The Surprisingly Non-Risqué Meaning Behind One of Loretta Lynn’s Banned Songs “X Rated”

Years before releasing her most controversial song, “The Pill,” an advocation for female reproductive rights, Loretta Lynn already had four of her songs banned. In 1966, Lynn’s “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” about a woman fed up with her man coming home drunk looking for love, was banned on radio.

Just two years later, Lynn was banned again with a song about her husband Oliver Lynn’s infidelities on “Fist City” and again with “Wings Upon Your Horns” in 1969.

By the early 1970s, Lynn faced more criticism singing about the double standards women face as divorcees.

[RELATED: 5 Loretta Lynn Songs That Were Banned]

“You’re Rated X”

You can’t have a male friend / When you’re a has-been or a woman sings Lynn on “Rated X.” The song calls out how women were often perceived by men—as loose or free—after a divorce.

Well, if you’ve been a married woman
And things didn’t seem to work out
Divorce is the key to bein’ loose and free
So you’re gonna be talked about
Everybody knows that you’ve loved once
They think you’ll love again
You can’t have a male friend
When you’re a has-been or a woman
You’re rated X

And if you’re rated X, you’re some kind of gold
Even men turnin’ silver try to make
But I think it’s wrong to judge every picture
If a cheap camera makes a mistake
And when your best friend’s husband says to you
You’ve sure started lookin’ good
You shoulda known he would, and he would if he could
And he will if you’re rated X

Well, nobody knows where you’re goin’
But they sure know where you’ve been
All they’re thinkin’ of is your experience of love
Oh, their minds eat up with sin
The women all look at you like you’re bad
The men all hope you are
But if you go too far, you’re gonna wear the scar
Of a woman rated X

Shortly after its release, Lynn received letters from women who called the song offensive and dirty, which was the opposite of her message. “If they had listened real good, they would have got the story right,” said Lynn in her 2012 book Honky Tonk Girl: My Life In Lyrics. “I was taking up for divorced women. Once you have been married, if you got divorced or became widowed, every man takes it for granted that you’re available, that you’re easy.”

Lynn added, “Maybe it’s because they think that because we’ve been through so much, we’re just ready for fun. They don’t understand that while some women are like that, most aren’t. That’s the story I was trying to tell – I was talking to the men, trying to set them straight.”

Despite being banned by some radio stations, “Rated X,” released on Lynn’s 1972 album Entertainer of the Year became her sixth chart-topper and the album—a nod to becoming the first female artist honored as Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association—also went to No. 1.

[RELATED: The Meaning of Loretta Lynn’s 1975 Reproductive Rights Song “The Pill”]

The White Stripes

In 1999, Neko Case and the Sadies covered “Rated X,” and Jack White, who later collaborated with Lynn on the Van Lear Rose in 2004, would often include “Rated X” in The White Stripes’ set by the late ’90s. In 2001, the duo later dedicated their third album, White Blood Cells, to Lynn whom they had befriended earlier.

“When you work with someone like her, you forget everything else,” said White of Lynn during the 2010 Grammy Salute to Country Music which honored her 60-year career. “You can’t imagine this talent is right in front of your eyes. These things that you’re hearing, they just don’t seem human.”

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images