Radio has almost always had a stringent set of guidelines for censorship. No bad words and slurs allowed, no insinuations to drug use, the rules are pretty simple. Usually, though, the lyrical content itself remains pretty unfazed otherwise. However, Charlie Daniels had it a little different back in the day. For one of his records, he was surprised it got radio play at all, given the loaded topics involved. However, he mostly got away with it, with the exception of a surprising word they censored.
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In a 1973 interview with The New York Times, Daniels talked about his surprising hit "Uneasy Rider." There, he notes that his more liberal demeanor in the record gives the song a little more heft than it might have had otherwise. It acts as a reflection of the hectic time of the 60s and early 70s. Additionally, there wasn't any significant cursing on the song to go with his righteousness. However, radio still had reason to mute some things Charlie said on the record. One of them was a little more reasonable, the other seems a bit ridiculous by country standards.
Radio Censors Charlie Daniels for an Absolutely Absurd Phrase
"Some of the AM radio stations cut the lyric down and one radio station objected to one word — 'redneck' — so they bleeped that. Another station pulled the line 'tokin' on a number' [smoking pot] and several more stations bleeped a word here, a word there. If I had my druthers I'd keep the song as I wrote it. But I play along a little — the odd word or line here and there don't matter," Charlie says.
"Actually I was amazed at the amount of radio play 'Uneasy Rider' received on the country music stations, considering that it isn't really their kind of song. It's aimed at the kids, the underground if you like, which we consider our biggest audience," Daniels adds.
Regardless, Charlie saw the landscape for country to thrive in a variety of different contexts. He sees music as a transformative experience that can subvert any social expectations. "The writing and all the music today is coming together. Country music songwriting is allowed to be much more personal, more liberal than ever. The more radical type of performer, such as Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, are being heard more than ever and crossing over into pop," Charlie says. "Writers are even being allowed to slip in a little profanity into songs. If it seems to fit, I see nothing wrong in that."
