WTF? Lyrics from Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" omitted from Good Morning America and .... GLEE?

[marmar]

from HuffPost:



.....(snip).....


In both Lady Gaga's live appearance on ABC's Good Morning America and in the version sung on Glee the following lyrics to "Born This Way" are omitted:

No matter gay, straight, or bi,
Lesbian, transgendered life
I'm on the right track baby
I was born to survive

You can watch the versions with the omitted lyrics here.

One could argue time restraints on GMA caused the singer to shorten the tune. But Glee? Really?! Glee certainly has plenty of gay, lesbian and bi-sexual story lines, and infamously used the pejorative term "tranny" in the Rocky Horror Picture Show episode, so it's not like the program is unfamiliar with transgenders. Or unwilling to acknowledge they exist, even though it's with a slur.

Both Malaysian and the Philippine radio station snipped the LGBT lyrics from "Born This Way;" the Malaysian edit was government mandated. In the United States, a song released to radio could have several different versions, including a shorter radio edit ( the album cut of "Born This Way" clocks in at 4 minutes 20 seconds); a "clean" version which could omit the F and S bombs and/or explicit references to sex and/or drugs; and the regular album version. Radio stations can also edit tracks themselves to suit their playlists and listener profile. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-derrick/lady-gaga-born-this-way-l_b_868462.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. The network wants the celebrity, not the message.

[Botany]

2. I hate to say it but if I were a producer I might do the ....

.... same thing just because I wouldn't want all the calls, letters, and email from the mouth breathers
along with having to defend what is right to some grumpy ass boss who is hearing it from the sponsors
who hear it from the mouth breathers that want to fight "their culture war."

As a straight man I have found "the gay problem" funny because it is just so stupid .... I mean why look
for trouble where there is none? Although the lack of civil and work place rights for gays and lesbians
is not funny at all.

Sorry to babble.



my family last year's memorial day picnic.

[postulater]

3. Nice costumes for your re-enactment picnic.

[Bluenorthwest]

7. Then you'd be in the wrong business. If you think nasty letters

can be avoided when making mass media of any kind, you are sadly mistaken. The haters will write about the presence of other minorities, would you excise them as well? The haters will send letters about how awful it is that they show 'interracial friendship'. Would you bow to them too?

[Botany]

13. I see your point but sometimes people just don't ...

... need another battle. BTW you used to never see interracial couples on t.v. and in ads but now they
are quite common place. I expect to see gays being portrayed more and more in the media as "no big
thing" in the coming years.

[Capitalocracy]

15. then I guess we lefties need to be more vocal

that way people will get more nasty letters for censorship than they will for showing something "controversial"

[Pab Sungenis]

4. Every song performed on "Glee" is edited for time.

The performed versions are almost always under three minutes. The versions released on iTunes and the albums are usually uncut.

For example, the Glee version of Train's "Hey Soul Sister" as performed on the TV show is 2:27 while the version on iTunes is 3:40. "Baby It's Cold Outside" was two minutes on TV and 2:40 on iTunes (including the line "maybe just a cigarette more" which tends to get changed on recent recordings).

"Born This Way" on the TV version of "Glee" was 2:43. The iTunes/CD version was 4:08 and DOES include the trans reference. It's obvious that the edit was for timing purposes.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. That is exactly correct.

The on air versions are never the full songs, there are always edits of both lyric and music on air. Time and timing both being factors, and at times the story being told is a factor, a lyric might be highlighted or repeated because of the place it has in the story line, as it is being used to make musical comedy using pop songs.
Time a much greater factor on Glee than on some morning show, which makes the OP a bit off in my view. GMA can put the ads where they wish, it is a live show that does in fact adapted to live events.

[Motown_Johnny]

10. Well, never say never.

Fleetwood Mac's "Never Going Back" is only 2:15 and the Glee version is 2:15 also.


I could look for other examples but I love that song, and that album, (and that episode) so this stuck out in my mind as an easy way to go.



Edit to add: Songbird also seems to be the full version, even 1 second longer in the Glee version (3:18/3:19).

[onehandle]

5. Her CD that Amazon sold at 99 cents to promote their crappy cloud service was censored.

I wonder if that's part of what's censored?

[OneGrassRoot]

6. Wow, that surprises me...

My daughter sang an acoustic version of this song at the year-end talent show, and had a cool slideshow of clips from the students playing behind her. She left that part of the song in, no hesitation, and the principal was in tears, 'cause he thought it was absolutely beautiful.

[Motown_Johnny]

9. I think that if anyone watches the Glee episode in it's entirety

you will have a problem with trying to attack them for editing the song slightly.


An earlier post made the point very well, that the songs are edited for time on a regular basis.


Honestly, I don't know of any show that is trying to shine a light on the problems of Gay teenagers other than Glee. Maybe I am wrong but then again I don't watch that much TV that isn't MSNBC prime time.



Here is the link to the episode on Hulu:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/233330/glee-born-this-way#s-p1-so-i0

[woodsprite]

11. I listen to Glee's recording pretty much every day on my play list.

That verse is there in it's entirity. Could it be the network that
wanted it edited out?

[Motown_Johnny]

12. the version in the episode is only 2:34 and the full performance is 4:07

judging from the first two videos here

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=glee%20born%20this%20way



I'm going with the "edited for time" theory. I have a hard time attacking that show for this since IMO it is exposing some of the problem facing gay teens when almost nobody else seems to be.

[Cannikin]

14. I can't believe I'm admitting to this...

I believe I've read that they record a studio version for the soundtracks, and another for the on-screen performance before filming. I've noticed sometimes the two recordings will differ some. It may have been edited from the on screen version.