5 Feet of Fury

‘One Less White Nigger’: When life imitates song lyrics

Elvis Costello, who once called Ray Charles a “blind, ignorant nigger” (but gets a pass because he’s Elvis Costello) now finds one of of his songs — dating back to 1979 — censored for the use of the word “nigger.”

Except the exact phrase is “white nigger,” which isn’t quite the same thing, and the song’s persona is a bad guy.

(Shades of “Money for Nothing.”)