Sometimes, though, a controversial lyric achieves little more than brisk business for a song. Songs like Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit and Public Enemy's Fight the Power held a mirror up to society and forced important debate. The history of popular music is awash with lyrics that kicked up an almighty stink and often with very good reason. The pen is mightier than the sword, the idiom dictates, and used well words can hurt just as much as sticks and stones.
