Hokey Pokey (The Ice Cream Song) / Richard & Linda Thompson - YouTube
With Aly Bain on fiddle, and some of the best Richard Thompson guitar solos.
And it’s not even sure if it’s about sex or drugs. But Rock & Roll certainly.
She was gettin’ bombed and I was gettin’ blown away
Then she took it in her hand, and this is what she had to say
I want a Pearl Neckless
Not really all that sneaky, actually.
Sure, Madonna says “Like a Prayer” is about religion, but I don’t think that’s completely true. She’s giving a dude the greatest blow job ever. It’s so good that it’s a religious experience.
"When you call my name it’s like a little prayer
I’m down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour I can feel your power
Just like a prayer you know I’ll take you there
I hear your voice
It’s like an angel sighing
I have no choice, I hear your voice"
As Tom Lehrer pointed out, with sufficient imagination you can always see an off-color subtext.
For obvious reasons, “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” is something of an earworm for me just now. So I’m washing dishes, softly singing to myself–
If I invite
A boy some night
To dine
On my fine
Finnan Haddie,
I just adore
His asking for more
But my heart belongs to Daddy
–and I’m thinking, OK if “Finnan Haddie” is a metaphor for something she is prepared to share, then what absolutely exclusive treasure does “heart” represent? A gift reserved only for the one man who has earned sole access to such a privilege? Then it occurred to me that in an early verse, when she says, in a golf metaphor, that she won’t “follow through,” is she suggesting that she’ll play up to, but not including the, um, final hole? Add the fact that Cole Porter was a gay man, and I’m willing to go out on a limb and suggest the MHBtD might actually be even dirtier than I had given it credit for.
#overthinkingitdotcom
Is this really some revelation to you? The sexual meanings of many old jazz and blues songs were pretty clear without having to sing out out “WAP”.
Dinah Washington had a “dentist” … who “filled her cavities” … “took out his drill and told her to open wide” … also looking for her daddy with the big long sliding thing … clearly talking about the trombone!
How about Bessie Smith’s 1931 “Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl” (and some hot dog between her rolls)?
Given that pretty much everyone listening understood what was being talked about at what point did music censorship become more the norm and for what period of time?
I’m fully aware of all those old songs. Where did I say I thought this was a unique phenomenon? The repertoire of Bessie Smith and Sophie Tucker et al. is a given in this context; it’s certainly not esoteric knowledge you should feel smug and about possessing. Your reply would have been more appropriate (although still patronizing and dismissive) if I had written an OP that said “Hey guise I think some old songs may have included some sexual innuendo! Who knew??”
But I didn’t say that, so your response is disingenuous at best. I was referring to a specific take on a specific song. And even you must acknowledge that a song written by the whiter than white balladeer of the Upper Crust and sung by the likes of Mary Martin and Marilyn Monroe, is hardly “You got the right key but you workin in the wrong keyhole.” Cole Porter’s songs are dense with winks and nods. But not a lot of them can be read as thinly veiled hymns to anal sex.
Finnan haddie, now there’s something you don’t see on the menu much anymore. My dad used to order it at Dini’s Sea Grille, on Tremont Street in Boston. Then he would tell the corny old joke about the out-of-towner asking the cabby, “where can I get scrod in this town?”
Anyway, what an annoying song!
Much like the sneaky third-person pronoun in “Think About the Game” (from Damn Yankees):
When you’re kissin’ till it aches, remember:
Don’t! Give! In!
I guess I read the op:
as that faux “shocked just shocked I say” statement.
I’m not so convinced that the song is about anal sex BTW, just that she’ll play with other boy toys, but if they are looking for more of a relationship from her, nah. She doesn’t fall in love with every cute guy she uses for sex. Of course I could be wrong but I think dining on her Finnan Haddie was the wink and nod by itself.
Of course I read here someone sometime sure that the anus was what Van Morrison was referring to in “Brown eyed girl” so people can read in what they want!
The one I remembered btw was the Bessie Smith one, but didn’t remember who sang it at first … found the Dinah Washington ones on the way. I got little to be smug about possessing in this area!
More single entendre titles.
This just came up in my “weird resale finds” group, underneath a picture of an old hair salon heat-helmet chair:
My little sister has a pink one in her barber shop
I really need to get this thread outta my head.
This song is actually about another band trying to poach the bass player.
That’s because they’ve heard the version with the new verse I made up!
“Oh, the games we used to play
Inside and outside
Downstairs in your rumpus room
Playing the B side
Pushing down the old dirt road
You bringing up the rear
Rocking on your back porch
Your squeals were music to my ears
Ooh ooh my brown-eyed girl”
But I don’t think “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” is about anal sex, at least not specifically—- it’s about sex in general — when she sings “my heart”, she means “my body”…I may flirt and tease with the other guys, but I’m only following through with the rich boyfriend.
Unlike the singer in the Cole Porter song -Always True to You in my Fashion, in which the singer tells a man that her heart and emotions belong to him, she’ll do it with pretty much anyone if there’s a profit to be had…with verses like
There’s an oilman known as Tex
Who is keen to give me checks
And those checks, I fear
Mean that Tex is here
To stay
But I’m always true to you darling, in my fashion.
I’m always true to you darling, in my way.
Mr Gable, I mean Clark
Wants me on his boat to park
If the Gable boat means a sable coat
Anchors Aweigh!
But I’m always true to you darling in my fashion,
I’m always true to you darling in my way.
The last verse is from a long version that I’ve only heard a few times, but it’s my favorite.
Since the original title of the song was “Brown skinned girl,” it’s unlikely that’s the meaning. Morrison’s record company forced him to change it.
When she says “my heart,” she is referring to her vagina–the pronoun she uses is “it,” not “me”. At least that’s what I used to think. Now I think her vajayjay is actually what she is willing to share with a wider slice of the population, but her " heart" refers to a much more exclusive delicacy.
There’s so many good song in that show, but that one is one of my favs, too.
I don’t think this has been mentioned yet:
Lyrics from Take It Easy by The Eagles:
I still think this Frank Sinatra number is one long double entendre:
That’s because it’s an obvious reference to the previous verse and the “flatbed Ford.”