It’s not fair that only the Guns’n Roses and Snoop Doggy Dogs of this world get done for obscene lyrics. Is there any way to prove that Natalie Imbruglia makes them look like The Mormon Tabernacle Choir? “Torn” is just one “nice” top twenty song that can be interpreted as xxxxx worthy should you so wish. Crowded House’s “I fall at your Feet” has a porno line. The Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” isn’t about sex, it’s about suicide. They exhort listeners to feel the romance and just do it. But because it also was a nice Byrds-influenced top twenty hit no-one cared. Can anyone give similar examples of this kind of thing rather than calling me dirty-minded or paranoid?
Mmm. “Torn” IIRC was written by one of the many Cure alumni. I heard it as “I’m already stoned”. The Crowdies? Well, “When You Come” is an obvious candidate, but The Neilist has sex running through most of his songs. Plenty of stuff is dodgy - any blues artist that talks about squeezing lemons is pretty suss. Let me weigh in with Turning Japanese (The Vapours), Spill the Wine (The Animals)and Pictures of Lily (The Who) as being transparently about masturbation for starters.
picmr
How about if take our surveys in IMHO? Bye bye.
The Natalie Imbruglia lyric that gets me is something about “Look at all the bubbles of love we made”.
It makes me think of post-coital frothing.
I’ll go outside now.
Oh yeah, the blues women were anything but subtle. “I need a little sugar in my bowl…”
My vote for least subtle metaphoric masturbation has to be Joan Osbourne’s “Match Burn Twice.”
And I’m a mommy, too.
Since Joan Osborne is on the table, does anyone want to be my Right Hand Man?
Turning Japanese by The Vapors - about masturbation.
Norwegian Wood by The Beatles - someone once told me that the lyrics to that are fairly dodgy.
Worst of all - All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You by Heart. Not only a bloody awful song, but the lyrics are brain-bleedingly awful metaphors for sex (“We walked in the garden, we planted a tree”). I don’t care how explicit it is, it should be banned for the sake of sanity.
Torn was actually originally by a band called “Ednaswap”. They’re australian, I beleive.
They have since broken up, and a few of the members have reformed as Annetenna.
You can find their version of torn in mp3 at http://www.annetenna.com
“Norwegian Wood” is a style of decor that was popular in middle- and lower-middle class England in the '60s.
That song is about a guy who hooks up with some chick and thinks he’s gonna be getting some, but she changes her mind. So the next morning when she leaves for work, he burns her place down.
But back to the OP.
A lot of blues tunes are about sex. Most of them have to do with another man’s wife, or some such similarities.
But let’s face it. In the past 20 years, cheating has become musically passe. So in order to push the envelope, musicians have had to tackle topics such as homosexuality, incest, 3-somes and murder (sometimes all in the same song!) to keep it fresh and shocking. The old stuff just isn’t racy enough. 
When I bought Counting Crows’ Recovering the Satellites a few years ago it had an obscene lyrics warning sticker on it. I pored over the words with a magnifying glass for hours but could never find one word or phrase that came close to deserving a warning like that. It seemed to be there by reason of someone’s completely subjective opinion. There were no expletives, homophobic or racist terms. But someone had regarded Counting Crows’ lyrics in the same way I have regarded Natalie Imbruglia’s. And the way I see Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ Otherside as being, in part, about Tampax. But Natalie and the Chilli Peppers never get stickers.
Can’t discuss songs about masturbation without Cyndi Lauper’s “She-Bop” and the DiVinyls’ (When I think about you) “I Touch Myself” (anyone remember the video? That was hot!).
G.Nome -
On the Counting Crows CD, they say “Fuck” once. Hence the sticker. rolls eyes
Personally, I’ve always had a thing for the post-David Lee Roth Van Halen and when Sammy took over my heart lept with joy. (Forgive me. I was young.)
Anyhow, if it’s blue lyrics you want, check out Sammy and the crew’s “Black and Blue.” It’s interesting to say the least.
Your ophthalmological problem means nothing to me Falcon. They all say fuck. But who says which ones get stickers? Is it the case that by means of literary devices (metaphors, similies, innuendo, irony etc) it is possible for lyricists to express any concept or thought they wish then? Is it only expletive use that attracts censorship? I’d like to know why Counting Crows were picked on because the word fuck is almost a family entertainment word nowadays.
In “Penny Lane,” the Beatles sang about “fish and finger pie,” which was an obscene lyric by their own admission. (Not to mention the fireman who liked to “keep his fire engine clean.” Double entendre, anyone?)
The Rolling Stones had a number of blatantly sexual songs. Examples:[list][li]“Brown Sugar,” about interracial sex.[/li][li]“Let It Bleed” Sample lyric: “We all need someone we can cream on.”[/li][li]“Let’s Spend the Night Together”[/li]
“Nice” 70’s band 10cc (big hit: “I’m Not in Love”) took its band name from the average amount of male ejaculate.
Similarly, the band Steely Dan was named after a variety of vibrator.
Eric Clapton’s band Cream? Enough said.
Don’t know if this one counts, as I can’t remember who was the singer. But on one of those late-night novelty shows I heard a really old item titled “He’s Got the Cutest Little Dinghy in the Navy”… It had lyrics like “It’s not too short, it’s not too long” and other nudge-nudge, wink-wink phrases.
Baker:
Yeah, that’s a bit of World War II vintage smut. 
And speaking of smutty songs of an earlier era, how about “If You See Katie”. Sound out that title, kids…
I believe the whole stickering thing was introduced thanks to the possible next first lady of the USA (Eek!), but now is used when it’s either likely that youngsters will hear it (“Won’t somebody think of the children”), or if it can show the world how ‘outrageous’ the artist is, even if their music is completely boring. Neither of these are perceived as an issue when it comes to vintage blues or sixties pop.
Satan is someone who I would guess has had first hand experience with this labelling thing - I’d be interested in his take on it.
HenrySpencer
I just skimmed all the lyrics of Recovering the Satellites (on-line) and the word fuck does not seem to be there. I think it must be just one line about fingers that caused the warning sticker. It’s pathetic and unfair.
Paul Simon was supposed to have said once that most rock lyrics are so banal that if someone writes something slightly better they are automatically called poets. That’s why, he thought, he and Bob Dylan were considered as such. Well, too much scrutiny of rock words can sure be disappointing. Stone Temple Pilots, for instance, turn out to be really depressing. But they have great melodies. So does it matter or not?