Political Correctness 1960's style

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In 1966 a novelty song by Nepolean XIV "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa! was released

according to Wikipedia

The teens of 1966 appearently were less easily offended.


IMHO the song is dated nobody would call mental institutions "funny farms" these days but I am not offended and still find it humourous because I take the song for what it was intended to be. A better case of offensiveness could be made that it is misygonous because of the lyrics "you mange mutt" Was he referencing a wife or a dog?. A half century later the debate goes on.

Anti political correctness should mean bieng anti offended by seemingly everything, not that nothing is offensive at all. Some hit songs of that era would never be allowed on the radio if they were released today but as oldies they are often played and I find them offensive. Such as a 1968 song by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap about a man having problems controlling his pedophile instincs entitled "Young Girls" and Ringo Starr should not have been singing "You're 16 and you're beautiful" when he was 33.

"Bubblegum" refers to music specifically marketed to children and young teens. A song by the 1910 Fruitgum Company "1-2-3 Red Light" was one of the bigger hits of the late 1960's early 1970's bubblegum wave had these lyrics.



S and M code reference, stuff rapists say and the top 40 radio programmers of 1968 thought this was ok to market to kids. Luckily for me in 5th grade I and hopefully most of my peers were too niave to understand what the song was about and just thought it was about counting to 3, red lights and maybe puppy love, but geez.

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 20 Jul 2016, 10:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

To be honest, I don't think 1-2-3 Red Light was about rape, per se. I don't think that was the intention.

It was about the frustration a man might feel if he is in the throes of sexual attraction, and the woman stops himfrom going any further. The vast, vast, majority of men would accept the situation, and not go any further.

Yes, there is potential for rape in this situation, but most men aren't that stupid, that insensitive, and are decent human beings. They accept their frustration. They take a cold shower.

I heard the song as a 7-year-old. I thought it was about the game known as red light, green light. 1910 Fruitgum company also had a song called Simon Says about the game Simon Says.

The Napoleon XIV song, from about 1966, talked, of course, about the funny farm and stuff like that. Politically incorrect stuff. It was meant to be merely funny, nonsensical, absurd, etc.

I would probabaly agree with the just frustration interpretation if he did not say how he was "right" and how the red light "won't" stop him.

Many bubblegum songs had double and triple meanings, simple children meaning, sexual and psychedelic.

Ha. My mother still says "funny farm." She says "loony bin" as well.

I re-read the "lyrics" (if you can call these lyrics!) and concluded that:

All the guy did in the song is tell her (plead to her) not to "stop him." He didn't do anything forcefully.

He made a lame threat that they would break up if she didn't give in to him.

It was "right" because he thought they both loved each other, and that it was right that they should be together (sexually), not because forcing her is "right." He thought she ought to give in to him, because it was "right." But he wasn't about to force the issue.

I don't see any forceful compulsion on the part of the guy.

I see frustration because he was horny, and he thought she wanted him, too, and that their romance was "right." And that she refused him. He threatened to break up with her, which is emotional abuse--but no rape.

Was it wrong for radio stations to be sensitive to the feelings of the mentally ill and their families?

Unless I find out otherwise it seems they assumed what the families and mentally ill would think. There is nothing written I have found about the song bieng protested in anyway. In the context of the comedic intent and that it was 1966 I could see where very few would be offended. You would be surprised at what was used in casual conversation back in the '70's. The guys on my block would throw a penny down ask to me to dive for it a take on the joke "How do you get get 100 Jews into a car?, throw a penny in it" ask me if I smelled gas (Holocaust gas chamber reference) etc. I did not take offense because they would tell the Italian guy his car was riddled with bullets (Mafia reference), and tell endlessly the Bad Italian helicopter joke because it sounds like "guinea,guinea, wop, wop, wop" (guinea and wop are anti Itailian slurs evidently not popular these days because WP did not flag them) Do not get me wrong I was called "k*e" too many times in bullying situations, people wielded words like "n****r" hatefully and causually and I am greatful that is gone.

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 20 Jul 2016, 4:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The "won't" tells me it has not happened yet but the because of his cockiness and sense of entitlement there is a good chance it will.

Personally, I feel that the girl has the guy wrapped around her little finger.

The guy wouldn't do anything.

I am not a mind reader and the writer denies it but it it still surprises me the radio censors let that song air but the songwriter says he thinks the date rape interpretation is why they played it and I have a feeling he might be right.

I understand that "date rape" exists, and that we need to stamp it out.

I really think "date rape," is disgusting.

I'm not a "mind reader," either.

I guess my interpretation is just one person's interpretation. I just don't see the "date rape" in the song. I just see a very young guy (probably an adolescent), perhaps overly libidinous, who is in the throes of being turned-on. She won't satisfy his desires; hence he is frustrated. He feels thwarted. He feels sort of angry. He emotionally abuses the girl.

I've felt similarly to this guy. Yet I would never, in a billion years, force myself upon a girl/woman.

But, still, he's sensible enough, in my opinion, not to force himself upon the girl. That's the way I see it. Other people might see it differently.