Here are [the] astonishingly frank (for 1954) lyrics:
Get outta that bed, wash your face and handsGet outta that bed, wash your face and handsWell, you get in that kitchen, make some noise with the pots 'n pans
Well you wear those dresses, the sun comes shinin' throughWell you wear those dresses, the sun comes shinin' throughI can't believe my eyes, all that mess belongs to you
I believe to the soul you're the devil in nylon hoseI believe to the soul you're the devil in nylon hoseWell, the more I work, the faster my money goes
I said shake, rattle and roll, shake, rattle and rollShake, rattle and roll, shake, rattle and rollWell, you won't do right to save your doggone soul
Yeah, blow Joe!
I'm like a one-eyed cat peepin' in a seafood storeI'm like a one-eyed cat peepin' in a seafood storeWell I can look at you tell you ain't no child no more
Ah, shake, rattle and roll, shake, rattle and rollShake, rattle and roll, shake, rattle and rollWell, you won't do right to save your doggone soul
I've been holdin' it in, way down underneath*I've been holdin' it in way down underneathYou make me roll my eyes, even make me grit my teethI said shake, rattle and roll, shake, rattle and rollShake, rattle and roll, shake, rattle and rollWell, you won't do nothin' to save your doggone soulShake, rattle and roll!
*See discussion here
Now compared the much tamer lyrics in the Bill Haley version which appeared the same year (lyrics embedded in the video):
Now compared the much tamer lyrics in the Bill Haley version which appeared the same year (lyrics embedded in the video):
Sex was sublimated into cooking and misogyny for the "white" version.
16 comments:
...astonishingly frank (for 1954) lyrics
"My Boy Lollipop" was recorded in 1956.
I don't think I've ever heard the Bill Haley version before. Really lame compared to Turner's.
Yeah, I'm not astonished.
The past was not so restrained. I'm a student of the Chicago blues scene, and it was rocking in the late 40s.
The kids think nobody had sex in the 50s, too. Somehow, I doubt that. Well, in fact, I know better.
The lyrics still needed deciphering by an adult mind, or one nearly so.
Rap and other songs today are blatant, written by the illiterate for the illiterate, and hide nothing.
A race to the bottom. So to speak.
"I'm like a one-eyed cat peepin' in a seafood store"
Ha.
How much did they pay for clapping on a sound track? Do you get mentioned in the liner notes?
Professional clappers get scale. That's what Althouse pays.
Unless you have the clap.
Then you get antibiotics.
chick, For Your Consideration pun wizard.
I'd kind of like to know who first thought of setting a love letter to music and performing it for strangers.
Probably some guy in a cave.
Maybe it worked.
Who knows?
Johnny Matthias.
To his gay lover. NTTAWWT.
"I'm like a one-eyed cat peepin' in a seafood store"
Oh, hell. Now I get it.
Took a while.
Didn't Bessie Smith and other blues singers record songs with obscene lyrics that were sold on the underground market? I think Work With Me Henry originally had some overt lyrics also. In any event, the sexuality in r & b is not carried by the lyrics but by the beat. I've heard obscene lyrics attached to Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, and the song still sounds gloppy.
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