Look Out Below! F-Bombs Were Dropping From These 4 Classic Rock Songs

These days, songwriters can generally get away with a lot more in terms of questionable language than once was the case. In the 60s, 70s, and 80s, any attempt to deploy the f-word was generally met with raised eyebrows and angry censors.

Yet there were artists who occasionally stepped out on a limb. These four songs from rock and pop history drop the f-bomb fearlessly, and they wouldn’t quite be the same without it.

“Working Class Hero” by John Lennon

John Lennon didn’t worry much about commercial acceptance for his John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album in 1970. Considering it was his first full-length release since he slipped out from under The Beatles umbrella, he wanted to shrug off any connection to his former band. The Fab Four would never consider messing around with so-called “dirty” words, as it would have tarnished their pristine image. Perhaps that’s why Lennon purposely dropped a few f-bombs that easily could have been avoided into the lyrics of “Working Class Hero”. He wanted the folky song to be raw and angry. If he had proceeded without the curses, it would have seemed somehow disingenuous.

“You’re Breakin’ My Heart” by Harry Nilsson

Harry Nilsson’s refreshing irreverence often showed up in the career moves he made that didn’t exactly do wonders for his commercial prospects. In 1971, Nilsson released Nilsson Schmillson. The album coalesced his myriad talents into an accessible package, complete with several hit singles to boot. Everyone expected him to do the same thing on his next release, including his producer, Richard Perry. But Nilsson went his own way on Son Of Schmilsson. “You’re Breakin’ My Heart” typified his obstinance. Nilsson wanted the song, with the lines “You’re breakin’ my heart/You’re tearin’ it apart/So f*** you,” to be the lead single. Although he lost that battle, he at least found the song a place on the uncompromising album.

“Laura” by Billy Joel

Billy Joel has often played it coy about the inspiration behind “Laura”. The seething track is one of the highlights on the 1982 album The Nylon Curtain. On that album, Joel, dealing with a divorce and striving for sonic perfection, pushed himself to the brink of a breakdown. Those circumstances could explain the downcast nature of the material. Many people have assumed that Joel was talking about his fraught relationship with his mother on “Laura”. (The fact that he mentions an umbilical cord seems like the clincher for that theory.) In any case, Joel inserted the f-word (“feeling like a f’ing fool”) into the lyrics, leaving no doubt about the intensity of his emotions.

“Not Now John” by Pink Floyd

What began as a companion piece to The Wall, featuring unused tracks from that album, turned into the last full-fledged Pink Floyd album featuring Roger Waters. Although, to be accurate, The Final Cut was more a Waters solo album with occasional contributions from fellow Floyd members David Gilmour and Nick Mason. Gilmour’s lone lead vocal from the LP comes on this song, which takes a caustic look at the world’s superpowers. The title is “Not Now John”. But a good portion of the song features the refrain “F’ all that.” Long opposed to releasing songs specifically for radio airplay, Floyd surprisingly dropped “Not Now John” as a single in 1983. They replaced the f-bombs with the word “stuff” in the censored version.

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