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I was driving around in the band van listening to some pop
radio station when I heard the DJ introduce the song "Brown-Eyed
Girl" by telling the listeners that when Van Morrison
had originally written the song it was titled "Brown-Skinned
Girl". He had been strongly urged to change it as his
record company at the time was worried that the title and
interracial theme might offend some people and hurt his chances
of having a hit with the record.
I thought this story was so ludicrous until I started thinking
about here we were in l984 and not much had changed as music
was still segregated into black music stations and white music
stations. I remember it was still an issue at that time whether
Michael Jackson would be played only on the black stations!
Martha Johnson
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