The revolutionary ideals of the 1960s deeply disturbed the conservative society of the United Kingdom, especially older, more traditionalist generations.
As an institution that was supposed to represent the will of those who paid for its existence, the BBC played a very important role in censoring numerous songs of the time that were considered immoral or insensitive. One of them, surprisingly, was the surrealist "I Am The Walrus" by the Beatles .
Despite its surreal and fantastical lyrics, without much literal meaning to be attributed to them, the song was considered "pornographic" by BBC censors because of the line "pornographic priestess/ Boy, you've been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down," which can be loosely translated into Portuguese as something similar to: "pornographic priestess / Dude, you've been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down."
British censors took the passage as a sexual innuendo and banned the song from UK radio. Years later, in an interview , John Lennon expressed his outrage at the station's decision.
“Words don’t mean much,” he said. “People jump to conclusions, and that’s ridiculous. It’s all irony, all songs contain irony. Just because other people are hunting for meaning in whatever is written… What does ‘ I am the egg-man’ mean? It could be ‘ The pudding dish ’ as far as I know. It’s not that serious.”
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