Frankie Says Relax

Yes, people were aware, and it was a bit of a scandal at the time. Schools specifically banned a shirt that didn't even include the inflammatory phrase. (The shirts just said "Frankie says Relax.") "What is the world coming to??" editorials...the usual hand-wringing.

You must be pretty young to think that in the '80s, nobody knew what "come" meant in that context.

Post the lyrics please someone.

I was 12 when it hit number 1 in the UK. People of my age liked it because it was banned so it became a cause celebre and very hip. Not everything the BBC bans becomes a hit of course, but they have a long record of banning records and it backfiring and they go on to become big hits. Had it been released in 1985 I dare say it would have faced an AIDS / HIV backlash, but 1984 was a VERY gay year in British pop.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax (Lyrics)

Mi-i-n-e

Give it to me one time now

Well, whoa, well

Relax, don't do it

When you wanna go do it

Relax, don't do it

When you wanna come

Relax, don't do it

When you wanna suck, chew it

Relax, don't do it

When you wanna come

When you wanna come

Relax, don't do it

When you wana go to it

Relax, don't do it

When you want to come

Relax, don't do it

When you want to suck, chew it

Relax, don't do it

When you want to come

Come

Whoa-oh-oh

But shoot it in the right direction

Make making it your intention

Live those dreams

Scheme those schemes

Got to hit me (hit me)

Hit me (hit me)

Hit me with those laser beams

Laser beam

Relax

Don't do it

Relax

When you wanna come (come)

I'm coming

I'm coming (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)

Relax (don't do it)

When you wanna go to it (what's inside me?)

Relax, don't do it

When you want to come

Relax, don't do it

When you want to suck, chew it

Relax, don't do it (love!)

When you wanna come

When you wanna come

When you wanna come

Come

Get it up

The scene of love

Oh feel it

Relax, don't do it

When you wanna go do it

Relax, don't do it

Relax, don't do it

When you want to suck, chew it

Relax, don't do it

One time, one time, one time (hey!)

Come!

I can't believe it hasn't been noted yet.

[quote]Frankie Says Relax

Oh, dear.

As much as the lyrics, it was the gutteral (sp?) moaning of the words

Christmas 84 my conservative Christian cousin asked me what music I was into, and I said Frankie Goes to Hollywood. They're too weird for me was the response.

Omg that’s salacious. Makes me tingle. Thank you r4

[quote]Oh, dear.

So if the argument is that "Frankie Say Relax" is correct because it's referring to multiple members of the band, should they not call themselves "Frankie Go To Hollywood"?

First time I've ever received an "oh, dear" and it was for being grammatically correct. Don't ever change, DL.

Paradoxical isn't it, R9?

Here's the thing - the video clearly shows a gay leather bar (which was their intention). But name one music video that has a Roman Emperor type take off his toga, bare his penis and then give the people a golden shower?

I mean - how the hell did they get away with that? It's still shocking today - but somehow it's forgotten.

I grew up in a small rural town. At the time, kids didn’t think it was gay. It was all about relaxing and coming.

R12 That version of the video was banned and got pay cable channels into the "Too Hot for MTV" business, so it played, but not as widely as you imagine. It was still a big deal at the time.

R14 - it is on YouTube now though - and has been for a long time.

Most of America was way less uptight back then.

R15. That's great. R12 was asking how they got away with it at the time.

R12 - even when The Tube (a Channel 4 music show for non-Brits) had a midnight premiere of the Two Tribes video, they showed the Relax video at the end of the programme - and it ended as the Roman Emperor guy stands up, the golden showers bit wasn't shown.

The Tube had also shot a video for the demo of Relax, which is where Trevor Horn first heard/saw the band. I found that far more erotic than leather bar video, all those shots up Holly's legs...

Yeah, this was not the video we saw on Friday Night Videos.

I was 12 or so in Ohio when the song was a hit (my older brother had the record and I still love "The Power of Love") but my recollection is that the song was considered more "kinky" and less "gay" back when it was on the radio. Maybe we didn't know enough to associate black leather with gayness back then--it was Ohio, after all.

I was a kid when it came out and had no clue what it meant or what they were talking about. I just knew it was “a dirty song” for some reason. That alone made it an instant smash with kids and teens who all walked around with Relax oversized tshirts on. Grew up in a large rural town.

[quote] So if the argument is that "Frankie Say Relax" is correct because it's referring to multiple members of the band, should they not call themselves "Frankie Go To Hollywood"?

In that context Frankie (Say Relax) referred to the band Frankie Goes To Hollywood. These days it would be "FGTH (Say Relax)".

Controversy was hip back then. Surely we all remember Laura Branigan's Self Control, right?

I don't like it, but I've said before that I'm uptight and don't like songs that are too obviously about sex.

America has a long history of not wanting to identify obviously gay performers as being gay. Liberace, Queen, Village People, Paul Allen, etc.

I’m in my 50s and have never seen this video before! Yeah I can see why it was banned. What does the lyric “when you want to suck, chew it” mean?

R26 - he's talking about noodles, Rose.

I can't hear it now without thinking about Holly getting AIDS.

R28 - do we know how he got it or do you just presume he got it this way?

The bassline sounds like sex.

I always think about Body Double when I hear this song.

I hate the Body Double version.

As an 80s baby...

Dayum!

I had NO idea music videos like this existed in the 80s. I thought the song was about not stressing until I saw a thread on dl a few years ago. 😂

I remember I had the hots for the emperor.

Of course, I now know that I love bears and big guys. I also like decadence. Somehow the character in the video clip was the embodiment of everything I was lusting after as a teen.

"Most of America was way less uptight back then."

Really? They were less uptight in the Reagan 80s? GTFO.

They were stupider about sex in general and homosexuality in particular.

I remember a friend's high school age brothers and their friends LOVED Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat. Because they were alienated white small town boys. No matter how many times they listened to it or watched the video, they had no fucking clue it was about a gay kid.

Now granted, they were dumb teenagers. But I'm guessing their grannies all loved Liberace and wished him well on his new watermelon diet.

It was an amazing time, musically speaking, and the first half of that album is still incredible. People like Andy Bell, Jimmy Sommerville, Boy George, Pete Burns, Frankie, and even Adam Ant flaming out all over MTV. That and ACT UP really kicked the gay movement into hyperdrive.

[quote] Were the masses aware of what it was about

No, they weren't.

People stopped listening to lyrics in the 1950s. Most song lyrics are inaudible.

[quote] What does the lyric “when you want to suck, chew it” mean?

I can't hear the word 'chew'.

[quote] Roman Emperor type take off his toga, bare his penis and then give the people a golden shower

I see no shower in this Banned Version.

Call me a freak, but I've always thought he was incredibly sexy in this.

The very first wet dream I had was if this girl in my typing class named Jeanette who used to wear a “Frankie says relax” t-shirt to school. I wasn’t attracted to her at all & dont know why I creamed my pj’s. Today on my iPod. Debbie Harry’s cover popped up on random. I agree, the song still sounds great 36 yrs later.

People see what they want to see. That's how guys like Liberace could remain in the closet, because straight people loved the camp, the pizzazz, the flamboyant glamour, but not the gay stuff. For eons straight people liked their gays to be sexless court jesters entertaining the masses, not advocating for something as icky or abnormal as gay rights by, say, coming out as gay ruining the mental image of the sexless court jester.

The pissing scene was cut almost everywhere.

The main video was just the lead singer singing in a foggy room with a bunch of laser effects.

In an interview on MTV, they said the song was about "Success", and nobody questioned it.

And the lyric is "When you want to suck or chew it".

This version of the video (linked) is the only one I remember ever seeing:

If I remember right the band took its name from a movie magazine headline promoting when young singer Sinatra started doing films “FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD”

The video I remember seeing was the Brian de Palma one from Body Double, which also got a few bans since it had a porn shoot scenario, though since it was a straight porn shoot, I guess it was seen as more acceptable.

But everyone knew it was about sex.

I think people vaguely knew it was about sex, but I think it was so much more of a dance song that people weren’t sitting around pondering the lyrics. Plus gay culture was not known to the masses in the way it is today.

I always heard "suck it chew it" as "sock it to it."

Everyone knew what it meant. That's partly why American kids liked it. Also, it was really well produced.

Me too, r48.

I was in college when it came out. A girl I knew said it was alluding to the Falkland Islands War. I can't remember if I laughed in her face or just rolled my eyes.

Ross had one.

I was in 8th grade and it was huge. Yeah, wea knew it was about da homosex but the more daring preppy girls in my junior high wore the oversized Frankie Say shirts with arm loads of bangles and black rubber bracelets.

A girl I was friends with bought the 12 inch single (remember those?) and the cover art was fairly implicit BDSM. I remember being confused it featured a woman.

I also remember watching this MTV NYE performance when the Duran boys joined them onstage. In his autobiography, A Bone in My Flute, Holly said Simon was a really nice guy.

We were maybe more innocent then but how can you look at Paul Rutherford and not see he was a clone? Clones were HUGE back then.

But somehow shooting your load on Eileen was perfectly acceptable

R40 - Same here. He had a sexy, mischievous smile and aura. I’m kinda pissed I never saw this version. I was young and knew it was about sex, and would have been obsessed with all the debauchery shown in the club. Yum

I remember seeing the explicit version in Europe after midnight on some music video show (not on MTV). The show also played Duran Duran's Girls on Film or Madonna's Justify My Love.

Your story is not true, r41, because there were no shirts that said, "Frankie says relax".

I can imagine MTV not playing the explicit version. After all, they refused to play the Queen video of them in drag. Unbelieveable still.