Tension and Release Part 1 of 2

In 1984, some “nattering nabobs of negatism,” to re-purpose the Spiro Agnew/William Safire phrase, believed that one of the reasons America was going to hell in a handbag was the depiction of sex or sexual acts in popular music.  Perhaps they thought enough is enough, but sex in popular music had been with us for some time, maybe just not as overtly depicted as the song that incited the outrage, “Darling Nikki,” and the lyrics, "I knew a girl named Nikki/I guess you could say she was a sex fiend/I met her in a hotel lobby/Masturbating with a magazine.” How many or how few sexual references are heard in music depends on the vocabulary employed and whether the listener understands the vocabulary.  Surely, Elvis’ pelvic thrusts and hip gyrations as he sang “Burning Love,” or “All Shook Up,” didn’t leave much to the imagination.  What else did Marvin Gaye mean when he sang, “Ohh baby, I’m hot just like an oven/I need some lovin’/And baby, I can’t hold it much longer/It’s getting stronger and stronger,” in his hit “Sexual Healing” of 1982.  Sometimes the vocabulary is less obvious; sexual depictions are not always so “naked.”  Dusty Springfield’s breathy and coolly understated interpretation of Bacharach and David’s “The Look of Love,” or June Christy’s soft, husky delivery on “Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy,” (giving new meaning to the phrase “I never get enough of that wonderful stuff”) are examples more nuanced references to sexuality.