It was different back then

See this old album? Jefferson Airplane's first, from 1966.

Originally, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off -- the LP released before Grace Slick joined the band, when Signe Toly Anderson was the girl singer and Skip Spence hadn't yet bolted for Moby Grape -- had 12 tracks.

AFTER THE INITIAL PRESSING, it had 11 tracks, because the hurriedly deleted "Runnin' Round This World" contained this lyric:

Is it the music in your heart I love so much
Is it the rainbows of your smile I love to touch
There are red flowers in each kiss upon your lips
The times I've spent with you have been fantastic trips

It was a different world in 1966. If the record execs from that day somehow could have been transported to the hip-hop world of the new millennium, they probably would have gotten the vapors.

Still, in 1966, when somebody sang about "fantastic trips," no matter the context, it couldn't be good.

AND IF YOU THOUGHT that was bad, consider the original lyrics to "Run Around," which got a lyrical deep cleansing after that first pressing:

We use to dance out to space without a care
And our laughter come ringing and singing we rolled round the music,
Blinded by colors come crashing from flowers that sway as you lay under me

That got turned into this:

We use to dance out to space without a care
And our laughter come ringing and singing we rolled round the music,
Blinded by colors come crashing from flowers that sway as you stay here by me.

And, of course, there was the filthy song on the album -- "Let Me In." I think you know where this is going:

Oh, let me in
I want to be there
I gotta get in
You know where
Without a word to me
Without a look at me
You turned me down without a care . . .

Oh, let me in honey
Don't tell me you want money
I didn't know that you could
Be that unkind

This was made safe for the shaggy-haired youth of America thusly:

Oh, let me in
I want to be there
You shut your door
Now it ain't there
Without a word to me
Without a look at me
You turned me down without a care . . .

Oh, let me in honey
Don't tell me it's so funny
I didn't know that you could
Be that unkind

I DON'T KNOW. I guess s*** just happens unfortunate developments hold sway when folks are crooked deep down. And all the sanitizing by all the record companies -- or all the mullahs, as the case may be -- only can hold back the tide for a season before the levees break.

It's kind of like just how well creating the New Jerusalem on Earth through Republican politics has worked out for "values voters." Um hmm. You betcha.