Rolling Stones agreed to China censorship?

The Rolling Stones let the NFL censor them at the Super Bowl last month, and it seems they're now letting the Chinese government do it to them. There's been no official confirmation from the band, but published stories indicate that the Chinese have told the Stones not to play four songs -- "Let's Spend The Night Together," "Honky Tonk Women," "Brown Sugar," and "Beast Of Burden." It's thought the suggestive nature of the lyrics to those songs has the leadership worried, and they passed their concerns on to the group.

The New Zealand Herald says the Chinese Ministry Of Culture actually banned those songs back in 2003, when the RollingStones were first supposed to play in China, but the shows got canceled because of the SARS epidemic. The paper quoted a Culture Ministry official as saying, "they know there are differences between Chinese and Western cultures. They don't want to do anything against the Chinese government."

The Rolling Stones will play their first-ever show in China on April 8th in Shanghai.

At Super Bowl XL (40) in Detroit last month, the classic rock legends were censored during their halftime performances of the songs "Rough Justice" and "Start Me Up" due to their lyrics.