3 John Lennon Songs That Were Banned from the Radio
After The Beatles broke up, John Lennon wrote many songs that were not subtle with their politics. Some went too far in certain people’s eyes and were banned from playing on the radio. Not every political Lennon song received a ban, but here are three songs that were.
‘Cold Turkey’
“Cold Turkey” was released in 1969 and is one of the earliest songs from John Lennon’s solo career. Lennon wrote the track after he and his wife, Yoko Ono, went cold turkey after a brief heroin addiction. Many believed the song was promoting drugs, and it was subsequently banned on many American radios. In his 1980 interview with Playboy, Lennon said “Cold Turkey” never had the chance to become popular after it was banned.
“‘Cold Turkey’ is self-explanatory,” he said. “It was banned again all over the American radio, so it never got off the ground. They were thinking I was promoting heroin, but instead … They’re so stupid about drugs!”
Even with the ban, “Cold Turkey” was still a minor hit in the U.S., reaching No. 30 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It also reached No. 14 on the U.K. Official Charts.
‘Open Your Box’
“Open Your Box” may be a lesser-known John Lennon song as it was released as the B-side to the highly successful “Power to the People”. The song is by Yoko Ono but was also produced by Lennon and featured him on guitar. The lyrics were considered provocative as “box” is slang for female genitalia, and Britain banned it unless an echo was used to blur the lyrics.
In the book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations With John Lennon, Ono said she felt “guilty” for getting the song banned amidst the success of “Power to the People”.
“I started to feel guilty because, for instance, he wrote a song called ‘Power to the People,’ which is a very powerful song, and then my ‘Open Your Box’ was on the B-side, and of course, that was banned in America,” Ono explained. “And that sort of thing started to happen.”
‘Woman is the N***** of the World’
With a title like this, it’s amazing that this song was released. This John Lennon song was released in 1972 on the album Some Time in New York City. The title stems from a quote coined by Ono in a 1969 interview with Nova. It did peak at No. 57 on the Billboard Hot 100, but no radio wanted to promote it. In an interview with Apple’s U.S. promotions manager Pete Bennett, he said he made a bet with Lennon regarding the song being played on the radio.
“I told him that I wouldn’t promote it. So John says to me, ‘Well, you’re our promotions man, you have to listen to us, we pay you… I’m the president of Apple.’ I said, ‘John, I don’t care what the story is, I don’t want the record – I’m not going to promote it. If I don’t like it I won’t promote it.’ So John says, ‘I’ll tell you what – I’ll promote it, and if I make this record number one, that means you’re not the number one promotions man in the business.’ I said, ‘John, you got a deal.’”
Unfortunately for Lennon, Bennett won the bet as most radio stations refused to play it. Still, Lennon did find a way to play “Woman is the N***** of the World” on a 1972 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show. Lennon was an incredibly successful musician, but he wasn’t afraid to push a few buttons with his music.
