Pink Floyd's first single Arnold Layne

General discussion about Pink Floyd.
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Keith Jordan
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Pink Floyd's first single Arnold Layne

Post by Keith Jordan »

This is one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs and their first single as a band!!

Would someone like to upload the video to the tracker?


Anyone have any news clippings or interviews where members of the Floyd discussed the character Arnoly Layne and what he was doing around Cambridge with womens clothes??? :lol:
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J Ed
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Post by J Ed »

didnt the record get banned from some radio stations cuz a the whole transvetitism content?
nothing sells a record like a little bit of controversy
and whut a way to launch a recording career
too bad they never did any other transvestite friendly records, maybe they missed their true calling
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Post by Groovybass77 »

I have the video, i can send it to you to upload if you wish.
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Post by lovescene4 »

J Ed wrote:didnt the record get banned from some radio stations cuz a the whole transvetitism content?
That's the story usually told, I think... It seems more likely that the single itself would be banned from radio play because "Candy and a Currant Bun" used the word f*ck. :!:
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Keith Jordan
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Post by Keith Jordan »

Arnold Layne was banned by the BBC I believe due to its content!! :lol:
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Re: Pink Floyd's first single Arnold Layne

Post by MadJedi »

Keith Jordan wrote:This is one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs and their first single as a band!!
and you failed to mention it reached #19 in the UK charts? :lol:
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Post by mhspiper »

Even the pirate radio station "Radio London" banned Arnold from the airwaves. It's really a rather clean song I think. As for the backstory, I've read that Arnold stole knickers from Syd's and Roger's mums while they lived in Cambridge.
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Post by nosaj »

as a north american stealing knickers doesn't sound so bad...panties on the other hand...

So this guy stealing knickers, he was drunk on moonshine? Perhaps that is why he didn't go for the panties :roll:
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Post by mhspiper »

I'm pretty sure knickers is the Queen's English for that type of undergarments.
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Post by Chris Moise »

Keith Jordan wrote:Arnold Layne was banned by the BBC I believe due to its content!! :lol:
Actually it was pirate station Radio London that banned it. The BBC didn't ban it.
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Post by mhspiper »

No, the BBC banned it also. I was just reading about it on their website.
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Post by Harpo »

mhspiper wrote:No, the BBC banned it also. I was just reading about it on their website.
because of the "takes two to know" line
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Keith Jordan
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Post by Keith Jordan »

Why those lyrics specifically? Was it not banned for generally being about a cross-dresser? The conservative non-progressive people at Radio 2 at the time thought it was indwecent to be broadcasting such things didn't they?
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Post by lovescene4 »

It's like an original folk ballad: lots of old drinking ballads are stories of a character's misadventures, the song title often the character's name, and the first lines about a personal quirk that leads to downfall.
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Post by snifferdog »

The badness is in the ear of the beholder. At worst, it's about panty sniffing (Joe Boyd's description of it) or it's just a jolly tale of someone who steals underwear off washing lines.

It's like the Frankie Goes to Hollywood song "Relax". It was being played on BBC Radio 1 before one of its DJs realized what it was about and it got banned.