NWA's Fuck tha Police, for example, wouldn't quite have the same impact without the spitting venom behind it. Adam Buxton - one of today's greatest humans - did a skit in which he substituted the swearwords in Fuck tha Police to create his own song Help tha Police in order to protect the ears of his infant son, highlighting the absurdity of silencing this form of expression.
As as rule, they don't do this so much in, say, Australia, where the most offensive songs on Kanye West's last album were being belted out on the radio around the same time as Jackanory. You can't swear on UK broadcasts before 9pm, but it's perfectly fine to see a repeat of CSI: Miami in which the naked body of a drug addled prostitute is dismembered as you peer over the brim of your lunch box.
The best use of swearing currently circulating the BBC 6 Music playlist is the cuss-heavy misery thunk of John Grant's new record Pale Green Ghosts, which is a self-deprecating triumph and features, on GMF, the line "I am the greatest motherfucker that you're ever gonna meet". Bowing to BBC pressures, he has changed this to "I am the greatest living creature" for the radio edit.
But the song got me thinking about paying some motherflipping respect to other great uses of swearing in pop, from the vehemently angry break up song to the more subtle, scathing uses of bad language. Here's a purely arbitrary list of my personal faves, and if you don't agree, then in the spirit of Frankee, fuck you right back.
1. Eamon - Fuck It (I Don't Want You Back)
Eamon's bitter 2003 break up anthem reached number one around the world and sparked a reactionary follow up single, F.U.R.B. (Fuck You Right Back) by singer Frankee, claiming to be the ex-lover scorned in his angry diatribe. There's no truth to that, and anyway, a novelty hit is never particularly relevant or interesting the second time around. Eamon's retribution is a valuable lesson in the dangers of dating a pop singer in need of a hit record. The video shows the break up scene played out over a pepperoni pizza, using black and white flashbacks to show the extent of their former love which now lies torn, splattered and splayed, much like the meat on their pizza. "Fuck you, you ho, I don't want you back," he sings to her crying face. What on earth could she have done to inspire such grotesque hatred? Her infidelities are revealed in the second verse, but I prefer to think he was just fed up of eating pepperoni pizza.
2. Fatboy Slim - Fucking In Heaven
This sounds a bit dated now, which I never thought possible considering how cool British dance music was in the late 90s: Basement Jaxx, The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy and this guy. Fucking in Heaven is an album track from 1998's You've Come A Long Way, Baby, sandwiched neatly between The Rockafella Skank and Gangster Tripping. I quite like the blatant use of repeating the sampled "fucking" element in this track - it's like some delinquent schoolboy constantly pulling at the pigtails of his classmates before being reported to the headmaster's office. Its juvenile, yes, but also quite funny. Mylo perfected this technique for Drop The Pressure in 2005, gloriously repeating the swear words to fit into a foul mouthed crescendo.
3. Cee Lo Green - Fuck You!
Another great anti-love song from the barbed but soulful bellows of Gnarls Barkley singer Cee Lo Green, who ended up landing a seat on the judge's panel of The Voice off the back of this viral 2010 hit. A Stevie Wonder-esque funk throwback co-written by bouncy soul munchkin Bruno Mars, this song started off being quite funny before it turned up absolutely everywhere. The radio edit unfortunately changed the words to Forget You, which detracts hugely from the song's comedic intent. Unlike Eamon, reeling in the mire of an existential crisis, Cee Lo's curses are directed towards his ex-girlfriend's new lover. In a cathartic remonstration, he resignedly admits his lack of finance may have been a contributory factor in their break up. "I guess he's an XBox and I'm more Atari", he sighs. The intention is to feel sympathy for Cee Lo's predicament, which on the face of it is clearly unfortunate, but in the video he's dressed like some pimped-out funk duke in spats and a Cadillac, so we're left in no doubt as to who got the last laugh.
4. The Beautiful South - Don't Marry Her
Using a swear word in gentle music can be explosive enough; now imagine the most innocuous band in the world doing it and the shockwaves echo to nuclear proportions. The original line to this great Beautiful South number is, "Don't marry her, fuck me". It's actually a wry dissection on the male midlife crisis and a telling indictment on how marriage is perceived from the sanctity of youth. After all, who didn't look at their life at one stage and wonder how much longer they could feasibly shirk responsibility before settling into an inevitable decline? Like the song says: "When your socks smell of angels but your life smells of Brie / Don't marry her, fuck me." Surely we must be ready for a reassessment of The Beautiful South's worth in light of their split five years ago? I love the reason they gave for breaking up: "musical similarities". Brilliant.
5. Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name
This angsty protest groove racket rioting against police brutality was made even more righteous when it somehow stopped X Factor winner Joe McElderry from reaching the Christmas number one spot in 2009. If Simon Cowell had a sense of humour he should have released a reactionary protest of his own, maybe endorsing a Killing In The Name cover using the X Factor finalists. The paradox of a pantomime troupe of wannabe pop idols screaming "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me" would have been glorious, but alas. I sometimes like to imagine Simon Cowell at a Rage Against The Machine concert, as Zach de la Rocha yells "motherfucker" over a crushingly violent guitar riff. But we can all guess what his reaction would be: "Sorry, but it's a no from me."
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