So I have about 30 volumns of Rhino Records “super Hits of the 70’s”. This is the music the was popular when I was a teenager. Sometimes I like to listen to these songs and LAUGH MY ASS OFF:p at how terribly ridiculous 70’s music was.
some of you youngsters have nooooooooooooo idea at how bad top 40 radio was circa 1970-79.
So theres this song “Midnight at the Oasis” by Maria Muldaur. It was a top hit in '74. I’m hoping someone here is older than 35 and remembers this song.
My question is, WTF was with some of the strange lyrics? “Send your camel to bed”? “The cactus is our friend”? Were these supposed to be dirty or what?
“Send your camel to bed” mustve meant get rid of that beast[tether it elsewhere] and then we can make the two-backed beast, without interruption. " The cactus is our friend," gee, I dunno’. Perhaps a hedge of cactus would keep prying, or preying, or even praying eyes focused onto something else, so they could continue doing the nasty, in relative privacy. Any other interpretations?
I liked the tune, but couldn’t figure out the lyrics when it was a hit either. That never stopped a song before-some songs in foreign languages become,er, became # 1hits. Doubt that could happen now. The dirtiest/sexiest 70s(1971-2) hit tune was Pillow Talk by Sylvia. Being a college DJ & music fan, I couldn’t agree more- the 70s was pretty much a music wasteland-best known for disco, & the break up of the Beatles.
It’s not a love song, it’s about two spies meeting to exchange information. The rendesvouz point was obviously “midnight at the oasis”. “Send your camel to bed” and “the cactus is our friend” were to code phrases they exchanged to identify each other.
Unbeknownst to them however, a young songwriter was camping nearby and overheard their conversation. Misinterpreting what she heard, she transformed it into a song. Needless to say the CIA was shocked when they heard their code being broadcast on a top 40 single. Agent Chuck Barris was dispatched to make sure it didn’t happen again and Maria Muldaur literally became a one hit wonder.
Maria Muldaur sang a lot of racy songs. “Oasis” was one of the milder ones that could actually be played on air without seriously offending anyone. “And you won’t need no camel, no no, when I take you for a ride.” is fairly explicit without being dirty. And the guitar work on the song is excellent.
Midnight at the oasis
Send your camel to bed
Shadows painting our faces
Traces of romance in our heads
Heaven’s holding a half moon
Shining just for us
Let’s slip off to a sand dune, real soon
Kick up a little dust…(copywrited lyrics deleted by Czarcasm)
But her other fabulous song definitely is, ahem, dirty: “Don’t You Feel My Leg” I’ll not post it here, unless you beg me to.
The cactus “is our friend” because “he points out the way.” In other words, sagauro cactus often look like a man standing in silhouette with one arm pointed straight out into the desert.
As I said in my suitably-hijacked thread asking for identification of a 1970s style “pop song” (it was Undercover Angel, BTW), Midnight At The Oasis has some rather Dan-esque lyrics, but the chords are excellent, as is the overall arrangment.
The SDMB has rather strict rules about material with copyrights. No reprinting entire articles, stories, poems, or essays- link, paraphrase, or give short quotations. I got officially warned once for posting song lyrics.
“Midnight at the Oasis” is the song Catherine O’Hara and Fred Willard sing when they audition for the play in “Waiting for Guffmann,” no?
I loved that sexy Midnight at the Oasis, and ran out to buy the 45 of it when I was a kid. Saw Maria Muldaur in concert, too — at Summerfest’s main stage, pkbites.
I’ll go ahead and sound like a grumpy old man, but top 40 radio was far cooler than what I hear nowadays.
Back then, songs popped. They rhymed, the rhythms had snap and the musicians actually sounded like they were acquainted with their instruments longer than 30 minutes.
Moreover, the songs would be about anything. They weren’t all deathly serious love songs and they weren’t all about teen angst. They could be silly, goofy, achey, lusty, mysterious, anything at all.
Yeah, sometimes I had to jam icepicks in my earlobes to ease the pain of the occasional “Billy Don’t Be A Hero,” “Blue Eyes” or “Copacabana,” but it meant hearing “Baker Street” or “Year of the Cat” or “Werewolves of London.”
Top 40 radio is far more limited in scope these days, and not nearly as much fun to listen to.
I’m not sure if they’ll close the thread or not, but it’ll get the Mods pissed at you. I learned that the hard way myself. You can post snippetts of the lyrics or post a hyperlink to lyrics site.
What I remember most about the 70’s music are groups that had 1 hit that wasn’t too bad, then came out with songs that were really awful. It was weird. Usually it meant that someone else had written the hit, and the group wrote the rest of their own music. Groups like “Jigsaw”, “Starbuck”, and “Paper Lace” comes to mind.
The guy I miss though is Joey Levine. He wrote/performed some really fun, if corny, songs in the late 60’s/early 70’s. I think he writes commercial jingles now.
Don’t go there with that one-hit wonder status. Her debut album was designed as an album, not a single with filler.
The Maria Muldaur album is an unbelievable gem. She had uncanny song taste, and the lineup of songwriters on the album is fantastic: Jimmie Rodgers, Dolly Parton, Kate McGarrigale, Dan Hicks, Mac Rebennnack (Dr. John), and Wendy Waldman among them. David Nichtern wrote “Midnight at the Oasis” played guitars and produced.
Note the number of female names. Other than a few exceptions - Laura Nyro perhaps foremost - it wasn’t until the early 70s that female singer-songwriters truly got a chance to write and record their own songs. While Muldaur was an adapter, like Linda Ronstadt who was also at her peak back then, she was among the first generation to have a range of wonderful songs written by females to choose from.
When people remember the good side of the 70s today, these artists aren’t highly regarded. They were from the softer side of rock that fell out of popularity. But they were important figures in the history of rock, and the songs they wrote are simply beautiful. I love this album.
Oh, and David Nichtern, like the late Michael Kamen, was another important pop music figure who went on to write many successful soundtracks. He’s still making music today.
Were these supposed to be dirty or what?