I went to stake dances in the 80's so the song I wanted to hear at a stake dance that they couldn't play was "Relax" by Frankie goes to Hollywood.

What songs do you remember that were banned but you wish they played?

but in the early 1970s, they played a lot of "hard" rock music including "Stairway to Heaven" almost every stake dance. There were very few that they banned. Very few slow songs.

Actually I collected singles back then and a guy I worked with was over the stake dances and he took all my singles and copied them to play at the dances. I don't have all soft rock. I have a wide variety and he used them all.

Back in the late 60s/early 70s we had a dance from 8:30-9:00 every week at the end of M.I.A. And we had stake dances about every other month. We always had live bands for the New Year's Eve dance and the Gold and Green Ball. And everyone dressed up, the big dances were formal. But there were no dress code Nazis. If a kid showed up without a tie or if a girl had a sleeveless dress or gown (we often did in high school--porn shoulders weren't a thing if you didn't wear garments), they were welcomed. VERY often kids came who were friends of members but weren't members themselves.

The music wasn't very often too hard, but I don't remember there being any banned music until the song "Cherry Hill Park" came out and someone gave a talk about rock music and had mentioned that song and how it talked about a girl who was "loose." We all thought it was extremely funny that we'd been playing it at dances but no one paid attention to the words and then all of the sudden is was devil music.

Cherry Hill Park didn't ring any bells with me so I went looking. It doesn't sound familiar but it is a great song. I can see why it was a favorite to dance to. Just add go-go boots!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyEWCNCKxyk

When I was a teenager (back in the 70s), the church announced that music from “Jesus Christ Superstar” was banned from church events. I remember one night at a stake dance, I happened to be chatting with a member of our bishopric (a young guy, probably no older than his mid twenties) in the hallway outside the cultural hall. I heard the (live) band start playing the song “Jesus is Just Alright.” Knowing that it would trigger this straighter-than-the-edge-of-a-ruler bishopric member, I casually said, “hmmm, they’re playing ‘Jesus is Just Alright.’” His eyes opened wide, he gritted his teeth, and said “they’re not supposed to do that!” He started to walk towards a door into the dance when I said “this song isn’t from Jesus Christ Superstar.” He replied “well, it’s still...uh...they shouldn’t be playing...uh...” he fumed for a moment, but decided not to interrupt the dance.

I used to play in a band in the late 70s where we played at a lot of Stake Dances, sometimes we had to submit a set list. Once or twice songs got nixed, usually they told us not to play anything too obviously immoral or satanic. We were trusted youth I believe. No Black Sabbath. Sometimes No Zeppelin.

On the other han, I remember playing "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, accompanying a girl who sang it at some stake mutual function. Lots of people really loved it; she had a really pretty voice. We got reported and our bishop called us in and told us we were supposed to be chewed out and punished for playing sacreligious music in the chapel. I also had used a Les Paul electric guitar which was also a no-no in the chapel. The bishop had known me since I was about 3 years old and I used to play with his daughter when we were elementary age. He told us not to do it again and said he heard it was really really good.

with his best friends. My brother plays the drums. They played "The House of the Rising Sun" for a talent show in church. My mom said to one of the other guy's moms, "They did a really good job, didn't they!" The other mom asked my mom if she knew what the song was about. Of course not. My mom didn't listen to the words. None of us knew what the song was about.

They did do a good job! I gained my love of The Doors from my brother. He played them every morning as we got ready for school. One of my favorites is "Riders on the Storm" as he played that one a lot. My dad didn't approve of The Doors, but he left for work long before we got ready for school.

I always loved the Doors too. We knew they were evil because because Morrison made obscene gestures at the very prim and proper Utah crowd at the Lagoon Concert. My older cousin has pictures from the concert. I was always jealous she got to see him but I was only about 10 years old.

I went to lotsa Mormon dances in the 60’s and they wouldn’t let bands play “Louie Louie” by the Kingsmen. Supposedly it had obscene lyrics but no one could understand them.....so everyone just made up the dirtiest ones they could imagine and the song got banned......me gotta go!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwYN7mTi6HM

Eddie Van Halen was cute.

Speaking of Van Halen, I’m guessing that Running with the Devil didn’t get much play at stake dances! ;)

Actually, they had quite a fit with anything Cyndi Lauper and Madonna.

No Personal Jesus by DM



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2020 03:19AM by messygoop.

I just have to say that I loved stake dances in the late 70s early 80s when I had a date. I LOVE TO DANCE!!! Can't do it anymore, more's the pitty.

BUT, if I didn't have a date, I almost never got asked to dance. There were many that I went to and didn't get asked to dance once. And, we all know that good girls don't ask the boys.

AC/DC Highway to Hell.

I had a roommate who hated Ricks College as much as I did. She had a little Mazda sports car and cranked up Highway to Hell on her stereo whenever we drove through the campus. Students looked at us like we were so evil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqQn2ADZE1A

Why didn't Emma Smith carry a gun?

Joseph was threatening her constantly

and he was out screwing 14 year olds.

Hey Brigham Young, smile. BANG

"Emma's got a Gun".

2nd RELAX

I also have always liked Frankie Goes To Hollywood, both the sound of the band's name and the sound of their music.

Again, being a teen in the 1960's meant that we had many stake dances with live teenage garage bands, so we loved it. One particularly good one was called "The Others." We loved it when they played "Louie, Louie," "House of the Rising Sun," or "Cecilia." But permanent chaperone Sister May, a tough, stocky woman in her 50's, would run up to the microphone and announce that "we don't play that kind of music here!" She was always cupping her hands over her ears and shouting, "Too loud! Too loud!" Sister May was not much fun, now that I think about it.

On New Year's Eve, we would have a proper dance, and all of us were expected to wear suits and dance ballroom dances to a sort of dance band combo, that sat in chairs behind those large sheet music holders (if you know what I'm talking about). I'm grateful now to look back on that and tell the stories about when life in the Mormon church had more value-added.

When we used to play at church dances we got a lot of requests for Louie, Louie and House of the Rising Son. I don't remember clearly but I think Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Guess Who were really the most popular cover songs with mormon kids. You can watch John Fogerty now playing videos weekly with his kids on youtube. Also Exmos Randy Bachman (Guess Who and BTO) and his son Tal who used to post here quite a lot are also doing weekly broadcasts on youtube. The Bachmans are doing it without a lot of practice and production so it has that 70s garage band charm. I am glad I got to live in the era of live music and when we were allowed to have some non-religious funs.

His worthy music worthy thoughts (1976) diatribe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ5Z6AoEKuY

SURFING BIRD, by The Trashmen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gc4QTqslN4

Reason being it drove the older types absolutely nuts.

PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON, by Peter, Paul and Mary

Reason being it was Banned in our Stake because it was a "drug pusher song".

to the radio all the time. I'm sure he had no idea what it meant, although my dad wasn't what I'd call TBM. That song brings back such good memories of my dad. I love that song.

They also had live bands in little old Brigham City, Utah. There is a song they played every week, every band played it, and I wish I could think of it. It was one of my favorites, but it took me years to find out the name of it and now that I'm old, I can't remember the name.

I didn't dance a lot either, but I went. As long as I got to dance with the guys I wanted to dance with, I was fine with it, and I usually did.

WTF????? I actually watched the video of the Trashmen and WOW. Just WOW. What a crazy song! I couldn't stop watching it. It is like watching a train crash.

Puff the Magic Dragon had nothing to do with drugs, nor did Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, or dozens of other songs that were allegedly drug songs.

That’s not to say that there weren’t plenty of songs with drug references in that era, but innocent songs were often the ones that caused concern for the “older generation.”

Yes there are many interviews with Peter Yarrow, he wrote Puff while he was an undergrad at Cornell U, using a poem he found that was composed by another student. The poem and the song really were only about a dragon. Yarrow has said he had never smoked pot then and the worst thing he and his friends participated in were "panty raids." Of course nowadays a panty raid might get you 20 years behind bars. Puff was my oldest son's favorite bedtime song for many years.

No question: Fish Heads.

If you know you will understand.

the real / larger question is: what would it have been like as a teen ager /young adult to be able to attend social functions /dances that were not dominated by some freakish mind control religious cult?

we had high school dances that answered that question.

Probably more so than the Stake Dances, because the Principal and Vice Principal were very right wing, iron rodder types. Both of them former coaches.

I attended stake dances in the Denver area in the mid to late 80s. I recall that Relax WAS played as well as Billy Idol's White Wedding and a few other "bad" songs. Chaperones always seemed pretty oblivious to the music that was played.

We would dance to naughty songs on Saturdays and then on Sundays we had fireside after fireside on the dangers of bad music and Satanic messages that were backmasked in music. Good times.

Honestly, I was shocked when Jennifer Warne/ Right Time of the Night and KC and the Sunshine Band /Get Down Tonight =songs with specific direct mention and advocacy of sexual indulgence were played at church dances the youth, and a blind eye/ deaf ear (NON) response by leaders made it possible.

The lyrics of those songs definitely did not match the sermons and preaching that had been said to young people over the pulpit about sex so many times and so emphatically in the same building.

.......Oh ! NOW! I get it! The Church is really a big JOKE !!!!

In the early 90s, the stake president had "Love Shack" by the B-52s shut off mid-song.

that song is 30 years old ....unbelievable

I've never been to a stake dance because nevermo.

What did they consider music you could dance to? IOW, music that had a beat conducive to dancing and not pogoing around the floor. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Always on the approved list: The Association, The Carpenters, Neil Diamond (Bleah!) Early Beatles, the Beach Boys, Everly Bros, . We used to play 50s and early 60s Rockabilly and that actually got the chaperones to participate.

Rockers

Chumbawamba "Tub-thumping." It was my favorite during the 90's.