Over the last few days I heard the 3-minute version of the Doobie Brothers "Listen to the Music", very short version of "Money for Mothing", and yesterday heard them fade out before the cold ending of "Shine" by Collective Soul. I heard a strange edit of "Twilight Zone" on there too. That really sucks if you're supposed to be a Classic Rock station.
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The Fox playing short versions?
- Thread starter Directional Ray
- Start date
Same goes for the local classic rock station here, WHDQ Claremont, NH. It played the short "Twilight Zone" earlier this morning, and going back through its playlist on TuneGenie I find such truncated versions in just about every hour. "Sweet Emotion," "Locomotive Breath," "With or Without You," "Layla," all with "short," "radio edit" or "single version" after their titles. Not sure how common this is nationwide, though.
At least around here, most stations play the short version of "Money for Nothing" because it omits the objectionable word in the second verse.
And some stations are transitioning from traditional Classic Rock to what they call "Classic Rock Hits". Less "Free Bird" and "Stairway to Heaven" and more New Wave and rock-adjacent artists like Michael Jackson and Prince. And as the name suggests, they mostly play the short hit versions of songs rather than the long album versions.
And some stations are transitioning from traditional Classic Rock to what they call "Classic Rock Hits". Less "Free Bird" and "Stairway to Heaven" and more New Wave and rock-adjacent artists like Michael Jackson and Prince. And as the name suggests, they mostly play the short hit versions of songs rather than the long album versions.
There is an edit that omits the offensive verse in "Money for Nothing" but still has the long guitar solo at the end. The version they played was the CHR edit from the 80s. Faded out fast with no guitar solo. I expect that from WGRR. But pretty bad for a Classic Rock station.
The short version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was a so-so hit single peaking at #30. What makes the song special, and interesting, is the psychedelic long version. It's no great-shakes, otherwise. Most really long songs wear out their welcome before their end. This one holds interest.
I remember when the song charted in 1968 WSAI played their own edited version of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” It was about seven minutes long and included some of the drum solo and instrumental parts. It captured the essence of the piece without being too long and made WSAI seem more cool than other Top 40 stations that played only the 2:50 single version.
I also find it funny that after Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction, all of the big companies started censoring classic songs that they had been playing for decades and they still do. But I heard "Semi-Charmed Life" on WGRR yesterday singing about oral sex and crystal meth unedited. The world is upside down as to what gets played. I wouldn't censor that song or any of the classic songs. Leave them alone.
Seeing that elsewhere. Censoring running amuck. Few weeks ago I helped my nephew on a mobile DJ gig for a wedding and we played the long version (unedited) of Money for Nothing as requested by the bride and some of the younger people there had a fit and said it wasn't "PC." The bride and her new hubby said "f*** the PC crap - they can play what they want!"
Cincinnati isn't the Bible belt. But thanks to consolidated ownership and consolidated music libraries, we now get to hear the "squeaky clean" edits nationwide.
Cumulus even edited out the line "praying to a God I don't believe in" from the Script song "Breakeven", because apparently not only can you not take God's name in vain, you can't leave him, either.
At least those young people got to discover early that the newlyweds are probably not a couple they'd like to hang out with in the future.
I wonder why the copyright holders don't raise hell. Oh wait, yes I do......their music wouldn't be played anymore. I remember a video chain years ago [Family Video?] getting in trouble for taking movies and editing out expletives, sex scenes and any other scene they figured might get their renters in a tizzy. I believe that they were sued big time by film companies objecting to them selectively editing THEIR movies for violating copyright laws. Seems like record companies/artists/groups could raise them same objections about their music or they figure it's not worth the hassle.
Except that most of the "short versions" are done by either the record labels or the artists themselves.
If you see "radio edit" or "single version" in the title, it's an official edit.
Here are the various official edits of Money For Nothing according to wikipedia:
A couple of stations have experimented with all very short versions (cut all the redundant instrumental parts; just verse, chorus, verse, chorus, done. All the songs basically 2 1/2 minutes like in the ancient of days (these were CHR formats I believe). The idea was nixed by Industry Canada enen though the Canadian songs and everywhere else songs would have been cut equally; in the US it was the record labels that howled.
Why would the labels care? Do they have evidence that playing short versions hurts sales of physical product?
There was an article in the trades a while back about a guy in North Carolina who was editing songs. I can't remember which trade, but it was probably R&R. They asked the labels, and as I recall the response was they don't like it, but there's nothing they can do.
But as I said throughout this thread, usually labels will offer their own edits of songs in order to get more spins. The fact that this is a classic rock station means the station is going back to the edits available when the song was current. From the station POV, there are only so many minutes in an hour. They can play a few 8 minute songs, or twice as many 4 minute songs, it's all the same to them. Why not play more songs?
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