Was just listening to this record today and was taken aback when I heard a very sloppy edit during Star Star. During the "I bet you keep your p*ssy clean" line there was an extremely sloppy edit over it, of like 3 layers of different vocals from Jagger earlier in the song. Since I'm young I've only ever really known the CD version which has the line intact.

Was this something that was censored on all the original vinyls? Or maybe just the US and not the UK? I asked my dad, who swears he has an original record from when it came out, and he said he never even noticed it. Even when I pointed it out that it was clearly censoring something he just shrugged it off saying "this must have been how they all were." Maybe he doesn't have an original? Anyway, it threw me off a bit and I figured someone here might know.

I bought it the day it was released in 1973 (still have it too) and speaking for the US release YES, it was censored. As you point out, it sounded as if it was triple tracked right at the "pussy clean" line making it hard to understand.

From Roy Carr's "The Rolling Stones - An Illustrated Record" published in 1976:
"...Ahmet Ertegun reached for the smelling salts and the phone number of the company lawyer when he heard the test pressing of "Starf****r".
Straight away both he and Atlantic Records who distribute the Stones product were adamant - they didn't want that song on the album at any price.
Jagger insisted it stay. "It's our label!" he screamed.
Atlantic argued that they would get busted for selling pornography, offering first, the title, secondly, a rather explicit reference to vaginal freshness and thirdly, a line about this nameless groupie "giving head to Steve McQueen", adding that they were frightened in case McQ called "Cop!"
Jagger refused to budge and worked out a compromise. The title was amended to "Star Star", a sloppy over-dub (US copies only) still failed to erase the word "pussy" and an undertaking was secured from a somewhat bemused Steve McQueen that he wouldn't sue.
"I suppose we ask for it if we record things like that" Jagger said at the time.
After all that, it seems inconceivable that when it came to compiling a four track mini juke box LP (CO7-59101) to promote Goats Head Soup, Atlantic not only included the retitled "Star Star", but strategically placed it as the opening cut on side one."

[www.45cat.com]


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-09-27 01:44 by Deltics.

Oh what memories this song brings back. Had an apartment in an old brownstone back in Baltimore. Loved that place. It had windows facing out on St. Paul Street with inside window ledges/sills two feet or so wide. Me, friends, whomever, would curl up on the window ledges and look out over world events happening below on the street or in the windows of the brownstones on the opposite side of the street. Needless to say, we were enjoying Mother Nature pretty much when we perched ourselves on those sills. I had my stereo set up so that the sound washed trough the front of the apartment and out over the street. I played music loud then, which probably explains hearing loss today, loud enough so that the working girls across the way could dance along to it as they disappeared with their guests into their lairs. They always liked it when Starf*cker came on. I could see them mouthing the words to the chorus as they led their instant friends into their lairs. They'd give me a thumbs up and I throw back a friendly wave. The neighborhood wasn't all "working class". Families lived in the houses along the block. I had neighbors say to me, "You really play that music loud, dontcha?" I'd smile, mumble back, "Is there any other way?" and go on my way. I hadn't thought about this song and how it was back then until I read this thread. Thanks RollingFreak for allowing me to pull up some sweet memories.

Haha thanks for the info guys! And cool memory dmay! Star Star has always been one of my favorite Stones songs. Always just a great one to blast away.

To me this song is another on "Goat's Head Soup" that got ruined by bad lyrics.

"Star Star" and "Silver Train" could've been hit songs if the Stones put more than ten minutes into writing the lyrics.

I do like the line that rhymes Jimmy Page with Quite the rage in Star Star.

It was censored in the US on the original vinyl/tape release. Not until the CD world started in 1986 for the Stones was it heard uncensored.

Ironically, with the "new" Universal release, the original censored version appeared on the first batch of CDs, much to the dismay of many( not sure why people were so upset,it became a rare collectors item again, and we got the censored version on CD for the first time for the collectors out there)and then the next batch was released uncensored.