A popular Queen compilation album, Queen’s Greatest Hits: Volume 1, is being re-released by an audio platform, but with one notable omission: “Fat Bottomed Girls.” Yoto, an audio service aimed specifically at children, held a “consultation” and found the hit song, which celebrates those who “make the rockin’ world go round,” simply “wasn’t appropriate” for its audience. Its decision was reportedly backed by the remaining members of Queen.
The removal—some say “censoring”—of the song, which featured as track four of 17 on the original 1981 pressing, has prompted a good deal of anger, as well as confusion. Its lyrics, such as
Left alone with big fat Fanny / She was such a naughty nanny / Hey, big woman, you made a bad boy out of me
are hardly more raunchy than those in “Don’t Stop Me Now,”
I am a sex machine ready to reload like an atom bomb / About to oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, explode
which made the final cut.
That said, even those songs that passed the sensitivity check have been branded with a warning:
Please note that the lyrics in some of these songs contain adult themes, including occasional references to violence and drugs. These are the original and unedited recordings. Whilst no swear words are used parental discretion is advised when playing this content to or around younger children.
However, Free Speech Union General Secretary Toby Young said, if all songs from this and other eras are to be placed under such checks, there will be little left we’re permitted to listen to. He told The European Conservative:
The back catalogue of rock classics contains hundreds of songs that would offend our delicate sensibilities today. If we start censoring them, we’ll be losing an important part of our musical heritage.
An article in EuroNews, published since the row broke out, has claimed to “debunk” the scandal. “Song omissions,” it said, “are standard for best-of albums depending on territories … The original UK edition also lacked ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ from its tracklist, and the Japanese edition included ‘Now I’m Here’ and ‘Teo Torriatte’—both absent from the UK version.” But, even if we accept the premise that different tracks have been omitted in the past, so it is alright to censure this one now, Yoto has acted on this occasion purely for the purpose of ‘protecting’ its audience from taking possible offence, which was clearly not the case on other occasions.
The article adds that “they’ve just made their picks. Simple as that.” But Yoto’s own comments, cited above, disprove this claim in an instant.
Considering much of the music that is made available to children today, they could really do a lot worse than “Fat Bottomed Girls.”
