Censorship in the '60s

[mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

 Donna wrote:
>>Do any of you recall whether or not the Doors' song "Light My Fire" was ever
censored by Boston radio because of alleged drug references?  Somebody asked
me, and I told them I couldn't recall-- my recollection is that AM radio
only played the 2 minute 52 second edit of the song, but they did play it;
FM of course would have played the entire thing...
>>

       As I recall, Light My Fire (short version) was played right away in
1967 and there was no censorship issue. I always thought of that song as
sex, not drugs, anyway. Only later, when it was an oldie and the AM
stations were trying to be more hip as the FM rock stations came on the
scene, was the long version ever played on WRKO, for example, as I recall.
        My main memory of Light My Fire is that CKLW played the short
version as a regional hit as soon as the album came out, about six months
before it broke nationally. So, to me, it was an oldie before its time. In
this era of ultra-tight playlist controls, we forget that even the
Drake-programmed stations wrote their own play lists. I guess CKLW forgot
to wait for the focus group . . .

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