Culture of the times, like you said. Explains a lot of questionable lyrics.
I was recently listening to the song Gone Fishin sung by Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby. Where Papa Bing has a lot of deals going on, but he left them to go fishin. Louis also left his work behind to go fishin but it was his hoe left in the sun and his rows undone,
BIng is big man record deal maker and Louis is a sharecropper/laborer?
sign of the times, and Bing sounding all cool cat in the song, idk kinda ick but great song ntl,
“O sole mio” starts out being how the singer is enjoying the sunshine on a beautiful day.
But then he sings the real sun is his girlfriend’s beautiful face and the way it shines upon him. Well, not really his girlfriend - it’s a woman he knows.
Well, not really knows. It’s a woman who he watches in her house through her windows. And he’ll keep on watching her through the windows all day. And then all through the night.
Whether it’s love or lust doesn’t matter, there is still nothing skeevy about it. Using words is the proper way to indicate a desire for a physical relationship. It is the alternatives that are skeevy.