Cher is releasing a career-spanning anthology. It's curated by her and will be released before her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the first volume of her memoirs. Forever will include the first successes on its own (Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves, Dark Lady), the 80s power ballads (If I Could Turn Back Time, I Found Someone), the unstoppable club hits (Take Me Home And Believe). The Forever Fan Edition It will also feature songs with Sonny Bono, a duet with her late husband Gregg Allman and more, for a total of 40 songs.
But there is one big hit missing. Half Breed from 1973 tells the story of the son of a white man and a Cherokee woman grappling with prejudices on both sides: “The Indians said I was white in the law and the white man called me an Indian squaw,” goes one line. A Native American chant echoes beneath the chorus.
Half Breed was included in a Cher retrospective in the 90s and we can only speculate why it was excluded from Forever; Cher’s management declined to comment. It’s possible this is the latest in a growing trend among pop and rock greats to rethink their catalogs, set lists, and album covers in light of new sensibilities. Contemporary stars like Kesha, Lizzo, and Beyoncé have been revisiting problematic lyrics (GloRilla recently edited a line in a yet-to-be-released song to remove the word “retarded”), while established artists are only now starting to get their hands on it.
The Rolling Stones have eliminated the band from their concert schedules in 2021 Brown Sugarabout a “slave ship” and a slave trader who “knows he’s doing everything right, listen to him whip the women at midnight.” “Didn’t they realize it was a song about the horrors of slavery?” Keith Richards said at the time, adding that he hoped “I’ll be able to cover it again sometime in the future.”
The song, however, has not yet reappeared in concert and, apparently, it is not the only case of a change made by the Stones. In 1977, the band played a show for a select few at the El Mocambo in Toronto. Parts of the concert were released on the album Love You Live of the same year where Mick Jagger can be heard introducing the band by joking about their sexual preferences: «Charlie Watts has yet to choose», «Bill Wyman only wants to photograph girls' legs», «Ronnie Wood is gay». By 2022, when the most extended recording of the concerts was officially released, Jagger's remarks had disappeared. That same year, Patti Smith removed Rock n Roll N****r from all streaming editions of his album Easter of 1978.
This spring Joni Mitchell released a box set of her albums from the late '70s. One of them is Don Juan's Reckless Daughter. When the album was released in 1977, few were offended, at least publicly, by the fact that Mitchell was pictured on the cover with the blackfaceor with her face painted in black, in the guise of the character she called Art Nouveau. Now, apparently, someone has seen fit to do just that: the reprint has a completely different cover, with a photo of Mitchell hiding behind what appears to be a stuffed wolf.
Not surprisingly, none of the artists commented on these changes (all declined to speak with Rolling Stone (or did not respond to requests for comment). The trend has left some in the music industry perplexed, baffled, or both. “In Joni’s case, I would have advised her to do what she did,” says a prominent entertainment consultant and crisis management expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But I wonder if anyone actually believes Joni is racist.”
With regard to Brown Sugar and other songs with lyrics that might be considered offensive today, “you know they were written in a different era and nobody would write them like that today. Nobody thinks Cher is a terrible person because she sang that song half a century ago. You have to be careful not to overreact.”
Joni Mitchell's 'Don Juan's Reckless Daughter' Covers Compared
Fans seem to be evenly divided on the issue at the moment. When Mitchell re-released the cover, he simply shared the artwork on social media without comment. Some fans have pointed out that they have no problem with the original, and that some think it's better. “I'm going to say something unpopular, but I prefer the original cover,” one user wrote. “We've ruined our sense of humor because of political correctness, now it's time for art and it'll happen with lyrics soon. Can anyone really be offended by the original image?”
Others agreed with Mitchell’s decision. “Times change and with them the way art and music are perceived. Changing the cover doesn’t change the music, it enriches it… I’m glad the cover was changed,” wrote one. And another, more succinctly: “The new cover is definitely better.”
With regard to Half BreedCher has a complicated relationship with the song (which, admittedly, features one of the most passionate and pained vocal performances of her career). After releasing it, she didn't perform it live until 1999, only to occasionally reintroduce it into her live repertoire. She revived it in 2014, performing it with a new headpiece to match the lyrics, and disappeared again, coming under fire on social media for cultural appropriation. “It's 50 years old, not meant to be offensive,” Cher wrote in 2017. “But okay, that's a lame excuse. I need to put that beautiful costume away and stop singing it. It's definitely had its day.” (Half Breed remains in the current touring version of the musical The Cher Show).
Neither the publisher of Half Breed nor Dawn Garrett, Snuff Garrett's daughter who produced the original recording, were informed of the omission of the hit from Forever. “If I had to guess, I would say that’s why,” Garrett says. “I didn’t grow up thinking that the song was an insult or anything like that. But this is a completely different generation, and I think it’s important that no one feels insulted or upset. We’ll have to see if the older fans are happy with it or if it’s too polarizing.”
The question remains: How far will this trend extend, and what other songs or lyrics will be deleted? The music consultant, for one, is skeptical. “It can get ridiculous when you try to delete things that already exist. You can’t delete things from Google. If Michelangelo were alive, would he cover up his works?”
From Rolling Stone US.
