They’ve Been At It For Years

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I got nipples on my titties big as the end of my thumb
I got somethin' 'tween my legs 'll make a dead man come

Blooming modern musicians, waving their loose morality in our faces, corrupting our society, sexualising everything. We should all just go back to the good old days when music was a sweet, controlled force for good, something for heavily chaperoned teenagers to hold hands to.

What? 1935?! That was a whole 87 years ago!

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Imagine my surprise ladies and gentlemen when I recently discovered that this sex thing that is currently sweeping the planet, corrupting all in its wake is not a new phenomenon. People have been making the sexing for decades, if not centuries! No, really. I don’t wish to alarm any of you but I suspect that if you go back far enough in your family tree, actual relatives of yours will have done it.

Now as you know the all-powerful and all-seeing 1537 is not one to make unevidenced claims*, so let me reveal to you the smoking gun that will prove my seemingly outlandish theory, Copulatin’ Blues.

A 1976 rude-themed compilation on Stash records, Copulatin’ Blues takes us all the way. Sample of song titles:

• Press My Button (Ring My Bell)
• You Stole My Cherry
• I’ll Keep Sittin’ On It
• New Rubbin’ On The Darned Old Thing**

The oldest cut here is 1929 and the newest is from 1940. Luminaries such as Bessie Smith, Sidney Bechet and Jelly Roll Morton mix it with such new-to-me-s as Lil Johnson, Coot Grant and Lucille Bogan.

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All manner of below-the-belt activity is represented here, the recordings even in the (mostly) mannered style of the time radiate a raw earthiness, glee at all manner of double entendres^ and occasionally a giddiness at the sheer naughtiness of it all.

You could write many a thesis on why the blues of the time, lent itself so well to such rudeness, such well-preserved rudeness in fact. My own personal theory is simply that blues, even when incorporated into some of the more popular jazzier forms evinced here, was seen as something ‘other’ produced by folk outside the norms of polite society; all types of African American music were referred to as ‘race music’ before the 1940’s.

So, this facilitated in it dealing with topics outside the norm, just by dint of who it was made by and where. Whether this was/can be seen as a liberating freedom of expression, as a playing up to and/or mocking of stereotypes, or should even be ultimately seen as a demeaning, exploitative, unsophisticated thing I would leave to those far better culturally qualified than I to untangle. I simply have a penchant for rudeness and I would argue that the sly rocking fun here points to gleeful exploration of the boundaries.

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Here’s the queen of it all, Lucille Bogan ‘Shave ’em Dry (Take 2)’. I love it, especially as she gets more and more carried away, the sillier and more explicit it gets. Like a few of the others here this was considered ‘party music’ and was never widely distributed at the time. The audacity of it it is excellent.

Instrumentally speaking my fave track here is the righteous boogie of Sidney Bechet’s ‘Preachin’ Blues’, that piano from Sonny White is amazing, even if the wife-management it advocates is utterly Neanderthal and violently outdated.

The wonderfully named Tampa Red’s Hokum Jug Band give us the, rather orgasmic, Betty Boop-tastic ‘My Daddy Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)’, another firm favourite, although there is some stiff competition here for that.

The biggest curio for me is Jelly Roll Morton’s absolutely filthy ‘Winin’ Boy’ recorded for Library of Congress, by Alan Lomax in 1938. I would dearly love to know a bit more of the story behind this^^. The tune is beautiful, the singing sophisticated and smooth … the lyrics something 2 Live Crew would have blanched at. It really is something else.

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Copulatin’ Blues is a great compilation, really well curated and cut, the sound is excellent given the age of the saucy sources used here. There are sleevenotes^* and any LP that give you two shots of Bessie Smith’s divine voice is worth your cash money unheard.

Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) -
Between the end of the "Chatterley" ban
And the Beatles' first LP  

Philip Larkin 'Annus Mirabilis'. 

Not even close Phil, not even close.

1125 Down.

PS: Happy Valentine’s Day … yesterday.

*unlike the government of certain island states who have recently seceded from the European Union; not mentioning any names, obvs.

**increasingly relatable as I enter my 50’s.

^stacked up against treats like ‘New Rubbin’ On That Darned Old Thing’ by Oscars Chicago Swingers, AC/DC’s ‘Sink The Pink’ and ‘Heatseeker’ gain a sheen of previously unforeseen sophistication.

^^although I know Morton had been writing smutty tunes for over 30 years by that point. It must have cracked him up to have been recording these whorehouse ditties for such an august establishment for cultural preservation.

^*God, how I love sleevenotes – they really put some sugar in my bowl.