording artists when the MC5 took out an ad in local trade papers that featured Tyner saying “Fuck Hudson’s”. Elektra opted to drop the MC5 rather than continue fighting for them, with the band releasing two more albums on Atlantic Records before breaking up in 1972.
Over in California, Jefferson Airplane were looking to get equally inflammatory on their 1969 album Volunteers. Inspired by a rallying cry used by the Black Panthers, guitarist Paul Kantner penned the song ‘We Can Be Together’ along with vocalist Marty Balin that used the phrase “Up against the wall, motherfuckers”. RCA initially refused the band permission to include the word, but the band objected by pointing out that “fuck” had appeared uncensored on the RCA soundtrack to the Broadway musical Hair.
‘We Can Be Together’ appeared as the B-side to the ‘Volunteers’ single, the phrase “motherfucker” was slightly muffled but still audible. That made it perhaps the first song to purposefully include the word “fuck” to appear on a major-label single. A tradition that stretched back to the big band jazz days was now in full swing, with free reign on profanity being allowed in almost all forms of music.
