Innuendo In Popular Music
Innuendo in popular music goes back, I would imagine, to Medieval times, if not further. If Shakespeare and Chaucer were bawdy, could the baladeers have been less so? But in rock ‘n’ roll—the very name of which comes from the undulations of The Beast With Two Backs—we got a cornucopia of fornucopia:
Johnny B. Goode: “Go! Go, Johnny, go!/Go! Go, Johnny, go!/Oh, Johnny be good tonight !”
The escalating rhythms of passion which were echoed in the crescendo of the instrumental bridge in The Doors’ seminal song, The End: “The killer . . . walked on down the hall./And he came to a room/And he walked inside/‘Father—I want to kill you/Mother—I want to—ohohoh C’MON, BABY! [escalating drum-driven crescendo climaxing with 2 sticatto taps to the cymbals symbolizing the shaking out of 2 final drops].”
Tonight’s The Night: “Spread you wings and let me come inside.”
Louie, Louie: What everybody thinks the lyrics REALLY are.
Buddy Holly’s Not Fade Away: “My love bigger than a Cadillac/I try to show you, but you drive-a me back!”
Zeppelin’s Lemon Song: “C’mon, squeeze my lemon/Till the juice run down my leg.”
The Who’s MaryAnne with the Shaky Hands: “What she does with those hands/Those shaaaky hands!”
The Stones’ Midnight Rambler: “I’ll stick my knife right down your throat/And, Baby, that HURTS!”
The Stones’ Satisfaction: “I can’t get no, satisfaction/I can’t get no girl reaction/‘Cause I’ve tried, and I’ve tried, and I’ve tried and I’ve tried/ I can’t GET NO . . . satisfaction!”
The Stones’ Gimme Shelter: “Rape . . . murder, is just a kiss away.”
Bonnie Raitt’s Mighty Tight Woman: “‘Cause I’m a mighty tight woman, I’m a REAL tight woman/I’m a jack of all trades/I can be your sweet baby, also be your slave/But I can do things so good you’ll swear that ‘I’ll behave.’”
What bawdy ballad tidbits do you recall?