Rock-n-roll, the name, comes from an old suphamistic, descriptive slang term for sex. And old rock-n-roll was a little raunchy. Of course given the mores of its time, the innuendo was generally couched pretty subtly…if you didn't know it might be there, you might miss it. A lot was in the delivery. A couple of years ago, I heard a version of Suzy-Q that sounded like nothing other than concentrated lascivious intent. The lyrics, as follow:
Oh Susie Q
Oh Susie Q
Oh Susie Q
Baby, I love you
Susie QI like the way you walk
I like the way you talk
I like the way you walk
I like the way you talk
Susie Q[Instrumental Interlude]
You say that you'll be true
You say that you'll be true
You say that you'll be true
Baby I love you, Susie QYou say that you'll be mine
You say that you'll be mine
You say that you'll be mine
Baby, all the time, Susie QOh Susie Q
Oh Susie Q
Oh Susie Q
Baby I love you
Susie QI like the way you walk
I like the way you talk
I like the way you walk
I like the way you talk
Susie Q
You have to really load the delivery to get sexual intent out of that…but this guy did. Every word out of hos mouth was a bump or a grind. It was truly unreal. I wish I knew who did that cover so I could link it for you guys…I heard it on 101 the Fox, during the semi-crappy Sunday evening blues show about two years ago. It made an impression, just not enough of an impression to remember the singer's name.
What really brought on this train of thought were the combinations of seeing a snippet of Madonna's Like A Prayer lyrics on an advert on MySpace. Back when this song was popular, I was young enough that the lyrics didn't really sink in to my consciousness. I thought it was just a pretty song about a girl praying that the guy she loved would love her as much and they'd “live happily ever after.” Yes, yes, I was 12 when this album came out. It wasn't until I was about 13, going on 14 that the dirty meanings of sings started to make sense to me. Maybe I was a late bloomer…I dunno. I remember the first time I realized a song was dirty was when I was listening to Prince's Cream and thinking, “dude, they can play a song about that on the radio!?” And wouldn't you know…the Madonna album came out 1989, the Prince one in 1991. What a difference two years makes.
Around the same time as my shocking recognition of the sexual content in Prince lyrics, I had a notion that “the Missionary Position” referred to all sex, in general. I was aware of the general mechanics of sex, and that there were several different ways people could position their bodies to do the dirty deeds, but I thought the Missionary Position was just a euphonism for sex, referring to the stereotypical cries of “oh god, oh god,” that people were portrayed as exclaiming when they came. Because people who were climaxing were “praying,” or praising god, and missionaries pray a lot. Right? So sex makes you pray, thus all sex, no matter how you go about it, was “the missionary position.”
I've learned a thing or two since I was 13, thank goodness.
Also, I'm not the praying type…more the speaking-in-tongues type.