If you grow up listening to listening to the kind of stuff I did, regardless of how varied it is, you are still presented with sexuality from a very skewed, and very 'male' point of view. Perhaps this is because the women who write and sing openly and confidently about sexuality have been historically suppressed, or tend to be more underground, simply because mainstream press get all uncomfortable about it? I can't think of any parent I know having any major objections to their child listening to say Led Zep's talk of lemon squeezing and juice running, or frankly everything by AC/DC, or the mythical fecundity of early British folk, or any of Leonard Cohen's musings. I don't know if that is because they are respectively, too cryptic, too jokey, too traditional or too artfully poetic, but however you look at it, male sexuality, whilst not necessarily 'celebrated', is very much the given lyrical content in classic pop music of the 20th century. Female sexuality in pop music lyrics has been harder to seek out, and still has an idiotic element of taboo, which is probably partly why I find it so fascinating.
It would be ignorant and patronising to one-dimensionally categorise relevant examples in the depressing way women often are in the music industry (predator, virgin, scorned harpee....? All relatively familiar) but it has been an exciting adventure to more recently discover such glorious and varied examples of honest and open female songwriting that do not play a role, and do not distinguish between topics of sex and of love, rather to weave them together in an honest reflection of life. It is wonderful to discover lyrical celebrations of wilder sexual fantasies and desires, of smiles at blissful memories, of humiliations, of insecurities and of desperation.
Within this spectrum, likewise, it comes packaged as cryptic, jokey and artfully poetic along with the wonderfully sly, and brass balls bold. The shame would be for anything to be enjoyed for the novelty..... but perhaps half of its effect comes from the fact that relative to male sexuality, it is still a novelty to hear about?
I don't know.
What I do know is, as much as I love music from a man's point of view, its thrilling to hear from the ladies.
Anyway, here's some stuff.
Joni Mitchell- Coyote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2rfbuaMXKM
On this live version she really flies, and her face says it all, delicious memories, tinges of disappointment but no regrets.
....dancing close and slow now he's got a woman at home, he's got another woman down the hall he seems to want me anyway, why'd you have to get so drunk and lead me on that way?....
Cowboy Junkies- Black Eyed Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFK6amxyGd8&list=PL_P9ZyOUxwnM0LUXmJQxMzlPjKtpf2Ms9&index=2
Her face at this point :
....and he did things to me, things of which I dream of still........
Just elated, and ever so slightly fondly rueful.
Liz Phair- Flower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZC-EOs_fyA
If I quote any sentence from this it will become a fairly X-rated post and I can't work out if this song has a predatory swagger or a 'sit outside your house with binoculars' kind of vibe but either way... brilliant.
Georgia White- Was I Drunk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlwIHF45rY0
Every time I think of him do I shiver?
Tori Amos- Precious Things
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi9NUoZmulU
Resentful, insecure, angry, defiant.
...So you can make me come it doesn't make you jesus....
Sippie Wallace- I'm A Mighty Tight Woman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYFUaGb4C1M
Tori Amos- Leather
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccMSpf0YuQQ
..I can scream as loud as your last one, but i can't claim innocence....
Ani DiFranco- Dilate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPi2FyzF9c8
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