'Half-breed' and 'Brown Sugar' Gone: Why Classical Artists Are Censoring Themselves

This month, ahead following her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the publication of the first volume of her memoirs, Cher will unveil a new career anthology “personally edited by the legend herself.” Her most expansive yet, Everything includes Cher's first solo hits (“Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves”, “Dark Lady”), 80s power ballads (“If I Could Turn Back Time”, “I Found Someone”) and non-stop hits club (“Take Me Home” and “Believe”). ONE Forever Fan Edition adding to her hits with Sonny Bono, a duet with her late husband Gregg Allman and more, for a total of 40 tracks.

Yet one hit is conspicuously missing: “Half-Breed,” the poignant 1973 story song about the child of a white man and a Cherokee woman struggling with prejudice from both sides: “The Indians said I was white by law /The white man always called me 'Indian Squaw,'” goes one line.A Native American chant hums below the chorus.

“Half-Breed” made it onto a Cher retrospective in the '90s, but we can only guess why the song wasn't included on Everything; Cher's camp declined to comment Rolling Stone. But it's possible the deletion is the latest example of an emerging trend of classic artists reviewing their back catalogues, set lists or album covers and deciding that some things just don't apply in a far more culturally sensitive era. Contemporary stars like Kesha, Lizzo and Beyoncé regularly revise problematic lyrics — just last week GloRilla changed a line in a yet-to-be-released song to describe the word “retarded” — but, for the most part, classical artists are just now beginning to process.

In 2021, The Rolling Stones dropped 'Brown Sugar' – about that 'Gold Coast slave market' and a slave trader who 'knows he's doing well/Hear him hit the women around midnight' – from their concert lineup . “Didn't they understand that this was a song about the horrors of slavery?” Keith Richards tour“>he said thenadding that he “hopes we can resurrect the baby to her glory somewhere along the track.”

However, the song has never appeared in their shows again, and it's apparently not the only time the Stones have rectified potential infractions. In 1977, the band played an intimate show at El Mocambo, a club in Toronto. When his tracks were first released on the concert disc of the same year Love You LiveMick Jagger was heard introducing the band by joking about his sexual preferences: “Charlie Watts is kind of a maybe”, “Bill Wyman just wants to take pictures of girls' feet”, “Ronnie Wood's gay”. In 2022, when a more complete recording of these shows was officially released, Jagger's remarks were nowhere to be heard, on any platform. (That same year, Patti Smith pulled “Rock n Roll N—-r” from all streaming versions of her 1978 album Easter.)

This spring, Joni Mitchell released a box set of albums from the late 70s, including Don Juan's reckless daughter. When the record was released in 1977, few were offended, at least publicly, that one of Mitchell's covers depicted her in blackface (as the character she called “Art Nouveau”). Now, someone apparently thought better of it: The reissued album has a completely different cover, featuring a photo of Mitchell hiding behind what looks like a stuffed wolf.

Not surprisingly, none of the major artists comment on these make-overs. (All either refused to speak Rolling Stone or did not respond to requests for comment.) The trend has some in the music industry confused, confused, or both. “In Joni's case, I would advise her to do what she's doing,” says a leading entertainment consultant and crisis management expert, who chose to remain anonymous. “But does anyone think Joni is racist?”

As for 'Brown Sugar' and other songs with lyrics that might be considered offensive today, the tipster adds, 'Everybody knows that those songs were written in a different era and that they wouldn't be written now. No one is going to think Cher is a bad person for singing a song from 50 years ago. People have to be careful about overreacting to the season.”

Right now, fans seem to be equally divided over such moves. When Mitchell announced his changed cover Don Juan's reckless daughterhe simply shared the artwork on social media without any comment. In their posts, some fans were fine with the older artwork, with one calling it “better.” “I'll be one of the few to disagree with the general opinion: I prefer the original cover,” wrote another. “Because of political correctness we have destroyed our humor, now it's time for the art and soon the lyrics will take over. Can anyone really be offended by the original photo?'

Others were fine with Mitchell's decision. “Times are changing and with it the way art and music are perceived. Changing the cover doesn't change the music, it just adds another dimension to it. I saw the change as a recognition that the ends don't justify the means… Glad the cover changed,” wrote one. Another fan was more succinct: “This is a much better album cover!!!”

As for “Half-Breed,” Cher has a complicated history with the song (which, to be fair, features one of the most passionate and pained vocals of her career). After its release, she did not perform the song live until 1999, after which it occasionally returned to her live repertoire. On her 2014 tour, she resurrected the hit, with a new hairstyle to match the verse. But after that, it disappeared from her setlist again – the song came under fire on social media amid claims of cultural appropriation. “I've been singing for 50 years. before, and it wasn't meant 2 be offensive,” Cher posted in 2017. “Yet that's kinda an excuse for Bull Shit. You need to retire the beautiful suit and stop singing it. It's WAY past time.” (“Half-Breed” remains in the current touring version The Cher show musical.)

Neither the publisher of “Half-Breed” nor Dawn Garrett, daughter of Snuff Garrett, who produced the original recording, was informed of the omission of the hit from Everything and he can only guess along with everyone else. “If I had to guess, I'll go with exactly what you're writing about,” Garrett says. “I didn't grow up with the idea that the song was a horrible insult or anything like that. But this is a completely different generation, and I think it's important not to be offended or upset. I guess it remains to be seen if some of the bigger fans aren't happy about it. Or if it's too polarizing.”

The lingering question, of course, is how far this trend will go and what other classic songs or lyrics will be effectively cancelled. The music consultant, for one, is skeptical. “You can look ridiculous if you try to rule something out,” says the consultant. “You can't remove Google something. If Michelangelo were still around, would he cover parts of any of his works?'