Olympics

Sexual Innuendo Dropped From Led Zeppelin Song at Olympic Closing Ceremony


The Beijing Games concluded with the closing ceremony today, and the Summer Olympic torch was passed off to London. A performance by Jimmy Page of the British band Led Zeppelin was part of that hand-off from Beijing to London, but it turns out that some folks think Zeppelin lyrics aren't appropriate for all ears.

Page and Leona Lewis performed a version of the Zeppelin classic "Whole Lotta Love" that had some of the lyrics changed and others excised so as not to offend. Lewis didn't want to sing the line, "I'm gonna give you every inch of my love" in the second verse, because she said she didn't think that particular "sexual innuendo" made sense from a female singer. So "inch" was changed to "bit."

And the third verse, which includes the line, "Shake for me, girl, I wanna be your backdoor man" was deemed inappropriate and was cut from the ceremony.

My question: If the song was considered inappropriate, why didn't they just pick another song, instead of saddling the closing ceremony with a bastardized version?

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