Censored by China, but I'd be a fool to cry, says Jagger

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger said he was not surprised that Chinese officials had banned five of their songs at their debut concert in Shanghai.

“We kind of expected that. We didn’t expect to come to China and not be censored,” Jagger said at a news conference on the eve of the band’s first performance on the mainland.

Authorities objected to four songs from the band’s 2002 greatest hits collection, 40 Licks, and Jagger said officials asked them not to play those, plus one new one, at the concert.

“Fortunately, we have 400 more songs that we can play so it’s not really an issue,” he said.

He then added, with trademark sarcasm: “I’m pleased that the Ministry of Culture is protecting the morals of the expat bankers and their girlfriends that are going to be coming” – a reference to the largely foreign, upper-class audience expected for the concert.

An original request to alter the playlist was made ahead of the band’s planned 2003 China concerts that were cancelled due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Jagger said he had hoped the request would be dropped, but, “then it came back”.

The original four songs cut were Brown Sugar, Honky Tonk Woman, Beast of Burden, and Let’s Spend the Night Together, apparently due to their suggestive lyrics.

Jagger did not say what the new addition was, but it was believed to be Rough Justice, the opening track of their new album, A Bigger Bang – which includes a lyric that is a synonym for rooster.

Censorship is nothing new to the Stones, dating back to their 1967 appearance on American TV’s The Ed Sullivan Show, when the host demanded the band change the lyrics to Let’s Spend the Night Together. As ordered, Jagger sang "Let’s spend some time together", but he rolled his eyes for effect.

More recently, the American National Football League silenced Jagger’s microphone during sexually-suggestive passages of two of the three songs the band performed before an audience of 90 million television viewers at the Super Bowl half-time show in February.

“I don’t have to tell you censorship exists in China, as in other places,” Jagger said.