I was listening to Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” when the thought hit me that very few songs use the word “sex”. (Obviously, Led Zeppelin is singing of sex. There is no love here.) Since rock stars are not known for having morals, why would it be that they shy away from this word? It’s not an FCC rule (in the US). Is it some unspoken RIAA rule? Or, some rule of radio? Must radio be kept PG? I WAG not since George Michael had no problem with saying it. Could it be that the word “love” simply sounds better to the ear with softer tones than the word “sex”? You’d think (rock) musicians would go for the shock value.
So, what do you think is the deal with this? Maybe the truth is simply that innuendo is dirtier in the mind than flat-out putting it out there in the open?
Keep in mind, “Whole Lotta Love” was recorded nearly 50 years ago, and it’s a cover of a blues number at least a decade older than that. There was a time when people simply didn’t sing about “sex” if they wanted their records to get sold in stores or played on the radio, regardless of whether or not it was technically legal.
Besides, the double entendre makes it funny and more memorable than if it were simply a dirty song; “My Ding-a-Ling”, for example.
Well, there’s that. Plus, a mechanical description of tab a into slot b (or however the mechanics work out for you and yours) isn’t necessarily the most poetic or alluring method of describing it.
I am not sure what you are asking. I mean, obviously in the ways of hooking up, keeping things blurry between love, sex, etc. has the longest of histories. That’s not surprising, is it?
Are you asking, to keep with Whole Lotta Love, if Plant is going to go on about wanting to give her “every inch of his love” why doesn’t he just call it his dick?
Because then we would giggle for a different reason!
Because if you sing “I want to know what sex is, I want you to show me” to the average woman, you will probably get slapped, but if you exchange love for sex in the lyric, you just might get sex? (Insert tongue-in-cheek smiley here). But on the other hand George Michael did sing “I Want Your Sex”, and David Lee Roth of Van Halen sang “Ain’t Talkin’ 'Bout Love” in the early 80’s.
Bizarrely, I was having this exact conversation at the weekend. That you can take every instance of the word “love” in Whole Lotta Love, and replace it with “cock” and the lyrics still work.
At least in the case of “I Want Your Sex”, many radio stations, at that time, wouldn’t play the song due to its explicitness, and ISTR that MTV wouldn’t air the video (at least not during prime time).
Didn’t soul and r + b singers often use “God” as a sexual euphemism in the 60’/70’s?
Wish I could come up with some cites for that. Like the Ides of March’s “Vehicle”? I think Al Green may have gone done that road sometimes.
:: as I put on Big Black’s “Songs About Fucking” album ::
You probably wonder why women just don’t walk around the beach topless, too, don’t you? Well, the answer to your food-for-thought question is, don’t nobody wanna hear that sh*t in public.
That wouldn’t work, because RP kinda extends the “L” sound of “love”, which is way easier than trying to extend the hard “C” sound of “cock”, which is impossible, considering the hard “C” sounds ends in an abrupt stop. It just wouldn’t sound right on auditory grounds, on ethical grounds, on taste grounds, on MJB ones.
The most wretched, sleaziest, gonorrhea-laden use of the word “love” in a song, by a longshot, is by 80’s Quebecois hair-rocker Aldo Nova, in the song “Fantasy”, where he goes: “…making luuuuuuuuuuvvvvvvv if the price is rye - eeeeeett.”
Too grossed out to provide a kink.
I distinctly remember hearing Clarence Carter’s “Strokin’” on the radio, late at night. Jay Ferguson’s “Shakedown Cruise” also has the word “sex” in the lyrics.
Well, the answer to your food-for-thought question is, don’t nobody wanna hear that sh*t in public.