Saturday, April 28, 2012

Sexy Songs that Broke Barriers: A Short Playlist


I was reflecting on women the other night, as I have been inclined to do since the age of 12, sometimes obsessively, sometimes regretfully, often hornily, once in a while angrily. 

I enjoyed the dialogue that broke forth from the blog the other day about Filipinas and the men they attach to. 1DC asked why I hitched up with a Filipina and that got me to thinking. Why do I like Asian women? Basically because they have an exotic and feminine allure without being airheads. Nice skin. Sweet, smart, strong.

What about American women, I asked myself? What's wrong with them?

Absolutely nothing. American women come in all sizes and shapes, personalities, and sexual proclivities.  Speaking statistically, a greater percentage have really large mammaries.  Look it up. They drink better than Asians, for sure. Some have freckles, which are fun to count on a sunny day. There are more athletic women in the States than in the Philippines, judging from the joggers out at daybreak, or the enrollment list at the aerobics gym.

All that thinking eventually led my brain to music and I started reflecting on popular songs that address love and sex. Not modern songs. Almost all of them do, it would seem. The Lady Gaga video "On the Edge of Glory" is a blond crazed cat in heat. Nice song, actually.

I'm talking about the golden oldies, the breakthrough songs that introduced sex to singing in America and the greater civilized world.

Now Elvis was one sexy dude, with his smoldering sneer and swiveling hips. But he sang about blue suede shoes and hound dogs and love that is true. Not sex, explicitly.

The first breakthrough song I recall was Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay". Classic Dylan nasal twine, slow and sultry. Not only was he inviting the girl to stay for awhile, he was telling her to stretch out on his big brass bed. His hands were clean, he insisted. Grandmas and preachers shrieked in horror. Radio audiences loved it.

Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay, stay with your man awhile
Until the break of day, let me see you make him smile
His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean
And you're the best thing that he's ever seen.

I don't really recall the historical order of things, and won't look it up, as it is largely irrelevant. Bob Seger crooned two songs that stoked everyman's fancy. In "Roll Me Away", he rode his motorbike into the mountains, stopped at a bar and met a girl. They had a few drinks. She looked into his eyes, went out and climbed on that bike. They rode off into the mountains together. Then he did the classic of heavy-breathing sex songs in "Night Moves", telling true tales of what many young men go through in the back seat of their 60 Chevy with a willing girl "with points of her own, riding way up high". They weren't there for love, no, indeed, but for . . . um . . . educational achievements.

Three less sexual songs, but nice for their beat and the tenor of "guys and girls in the mood":

  • " Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" by the Hollies. This appeals to any man who has ever been in a bar and had a pretty, sexy woman walk into his life. Or dreamed about it. The beat is foot stomping hard. Remind me to tell you about that little dive in Hollywood sometime . . . Sha Na Na  . . .

  • "American Woman" by The Guess Who. Well, we Americans get inspired by Filipinas and some Europeans find American Women attractive but too much to handle. So they dump them and flee, as reported in this fine anthem to American female allure and frustration. In the angry fade-out, you can barely hear the singer shouting "good-bye American woman, good bye American shit . . ."

  • "She Just Wants to Dance" by Keb' Mo'

She can feel it in her fingers
And it moves on down her spine
And when it hits her hips
She parts her lips
And you know she's feeling fine

Oh, baby, yeah!

'Nuf said.

The real groundbreaker, though, opening the way for Lady Gaga and others, was Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" with its throbbing beat and the most incredible singing climax in music history, "You need looovvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeee" drifting deep into the canyons of music history. That was 1970. I remember it well.  I was getting some action that year, and married her in September.

You need coolin’, baby, I’m not foolin’,
I’m gonna send you back to schoolin’,
Way down inside honey, you need it,
I’m gonna give you my love,
I’m gonna give you my love.

Wanna Whole Lotta Love
Wanna Whole Lotta Love
Wanna Whole Lotta Love
Wanna Whole Lotta Love

You’ve been learnin’, baby, I bean learnin’,
All them good times, baby, baby, I’ve been yearnin’,
Way, way down inside honey, you need it,
I’m gonna give you my love… I’m gonna give you my love.

Wanna Whole Lotta Love
Wanna Whole Lotta Love
Wanna Whole Lotta Love
Wanna Whole Lotta Love

You’ve been coolin’, baby, I’ve been droolin’,
All the good times I’ve been misusin’,
Way, way down inside, I’m gonna give you my love,
I’m gonna give you every inch of my love,
Gonna give you my love.

Wanna Whole Lotta Love
Wanna Whole Lotta Love
Wanna Whole Lotta Love
Wanna Whole Lotta Love

Way down inside… woman… You need… love.
Shake for me, girl. I wanna be your backdoor man.
Keep it coolin’, baby.
_______________________________

I didn't think about the Department of Education or Chief Justice Corona all night. 

11 comments:

  1. LOL. Way to go, Joe!

    Marvin Gaye didn't make it on your list?

    ReplyDelete
  2. The cobwebs in my brain are thick, and the only Marvin Gaye song penetrating them is "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", which is not sexy enough. It is a lament on getting dumped. Maybe that is a good theme for a separate blog, eh?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sexual Healing, Joe.

      Delete
    2. Consider it added to the playlist. Sizzling. Nothing subtle about that song.

      "Ooh baby, I'm hot just like an oven
      I need some lovin'
      And baby, I can't hold it much longer
      It's getting stronger and stronger

      And when I get that feeling
      I want sexual healing
      Sexual healing, oh baby
      Makes me feel so fine"

      Delete
  3. An album I'm sure you will enjoy is the Peter Green and Nigel Watson album: Hot Foot Powder. It's a tribute to Robert Johnson so they cover some of Johnson's classic songs. Lot's of sexy lyrics there. Innuendos and straight up. You can download it in Torrents or listen to it on youtube

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MB, with a title like that, it can't go wrong. "Hot Foot Powder". I'll dial it up!

      Delete
    2. Fantastic music, MB. Peter Green, the soul of Fleetwood Mac, as I read. A musician's bio, for sure, ups, drugs, downs, up again. I couldn't find a biography on Nigel Watson, but I did find info to suggest the two ended up in acrimony, and in the courts.

      Delete
  4. What about songs by liberated women like Etta James the R&B singer? Blues singers were way ahead of their time. Rolling Stone's song "I just Want to make Love to You" is a Muddy Water Song" Deep Purple Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones were the bands who fused blues with Rock and Roll and that meant the free expression of the Blues as well.

    I met this guy who kept bragging about how his lovemaking was goin to blow my mind
    Well after the lovemaking I said:
    I don't mean to embarrass you but listen...

    Your love is like tryin to light a fire with a wet match
    you won't even get a spark like that
    Your love is like tryin to light a fire with a wet match
    you won't even get a spark like that

    You said you could always
    get a woman excited
    every time she mentioned your name
    Said they call you good lovin
    good lovin daddy, uh uh
    ooh-ooh you sexy thing

    I needed a lil lovin
    couldn't wait to get you in the sack
    I was so disappointed
    I don't want you to ever come back
    Hey!

    Your love is like tryin to light a fire with a wet match
    you won't even get a spark like that
    Your love is like tryin to light a fire with a wet match
    you won't even get a spark like that

    You know the man was so embarrassed
    that he didn't even show his face around here for a long time
    hehe
    Do you blame him?

    Ladies beware, of those fast talkin men
    They just ain't ready when you wanna have a lil fun.
    Braggin bout how you'll sweep me off my feet
    Couldn't even make me put a wrinkle in my sheets

    Your love is like tryin to light a fire with a wet match
    you won't even get a spark like that
    Your love is like tryin to light a fire with a wet match
    you won't even get a spark like that

    Repeat

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, My, yes. I was locked into rock and if I went to blues, that would definitely dredge up some smokin' songs, physical for sure. That reminds me of a definition of a blues song that I have to dig up, sent to me by a NY woman who lived in the song industry in the 60's and was pals with Dylan, Peter Yarrow, and that crowd. If I find it, I'll post it.

      Delete
    2. Ida Cox's “One Hour Mama”

      I’ve always heard that haste makes waste,
      So, I believe in taking my time
      The highest mountain can’t be raced
      It’s something you must slowly climb.

      I want a slow and easy man,
      He needn’t ever take the lead,
      Cause I work on that long time plan
      And I ain’t a looking for no speed.

      I’m a one hour mama, so no one minute papa
      Ain’t the kind of man for me.
      Set your alarm clock papa, one hour that’s proper
      Then love me like I like to be.

      I don’t want no lame excuses bout my lovin being so good,
      That you couldn’t wait no longer, now I hope I’m understood.
      I’m a one hour mama, so no one minute papa
      Ain’t the kind of man for me.

      I can’t stand no green horn lover, like a rookie goin to war,
      With a load of big artillery, but don’t know what its for.
      He’s got to bring me reference with a great long pedigree
      And must prove he’s got endurance, or he don’t mean snap to me.

      I can’t stand no crowin rooster, what just likes a hit or two,
      Action is the only booster of just what my man can do.
      I don’t want no imitation, my requirements ain’t no joke,
      Cause I got pure indignation for a guy what’s lost his stroke.

      I’m a one hour mama, so no one minute papa
      Ain’t the kind of man for me.
      Set your alarm clock papa, one hour that’s proper,
      Then love me like I like to be.

      I may want love for one hour, then decide to make it two.
      Takes an hour ’fore I get started, maybe three before I’m through.
      I’m a one hour mama, so no one minute papa,
      Ain’t the kind of man for me.

      Delete
    3. Fantastic!!

      I don’t want no imitation, my requirements ain’t no joke,
      Cause I got pure indignation for a guy what’s lost his stroke.

      Intellectual, too.

      Delete

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