Many thanks to all who replied.  Oh yes, we covered the blueswomen in the
lecture (played them Bessie Smith's "Put Some Sugar In My Bowl").  The
students were thunderstruck, much more so than by Jane Birkin (!).  Someone
replied to me, I think privately, about Doris Day and THE PYJAMA GAME.  I
think Day is a fascinating figure - the underlying messages in those
comedies, her screen persona and what I think of as her vocal persona don't
always match.  What I found the most difficult to convey this afternoon was
the fluctation across the century in what was acceptable to portray and what
wasn't.

Anyway, thanks again for the discussion - very helpful.
Laurie

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Film and TV Studies Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Dr Mikel Koven
> Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2004 3:38 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: All That Jazz (Bob Fosse)
>
>
> There's also a 1920s Blues recording by 'Dentist' Johnson, with Hattie
> McDaniel (yup, THAT Hattie McDaniel), called 'Dentist Chair Blues' which
> features such classic and not-so-subtle lyrics as 'dentist, fill my
> cavity' 'fill my cavity good, but don't make it hurt', etc. Michael
> Rogin uses this song as one of his epigrams to his Blackface/White Noise
> book (which is where I first read it, although a former colleague of
> mine eventually found me a copy of a scratchy 78 recording!). Kind of
> gives new sub-text to 'Mammy's' line about "it just ain't fittin'"
>
> Dr. Mikel J. Koven
> Dept of Theatre, Film and TV
> University of Wales, Aberystwyth
> (01970) 621605
> [log in to unmask]
> http://users.aber.ac.uk/mik
> http://users.aber.ac.uk/mikstaff
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Film and TV Studies Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Lang Thompson
> Sent: 03 March 2004 03:29
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: All That Jazz (Bob Fosse)
>
> >tomorrow's lecture focusses on representations of sex.  This morning I
> was
> >trying to work out precisely *when* metaphor/slang became dispensable
> in
> >lyrics about sex.  I'm not talking about the 'heavy breathing' stuff by
> Jane
>
>
> At least since sometime in the late 19th century (probably earlier if
> things like the Carmina Burana--the original Goliards not necessarily
> Orff--are any indication).  Jelly Roll Morton's "The Murder Ballad" and
> others recorded in the late 30s for the Library of Congress are as
> completely explicit as any rap today and much more than the Kate Bush
> tracks (examples at
> http://www.doctorjazz.freeserve.co.uk/locspeech3.html).  Much of this
> was
> composed decades earlier but that's hardly the only example (there are
> others by the Drifters, Harmonica Frank Floyd, Alberta Hunter and more)
> but
> for obvious reasons these types of songs weren't documented very
> well.  Even if you're talking about music for a mass audience instead of
> the local roadhouse it's still not that clear.  Songs that today might
> seem
> draped in metaphor could to contemporary audiences seem very blunt.
>
>
> Lang
>
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