Chuck Berry was advised that the only place he might get away with singing this song – which discusses “sex”, “race-mixing”, and “homosexuality” – was the UK. Obviously this advice was correct. Now, all was not rosy in the flower garden as we possessed a character named “Mary Whitehouse” who apparently attended a number of Chuck Berry concerts – sat at the front raising and dropping her knee to the music and openly singing the lyrics. As a middle-aged and sexually frustrated lady – an ardent Christian – she felt that she had a god-given duty to campaign to have this track “banned”. I was “5” in 1972 and had just started school in deepest, darkest Devon – and I remember all the young kids singing and humming this tune – thinking it was about the hand-bells we were taught to use in music lessons. Apparently, Ms Whitehouse (ironically, “Whiitehouse” was also the name of a prominent pornographic magazine at the time) stated “There is only a one-letter difference between the word ‘singing’ and “sinning’ and I have made this point clear to the representatives of Mr Berry!” Chuck Berry seems to have had a great time in our People’s Republic!
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 