BBC (BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
BBC (The British Broadcasting Corporation) is the public-service broadcaster of the United Kingdom, headquartered at Broadcasting House in London. It is the world’s oldest national broadcasting organisation and the second largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts. (More from Wikipedia)
John Fogerty’s second solo album in 1975, John Fogerty spawned a minor hit “Rockin’ All Over the World”. Also, Status Quo – a solid British rock band whose decades of blockbuster recording output are virtually unknown in this country (other than their 1967 psychedelic hit song “Pictures of Matchstick Men”) – earned a 1977 hit album, Rockin’ All over the World in the UK with Fogerty’s song as the album’s title track. The song gained even wider exposure when Status Quo opened their set at the 1985 Live Aid concert with “Rockin’ All Over the World”; they were just the second band to perform at the London portion of the event (in Wembley Stadium), and the song was used by the BBC to promote their coverage of what is one of the best known rock concert events to this day.
(January 2013)
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On October 7, 2014, a remarkable assemblage of musicians came together under the name “The Impossible Orchestra” to perform the Beach Boys song “God Only Knows”. The event was simulcast on BBC Television and BBC Radio stations in order to herald the launch of BBC Music, and the event also made national news in this country. A recording of the song was released on a single the following day as a fund-raising effort for Children in Need 2014. The musicians span the spectrum of popular music and included Brian Wilson, Pharrell Williams, One Direction, Lorde, Chrissie Hynde, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Chris Martin, Kylie Minogue, Dave Grohl, Brian May, and many others.
(October 2014)
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Regarding the Sgt. Pepper album highlight “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, Wikipedia has this to say: “[John] Lennon’s son Julian [Lennon] inspired the song with a nursery school drawing he called ‘Lucy — in the sky with diamonds’. Shortly after the song’s release, speculation arose that the first letter of each of the title nouns intentionally spelled LSD. Lennon consistently denied this, insisting the song was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland books, a claim repeatedly confirmed by Paul McCartney. Despite persistent rumors, the song was never officially banned by the BBC.”
Perhaps because of the possible LSD reference in “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, rumors of drug references in other lyrics by the Beatles also became manifest. Wikipedia reports: “Concerns that some of the lyrics in Sgt. Pepper refer to recreational drug use led to the BBC banning several songs from British radio, such as ‘A Day in the Life’ because of the phrase ‘I’d love to turn you on’, with the BBC claiming that it could ‘encourage a permissive attitude towards drug-taking.’ . . . They also banned ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!’ because of the lyric which mentions ‘Henry the Horse’, a phrase that contains two common slang terms for heroin. Fans speculated that Henry the Horse was a drug dealer, and ‘Fixing a Hole’ was a reference to heroin use. Others noted lyrics such as ‘I get high’ from ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’, ‘take some tea’ – slang for cannabis use – from ‘Lovely Rita’, and ‘digging the weeds’ from ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’.” I had heard about “Horse” but not “Henry”; maybe any word starting with “H” could refer to heroin.
(June 2015)
