YOU ARE HERE: zharth.net / Zharth's Music Log / Week 76 (Illicit Desires)
(Originally finalized on May 16, 2024)
Preface: As teased (or threatened) in an earlier theme, it's time to explore songs describing taboo relationships, and illicit desires! This is a subject that could be considered controversial, so fair warning. But though it's a serious theme, I want to have a little bit of fun with it. People are just too uptight about anything that's out of the ordinary, when biodiversity is an evolutionary strength. And love comes in many varied forms - as we're about to find out...
Monday: The Who - A Quick One, While He's Away [A Quick One, 1966]
Comments: Although the title suggests infidelity, there are several eyebrow-raising elements to this mini-rock opera that predated Tommy, in which an old engine driver seduces a lonely Girl Guide whose man's been gone for "nigh on a year". Depending on your interpretation (also aided by the band's raucous introduction to the live version on Live at Leeds) - and considering Pete Townshend's own history of childhood abuse - voyeurism, grooming, and even molestation may be among the themes hinted at in this song. But I'll leave it up to the psychoanalyst to work all of that out.
Tuesday: Crosby Stills Nash & Young - Triad [studio outtake, recorded 1969]
Comments: Written by David Crosby and rejected by The Byrds for being too controversial, he gave the song to Jefferson Airplane, who recorded it for their 1968 album Crown of Creation. Their version is really good, but I like to hear Crosby sing it himself, as on this studio outtake with Crosby Stills Nash & Young. The musical accompaniment is sparse and haunting, which appropriately complements the subject matter - the singer delicately approaches the possibility of opening his relationship up to a third, like a timid child nervously asking his mother if he can have another cookie. It's there. It tastes good. Why can't I have it? Why indeed.
Wednesday: Jefferson Airplane - Plastic Fantastic Lover [Surrealistic Pillow, 1967]
Comments: Speaking of Jefferson Airplane, I've always been curious about this song from their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow, which also gave us White Rabbit and Somebody To Love (see also: the live version from Bless Its Pointed Little Head). With cryptic lyrics, some say it's about the singer's love for a brand new stereo system; others claim it's a critique of the modern opiate of the masses - television (which has now been replaced by the postmodern equivalent - smartphones). One of the more popular fan interpretations is that it's about a sex toy, but knowing the band, I could also see it as describing a love affair with a robot. I know I, for one, have quoted it in reference to my otaku tendency to collect plastic figurines of pretty girls in revealing attire. I guess, like beauty, it's all in the eye (or ear) of the beholder.
Thursday: The Velvet Underground - Venus in Furs [The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1967]
Comments: I've always been fascinated by this song from The Velvet Underground's debut album, despite having, at best, only a light interest in BDSM. Nevertheless, the song lures you in with its hypnotic trance, but never lets you get comfortable, with its mentions of whips and belts and "shiny boots of leather". What normally might be considered references to sexual violence take on an intriguing turn, in deference to the fact that the song was inspired by, and shares the same title as, the book that inroduced the world to sexual masochism.
Friday: The Rolling Stones - Stray Cat Blues [Beggars Banquet, 1968]
Comments: I passed over this song in favor of Johnny Winter's cover for the Young Lust theme, but the original is not to be discounted. One could argue the extent to which this song about indiscretions with underage groupies represents a biographical account (with this band, I could see it going both ways), but I find it ironic when Jagger sings "it's no hangin' matter, it's no capital crime" - given how seriously we take the issue nowadays. On the other hand, I feel inclined to point out that we call it statutory rape because there's no force involved, just the consent of a participant whose consent the law simply doesn't recognize. Not to downplay how fertile the ground is for abuse and exploitation, but it's important to recognize the gap between the law and reality (if you ever want to evolve beyond the conventional stages of moral development), and not tar every situation with the same brush.
Saturday: The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog [The Stooges, 1969]
Comments: Although it could easily be taken as a metaphor, I really wanted to include this song because... what's a discussion of illicit desires without mentioning bestiality - am I right? (By the way, stay tuned for the next song, lol). Besides, if I could see anyone on all fours and barking like a dog in the context of a sexual liaison, it would be Iggy Pop, who also sang such songs as Loose, Dirt, and Penetration, accompanied by the raw and hard-edged proto-punk cacophony (I say that with affection) of The Stooges. At the end of the day, sex is a dirty, animal act, so is it really so far-fetched an idea that some people could find sex appeal in animals? Or, at least, behaving like them? Consider the term "doggy style", or the Playboy bunnies...
Sunday: Alice Cooper - I Love The Dead [Billion Dollar Babies, 1973]
Comments: Shock rocker Alice Cooper paved the way for many musical acts that followed - as evidence, consider the over-the-top theatrics and devotion to the dark arts practiced by rock and metal bands in the '80s and beyond. Leave it to Alice - always with tongue planted firmly in cheek - to sing a ballad to necrophilia. Is it in poor taste? Or is it merely a litmus test to weed out those with a sense of dark humor from those who simply can't take a joke? For that alone, I think songs like this one have value. Never mind the imagination and musicality on display.
Honorable Mentions: I've no doubt there are other fun songs out there that describe taboo relationships of various sorts - many that I considered; some that were reserved for other themes. Take Van Halen's self-explanatory Hot For Teacher, or Derek and the Dominos' cover of Freddie King's Have You Ever Loved A Woman, about a man who's in love with his best friend's wife. Or the live version of Rollin' Stone from Humble Pie's Performance: Rockin' The Fillmore, in which Steve Marriott ad libs a story about his girlfriend's mother having designs on him. There's also Sugar Daddy, from the Buckingham-Nicks era of Fleetwood Mac, and Deep Purple's Strange Kind of Woman, about a man who falls for his prostitute. I even considered Stevie Ray Vaughan's Look At Little Sister, but the connection to incest there is a little loose. Nor is there any shortage of rock bands singing songs about cavorting with minors - but, as we've seen, that's a subject that warrants its own separate theme. ;-p