The Eagles At Center of Goddamn "Fast Lane" Censorship Battle

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While radio stations across America wrestle with what to do with Britney Spears' kinda-explicit "If U Seek Amy," one station in Alabama is fighting its own censorship battle, thanks to the Eagles. Idolator tipped us off to the Birmingham Weekly, which somehow reports with a straight face that classic rock station Eagle 106.9 is editing a lyric in the Eagles' "Life in the Fast Lane." The offending line? "We've been up and down this highway, haven't seen a goddamn thing," with the "god" snipped off the "damn" and replaced by lyric-free music.

"It's everybody's policy," station manger Ray Nelson said of the edit, "people find it offensive." For the record, the uber-sensitive FCC has no problem with "goddamn," but apparently the Third Commandment — the Thou Shalt Not Take the Lord's Name in Vain one — considers the lyric a violation. The Eagles' Don Felder was made aware of the station's edit, and while he'd rather the song remain unchanged, he told the Birmingham Weekly, "There are people who have extreme religious beliefs that would find it offensive. I can understand why they wouldn't like to hear it."

Our humble opinion: if you have a problem with "goddamn" in your lyrics, you probably shouldn't be listening to rock radio in the first place. There's a ton of blasphemous content like sex, drugs and whatever else all over the lyrics of those classic rock songs. Or, the Eagle could just take "Life in the Fast Lane" out of the rotation and avoid this whole situation. And isn't it ironic that the station is name the Eagle? The Birmingham Weekly is polling its readers as to whether the edit is justified or too religiously correct, with results due out in their March 19th issue. Rock Daily readers, we'll poll you ourselves: is this censorship valid?

Here's a list of songs that might be censored or banned according to the Eagle's strict standards: Readers' Rock List - If U See Kay Songs (Explicit Titles)

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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