So this morning I was checking what happened on this day in music, when I came across this item at About.com: Oldies Music….
1968: Anticipating a protest firestorm at the upcoming Democratic National Convention, Chicago bans the new Rolling Stones single, “Street Fighting Man,” from its airwaves. The song calls for “fighting in the street” and a “palace revolution.” More at Oldies-About.com
I thought that was pretty interesting and I went to find out more about the song.At songfacts.com I found this about the song….
This song deals with civil unrest in Europe and America in 1968. There were student riots in London and Paris, and Vietnam protests in America. The specific event that led Mick Jagger to write the lyrics was a demonstration at Grosvenor Square in London on March 17, 1968. Jagger (along with Vanessa Redgrave), joined an estimated 25,000 protesters in condemning the Vietnam War.
and then I read this…..
In the US, this was released as a single on August 31, 1968, just a few days after the Democratic National Convention, which took place August 26-29. The convention was marred by violence, as Chicago police clashed with protesters. When the song was released, every radio station in Chicago (and most in the rest of the country), refused to play it for fear that it would incite more violence. There was no official ban in America or Chicago, but stations knew it was in their best interest to shun the song, which accounts for its meager chart position of #48. Full Article at Songfacts
My emphasis added…. After that I just double check at Wikipedia and the dates of the Democratic National Convention are correct at Songfacts, so I do believe that the song was not played not to avoid problems, but rather so that it would not incite more rioting than the city had already experienced….
Anyway, here is video of the song……
