ABSTRACT
During the 78-rpm era there were virtually no recorded songs with sexual content, except for “under the counter” party records. Love songs-the staple of the popular repertoirecontented themselves with talk about kisses. But in pop/rock songs of the 1960s lyrics tended to become sexually explicit, leading to consumer complaints and various levels of censorship. The very term “rock and roll” has a sexual connotation, although it has been interpreted simply as having a party or as dancing. Suggestive lyrics were found earlier, in the rhythm and blues period (“Roll All Night Long,” “Work with Me, Annie”), but became more and more pervasive in the 1960s and 1970s. Such lyrics, especially when melded with the bump and grind mannerism popularized by Elvis Presley (whose lyrics were only mildly suggestive in themselves), resulted in public performances of plain eroticism. Noted representatives of this mode have been the Rolling Stones; The Fugs (“Wet Dream”); David Bowie; and the Doors, with Jim Morrison as the highly sensual lead singer (“Light My Fire”). Morrison was described by the Miami Herald as the “king of orgasmic rock.” Protest movements arose in 1969-1970, as various “decency rallies” were held without great impact.
