10 Years Ago: Rolling Stones Censored During Super Bowl Halftime Show
By Jeff Giles February 5, 2016


https://youtu.be/pEIZGu7Dzso



On Feb. 5, 2006, the Rolling Stones used their performance during the Super Bowl XL halftime show to prove they could still make network censors blush.

The band’s three-song set offered a brief survey of their illustrious career, offering the early single “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and the mid-period hit “Start Me Up” as well as “Rough Justice,” a single from their then-current release, A Bigger Bang. Two out of the three songs contained lyrics that made the NFL uncomfortable.

There were two offending lines in all. In “Start Me Up,” the league took issue with a lyric applauding a woman’s sexual prowess as being so powerful that it could reanimate one particular portion of a dead man’s anatomy, while “Rough Justice” gave cause for concern with a line containing a reference to cocks — never mind that it was (sort of) used in a barnyard context.

Even given the Super Bowl’s status as one of the year’s biggest appointment-viewing programs and the league’s need to satisfy the widest possible audience, nitpicking over vaguely profane Stones lyrics seemed like pretty minor stuff. At the time, however, the NFL wasn’t willing to take any chances: two years before, they’d found themselves facing a whirlwind of criticism after a halftime show featuring Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake ended with Jackson’s exposed breast.

The Stones didn’t put up too much of a fuss, agreeing to have singer Mick Jagger‘s mic dialed down during those particular lines, but they made their displeasure known after an NFL spokesperson alleged that not only was the band aware they’d be censored, but they were “fine with it.”

“The Rolling Stones thought the censorship of their songs by the NFL/ABC was absolutely ridiculous and completely unnecessary,” said Stones rep Fran Curtis. “The band did the songs they were supposed to do and they sang all the words. There were many many conversations back and forth and the band clearly was not happy about it.”

Of course, as Stones fans are aware, the Super Bowl was far from their first brush with television censorship. In fact, they were famously forced to alter the lyrics to their 1967 single “Let’s Spend the Night Together” during a Jan. 15, 1967 performance on The Ed Sullivan Show — an episode that, coincidentally, aired the same day as the very first Super Bowl. That wasn’t an occasion that the band specifically referenced from the stage during Super Bowl XL, but Jagger did offer a wry nod to the Stones’ veteran status before they launched into “Satisfaction.” “Here’s one,” he quipped, “we could have done at Super Bowl I.”


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Edith Grove wrote on Feb 5^th, 2016 at 11:49am:

In “Start Me Up,” the league took issue with a lyric applauding a woman’s sexual prowess as being so powerful that it could reanimate one particular portion of a dead man’s anatomy

The author's attempt to specify the line "You could make a dead man cum" while keeping it nice was pretty funny too.

These are the guys that I know as the Rolling Stones. I don't understand the attempts I see to tone them down (some even by their own fans). I remember them doing songs about love, pain and life's tribulations, sure, but also about drugs, violence, prostitution, S&M, sex, and sex, and sex, and sex, and dead guys having orgasms. Their bluntness about all that is part of what I've always respected about them. So if you don't to hear songs that mention such explicit subjects, why the fuck did you ask for the Stones in the first place?

What a night that was.  The confluence of the greatest band ever and the greatest team ever.  It was the kind of synesthesia one would expect only on LSD, except there it was miraculously on Him's nickel.

Kingdom, Power and Glory.  Poise and moxie.

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/SGAAAOSwT6pVh5yo/s-l300.jpg

no nipple?

sure. censor the Stones and give me some nip and a militant black panther pole dancer.

wrote on Feb 16^th, 2016 at 12:56pm:

sure. censor the Stones and give me some nip and a militant black panther pole dancer.

You're just still hurting because the Broncos lost the Championship game depriving of you seeing the Stones in the Superbowl.  :nicetits

wrote on Feb 16^th, 2016 at 12:56pm:

sure. censor the Stones and give me some nip and a militant black panther pole dancer.

Jaxx  ..... ?!



JAXXY   ..... ?!


My  ' Mile High Momma '  ........  Is that really YOU ?!


Where in the Heck have you been these past few years ?


Weeding ?!   ...... Hashishin' ..... ?!

Are You Hashishin' ..... ?!


Weeding ?!


Weedykins 

Gazza wrote on Feb 16^th, 2016 at 1:12pm:

wrote on Feb 16th, 2016 at 12:56pm: sure. censor the Stones and give me some nip and a militant black panther pole dancer. You're just still hurting because the Broncos lost the Championship game depriving of you seeing the Stones in the Superbowl.  :nicetits

Sour grapes? Moi?  Never! Altho, that would have been a real treat. But no. My issue is censoring the Stones, yet subjecting family audiences to the likes of Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction and Beyonce's pole dancing, not once but twice. When this game was merely a championship game viewed by a small football fan audience comprised predominantly of men,, we were treated to College Marching Band Formation, not Get in Formation with militant afro american  women shooting beaver in black panther garb..i was offended by that performance and can't stop wondering what shit would have hit the fan  had  a caucasian artist gone out there with a caucasian dance ensemble doaning white hoods.  I fail to see the difference.


Joey wrote on Feb 16^th, 2016 at 1:41pm:

wrote on Feb 16th, 2016 at 12:56pm: sure. censor the Stones and give me some nip and a militant black panther pole dancer. Jaxx  ..... ?! JAXXY   ..... ?! My  ' Mile High Momma '  ........  Is that really YOU ?! Where in the Heck have you been these past few years ? Weeding ?!   ...... Hashishin' ..... ?! Are You Hashishin' ..... ?! Weeding ?! Weedykins

living the dream in free form style--just then way I like it!

And you betcha. They more things change the more they stay the same. one foot in the galaxy as usual.

wrote on Feb 16^th, 2016 at 4:28pm:

Gazza wrote on Feb 16th, 2016 at 1:12pm: [quote author=353E27275F0 link=1454694587/4#4 date=1455648994]sure. censor the Stones and give me some nip and a militant black panther pole dancer. Sour grapes? Moi?  Never! Altho, that would have been a real treat. But no. My issue is censoring the Stones, yet subjecting family audiences to the likes of Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction and Beyonce's pole dancing, not once but twice. When this game was merely a championship game viewed by a small football fan audience comprised predominantly of men,, we were treated to College Marching Band Formation, not Get in Formation with militant afro american  women shooting beaver in black panther garb..i was offended by that performance and can't stop wondering what shit would have hit the fan  had  a caucasian artist gone out there with a caucasian dance ensemble doaning white hoods.  I fail to see the difference.

I've read a lot of ignorant and vile shit on music message boards, but this post takes the cake. Makes me embarrassed to be a Stones fan publicly sometimes.

wrote on Feb 16^th, 2016 at 4:28pm:

Gazza wrote on Feb 16th, 2016 at 1:12pm: wrote on Feb 16th, 2016 at 12:56pm: sure. censor the Stones and give me some nip and a militant black panther pole dancer. You're just still hurting because the Broncos lost the Championship game depriving of you seeing the Stones in the Superbowl.  :nicetits Sour grapes? Moi?  Never! Altho, that would have been a real treat. But no. My issue is censoring the Stones, yet subjecting family audiences to the likes of Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction and Beyonce's pole dancing, not once but twice. When this game was merely a championship game viewed by a small football fan audience comprised predominantly of men,, we were treated to College Marching Band Formation, not Get in Formation with militant afro american  women shooting beaver in black panther garb..i was offended by that performance and can't stop wondering what shit would have hit the fan  had  a caucasian artist gone out there with a caucasian dance ensemble doaning white hoods.  I fail to see the difference.

They shouldnt have played it anyway. Rock n roll shouldnt be a sideshow or half time cabaret to a sports event, and certainly not in watered down form.

Bring Back Up With People, I say.

Mr. Yeats wrote on Feb 16^th, 2016 at 11:20pm:

wrote on Feb 16th, 2016 at 4:28pm: Gazza wrote on Feb 16th, 2016 at 1:12pm: [quote author=353E27275F0 link=1454694587/4#4 date=1455648994]sure. censor the Stones and give me some nip and a militant black panther pole dancer. Sour grapes? Moi?  Never! Altho, that would have been a real treat. But no. My issue is censoring the Stones, yet subjecting family audiences to the likes of Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction and Beyonce's pole dancing, not once but twice. When this game was merely a championship game viewed by a small football fan audience comprised predominantly of men,, we were treated to College Marching Band Formation, not Get in Formation with militant afro american  women shooting beaver in black panther garb..i was offended by that performance and can't stop wondering what shit would have hit the fan  had  a caucasian artist gone out there with a caucasian dance ensemble doaning white hoods.  I fail to see the difference. I've read a lot of ignorant and vile shit on music message boards, but this post takes the cake. Makes me embarrassed to be a Stones fan publicly sometimes.

Sounds perfectly rational to me.